As more businesses are learning to strike that balance between quality and cost, outsourcing is becoming a more commonplace tool for cutting expenses. Outsourcing isn’t just a reference to shipping manufacturing jobs abroad. Typically, small-scale outsourcing is when any size business taps the human resources of any other company that can offer support of repetitive non-core business processes and, often, complete remote work.
As you would expect, most benefits center on reducing costs. Since a group of tasks are given to another firm, companies can utilize their corporate resources in other areas of their business to either improve products or invest in expansion. It also allows companies to focus on activities they’re inherently good at rather than waste time forcing in-house staff to do and learn more beyond their scope of work.
Of course, the idea of delegating important tasks to strangers is daunting, which is why you’ll need to prepare a stringent hiring process to make sure you’re working with the right people. A recent article in Entrepreneur recommends looking for outsourcing referrals from friends, acquaintances, or professional organizations. Platforms like LinkedIn, oDesk, or eLance are also helpful for finding leads, with testimonials available for transparency.
Here are the five major benefits of outsourcing:
1. Improves Efficiency
Outsourcing enables you to hire experts who may not necessarily be available in your area. This is advantageous for businesses operating in smaller towns, where access to human resources might be quite limited. There are outsourcing partners that specialize in their field of work. Many big companies outsource their call management systems to a provider that specializes in telecommunication solutions. If you happen to be running a business in Hong Kong, for example, you would want to outsource to a company that specifically serves businesses in the area. You can look at here now to learn more about this topic.
2. Reduces Costs
This is one of the primary driving forces behind outsourcing. As a result of the lower overhead it allows, businesses can hire more members at a lower cost. This savings in labor costs doesn’t have anything to do with the quality, which remains the same. What makes all the difference are differing costs-per-hour as well as a general reduction in utility expenses. When you outsource business tasks, this means having fewer employees to keep in an office. As a result, your office space can be smaller, and your electricity and other utility costs lower.
Good outsourcing providers also have the right software that enables the most efficient service—tools and systems needed to perform outsourced tasks that you now don’t need to invest in new tools and apps as well. All of this cuts back on your overhead.
3. Enables Business Expansion
Outsourcing also enables companies to expand business operations overseas. If you’ve long wanted to penetrate a global market, this is now more achievable. With outsourcing, your global workforce can penetrate the local market. This is an opportunity for your business to gain popularity on a much wider scale. Your goal for business expansion can be achieved effortlessly because of lower startup costs. At the very least, you no longer have to pay for fare and relocation packages of your employees to work in your overseas offices. In other branches where you don’t even run a physical office, this also means that you no longer have to spend for opening up new offices or renting one.
4. Provides a Comfortable Work Environment
As it happens, it’s much easier to manage employees when you communicate remotely instead of having to manage in person. Remote work is also beneficial to many employees, since they can work and stay close to their loved ones at the same time. Especially for those employees with other familial obligations, the remote work arrangement gives them a better and happier work-life balance.
5. Increases Productivity
If your team has been bombarded with tons of responsibilities, a lot of that workload can be cleared out with some simple outsourcing. Companies are able to create and maintain a very professional work environment because outsourcing has eliminated the need for constant recruitment and training in the main business location. This means that rather than being saturated with so many responsibilities beyond their scope, these employees can now focus on what they do best—and that means productivity is boosted.
The Takeaway
Outsourcing can bring many benefits to a business, and even to economies on a global scale. While there are significant challenges and risks that’ll also have to be addressed, technology can efficiently bridge these gaps. As tech advancements accelerate, outsourcing is not only becoming more popular but has also become a necessity for many industries.