Companies typically source for two main reasons: to acquire expertise and to cut costs. The desire to mitigate sourcing’s resulting inherent financial and transactional risks has led companies to consider a myriad of sourcing models and their hybrids: in-out, off-near-on, third party-captive-joint, and so on. And although the landscape is full of success stories, there are the notorious stories of fiascos that stick in people’s minds. Unfortunately, after pealing back the onion, most companies fail to realize that people are at the heart of their sourcing failures and that, yes, there are things they could have done, even remotely, to address this. Presented at the IAOP 2013 Latin America Outsourcing Summit. Learn more at www.isg-one.com.

1. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
Cultivating Nearshore
Employee Engagement
Proven Practices & Benefits
Jon Butler
Information Services Group
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

2. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
► Sourcing, Strategy and Benchmarking market leaders
► $65 billion in client savings delivered
► 70% of the Global F100 are our clients
► Overseen 60% of all global advisory-led transactions
► Five decades of global leadership in sourcing-based solutions
► 12,000 engagements
► $365B+ in transactions
► Operations in 21 countries on 6 continents
► Data driven with the most comprehensive and deepest client databases in the market
► End-to-end solutions from opportunity assessment to new service operation
► Proudly independent with deep collaborative relationships with all major service and
technology providers
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

3. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
Lucky you! You’ve:
• negotiated a great deal with your service provider,
• signed the contract,
• put the proper governance and PMO mechanisms in place,
• established meaningful SLAs to ensure your business case will be met,
• set up favorable periodic contract re-evaluations and rate benchmarking,
• and finally outsourced that whole people management thing because…
…THAT is now your service provider’s problem, right?
But why are you continuously missing SLAs
and why are the wheels falling off your business case?!?
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

4. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
Employee Engagement 101
► Why should you listen to me?
 I planned, created and operated the
fastest growing delivery center in a
multi-national’s 52+ center network
 Leading center in financial terms
Fact:
Say
Employee
Engagement
 Lowest attrition in LatAm – among
lowest in the 200,000+ FTE company
Stay
is the emotional
 Delivery always on time, on budget
commitment the
 The highest employee engagement in
the company!
employee has to the
Thrive
organization and its goals
Engaged employees go the extra mile!
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

5. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
The Dollars and Sense Are There the Right Reasons
…if Done for
Companies with High Employee Engagement:
Highly Engaged Employees:
► Have twice the customer loyalty rates than
those with low engagement
► Are 87% less likely to leave their
organization than non-engaged employees
► Have a 5x total shareholder return
► Average fewer sick days per year (2.69
versus 6.19)
► Have 6% higher net profit margins
► Deliver products with fewer defect and
better quality (one F100 company went
from 5,658 to 52 parts per million)
► Are 5x less likely to have a safety incident
and 7x less likely to lose time as a result
While the Engagement-Profit relationship is obvious remember: Driving engagement for the
sake of money is a dead-end street, driving engagement for the sake of people is a highway.
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

6. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
¿Quien eres? / Who Are You?
Service providers
Clients
► Communicate to your teams how you help
the client meet its goals – reinforce the fact
that this would be difficult for your clients
to do by themselves – that’s why they have
hired YOU!
► Communicate to your team your own
organization’s goals and vision as a service
provider
► Communicate to your teams how your
organization makes life better for people
and clearly communicate their part in your
organization’s vision and goals
► Spend time with your service provider
employees to explain to them your business
and how you are different from your
competitors
Employees stay with organizations when they believe it is in their self-interest; they exert
discretionary effort when they believe in the value of their job, team or organization.
What value does your organization bring?
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

7. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
Aplanar el campo / Flatten the Field
Service providers
Clients
► Get rid of typical hierarchical structures
► Encourage people at junior levels in the
organization to speak up and reward them
when they do – even when they are wrong!
► When clients visit arm your juniors with
insightful questions to pose to the clients –
the clients will be impressed and your
people will feel a sense of pride
► Communicate to all members of your team
and not just leaders
► During site visits spend time with the
management team AND with people more
junior in the organization (without
management around!)
► Remember: some of the best innovations
come from people who are doing the dayto-day work
In order to affect, you must connect. Do junior people in your organization feel
empowered to speak up?
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

8. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
“Conquistadores versus Gringos” / Father Figure or Big Brother?
Service providers
Clients
► If you are not a local national provider, see
the client perspective
► If the lead is not from the region, then insist
the lead learn the local opinions and
perspectives on the service provider home
country as well as client countries
► Remind clients interviewing your people
about collectivism, simpatía, respecto and
personalismo
► Know the history of the area in which you
are working
► Determine where you want to fit in and the
role you should play
► Spend time understanding what people in
the region think of people from your
country
► Essentially, find the cultural void/hurt and
fill/fix it
History 101: Do you know the collective story of the people with whom you are working?
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

9. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
Llevar la Playera / Wear the Company Shirt
Service providers
Clients
► When people join the organization give
them a tee shirt, when you have an event
give them a polo shirt, when you are not
busy give them something else to wear
► Get rid of the Styrofoam cups and get
company-logoed ceramic mugs
► Rain pens, pencils and even umbrellas on
everyone – all with company logos
► During site visits bring the treasure chest of
your own company-logoed items:
 Pens, pencils, mugs, mouse pads
► Fill your work area at the service provider
with banners, posters, etc. that make it feel
like “home” to the people in the trenches
► Bring unique products you may produce
and give them to your employees
When employee closets are full of company-logoed items it’s much harder to consider
leaving an organization (and lose half their wardrobe). What do your employees wear?
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

10. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
Diversión / Fun
Service providers
Clients
► Do lots and lots of events – things
employees like to do (solicit their ideas)
► Go outside the normal “corporate”
activities and get creative: paintball,
baseball games, mountain hikes, bowling,
employee music bands, organized sports
► Have the lead participate in planning to
lightly control it and show commitment
► Put junior people in leadership roles
► Try to schedule visits during events so that
you can participate
► Give money to your teams to sponsor
events (creates envy among other support
team members to be on yours)
► Encourage team members to show you the
local flair during visits so you can create
collective “fun” memories with all team
members
When employees are busy planning events, outings and parties they don’t have time to
think about working somewhere else. What are your employees thinking about?
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

11. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
Los Mejores de los Mejores / The Best of the Best
Service providers
Clients
► Motivate the team by sharing every single
superlative about them
► Remind the team that your company is the
best so that when your team is tops in an
internal category you can tell them they are
the “best of the best”
► Challenge other centers in “friendly”
competitions for the same reasons
► Recognize your service provider team when
they do something well and are recognized
at higher levels within the organization
► Share every single recognition with them
► Give client-sponsored awards and
certificates to service provider personnel
Employees feel a sense of pride when they work for a “best in class” organization. What
do your employees think about your organization?
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

12. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
El Enemigo Común / The Common Enemy
Service providers
Clients
► Find/create a common enemy, a rallying
point for the team
► Use a “rival” office location or anything that
helps to unite the team against the
“enemy”
 Remind your employees that you
are all still part of “one big family”
► Find industry competitors and share
information about how your service
provider team is helping you win in the
marketplace
► Look internally for other locations against
which you can compete:
 Work quality
 Charitable giving
 Etc.
Employees love to be part of a winning team. Are your employees accustomed to
habitually winning?
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

13. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
Dar a la Comunidad / Give to the Community
Service providers
Clients
► Find opportunities for everyone in the
office to give to the community
► Never just donate money – invest sweat
equity into projects
► Make participation mandatory for all center
leaders – they don’t get to just supervise,
they get to sweat, too
► Encourage employees to plan charitable
events that pull everyone together
► Consider sponsoring delivery center
charitable time – a low-cost option to
increase your corporate “hours of time
donated to charity” numbers
During a well-planned charitable event employees instantly see the fruits of their labor
and experience a heightened sense of family. What brings your employees together?
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

14. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
La Familia / Family
Service providers
Clients
► Don’t call your people a “team,” “group” or
even “employees”
► Use the word “family” on every occasion
► Being part of a family makes people
 Reluctant to leave
 More proactive in helping others
 More likely to dispense
judgment/encouragement across
all organization levels
► Remind people how they are part of your
client family
► Show them that you care and how valuable
each family member is
People are social creatures and “long to belong.” Do your employees feel like part of the
family?
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

15. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
► To summarize:
 Having people who are emotionally
entangled with an organization’s
success yields more benefits than the
most well-written contract or set of
SLAs ever could
 Engaged employees will go the extra
mile and do what needs to be done to
make the organization successful
 Service providers: Create highly
engaged environments!
 Clients: Get engaged with your service
provider’s people!
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved

16. December 3-5, 2013 | San Jose, Costa Rica
¡Prosigamos!
Thanks / Gracias
Jon Butler
+001 (704) 904-4444
Jon.Butler@isg-one.com
© 2013 IAOP® All Rights Reserved