Support services are vital for any growing business, but hiring an in-house team seems to be an expensive undertaking. And because one of the challenges many businesses face while maintaining their critical functions is to balance the budget while maintaining quality, more companies are looking for alternative options to attain this end goal.
An in-house and outsourced support teams have their strengths and weaknesses, but there is now another option available to businesses: co-sourcing.
This is an approach wherein an agreement is made between an outsourcing organization with multiple clients, thereby enabling the business to maintain control while cutting costs. It involves outsourcing certain business activities, which helps alleviate workload while providing additional resources, skills, and experience.
It may seem like an ideal setup, but is it right for your business? Below are the benefits of being in such an environment and why it shouldn’t be seen as a threat to employment.
Lower Costs
Sensible budgeting is important for every business owner. However, as businesses begin to expand, human resources also become increasingly difficult to manage. Sourcing for a team for your specific needs is a good way of keeping the budget in check because it typically has lower overhead costs while maintaining access to the skills and experiences your business needs.
How are the overhead costs lower? Because there is no need to pay for full-time wages, pensions, and other benefits. This, in turn, will enable businesses to maintain a smaller number of in-house staff.
Well Trained And Supervised Staff
Co-sourced providers are always updated with new skills and techniques. They ensure that their team gets the best training to maintain high standards for their clients because the goal is to provide experienced and skilled staff who can work well under the business owners’ direction. Employees of co-sourced providers have high productivity because they are well supervised.
Scalability
If your business is growing fast, the most common challenge you will face is to scale up at an affordable rate. It involves hiring more staff to serve a more extensive clientele, and in turn, you would need to hire more for other supporting functions of your business. Unfortunately, hiring more in-house staff isn’t always practical for a lot of businesses. Outsourcing some of these functions enables your business to gain skilled experts without hiring more employees in-house.
It Allows You To Work With A Fully Connected Team
In a co-sourced environment, all members, whether the in-house team or the co-sourced team, work as one well-coordinated team, not separated by distance. It is done with the help of technology like messaging, collaboration, and project management systems. This setup is as efficient as working with a bigger in-house team but is more cost-effective.
Flexibility
Another benefit of hiring a co-sourced support team is its flexibility. Your business can hire a co-sourced team depending on your needs. Some examples are when your staff doesn’t have the right skills for a new project or has time to attend to new tasks or functions that may arise as your business grows. These new projects and functions can affect the productivity of your staff, and hiring reliable and experienced support can take the load off from your team.
Frees Up Your Internal Team
As your business grows, so do the functions of your staff, leaving them exhausted and unable to function well in projects that could give more value to your business. This is another reason why hiring a support team is beneficial. Your hired co-sourced team can work on and manage certain functions, which will free up your internal team to work on more important projects for your business.
Co-sourcing allows your business to obtain maximum value from the skills and expertise they can offer while saving on long-term investment in hiring additional internal staff. It also provides flexibility and control as you grow your business without adding staff.
