Hiring and outsourcing can both be effective ways to delegate work when you can no longer do it all yourself – but which is better for your business? Both hiring in-house staff and outsourcing can have their benefits and drawbacks. Here are a few questions that could help you to determine whether you need to hire or outsource.
How Much Can You Afford to Spend?
On the whole, outsourcing tends to be more affordable than hiring staff. When you hire staff, you don’t just have their salary to consider but also costs like employee benefits, equipment, insurance and recruitment costs. You don’t have any of these extra costs when outsourcing and annual rates tend to be cheaper than the salary that a full-time employee might expect.
Does the Work Need to Be Done at Your Premises?
Outsourcing tends to be better suited for work that is done remotely. While you may be able to have outsourced agents working for you within your premises, most outsourced staff won’t be willing to do this. If you need someone to work with you in your premises, hiring is likely to be a better option. Many employers choose in-house staff when they need someone who they can work closely with on an ongoing basis – communication can be a little harder when outsourcing.
How Much Work Do You Need Doing?
When you outsource a task from a company or individual, it is likely that they will be serving many other clients. This isn’t the case when hiring a staff member – they work solely for you. When hiring a full-time employee, you ideally want them to be busy all the time, which means you need to have enough work to delegate to them. If you’re only looking to delegate a single task like answering the phone or handling your social media marketing and you don’t have enough of that work to give to an employee, it may be a more sensible option to outsource.
What Level of Expertise Are You Looking For?
It can be easier to outsource individuals with niche expertise than it can be to hire them. If you need an IT expert that can offer advice on security as well as helping with vendor management, you may be able to track down a company that can provide this service for you. Tracking down applicants with these precise skills may not be as easy and you could find that you have to filter out a lot of unsuitable candidates. That said, hiring gives you the option to train and mold individuals to work in a certain way – something you cannot do when outsourcing.
Which Is Better for You?
Bothe outsourcing and hiring have their own benefits. Outsourcing tends to be better suited for companies on a budget looking to delegate small niche tasks that may not require a lot of involvement on your part. Hiring meanwhile tends to be better suited to companies that want someone they can work closely with and who may be able to take on a greater and more varied workload.
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