Outsourcing has received a bad reputation in the past 25 years, as it has been associated with sending jobs to other countries while increasing the unemployment rate in the motherland. This sentiment has been particularly strong in the U.S during the recession, as many functions that used to be located in the American offices shifted to being produced in foreign countries, either by employees of a branch location of said American company, or by a separate foreign company using its own local employees.
However, outsourcing doesn’t always mean less jobs for people in the original country. In fact, the popularity of the practice of it is steadily going up for most modern companies of all industries to some extent. For instance, using an outside accounting firm instead of an in-house employee, or an attorney who is not an actual employee is indeed outsourcing.
But why must entrepreneurs and upper management outsource in the first place? No, it’s not to cut costs (though it is a perk to make greater profits with fewer in-house resources.) Rather, it is to increase productivity in the workplace.
How Outsourcing Increases Productivity
Outsourcing helps increase productivity in many ways, both directly and indirectly. Simply put, it allows employees to focus on what they do best. These are the tasks that are more meaningful to them. In the long run, outsourcing also helps increase efficiency, and (to be honest) job satisfaction for employees.
The tasks that are most popularly outsourced are the ones that are usually too tedious or time consuming, such as event planning, public relations, data entry, recruitment, and administrative management. By outsourcing such long/short-term projects, in-house employees have more time to focus on strategic initiatives. They can focus more on things such as product development, nurturing relationships, and other tasks that require tacit knowledge over implicit knowledge.
The Perks of Outsourcing
According to Jeff Minnichbach, the Founder of flat-rate monthly design service, No Limit Creatives, “There is so much more to outsourcing functions than what meets the eye, and businesses of all sizes turn to outsourcing mainly for these perks.”
The perks of outsourcing include the ability to reduce risks and liabilities, particularly for non-core tasks. “Delegating tasks to outsourcing firms helps companies avoid all types of messy situations, as these firms have already seen and done it all,” says Minnichbach. “Trust the experts. They know how to start projects quickly with great efficiency. They know the tools and tricks of the trade. They know exactly how to level the playing field.”
No Limit Creatives helps businesses conquer their creative roadblocks through graphic and video design all month every month. They offer a wide array of digital, print and video services that typically covers everything a business needs in a month’s time, all without breaking the bank and incurring high labor and benet costs by hiring an in-house design team. “Within the first 16 months of business,” says Minnichbach, “…we hired more than 60 full time employees, brought on and supported several hundred customers, and managed to reach seven figures. I believe our success largely stems from the fact that we allow our clients to work with our entire design team, instead of just one designer. They get the experience of practically having an extended design team of their own. It’s more intimate than cold exchanges with a single overworked freelancer.”
In a nutshell, by delegating tasks and freeing up time, outsourcing enables organizations to achieve business objectives, add value, and mitigate risks. Whether it is for individual items or for systems management, choosing to use external providers allows companies and organizations outsourcing a job (the “client”) to focus on what it does best, and deliver on its mission statement.
Outsourcing is quite the time-saver, so long as it is intelligently approached. Some functions are better kept in-house, such as anything revolving around corporate culture, employee development, and the most sensitive aspects of product development. Outsourcing companies themselves must be prepared to manage projects across time differences and cultural barriers, while properly maintaining quality control. The benefits that come from wise outsourcing are plentiful, and now is the time for more companies to embrace it.