Do companies need outside HR assistance and if so how much? These questions and more were raised at FirstTuesday's March networking evening. 

A well balanced panel was assembled by HROne to try to tackle these issues and included Mr Eric Monnoyer de Galland as moderator, [ION PLUS HRS], Mr Serge Ceurvels [PwC], Mr Vincent Cools [Securex], and Mr Bernhard Dedenbach [KornFerry]. The discussions were particularly interesting because the three speakers represented various aspects of the industry: Dedenbach deals with high level managers and executives and management assessment, Cools deals with operations consulting and middle management (B2B, HR, IT), and Ceurvels deals with lower level and training.

Galland opened the discussion by asking why companies come to external HR. Dedenbach answered simply that companies often need to recruit people from outside and gave as an example the current lack of compliance officers. Ceurvels added, "It's better to call on an expert for a shorter time than hire the wrong person for a long time." And Cools noted the "general trend in outsourcing today - the same is coming to the HR department." Specifically, he remarked that many companies in Luxembourg are mid size, but are subsidiaries of larger firms who don't have a clear idea of Luxembourg and require help.

All three panellists made it clear that outsourced consultation must be accepted bearing in mind what is best for the company. "Companies should make their own HR policy," said Cools. "Outsourcing can change the relationship," pointed out Ceurvels. What internally is a CEO - employer relationship can become a boss - supplier relationship with outsourcing. That is a fundamental difference. All three panellists agreed that part of doing their job well was to understand their clients' needs, strategies and to insist companies stick to their responsibilities.

"Consultants are there to assist."

Why has there been such a shift from internal hiring to a greater reliance on recruitment agencies? Part of the reason, Cools suggested, is that "companies want to focus on their core business and don't want to do everything in-house." He cited the complexity of the modern global environment as a factor.

At this point the conversation focused on the modern nomadic culture of workers. This restless population, especially contractors, and the ever changing map of the economic world has had a huge impact on the way businesses function. Dedenbach pointed out that in all likelihood most people's grandfathers never worked for more than 2 employers in their life; today, the average is 7 and we have all seen examples of people for whom that number is much higher. The result is a work force that is not especially loyal to companies and companies that are not especially loyal to their workers. Modern workers are embracing the concept that they can change jobs or reinvent themselves at any point in their lives.

The argument made for HR assistance was that companies need to find the best people for the jobs and should invest money in their own work forces. Offering training is one example of an incentive that can help companies maintain their best resource - good people. Dedenbach said that too many companies who spend money on their HR waste their resources on administrative tasks and bemoaned the fact that HR is still not considered of number 1 importance inside companies.

There are still sceptics, but the evidence is all around us that HR is growing in momentum and perceived importance. If HR firms can recruit the right candidates for the right positions, can help build teams that function seamlessly and successfully, and can help train employees and service providers, "You can measure the return on your investment," said Ceurvels. It may take a bit of time, even up to one year, before a company sees a result, but the panel made convincing arguments as to the value of external HR assistance.