In this day and age, outsourcing is becoming more popular than ever. There’s a good reason for that. As more and more companies allow for remote, home-based work, company heads are starting to explore other ways to manage their in-house talent and resources more intelligently.
This often results in delegating certain tasks to offsite professionals, thus boosting the company’s workplace productivity while also improving the quality of its service, two things that undoubtedly lead to happier customers and clients who come back again and again.
Below, discover 4 reasons why you may want to consider outsourcing more of your company’s legwork this year.
Cut down on costs
One of the most well-known reasons for outsourcing is, of course, to cut down on costs. When tasks are outsourced to remote workers, you don’t have to worry about keeping an in-house employee on a full-time payroll, thus freeing up business capital which can be invested back into the company or into revenue-producing activities.
But reducing labor costs where it concerns your human resources isn’t the only advantage to outsourcing. Your company can also save capital that you would’ve otherwise needed to spend on technology, software, and/or other infrastructures required for certain areas of business (i.e. IT support, payroll, customer call centers, etc.). Your outsourcing partner would naturally assume responsibility for these specialty processes and already have the infrastructures in place to perform them, thus freeing your company from footing hefty, up-front costs.
Gain access to skilled expertise
“One of the primary reasons why a business may want to outsource a task is when it requires skilled expertise,” says one of the most popular outsourcing companies today. “To allow you to focus on your core mission in providing a high quality product and/or service to your customer, offshoring the task to people who can perform it better makes sense.”
Whether this means using offsite IT support, remote customer service, or specialty consulting like what we offer at Shaping Change, it pays to have access to expertise. Instead of having to train your own employees in these areas, your company can bring on board a partner who very often will have numerous years of experience in their field, along with impressive credentials and extensive training, thus giving your company a competitive edge against its peers. According to the New York Times, “Most small firms simply can’t afford to match the in-house support services that larger companies maintain. Outsourcing can help small firms act “big” by giving them access to the same economies of scale, efficiency, and expertise that large companies enjoy.”
Free up valuable time
Consider the number of hours that are lost every time you need to sift through hundreds of applications for an open position—hours that could be recouped by outsourcing the task to a placement agency that specializes in matching qualified talent with the right job. What about the amount of time you have to spend training staff for a new project? Now imagine an outsourcing firm that already has the time, resources, and skills to complete that project for you while you and your team are able to focus on your core mission and on the client-facing work that increases your company’s bottom line.
Again and again, companies turn to outsourcing in order to free up valuable time that can be better spent elsewhere. Every company only has so much time and attention to offer each day. It makes more sense to spent those limited commodities not on peripheral activities but on the high-priority activities that are going to lead to your company’s continued financial success.
Increase your company’s efficiency
Outsourcing firms are experts in what they do. With their skilled expertise, they will very often produce quality work on an expedited timeline that might not be possible for your in-house staff. This increased turn-around time makes for a more productive workplace, and more importantly, more satisfied clients and customers. And satisfied clients and customers leads to company loyalty and continued financial success for your business.
Also keep in mind that outsourcing allows you to take on a higher workload that’s shared between your employees and your outsourcing partner, potentially meaning that you’re better able to serve more clients/customers, thus increasing your bottom line. And since many outsourcing firms work on different times zones, you’re also giving your company the advantage of being on the clock 24 hours a day, thus putting out higher volumes of work.
But it’s not just a quicker timeline or higher volume of work that makes for a more efficient company. When you outsource, you’re also giving yourself the opportunity to put more of your focus on your in-house team, allowing you to develop them further and give 100% to high-priority tasks.
The benefits to outsourcing are many. Whether you’d like to cut cost, bring in more expertise, free up valuable time, or increase your company’s efficiency, the advantages to outsourcing can often be a launching pad for higher levels of success. Which areas of your business would most benefit from outsourcing, and in what ways would you like to gain more time back to focus on your company’s core mission?
In our next blog, we’ll take a look at some of the way businesses are outsourcing every-day tasks to give you an idea of what’s possible.