Post-pandemic, it’s time to really get your business firing on all cylinders again. There are opportunities for growth everywhere and it may be time to expand your team. But how can you best manage your people? Is it better to go it alone and keep it in-house, or to let someone else in and outsource? Here are some potential risks and rewards of outsourcing your HR operations in 2022.
Reward: A better service
Fundamentally, HR is about people management, keeping employees working well and happy within your company. Both managers and employees benefit from HR processes going as smoothly as possible. Using an external provider for your HR needs makes this much likelier, with a specialist company’s skills and experience helping make sure things go exactly as they should. This is especially useful on the legal side of things, ensuring all the correct forms are completed and delivered promptly, giving you peace of mind that proper procedure is being followed.
Risk: Less control
Of course, outsourcing does mean handing control away from your business. This can be very daunting if you have grown your business with a small team or alone so far, but it’s important to recognise when your business can benefit and grow more by utilising the expertise of another team. This risk can be mitigated by ensuring you work with an open and transparent company that is willing to answer any questions you may have and will tailor their approach to suit your needs (like minc people!)
Reward: More time to focus on your core business
The peace of mind allowed by outsourcing gives you less time bogged down in learning and perfecting HR processes and more time doing what you know best: your core business. Whether you make artisanal furniture along with a couple of apprentices or you run a fast-growing, quick-moving tech start up with new employees every month, you’ve got to the point you’re at by doing something right. Allow yourself to do what you do best!
Risk: Employees can feel more distant
One potential pitfall of outsourcing is that employees can feel more distant. Going to an external person for issues with their role can make it feel like those further up the chain don’t really care about them, passing off issues to the external provider when an employee feels they should take some ownership. This goes the other way as well. Managers and executives can feel out of touch for not taking ownership of these issues. However, this risk can be mitigated through your company culture. This is something a good HR outsourcing company can assist you with on top of all the more administrative aspects of HR.
Reward: Reduced costs
Hiring a full-time HR adviser, or the whole team can be a very costly expense, especially for growing businesses. This is doubly risky If you are not already knowledgeable about HR and make the mistake of hiring someone who is not a great fit, the costs of which can be exacerbated if proper procedures aren’t followed and the law becomes involved. Tribunals are expensive. Outsourcing helps you get the most for your money, with high quality, specialist personnel handling each aspect of HR as and when you need it.