For many businesses, outsourcing is an excellent way to save not only money, but precious time. By outsourcing, your business can benefit from specialized, external professionals, allowing you to free up in-house resources. Your in-house efforts can then be directed towards the more crucial aspects of your operations, saving time and improving efficiency.
So, which tasks are the best to outsource in 2023? Well, as always, the best tasks to outsource are those that are non-core or non-critical to your business but that still need to be done. This could include tasks that are:
- time-consuming
- specialized, or
- require specific expertise or resources that you don't have in-house.
Although outsourcing needs may vary depending on industry, here are several regularly outsourced tasks which may benefit your business.
Information Technology Outsourcing
From web development to tech support, information technology can be an ideal task to outsource. As a highly-skilled profession, in-house IT professionals can be painfully expensive, particularly for small businesses. As such, outsourcing IT tasks can provide much needed technical know-how while simultaneously cutting costs.
What makes IT so ideal for outsourcing is its international reach. Although there are many IT professionals in many different countries, salaries are not always the same across borders. So, your business may be able to outsource IT professionals overseas with similar skills to those available for in-house work but at a fraction of the wage costs. This is especially convenient in IT since little is lost when working with overseas IT professionals online rather than in-person.
Outsourcing IT can also help businesses save on the cost of purchasing and maintaining hardware and software. Outsourced IT providers may have access to bulk purchasing discounts, and they may be able to provide hardware and software as part of the service package. The significant overhead costs of setting up in-house IT professionals can therefore be bypassed by outsourcing.
Customer Service Outsourcing
Another commonly outsourced task is customer service. Once again, outsourcing customer service can be a cost-effective alternative to hiring and training in-house staff, especially since customer service can often be outsourced overseas.
There are two additional reasons why customer service may be outsourced.
First, since outsourcing is cost-saving, outsourcing also allows businesses to hire more customer service staff, which can help a business improve the quality of the service they provide to customers, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Second, by outsourcing customer service overseas, it is possible to establish round-the-clock service for your customers. Obviously, this could significantly improve customer satisfaction, particularly if your clientele may themselves be overseas, meaning that you can begin to provide service to them during their own business or waking hours.
By outsourcing your customer service, you can therefore improve the quality of your service and the breadth of your customer outreach, all while cutting costs.
Outsourcing Human Resources
Many human resources (HR) tasks lend themselves particularly well to outsourcing, because high-quality outsourced HR executives can be hired in virtually any location and yet their day-to-day duties are not hampered by geographic distance since these HR executives can instead connect with your employees and jobseekers online.
Outsourced tasks that can be performed by remote HR executives include:
- Vetting job applications
- Proctoring online tests
- Conducting online interviews
- Preparing documentation and reports
- Providing in-house support to your employees
- Coordinating training programs
- Managing room bookings
- And so on.
HR executives (or virtual assistants) in the Philippines are a particularly strong option for such roles due to the combination of low cost, smooth human-focused communication and an affinity with western culture.
Outsourcing Accounting and Bookkeeping
Accounting and bookkeeping are essential business tasks which require dedication and training. So, although almost all businesses need an accountant, not every business have staff who can fulfill the role.
Outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping thus becomes an inextricably useful tool to maintain your business' daily operations. Outsourcing offers a cost-effective way of utilizing specialized accountants without actually hiring any extra local staff.
By outsourcing accounting, a business' financial reporting may also improve. Outsourcing to specialized accounting professionals helps your business improve the accuracy and timeliness of its financial reporting, providing better information for decision-making.
Moreover, outsourcing accounting for your business can be a relatively easy process, especially if you choose a reputable and experienced outsourcing partner. The ease and usefulness of outsourced accounting is why it is so common, particularly amongst small businesses which may not have the in-house staff.
If outsourcing your accounting or bookkeeping tasks overseas, be mindful of differences in the accounting rules between your jurisdiction and those of your outsourced staff. These differences tend not to affect day-to-day accounting tasks such as invoicing and routine bookkeeping, but can certainly affect compliance-related tasks such as preparation of tax returns.
Further, be aware that you should not outsource any tasks that would require your outsourced staff to access sensitive customer information such as credit card details. If an outsourcing provider is promising you that they will keep those details safe, think very hard about whether they are being candid with you, as it takes intense security measures to keep such data truly safe.
Manufacturing Outsourcing
Many businesses may also outsource manufacturing. Most of the time, this comes down to two significant advantages of outsourced manufacturing: its lower overhead costs and its ongoing cost-effectiveness.
Manufacturing requires a number of key essentials before production can get started. Of course, to begin production, any equipment necessary to manufacture the product must first be purchased. Often, this will also require the business to rent or purchase factory floor space. Skilled staff must also be hired and trained to manufacture your end product at every stage of its production line.
By outsourcing manufacturing, however, most of these prerequisites are already dealt with, meaning lower overhead costs for your business and less time spent in the preparatory stages of production.
Outsourced manufacturing is also often cheaper in the long-term. Since labor costs vary between countries, average local manufacturing wages may be significantly higher than those offshore. As such, a business may save a fortune simply by hiring outsourced staff overseas in the manufacturing process.
Conclusion
Outsourcing can provide a number of benefits to businesses, including lowering costs, providing access to specialized expertise, and increasing efficiency. Some tasks are easier to outsource than others, however, and which tasks are easiest can change over time. Today, the most commonly outsourced tasks tend to be in IT, customer service, human resources, accounting, and manufacturing.
Ultimately, whether or not outsourcing is the right option for your business and which tasks would be most beneficial to outsource depend on a variety of factors, including your current business goals, the availability of high-quality outsourcing, and the expertise you already possess in-house.