Have you ever thought about how brands are leading and handling everything without a proper office setup or big teams? Well, that isn’t magic—it’s outsourcing! Almost all businesses have an outsourcing tool, which is behind the mirror of their brands.

So, outsourcing is a process that many small and large businesses have acquired recently. This process’s contribution to work and growth is obvious, accurate, and efficient. It’s similar to employing someone more productive and less expensive. After that, let them take care of your work while you concentrate on other projects that require your attention.

What is outsourcing?

In short, the Outsourcing definition stands for the practice of employing a person who works remotely for your company for a fixed number of hours. Outsourcing is a third-party agency or freelancer who isn’t a part of or involved in any of the company matters; instead, it is the person hired on a fixed project basis. For instance, you hire a UI/UX designer for one small job, which he delivers within 24 hours at $100. That’s it! No hassle, no overcosts, no management tools or support system involved—outsource now!

Outsourcing has changed the traditional methods of hiring people who work 8 to 10 hours a day, finishing their tasks while using office workspace and resources. Since the 1990s, many multinational brands have taken the outsourcing strategy, which has broadened the socio-economic interactions as well as their business goals. 

I think you must be at a point where you know how outsourcing works and how some random person can be trusted for crucial company matters.

Things to Know Before Outsourcing

Well, the process is smooth and simple; you, as an employer, need to set a goal or target to achieve before outsourcing it to someone. Here are the ways to consider outsourcing:

• The most important step is to find out a reliable person or company that has the understanding, expertise, and skill to deliver the stuff proficiently. Ensure proper interviews or one-on-one calls to discuss and instruct them to avoid any crossed wires!
• The next factor you must not neglect is setting up a fixed-price contract with them. This way, they will be meeting expectations and deadlines. 
• Now the tricky part: if your project deadline is one week, ask your freelancer or agency to do it within a five-day bracket. This way, you will have plenty of time to review and make changes to meet the standards.
• Give them any data access if required or any documented files they may need to work on. Afterwards, sit back and watch!

How to Track Performance? 

There comes the element of how to track performance and liability of work.

Well, many time-tracking apps are available that employers use to monitor the performance of hired individuals. Many online platforms, such as Fiverr, Upwork, or Guru, have this tracking feature built in, letting the clients visualize the freelancers’ performance. However, besides those, you may have any free or purchased software that operates amazingly as a time tracker. StaffWatcher is one of them, which gives you complete access to your remote staff and is a simple time tracker with screenshot capacity. Not only this, but Time Tracker offers timesheets, daily or hourly reports, add-on integrations, and a lot of other features. So, outsourcing became incredibly easy in the 20th century. 

Advantages of Outsourcing

• Outsourcing allows companies to stay focused by operating all the critical operations that increase revenues and resources. 
• Companies choose to outsource to cut labor costs, such as salaries, bills, workspaces, technology, equipment, etc.
• Outsourcing projects enables them to bring innovation by infusing technology, fresh knowledge, and skills. This is a big plus that increases the likelihood that you will attract more clients to your board. 
• This process helps you go beyond the borders to hire people from countries with cheap labor costs. Thus, you may give them an edge to earn more than in their own country while getting highly exceptional work done. 
• Call centers, IT services, logistics, and many other operational management tasks are now run by eliminating the need for in-house personnel. 

Disadvantages of Outsourcing

But wait, folks!

Like many advantages, outsourcing does have some negative aspects; I mean “oops” moments. Such as you may experience delays or compromised work if, by chance, you didn’t hire the right person. This incompetence may affect your business approach and goals. So, quality cuts the clients!

Secondly, hiring a person from some random region who isn’t familiar with your time zone or language will create communication woes, so watch out!

Outsourcing may also let freelancers access your data, which is one of the biggest risk factors. Also, outsourcing brings two parties to the table, but you, as an employer, may not have control over your remote worker. Until you establish some guidelines for time tracking or monitoring software that the person has accepted!

What do businesspeople say about outsourcing?

Amazingly, the stats are rapidly changing when people are outsourcing. Well, global outsourcing will hit $525 billion by the year 2030, and that’s big. Outsourcing is not slowing down, as IT outsourcing is expected to be 92% of G2000. This information is sourced from the statistics bureau. Approximately 68% of U.S. businesses have fundamental outsourcing operations, and that’s immense!

So this is what businesspeople are driven into; they are transitioning their small companies to more objective and potential ones. There are numerous surveys that showcase outsourcing as the emerging solution for businesses. Presently, the Philippines, Poland, India, Brazil, Mexico, and Ukraine are the top six countries that are outsourcing!

Examples of Outsourcing

Here are some examples of businesses that use outsourcing strategies:

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Slack, Nike, Alibaba, WhatsApp, Accenture, IBM, Spotify, Amazon, etc. The list is so big that I can’t put all of them here.

They hire people to design, manufacture, engineer, produce, or manage HR to finance. That counts as everything to run businesses! They do so to save money, get expertise, save time, reduce workloads, manage stress, and scale fast! Yup, that’s the reason you must opt for outsourcing.

Alright, you must be wondering if you can use outsourcing in your business. Well, if you have

1. IT Solutions: Development of websites, application creation, cybersecurity, maintenance and technical support, and IT software
2. Legal Law Firm Outsourcing: For legal documentations, compliance, FDA approvals, insignificant court dealings, or discussing matters with legal services.
3. Sales and Marketing: Newsletter, content writing, web development, UI/UX web design, assistant, influencers, market surveyors, bloggers, and social media handlers.
4. Call centres: General inquiries, Product/service information, Order tracking, Complaint handling, Technical Support, Software installation support, Billing & Payment Support, Sales Support & Telemarketing, Back-Office Support, Multichannel Customer Service, desk, etc.
5. Logistics: Warehouse, storage, customer services, transportation, Order fulfillment, customs brokerage & compliance, and supply chain analytics & visibility.
6. Accounting/HR: bookkeeping, Payroll Processing, Accounts Payable/Receivable, Tax Preparation & Filing, financial reporting, etc.
7. Manufacturing/Operational Services: Manufacturing services, product assembly, component manufacturing, contract manufacturing, packaging, quality control & Inspection, PCB fabrication, labeling & barcoding, supply chain management, IT operations, inventory management, health & safety compliance, etc.

Conclusion:

Outsourcing has taken the place of In-house work environments and is no longer a mystery, for sure. Small or large businesses are considering outsourcing to broaden their vision and achieve their goals. They remain focused and devoted to offering opportunities to people across the border. This is the time when you don’t need to do every task yourself; you can hire freelancers or agencies to fulfill your projects. The IT industry has the highest set markup for outsourcing. So, in short, this is a smart, efficient, and less drowning way to boost your productivity. Moreover, this way has a plus when using employee monitoring apps that are designed to monitor projects, the workforce, and notify them about any updates. These are highly efficient and productive methodologies that experts are using.