The post-pandemic world has created a host of new challenges for business owners – and, for those with vision, new opportunities. While most businesses are pushing to return to an office setting, many employees are keen on remaining home and working remotely. Who can blame them? The comforts of home make for more welcoming work environments, and allow workers to take care of other homebound responsibilities more easily, such as children or pets. When considering that productivity increased tremendously across the board for employees who worked from home, smart money says that embracing a changing workforce is in the best interest of an employer.
One thing is for absolute certain: the past few years have provided an opportunity to reconsider and challenge paradigms that we once took for granted. Businesses are looking for new ways to streamline their operations and cut down on costs. Keeping employees happily and productively working from home is a good start, but there’s more that can be done! Your employees aren’t the only people you can benefit from keeping out of the office. The growing trend of outsourcing office functions is catching on, and it’s easy to see why. Here are a few ways you can save money and increase productivity through outsourcing.
Human Resources
This may be the most radical and unorthodox industry to outsource, but human resources are a surprisingly efficient choice. The concept is fairly simple, almost insultingly so. When a company hires an external human resource company, they transfer some or all of the responsibility for managing employee/employer relations to a third party. Frankly, it’s understandable that the thought of hiring an outside company to handle something like HR would raise more than a few eyebrows. For the savvy business, however, doing so presents a cost-effective way to streamline your operations. While conventional wisdom may suggest that having your human resources taken care of in house, there are many benefits to utilizing a dedicated third party company for your business.
The most obvious but oft ignored advantage is employee faith. It’s a well-circulated truism, which may or may not actually be true, that HR exists not to protect the employee, but to protect the company from the employee. Workers are distrustful of HR departments, and will often limit their cooperation with HR out of fear that their interests are not being protected. The idea goes that the human resources department is just another arm of the company, and will not protect the worker if conflict arises. Outsourcing these responsibilities creates the image of impartiality, an image that can do wonders for putting worker anxieties to rest.
Additionally, passing the brunt of these duties to a dedicated company is more efficient for your company. Having an entire agency devoted to nothing but human resources take a massive amount of responsibility off your company’s shoulders, freeing up that money and corporate energy to be directed elsewhere. This is a common theme among all third-party assistance, and is perhaps the most valuable element of the practice. Having another agency take over HR duties means you don’t have to spend even more money maintaining a dedicated department, and having another agency devoted to nothing but your company’s practices is a bold way to streamline your business. There are many more benefits, such as those detailed here, but saving money and increasing employee trust are too good to pass up on.
Marketing
Chances are, you’re already considering outsourcing your marketing duties. This is the first thing most corporations, even small businesses, think of and pull the trigger on when it comes to hiring an outside agency. Marketing professionals are experts at adaptation and understanding how to get your message to the masses. Having in-house marketing is a luxury that only the largest businesses can afford. Unless you roll out products at a breakneck pace, have millions to devote exclusively to advertisement budgets, and rub elbows with the biggest corporations on the planet, you shouldn’t be retaining a permanent, in-house marketing team. You and your company would be far better served by an external marketing agency.
Having an outside marketing firm take care of your advertising isn’t just smart, it’s efficient. Forbes provides a detailed list at advantage of outsourced marketing, but one reason stands above the rest: cost. You can spend exactly as much money as you need to spread the word about your business and not a penny more. The general rule of thumb in marketing is that you get only as much as you put into it. That principle would be true whether you had dedicated staff or an outside agency. You’re going to be paying for the actual advertisements themselves. Why keep a marketing team on perpetual payroll on top of that when you can just as easily rely on an external team? You would only need to pay for their services for as long as you need, saving you a lot of money in the long run.
Information Technology
IT services are by far the most obvious and popular new consideration for department to outsource, and it’s not hard to see why. The world of digital support is vast and versatile, covering everything from customers calling in for technical issues to maintaining your company’s own internal network structure. Every company, no matter its size, relies on information technology to some degree. Having an on-site IT professional or department can be a good thing, and may seem like the best way to handle your IT needs, but there are good reasons to consider outsourcing this function to another agency.
For one thing, it’s far more cost effective. On average, an outside IT firm costs less than hiring, training, and maintaining your own direct staff. An information technology firm can provide the same (or better) service for a fraction of the cost. Especially when considering the benefits of having an entire company devoted to your needs instead of a single employee or department, there’s no question that outsourcing is the smart move. Most IT professionals are capable of working remotely already; if you’re going to have your digital experts work outside the office, why not spend less money for potentially better service?
Customers expect a high degree of technical competency from support, regardless of the company’s size. Outsourcing your business’s IT support and services guarantees that your customers will receive that expected expertise. One of the major benefits to relying on an external company to handle your digital needs is that you can be assured of a level of skill and proficiency. External firms are constantly researching new and innovative ways to approach information technology, and are often on the absolute cutting edge of the industry. Having that kind of know-how in your corner is a benefit to you and your customer alike.
