Choosing between in-house and outsourced services and jobs is usually something that startups try to assess. However, even companies that have been in existence for years often find that they need someone to take on a task that no one is available to do. Sometimes it’s a matter of time available and other times it’s a matter of having no one on the team with the experience and expertise to get the job done.
At this point, it becomes imperative to weigh the pros and cons of choosing between in-house and outsourced services. It will take much thought, and every company’s needs are different, but here are some of the things to consider.
Weigh Relative Costs
Cost is always going to be a major factor when choosing between in-house and outsourced jobs and services. The first thing to assess is whether or not it is cost-effective to hire an expert, or even an entire team, when there are outsourced resources that you can contract. Will this be a one-off job or is it something you will be offering in the long term? Obviously, you wouldn’t want to hire an entire department for a one-off contract so outsourcing would probably be your most cost-effective path to take.
On the other hand, there are ongoing jobs that still might be more cost-effective to outsource. Sometimes there is that one team that can handle several duties within the scope of their services to make it more cost-effective to outsource than to hire multiple people to handle the work. One example of this kind of outsourcing would be a team of Human Resources professionals and legal advisers such as what you would get when outsourcing to The HR Dept based in Doncaster.
Availability of Top Talent
Then there’s top talent to consider. Sometimes you need a person, or a team, that is expert in the field but there are few candidates in your local market. So, what can you do about that? It certainly would be quite costly to offer a benefits package with enough incentive to draw talent to your area. The cost of moving them alone, if included in the package, would make it unrealistic to draw out-of-area experts to your location. Outsourcing would be a better option.
Size of Projects
The there are the size of projects to consider. Usually, the employees you have on payroll are well-capable of filling any workorders timely. Unfortunately, from time to time you get a contract for a huge project that would put your team on duty double shifts for weeks on end. While that may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, many employers have faced just that issue with employee burnout. Outsourcing some of the work would put your in-house team back on an acceptable schedule while also meeting the client’s deadline. The beauty of this is that you now have a team on call should you ever land a lovely contract like that again.
Amount of Training Required to Build a Team
One thing which can also affect your decision to outsource or hire in-house workers would be the amount of time and the expense that would go into training them. Sometimes that makes perfect sense if there will be a lot of work to keep them on the clock every day of the work week. But what happens when there isn’t enough work to keep them on full time? This has often happened to employers who were now still trying to cover all the recruitment and training costs while trying to find something for them to do while clocked in. If you have any doubts as to whether or not you will be able to provide a team full-time work, it might make more sense to outsource where available.
Remote Work Is the Way of the Future
Finally, one last reason why you may wish to outsource is that it truly is the way of the future. After just two years of a global pandemic, more and more employers are seeing the benefits of contracting outsourced professionals. Not only will there be a much larger candidate pool to draw from but think of all the savings in overheads.
At the beginning of Covid-19, a large number of employers were reluctant to let important workers work from home. However, having no other alternative due to shutdowns, employers relented and allowed necessary workers to continue on at home. The logistics for making that happen such as cyber security took a bit of effort, but now that a growing portion of the workforce is working from home, it becomes the most practical solution for employers and remote workers alike.
