Communications of the ACM

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U.S. Workers Found to Outperform Offshore Staff

InfoWorld

By Patrick Thibodeau
August 1, 2013
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U.S.-based workers show more initiative and are more innovative and more understanding of the business than offshore workers, according to a new study. These qualities of U.S. workers are helping to boost use of domestic IT services, especially as companies move to cloud-based services. Domestic workers are also perceived to work harder than offshore staff. In fact, in most areas associated with productivity, U.S.-based staff exceeded offshore staff by wide margins in this survey. When it came to cultural and communication skills, for example, U.S. based staff was rated 82% versus 33% for offshore staff.

When the survey looked at specific IT services functions, the findings narrowed some, but with U.S.-based workers maintaining the lead nonetheless. Survey takers were asked, for instance, how satisfied they were with application development work: 77% said they very satisfied and satisfied with U.S.-based staff, versus 61% for offshore. For IT help desk, it was 71% to 54%, in favor of U.S. workers. The survey found that 25% of all respondents are already tapping into U.S. based services delivery.

There are a number of things going on that influence these trends. The cost of doing work overseas is rising with wages, and while U.S. wages pay more, the differences aren't what they used to be. As more work is shifted to the cloud, it means business knowledge is needed as well as technology skills. These trends are strengthening the demand for U.S. domestic services, as well as prompting overseas firms to increase U.S.-based staff. As enterprises move into the cloud, the skill requirements are more of a business transformational skill, so there is a shift going on that favors U.S. workers.

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