| Topic Name: |
Best Fit for future job |
| Message Name: |
Ill Informed Two Cents - Part 2 |
| Date Posted: |
01/02/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
Thanks formerlifer. Appreciate it. Were you able to find something in the same city or will you need to move ?
Also where do you see Hewitt going ? you have been there 7 plus yrs, what kind of future do you see. Do you see it being acquired or do you see things staying stagnant.
Also what klind of an increase in salary did you see in the new offer from your most recent Hewitt Salary ? |
| Message: |
As far as Hewitt's future, I don't know. I wish I had that crystal ball. From a business point of view, Hewitt's biggest problem seems that they are price taker instead of price setter. Clients definitely have the upper hand with negotiations and that is killing our bottom line. Hewitt used to be able to count on some very decent profit margins on the consulting side, but they have done some much bundling of offers that has been eroded while there has been significant enough cost cuts on the on the consulting side. Whenever a company is a price taker, they don't have much room to maneuver and cutting costs is the many focus. The BPO market has become all about the lowest cost, which is problematic for a highly regulated and legislated business like benefits. Hewitt is trying to manage to this but clearly quality is suffering even though they are doing a decent job of hiding it from clients right now. The troubling thing is I believe that leadership knows how bad quality is suffering but is unable and incapable to fix it because anything solution they think goes against cost cutting initiatives. I have actually heard an account executive say to the effect "We know our quality sucks, but our competitor??s quality is worse so clients have no choice but to go with us.", a ringing endorsement of our business model.
What we probably should do:
-Start turning down contracts. We did this in the early days of TBA and should do it again.
-Get on one broader HR platform or at least get SOPs for all the various ones out there and get clients to switch to them. Clients who have invested significant sums in Peoplesoft and other Enterprise platforms legitimately don't want to lose that investment, but there is no reason we have to keep things status quo after we take over administration. Clients hire for our expertise so why should we maintain their crummy processes if they add little value and aren??t cost effective.
-Pick a strategy and stick with it. Part of the reason why associates see no hope for their future at Hewitt is things seem to keep changing on them with no rhyme or reason. I know the only constant is change and Hewitt clearly needs to make changes, but if leadership can not clearly articulate what skills are valued for the future how can associates even hope to grow themselves for it, offshoring or not. I got so sick of hearing from CSG leaders "I see more opportunity now for associates than any time in the past." If that is the case, then tell me what those opportunities are. We don't need job or role descriptions but a good idea of what skills would be comforting.
The question is will these things happen. They definitely go against the short-term publicly traded view that the company has been managing itself to recently. I do feel a lot more tough decisions need to made and that some of the things being done now should have been done two years ago including layoffs and benefit cuts. More cuts probably need to be made but at the same time more investment in training and development need to be done.
I don??t have an opinion on a buyout or acquisition. I think the BPO market is still to fresh to really know who will come out on top.
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