financial reflections

The opposite of outsourcing is insourcing (my word), which is, bringing lower cost labor to your country (the US in my case) rather than sending the jobs overseas.  In the computer industry, this has been done for years.  But changes are brewing in Washington that bring this to the spotlight again.

Insourcing has its pros and cons.  On the upside, the employer benefits from having a work force that faces the customer (inside or outside the company) on site during working hours.  Outsourced talent often works while the rest of the staff is asleep and can have communication barriers.  However, it is often cheaper per hour to have talent that lives overseas.

Still the allure of insourcing must be strong.  This week a committee in the US Senate approved an expansion of the H1-B visa program.  That would open the door to tens of thousands of extra white-collar workers who would work for less than their US citizen counterparts.  Naturally, employers want a way to fill the demand for highly talented workers and employees don’t want extra competition for thier jobs.

I’ve worked with many who are here on H1-B visas.   I even saw one head back to India when his position was cut after 9-11.  I’m not sure where I stand on the issue.  If H1-B visas were eliminated, my salary might spike in the short term.  But then employers would probably simply send the jobs overseas completely, which would hurt me far more in the long run.   Maybe that’s just a lesser-of-two-evils approach, but I don’t see the tide shifting away from globalization.

There will be a chat with the author of the article I linked above at 1:00 ET today.  I’ll try and get a question submitted.  What questions would you ask?