A few weeks ago, a colleague asked me what roles are best to keep in-house.

Which gave me the chance to think about which roles are ideal for outsourcing.

Although it differs from company to company and industry to industry, a few guidelines exist for determining which roles can be outsourced—and which ones are best not to.

Think about the level of interaction with other teams

• Does the position require frequent communication with a variety of teams and colleagues?
• Can the communication be done easily by email or phone?
• Or do results improve with face-to-face contact?

If it’s a role that’s embedded in the daily operations and people of your company, the position may not be best to outsource.

Consider the specific duties

Can the tasks of this position be completed remotely?

Imagine if a person in the role worked from home every day, and never came into the office.

Would they be able to perform successfully? Or would there be a large gap?

If you can’t envision an employee always working from home in this role, then outsourcing won’t be a viable option either.

Is the position relevant to the core competencies of your organisation?

Moving a core function of your company offshore allows for a larger chance of miscommunication or misstep in a vital area of your business.

Before outsourcing a role, consider what would happen if something went wrong with that function or project.

Would it disrupt your entire business? Would it impact customers right away?

If the answer to either of these questions is yes, avoid outsourcing those particular positions.

On the other hand, if a mistake in that area would not make an immediate or significant impact on your business and customers, it gets a green light to outsource (think: copywriter or graphic design artist).

Increase in outsourcing

 “More small businesses are outsourcing tasks these days because technology has advanced to the point of professionals being able to work from anywhere in the world, coupled with the availability and accessibility of extremely qualified professionals,” shares Laura Lee Sparks in a recent Entrepreneur article.

We’ll likely see outsourcing and offshoring continue to rise.

Frequently outsourced roles

While each company finds what works best for them, here are commonly outsourced roles:

• Sales support, such as those who manage CRM records, set up appointments, and follow up on appointments
• Data entry and management
• Transcriptionists
• Digital marketing, inclusive of content development and social media strategies and execution
• HR consultants
• Graphic design (i.e. logo design, web graphics, brochures)
• Accounting, including customer bills, payroll, forecasting, and cash flow reporting
• Web development and programming
• Photo and video editing
• Manufacturing
• PR directors
• And many more

As Nancy Mann Jackson of Entrepreneur explains, “Taking the first steps toward outsourcing can be time-consuming, but figuring out how to build your business with help from outside professionals can offer increased efficiencies and economies of scale.”

When to outsource

The right time to outsource is different for every company.

Some businesses use outsourcing to take on new projects, especially when the work doesn’t warrant another full-time employee.

Any questions?

If you have questions on this topic or any others, feel free to reach me by email or set up a free one-on-one consultation session, or drop me a comment below.
Thanks for sharing!