Leader: Offshoring is about more than bad PR

This publication today carried a story about IBM and its own moves to offshore certain operations, mainly for reasons of cost. It was notable because here we have - though IBM isn't in a hurry to confirm media reports - an outsourcer outsourcing, or at least using offshore facilities.

Indeed, the highest-profile trend of the year so far, following on from the last few months of 2003, has been major companies offshoring IT and call centre operations. In the UK, the financial sector in particular has seen a host of offshoring projects.

When we broke the story last December of Barclays sending some application development work to India, it was notable because it became apparent a statement was due to be released a couple of weeks earlier, only the flak caught by Aviva's Norwich Union insurance arm postponed any public announcement.

Understandably, most organisations considering such a move are sensitive to how it will play with the media, among Britons in general and, most importantly, affected workers.

But having a good PR machine in place shouldn't be top of corporate wishlists.

Undoubtedly the most important factor should be whether offshoring - or outsourcing even - is the right idea. We're talking about the fundamental business decision. There should be no dogmatic answer, either for or against it.

If, on its merits, offshoring does prove the best course of action - and it quite often isn't, as some users will find out to their cost - then it must be done properly. That means facing up to the xenophobes and ignorant and communicating what exactly is being done and why.

The more enlightened in business realise offshoring is a product of globalisation and normally means exporting the most tedious, most unrewarding jobs. It wasn't that long ago that call centres, for example, were held up as sweatshops, modern 'dark Satanic mills'. And now we want to keep those positions?

It might be asking a lot but any company should be honest about where and how they conduct business. The labour market has gone through countless changes in the last 50 years and adapted. When a large company such as IBM announces cut backs in one area, it very often expands elsewhere. This week it said it will hire 15,000 more staff as the economy rebounds.

Offshoring is an unstoppable tide and PR spin isn't the way to handle it. Presenting the whole picture and long-term benefits - where they truly exist - is the right way.