Vietnam HR Outsourcing Conference 2022: The First And Biggest Outsourcing Conference About Human Capital In Vietnam

As HR becomes more strategic so does the need for outsourcing. Although it is highly appreciated and used by many businesses around the world to optimize resources as well as improve productivity, outsourcing is not common among Vietnamese businesses due to certain concerns such as high costs, information security, difficulty to control the efficiency of outsourced partners, etc. “To help businesses take advantage of outsourcing as a leverage to optimize business growth and development is one of my top reasons to organize this conference” – Ms. Tiêu Yến Trinh, CEO of Talentnet shared in the opening speech.

Contributing to the conference were caliber speakers from both regional and local:

1. Mr. John Antos – VP Strategy, APAC & Global Payroll, ADP  
2. Mr. Colin Blackwell – Chairman of HR Committee, World Bank’s Vietnam Business Forum
3. Ms. Nguyễn Quỳnh Trâm –  Country General Manager, Microsoft Vietnam
4. Ms. Nguyễn Thị Xuân Hương – Country HR Director, AkzoNobel Vietnam
5. Ms. Trần Thị Nguyệt Oanh – Country Head of HR, HSBC Vietnam
6. Ms. Bùi Thị Thanh Thúy – CHRO, Prudential Vietnam
7. Mr. Nguyễn Anh Hùng – CHRO, PNJ Group
8. Mr. Jack Nguyễn – Deputy CEO, Talentnet Corporation
9. Ms. Lý Ngọc Trân – HR Outsourcing Services Director, Talentnet Corporation

Session 1: The compatibility of new business models & HR outsourcing development

Mr. John Antos, representative of ADP – Talentnet‘s partner as well as one of the leading companies in HR outsourcing brought up the overview of the HR outsourcing market in the world and the high growth of this model in Vietnam. According to Mr. John, most businesses, especially those planning to expand their business, can apply HR outsourcing models to optimize finance, improve operational capacity, and restructure beyond development in the future.

Session 2: Zoom in HR outsourcing development in Vietnam 

From the perspective of an expert in HR outsourcing and having worked in many countries. Mr. John Antos and Mr. Jack Nguyễn both agree that the HR outsourcing model is expanding in Vietnam. In recent years, Talentnet has also noticed that many Vietnamese businesses are interested in restructuring their HR strategy, thereby getting ready for expansion into other markets – according to Mr. Jack Nguyễn. Besides, Mr. John also shared the steps to apply the HR outsourcing model for businesses such as starting with a comprehensive business plan including key parts such as criteria for outsourcing, business plan, HR development plan, risk measurement, and planning.

Session 3: HR outsourcing Success Story: From planning to implementing 

The next part is the sharing story from Ms. Bùi Thị Thanh Thúy and Mr. Colin Blackwell about the process of planning and implementing successfully the HR outsourcing model at Prudential. Accordingly, Mr. Colin Blackwell, with an overview of Vietnamese businesses under the position of Chairman of HR Committee, World Bank’s Vietnam Business Forum believes that HR directors are the string attaching CEO and CFO. They need to convince the CEO and at the same time overcome the challenge provided by the CFO in order to help the business invest in an effective HR outsourcing model. Ms. Thúy also agreed with the idea and also came up with some advice for HR to show their overview of business growth, thereby determining which positions need to be optimized, helping businesses to identify the right moment in the business development process to use outsourcing. In addition, not only the CFO, but HR also needs to listen and get along with other departments. This helps HR easier to explain the pros and cons of this model and get approvals from them.

Topic 4: HR Outsourcing experience in the High-Tech industry 

Ms. Nguyễn Quỳnh Trâm – Country General Manager of Microsoft Vietnam shared some digital transformations while implementing HR outsourcing. According to Ms. Trâm, Microsoft – one of the leading enterprises in the industry has applied outsourcing to many departments such as sales and marketing, accounting, office management, customer service, manufacturing, and more. Adding to her speech, she provided some advice for businesses that want to apply an effective HR outsourcing model, starting with developing a strict policy through diversity & inclusion culture, measuring outcomes, and regulatory compliance.

Topic 5: Highlights of HR outsourcing across industries 

The final part of the conference was the panel discussion between Ms. Nguyễn Thị Xuân Hương, Ms. Trần Thị Nguyệt Oanh and Mr. Nguyễn Anh Hùng under the coordination of Ms. Lý Ngọc Trân. The discussion revolved around questions and answers for the important factors when applying as well as how to apply the HR outsourcing model in different fields and industries. According to Mr. Hùng, there are no “recipes” to evaluate the HR model across the industries and sectors. He emphasized business flexibility when facing challenges and also suggested a few criteria for businesses to assess the feasibility of this model to make appropriate choices, including:

• Based on the growth cycle of production and business.
• Assess corporate culture – Ensure the equity between internal and external employees.
• Guarantee commitment in service contract – Compliance throughout the implementation process.

Besides, Ms. Xuân Hương also mentioned some challenges for this model that businesses such as:

• The turnover rate of outsourced personnel is twice as high as that of internal.
• When having problems with outsourcing vendors, businesses have to deal with employees and vendors at the same time.
• The capacity of the outsourced team is not qualified.

According to Ms. Nguyệt Oanh, choosing the right outsourcing vendor is also important as it limits risks and helps businesses to implement successfully the outsourcing model. The relationship between businesses and the partners they choose is more than just vendors and clients as Ms. Oanh mentioned during the discussion – “life partner”. Besides providing services, vendors, and businesses can support each other and improvise to the new challenges

“In order to understand the difficulties and concerns of businesses about this new model, we – Talentnet are constantly learning, and upgrading our services to help businesses grow as well as keep pace with the ever-changing world markets.” – Ms. Lý Ngọc Trân, HR Outsourcing Services Director of Talentnet shared.

The discussion has provided some suggestions such as proposing priority policies for outsourced employees as well as providing learning opportunities and balancing benefits with internal employees to increase the retention rate of outsourced employees.