Considering outsourcing your HR? Take a look at this before you decide.

We all know that issues with staff can be incredibly time-consuming and these non-income-generating activities, although important, can become a significant cause of frustration. You will have had those days when you wish you could wave your magic wand and make all of it go away, in comes your fairy godmother in the guise of your outsourced HR Provider, allowing you to focus on your core business.

There are many reasons to consider outsourcing HR, not only to relieve you of your “people headaches” but also, generally speaking, the top three reasons cited for outsourcing HR are access to skills and knowledge, gaining better quality support than the business is able to be offer in-house and the costs saved.

By concentrating on engaging your team in a positive way, you will avoid challenges such as high employee turnover, low morale or ineffective teamwork. An effective HR support will help you to have employees who are productive, enthusiastic and effective, enabling you to maintain an edge in a highly competitive environment.

So, when determining whether or not to take the plunge and outsource your HR, consider the following:

  • Size of Business – Commonly, those businesses with less than 50 people don’t have a separate HR department. This usually falls to the Finance Director, Office Manager or PA, or our HR Heroes as we affectionately call them.  Those champions who didn’t move out of the way quickly enough when HR responsibilities were dished out and they have HR tagged onto their day jobs, without necessarily having the knowledge or experience to confidently navigate the day to day HR challenges that arise.

These HR Heroes may benefit from more hands-on support and development of an outsourced HR provider, helping to build their confidence and capability and take some of the strain when time and fulfilling their day job is against them. For those businesses with more than 50 employees, who may have an HR function, outsourcing HR may still be attractive, particularly for larger, more time-critical projects or simply by providing reassurance and a sounding board for more experienced HR team members.

  • Cost Vs Need – It is important to establish what type of support you want and need, based on the resource and capability already within the business and the objectives of the business. If you are looking to grow exponentially, looking for investment or working towards a management buy out (for example), investing in experienced outsourced HR providers in the short term, will undoubtedly make that journey more manageable and achievable. Also, consider the budget available for your HR support, as the level of service and the manner in which it is delivered will largely determine the cost. If you need a more hands-on approach, whereby your outsourced HR provider is an integrated member of the team, managing all facets of HR within your business, this will obviously come at a higher cost than to access an Online Platform that provides you with all of the documents you need to manage your HR Activities yourself, allowing you access to face to face or remote support as and when you need them.

A word of caution, when getting your quotes, ensure you are comparing apples with apples, as there are many varieties of products and services on offer and sometimes the cheapest solution, will end up the most costly in the long run.

So now you have a better idea as to whether or not outsourcing HR is for you, consider these areas when choosing which provider to work with:

  • Fit – does your HR partner understand the culture of your organisation, do they share your values and are they able to demonstrate that in their own business? Are you able to establish an easy rapport with them and how would they interact with the different members of your team? Whilst they would be external support, their ability to engage the team, as well as earn the trust and respect of the senior management team is absolutely essential.
  • Approach – Do they truly understand your business, its ambitions and are they clear on how they can contribute to the achievement of the business goals? Are they adaptable to the needs of the business?  Can they flex delivery in order to meet the needs of the business? The true value of HR is in creating and delivering an HR strategy that is aligned to the Vision and objectives of the business. All too often HR activities are routinely carried out with little thought of purpose and outcomes. If you can’t measure it, how can you improve it?  HR is not about red tape and creating policy after policy, telling managers what they can’t do, HR is about enabling, facilitating, building capability, delivering results, impacting the bottom line
  • Expertise – There are many facets of HR from strategic HR, employee relations, reward and recognition, learning and development, the list goes on! The beauty of working with the right HR provider will enable you to make full use of a wide variety of skills and experience at both strategic and operational levels, without you having to carry the cost of a fully integrated HR department. Ensuring that the outsourced HR provider has the capacity and resource to meet your needs when you need them is imperative – holidays and other absences should not affect continuity and quality of service.

Here at MAD-HR we offer flexible, pragmatic, commercial HR solutions for all shapes and sizes of business. Our friendly team has experience at all levels of HR from Board level, through to operational HR support. If you would like a chat to find out which of our solutions are best for you, please call us today.

Chelmsford 01245 410201   |   Ipswich 01473 360160   |   Norwich 01603 791256