Going the Distance: Lexis to Offshore Some Not Yet Specified Number of Jobs to the Philippines

Last month Lexis Global Legal & Professional informed its US workforce that it was planning to offshore some jobs to the Philippines next year. Most of the positions affected reportedly will be in Global Customer Services and Support. See the Dayton Daily News story. LexisNexis remains mum on move: Firm is ‘committed’ to area despite job shift to Philippines, officials say (Aug. 5, 2011). From an internal memo obtained by the Dayton Daily News:

While there will be job impacts in the U.S., it is important to note that core skills must be retained in the U.S. and any work that we move to Manila will need to be transitioned carefully over time. We will maintain research support and core capacity in the U.S. to balance workloads, resolve complex issues and help ensure effective disaster recovery.

Quoted from LexisNexis mum on how many jobs will be moved to Philippines (Dayton Daily News, Aug. 18, 2011). It's never a good sign from the executive suite perspective when newspapers can obtain internal memos.

No word yet on how many US jobs will be affected. Lexis opened a Manila operations center last February (opening festivities video below). The center employs about 160 now. One unconfirmed published account indicates that the total workforce planned there will be around 300. If so, you (or Lexis employees) can do the math. One never likes to read that US employees are probably going to lose their jobs, be it Lexis or TR Legal workforces. But a global labor market cannot be separated from the global economy the legal publishing legal professional services vendors participate in. There is always one fungible corporate expense, namely employment costs, that can be reduced -- offshoring US jobs to lower labor cost markets. 

Interested in going the distance for a LexisNexis career in the Philippines? Will being able to carry a tune a requirement for a job there? [JH]

LexisNexis Philippines Chorale - Go The Distance.