Outsourced or In-house: What Works for Your Consulting Firm?
For consulting firms’ competence and cost savings matter— the ideal situation for you to hire offshored outsourced employees who can save you money and add high-quality expertise to your operations. This blog article will tackle the differences between outsourced and in-house team employees so you can see what works best for you and your business goals.
Outsourcing involves hiring independent contractors or an outsourcing company to execute specific business processes or functions in your business. Meanwhile, building an in-house team requires recruiting and training personnel who become a part of your company or internal employees. There are advantages and risks with choosing one or the either and in some cases, outsourced or in-house teams can work in the same space.
What to Consider: Outsourced versus In-house Teams
There are a number of factors you will have to discuss with your team before you recruit further employees for your in-house team, or you choose to go with an outsourcing provider.
Budget
A consulting firm is just like any other business and if your bottom line is not cutting it you will need to look into more affordable options. However, if you are willing to spend the extra funds on a fully in-house team you can choose that route as well.
Company Culture
What are your company values? What do you look for in terms of quality and work ethic? If you want to focus on diversifying your talent pool consulting firms usually look out for competence and quality—you might want to explore outsourcing further. However, if you prefer to choose a traditional in-house team that might be the better decision for you.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing for Consulting Firms
Benefits of Outsourcing for Your Consulting Firm
Consulting firms face professional pressures that might not be practical for an in-house team to deal with alone. Here are some benefits of hiring outsourced employees.
Diverse Specializations
When you have a wider pool of talent such as through working with an outsourced employee, you can bring in more fields of knowledge to the mix. This allows your team to expand your services as well as grow through the additional expert to collaborate with. Not only can this grow your business, but it can also help ensure the quality of work at your consulting firm.
Boost Cost Savings
One of the main reasons consulting firms outsource is for the increase in cost savings. Instead of having to spend on the overhead costs of hiring an in-house team, you will be able to offshore some of your business functions and ultimately spend less on your employees’ salaries, office space, benefits, and other extra expenses.
Risk Management
If you want stability, you could use the helping hand that comes with outsourcing for your consulting firm. Creating redundancies by having more than one team member for a specific role means that there will always be someone who can take over in the event of any emergencies. Should there be a busy season coming up you will not have to hire new members, which will only increase your costs and give you the additional task of onboarding and training new hires.
Improved Customer Service
When you outsource your customer service function your outsourcing partner can support you and provide a personalized connection for your clientele. Their focus on this specific function means there is attention to quality which raises customer satisfaction— an important function, especially in a consulting firm.
Risks of Outsourcing for Your Consulting Firm
While there may be several positives when it comes to outsourcing, there are also potential risks to consider before you sign a contract with your outsourcing provider.
Communication Concerns
When you offshore your functions, there is a possibility that you run into challenges when it comes to communication. Occurrences like this are more common if English is not the first language of the country you are planning to hire outsourced employees. That is why it is best to work with outsourcing companies that recruit Filipinos since a large percentage of the population learns how to speak English from a young age. Since consulting firms deal with a lot of speaking and communicative tasks, communication is essential when finding the best outsourcing fit for your current in-house team or for your core team.
Dependence on the Outsourcing Provider
As a consulting firm, you might see it as risky to relinquish your control over your marketing department or your IT support. If any conflicts arise between you and your outsourcing provider, you might find it difficult for you to recruit team members again. While this fear is understandable, you can choose to work with an outsourcing partner that understands your needs and is aligned with your goals. Through this move, you can ensure a long-lasting partnership built on ethics. Cultivate open communication and value consistent updates from your outsourcing team and you will not need to be threatened by the possibility that you will be too dependent on them.
The risk that comes with dependence on your outsourcing provider might also come with fears regarding confidentiality. It is important for both parties to sign a non-disclosure agreement beforehand to mitigate this problem.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Focusing on Only In-house Teams for Consulting Firms
Benefits of Having In-house for Your Consulting Firm
While saving money and having a stable labor force might be an important goal for some consulting firms, you might also want to look into having a purely in-house team.
Control
Sometimes you just want to keep it internal where you can directly see the state of your business functions. You can monitor everything that’s going on and guide your personnel to achieve the quality you prefer.
Cultural Fit
When you recruit employees on your own you can select people who are already a good fit for your company’s culture. From work ethic to language, you will be able to select the right people who match your current team.
Confidentiality
Since your in-house team works with you directly you can easily remember to prompt them to sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep your company information confidential.
Risks of Focusing on Only In-house Teams for Your Consulting Firm
It can sound safe to emphasize building your in-house team alone. However, consulting firms have busy seasons and core business functions to think about which can be a challenge when you don’t outsource. These are some risks to consider:
Limited Expertise
Consulting firms put a premium on professional work which takes growth and training. Choosing to focus on only an in-house team can be a hindrance since less exposure to varied experts can lead to stagnation.
Overwhelming Amount of Work
The busy season can bring mountains of paperwork and research that needs to be done. If you’re sticking to an in-house team, you have two options: overwork your current team or recruit and pay a new employee. The first choice can decrease employee morale while the second can be very costly.
Loss of Focus on Core Business Functions
When you have to worry about human resource work and marketing there is just too much to do. You won’t have the ability to focus on what makes you money: consulting! Providing your clientele with the best service entails your time and attention and sticking to an in-house team can take away from that.
The Bottom Line on Outsourced or In-House Employees
Your consulting firm has a unique set of needs, and your choice of personnel has to match that. Whether you prefer to delegate your business functions to an outsourcing team or you choose to stick to an in-house team— look into your business goals and see which is a better fit.
If you’re looking for a reliable and high-quality outsourcing partner to work with, look no further than MOVE, Managed Outsourced Virtual Employees. With results-drive and performance-based factors taken into account, we recruit and train Motivated, Organized, Versatile, and Excellent employees that can help support your business.