NEW DELHI: Outsourcing in HR and temporary jobs have become an integral part of the current job scenario, whether one likes it or not, and it is better to adjust to this phenomenon. This seemed to be the consensus at a seminar on 'HR Outsourcing: Trends and Insights' organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi today.

Team Lease Services Pvt. Ltd chairman Manish Sabharwal observed during his presentation: "The debate on the phenomenon of temporary jobs continues unabated. While many people feel that no job is better than a temporary job, I feel that a job is better than no job at all. "

Cautioning on the unemployment explosion looming large in India, Sabharwal pointed out that the demographic changes in the job scene, with the youth taking the major pie of the available jobs, had rendered a large number of older and middle aged people jobless. The public sector too had no jobs available and the employment exchanges were not able to keep pace with the situation, he said.

In such a scenario, temporary staffing was not such a bad thing after all, he said. Listing the advantages of temporary staffing, he said that temporary jobs had reduced unemployment in the country leading to better liquidity.

Secondly, experience had shown that 45 percent of those who had taken up temporary jobs ultimately became permanent staffers; and probably the most important was the fact that temporary staffing had perked up entrepreneurship.

Delivering the theme address, Dr C.S.Venkata Ratnam, director, International Management Institute (IMI), said that HR sections in most organisations seemed to be spending too much time in administration and lesser time in people orientation which, he said, needed to be the main concern.

Explaining why outsourcing in HR had become imperative Dr. Ratnam said that the pressure to cut costs, add more value to the quality of the staff and do more with less were the basic reasons why most organizations had resorted to outsourcing.

Delivering the welcome address at the seminar, V.K. Mathur, chairman and MD, Impex Ltd, said that setting principles for HR was like hitting a moving target, since principles which were valid ten years ago had become outdated now.