Outsourcing HR services has helped companies reduce costs and become more efficient, according to a new Hewitt survey.

Hewitt recently surveyed 104 companies on how they are using outsourcing to improve the delivery of their benefit and HR programs and also how their strategies might be affected by the current economic environment. Hewitt's survey finds that the majority of organizations (55 percent) are experiencing more cost pressures on benefits programs compared with 12 months earlier. About a third (34 percent) of companies said they are more inclined to outsource than they were two years earlier.

Overall, 82 percent of companies that are able to measure the success of their outsourcing initiatives believe they have realized the expected benefits, Hewitt says. Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of survey respondents for whom cost savings is a primary outsourcing objective said they met expected cost reduction targets through their existing outsourcing program. When asked to assess the success of outsourced HR services, at least 89 percent of respondents rated nearly all services as being effective or highly effective. Almost all (98 percent) organizations that outsource their defined contribution administration rated their program as effective or highly effective; 88 percent rated their outsourced health and welfare services as effective or highly effective; and 100 percent rated their defined benefit programs as being effective or highly effective.