Do small businesses need IT, HR, Digital outsourcing?
The modern goods market is full of many well-known (and not so) companies. The consumer has long developed “banner blindness”, and if earlier it was possible to promote your product simply by increasing the reach of potential consumers who are aware of the product and the company, now everyone chooses solely on the basis of quality and, most importantly, the ratio to price. That is why many leading companies are already putting the product and its value to the end user at the forefront.
To improve the quality of the product, of course, the company must have perfectly streamlined business processes. And if a large corporation can afford to have entire departments (or at least an employee) on staff in such areas as: HR; lawyer; IT; marketing, then a small company, most likely, will not be able to afford such a luxury. Is there a solution to this problem? How to get efficiently established business processes with professionals in their places and not go broke on the wages of “back-office” employees, who, in fact, do not bring added value to your product, but only increase the cost?
There is a way out – outsourcing of information and technical services for small businesses. Outsourcing is the purchase of services from a qualified person or company as part of the performance of an employee’s duty. The outsourcing company does not provide employees, and the scope of services is determined by the relevant contract. Let’s look at the main pros and cons of outsourcing for small and medium-sized businesses, and also analyze in which areas this option is applicable, and in which it is better to take a staff unit.
Benefits of outsourcing for small businesses
- Saving. Undoubtedly, turning to the services of an outsourcing company for small businesses will be more profitable from a financial point of view than hiring a qualified full-time employee. Example: You don’t need a recruiter 365 days a year, you need to close 3-4 positions a year for stable growth. Is it worth paying a staff unit for 12 months for such a volume of work? You do not need a full-time system administrator, you need an IT specialist 5-6 times a year to connect working PCs to the same new employees 3-4 times a year, and several times a year it is planned to update and clean the PC.
- Professionalism. Unfortunately, hiring a full-time employee, even with an impeccable resume and references, will still be a pig in a poke. Also, no one canceled the adaptation period, entry into the course of the company, integration into the team, and much more. And even after all the above stages, it is not a fact that the candidate will meet your requirements. In the case of an outsourcing company, everything is simpler, since business processes within such organizations have been established for a long time, and the period for getting up to date on the project/tasks is reduced as much as possible by various kinds of optimizations. In addition, the outsourcing company could already have experience of cooperation with this kind of business (upon request, most likely, you will even be provided with a portfolio in the form of examples of successful cases), therefore, the risks in this case are much lower than when hiring, when the first 2-3 months You pay a full-time employee practically “upfront”.
- A complex approach. With outsourcing, tasks that would be assigned to one person in your company will be solved by a whole team of professionals with experience in various fields. In addition, all processes have long been regulated and prescribed, which will free you from compiling additional documentation for a staff unit (if the position is new), with the exception of signing an agreement with a contracting company.
This list is not exhaustive, as the benefits that a company receives from this kind of cooperation can be individual and vary depending on the type of services provided by the contractor.
Despite the obvious benefits that a company receives from cooperation with remote professionals, there are also several disadvantages that can sometimes cross out all the bonuses of working with an outsourcing company.
Cons of outsourcing for small businesses
- Involvement. In small companies, the most important idea and passion for a common cause. That is why in such organizations they select employees for the “Soft skills” team. There must be “chemistry” between the employer and the applicant in such a company, otherwise, they will not work together and the work efficiency will tend to zero. It’s hard to get engagement from “soulless” (excuse me) outsourcing companies, which, nevertheless, work 100% for money, not for an idea.
- Collective. If you plan to outsource one of the directions, it is obvious that the contracting company will not be part of your team, and for a small business, the team and its cohesion is one of the “pillars” on which the whole organization rests, right after a quality product, of course. That is why we do not recommend outsourcing such positions as HR, because in addition to paperwork, recruitment, development of KPIs, regulations and plans, the key task of an HR specialist is to be part of a team, its leader and patron, if you like. And if “technical” areas, such as IT, legal support, or marketing, can be easily outsourced, then it would be more appropriate for HR to take a young specialist who will love his job, love and fight for his team, which is guaranteed , will lead to an increase in the productivity of the entire team.
- Niche inexperience. One of the risks of introducing outsourcing in an enterprise is inexperience and the impossibility of obtaining the necessary information for the qualitative performance of tasks by outside specialists.
Example: How can an outsourced copywriter write about the taste and aroma of ratatouille at the Cherry restaurant if he has never tried it there? Yes, and write in such a way that he is believed.
How can HR know what is in the mind of a GoIT programmer now if they see each other once every 2 weeks at a rally?
Outsourcing of marketing services
The issue of outsourcing marketing services, in particular, digital marketing services, has been making many commercial directors and business owners think for more than one year. Is it worth entrusting the promotion of your product to a third-party organization, which, at first glance, definitely cannot know more about your product than a staff unit?
Starting from product awareness is one of the biggest misconceptions, since digital marketing, like any other industry, has its own tools and technologies, without which no one will simply know about your product. Outsourcing of marketing services is the best solution for small and medium-sized businesses, since for the qualitative establishment of lead generation channels, it is necessary to connect entire marketing departments, as well as a number of other specialists, such as web designers, content managers, programmers. When working with a digital agency, you pay for specific tasks that lead to the promotion of your product/service.
Outsourcing of marketing services is an excellent solution if your task is to get a full-fledged department of qualified specialists with payment for results. That is why, more and more companies tend to cooperate with marketing agencies “on the side”:
- it’s profitable;
- it is efficient;
- it is transparent (regular reports).
In addition, the issue of qualification and result orientation of remote agencies is always at the forefront, as competition in the digital services market is growing, which means that the quality of the product must match.
Do small businesses need outsourcing?
With proper delegation, outsourcing specialists can cost you much less than a full-time unit, and show high performance from the first days of involvement, thanks to their experience and skills in working with small companies. But if the work is somehow based on the human factor and human relations, then the best option would be a staff unit. It doesn’t matter if this relationship is at the level of HR – an employee, or a copywriter – a consumer, a person must communicate with a person. This rule does not always work, and not in all business niches, but when the main task of your product is to evoke emotion, not a single employee of an outsourcing company will be able to achieve a result without their real empirical sensations.
As we said earlier, in order to survive, any company, regardless of size and status, needs a quality product with streamlined business processes. And if a large company with a multi-level organizational structure forms entire departments and departments, then for a small business, outsourcing marketing, legal and other areas can become a real panacea that will allow you to improve and achieve a leading position while minimizing costs.
Internet marketing expert. Head of marketing agency MAVR.
Business degree “Master of Business Administration” (MBA).