You may want to try and have everything related to your business done under in-house where you have maximum control. But sometimes it makes sense to outsource jobs to a company that specializes in that area. Although it can seem expensive, employees cost a lot too, not only for their salary but also the hidden costs of recruitment and training. There are bigger benefits than you might realize.
The best kind of jobs to outsource are either highly skilled, which will help provide a higher quality of work, or lower skilled positions, where a specialized company can do the same task much more efficiently and cheaply than you. These tasks are often not critical to the functioning of your business, which is important because the downside to outsourcing is a loss of control by management. A workforce management software is great tool for collecting data for decisions like these.
Despite the negative press outsourcing has receiving these days, it does not necessarily mean that you are hiring someone in India to replace a local job. There are many local agencies to perform these tasks that keep jobs in the community. So read our suggestions for the best jobs you should consider outsourcing.
Information Technology
Because of the growth of the internet and other remote technologies, it has become much easier for someone to provide IT support from anywhere in the world. If you do need onsite IT support from time to time, many companies can provide one of their workers to spend a day at the office once or twice a week. This still offers substantial savings over paying to have an entire IT department working full-time.
Creative ideas
The creative side of marketing is also a good option to outsource and one where the quality of work can be much higher. Since full-time staff are immersed in an organization’s culture, sometimes a fresh perspective can offer unique and different ideas. But it’s a good idea to have one marketing person on staff to oversee what these agencies are doing and who understands you brand identity better than anyone.
Writing
Many organizations have begun outsourcing their writing work instead having someone on staff full-time. Whether it’s for articles or marketing copy, this makes a lot of sense. Many organizations just don’t produce enough writing to justify having a full time writer on staff. Freelancers also prefer the lifestyle that comes with working on their own. You can have a favourite freelancer who understands your selling points well but doesn’t come with the obligations of being a full-time staff.
Call Centres
The infrastructure required for making a large volume of phone calls is expensive to maintain, so there are big savings to be had if you consider outsourcing any high volume phone operations. Best of all, local call centres can still offer considerable discounts while not shipping jobs overseas.
Graphic Design
Much like writing, graphic design also is ideal for farming out to local agencies or freelancers. The quality is often much higher than having someone who does graphic design work among other responsibilities. Also the cyclical nature of graphic design, which normally ramps up for specific projects like a brand redesign or a new web site, means that having a full-time staff member for these short-term projects makes little sense.