As someone who works within an outsourced role, I’m obviously a huge advocate for remote working conditions and outsourcing specific roles within your business. However, I think there are times when an in-house role could work just as well (if not better).
My personal views on when an outsourced person usually works best:
- When the capacity need within your business, does not equate to a full-time role.
- The job can be done from a remote position, during flexible hours (not necessarily within office hours).
- Your current in-house team are at full capacity, with some overlap on certain tasks which need completing.
- The area in which you require extra capacity is a specialist area, which an outsourced firm may have more experience in.
- The role does not require day-to-day contact with the internal team.
Aside from the above, the obvious situation where an in-house person works best is when the role needs to be office based (i.e., greeting clients in the office).
Before thinking about making a new hire (outsourced or in-house), I would always look at your existing team and ensure that the current workload split is fair, works well and is playing to everybody’s strengths. If you have a Paraplanner still doing basic admin tasks, it’ll be clear to see that administration is the capacity gap. Ensuring you have the right people, in the right seats, doing the right type of work will help massively to establish any capacity gaps within your business.
No matter which decision you make, always ensure that the culture fit feels right and take stock after a period of time (usually 3 months) to ensure you are both happy with how things are working.
Would love to hear your thoughts.
By Lucy Byrom