Why is human resources one of the popular business processes to outsource?

Unhappiness with the in-house department's performance, according to a new survey of 150 US senior executives by Accenture.

It found that nearly half of senior executives are either dissatisfied with or ambivalent about the performance of their HR departments. Specifically 47 percent said they were dissatisfied or neutral with the overall performance of their HR departments, while 53 percent said they were satisfied or extremely satisfied.

The reason executives stated most often for their dissatisfaction was response time, while personal attention and access to information were given as reasons for satisfaction with their HR departments.

No wonder, then, that 85 percent of executives say they outsource one or more of their HR functions. Of course, Accenture is a major player in HR outsourcing.

Whatever the case, Accenture says the HR functions most often outsourced are 401(k) administration (88 percent), pension administration (57 percent), recruitment (40 percent), training and professional development (29 percent), payroll (23 percent), health and safety (10 percent) and performance evaluation (1 percent).

What are the most popular reasons companies gave for outsourcing HR? Lower costs (88 percent) and access to greater expertise (82 percent).

In addition, 66 percent of respondents said they outsource to free up their HR departments to focus on broader company issues, 64 percent said they outsource to gain access to more information, and 58 percent said they outsource to receive quicker responses.

Accenture also pointed out that the survey found little difference in satisfaction levels between HR services being provided in-house and those being outsourced.