Efficiency and productivity are crucial to success. Learn the drawbacks and benefits of outsourcing to determine whether it’s a viable option for your business.
Every business has core tasks that must be completed to operate successfully. Many publications achieve this goal by taking advantage of the benefits of outsourcing their core tasks to third-party providers.
Outsourcing is becoming a growing trend, with more than $92.5 billion spent globally to this end. Today’s workers juggle multiple responsibilities, and they aren’t always able to master them all. To help alleviate workload and free up staff members to focus on other duties, businesses select tasks and hire people outside the company to complete them. While potentially beneficial, outsourcing also has drawbacks that could hinder your efforts.
Keep reading to learn about the drawbacks and benefits of outsourcing to determine whether it’s right for your publication.
Key Takeaways
- Although outsourcing can be a viable way to boost overall success, be aware of certain risks.
- Lack of control leads to several potential problems with outsourcing core tasks.
- Despite the risks, outsourcing enables a company to be more cost-effective, efficient, and productive.
3 Drawbacks of Outsourcing Tasks
Outsourcing projects to another company means you’re entrusting the quality of your work and your company’s reputation in the hands of someone else. Before you begin assigning projects to third-party companies, it’s essential to recognize these three potential drawbacks of outsourcing core tasks.
1. Delayed Service Delivery
When it comes to newspaper printing and magazine printing, the publishing industry relies heavily on the importance of meeting deadlines. That’s why outsourcing is especially risky for this industry. When projects are handled in-house, you can closely monitor how employees manage their time and whether tasks are being funneled through the pipeline on schedule. With outsourcing, you’re blindly trusting that people will stick to your deadline and deliver projects on time.
Unfortunately, freelancers and other third-party companies can become overwhelmed with assignments. Even if they manage their time well, a problem can arise with another project that can delay their ability to complete yours on time. This can postpone production and cause issues with advertisers and readers alike. Delayed service delivery is a real possibility with outsourcing core tasks.
2. Security and Confidentiality Concerns
Any time you grant someone access to the inner workings of your company, you run the risk of security and confidentiality issues. From online login information to vendor contacts, a company has lots of private information to protect. The more sites that connect with technology, the greater the risk for security violations and data leaks.
Cybersecurity is a significant concern for companies and customers alike. Security breaches and information leaks not only put your financial standings at risk. They can:
- Damage your company’s reputation with your customers, your community, and leaders in your industry.
- Destroy trust among your followers.
- Jeopardize customer loyalty.
- Give your competitors the upper hand.
These things are difficult to regain, and your bottom line will be impacted in the meantime.
3. Possible Instability
When you outsource core tasks to a third party, you expect them to maintain stability within their operations. Unfortunately, you have no control over managing their business, investments, or staff. At any time, the person working on your project could exit their position, leaving your project unfinished or passed on to another worker who may not be as experienced in that particular task.
Even worse, that company could go out of business entirely. This could leave you scrambling to find someone to complete your tasks, which takes time and energy away from your current workload. If your staff has to pick up the pieces, it puts them in a bind as they hurry to meet your deadline while juggling other responsibilities. Another company’s lack of stability can negatively impact your own.
3 Main Benefits of Outsourcing Work
Despite the risks, outsourcing can be a viable option to help propel your business forward and secure a sustainable future. Whether the task serves to help your sales team increase advertising revenue, grow distribution, or expand readership, publication teams wear several hats to set the business apart from the competition and ensure continued success. Here are three significant benefits of outsourcing core tasks.
1. Reduced Costs
Seventy percent of businesses that outsource core tasks do so to save money. Every business wants to grow and succeed, but this comes with significant expenses. Outsourcing work to a third party reduces the number of full-time employees you need to hire for your staff, which saves you money in several ways.
Paying a contract worker per project is more affordable than paying a full-time salary. Using a freelancer saves you visible and hidden onboarding costs, which on average totals $4,425 per employee.
You don’t have to pay the expense of expanding office space to accommodate more people, yet the tasks are still completed. You also save money by not paying for healthcare and other benefits that salaried workers receive. Outsourcing enables you to get the work done at a fraction of the cost.
2. Access to More Talent
You’re not limited to just the people who apply for the job when outsourcing your work. With more than 59 million freelancers in the United States, outsourcing grants you access to various expertise, levels of experience, and skills and training. You can hand-pick the people who best meet your needs for each core task.
Assigning a project to someone with experience in that specialized duty means the job will be done efficiently and expertly. What might have taken your multi-tasking staff member weeks to complete could be concluded in days.
Outsourcing eliminates the physical restraints of hiring locally and grants you access to top talent worldwide. With so many qualified people who possess a variety of backgrounds and skillsets, you have more options available for quality work.
3. Increased Productivity
Most employees perform multiple job duties, switching from one task to another throughout their workday. Unfortunately, this kind of multi-tasking doesn’t actually boost efficiency. Not only does it increase stress levels, but multi-tasking is also distracting and actually impairs brain function, decreasing efficiency and hindering productivity.
By outsourcing work to someone outside of the company, you lighten the workload for your employees so they can dedicate more focus to individual tasks. Giving undivided attention to projects increases efficiency for task completion, enabling employees to tackle the next project that much sooner. Additionally, if you outsource to an international company in a different time zone, they can be working while your team is sleeping, doubling your productivity and completing more projects in less time.
The following video explains this in more detail while providing further insight into the disadvantages and advantages of outsourcing your core tasks:
Outsource Your Tasks to a Trusted Communications Company
BOOM Communications provides tailored printing, marketing, and advertising solutions to help grow your business.
Contact BOOM Communications today and see how we can help alleviate your workload and increase overall productivity.