The 7 Benefits of Outsourcing

Increasingly, the best way now to grow your business is by looking outside the organisation and engaging a professional provider of a service who has experience and skills which exceed your own, but which are only needed for a short period. In other words - outsourcing occasional essential tasks to an expert to save you time and money.

Although it may seem sensible to create or expand an in-house team,?outsourcing some kinds of work can be a valuable strategic move, in particular at the moment as more and more companies encounter labour shortfalls, gaps in their talent requirements, weakened management structures and escalating costs across the range of their business activities.

"Outsourcing is a cost-effective option when your business needs to scale up market share, staffing, and production rapidly". There are many advantages to outsourcing your recruitment and talent acquisition needs, which, when done professionally, will yield immediate and long-term benefits both in terms of filling vacancies with the correct calibre of candidate promptly, and in your future staff retention levels (and consequently higher productivity and performance).

So, let's look at the 7 most valuable benefits of outsourcing your recruitment to a provider of professional Executive Search...

1. A Reduction in Costs:

The number-one most significant cost for a business is their "workforce". On the one hand, salaries are consistently rising, but the salary component itself does not take into account the total cost of compensation (or the CTC - the "Cost to Company"). Onboarding, induction and training, health cover, travel expenses, other employment benefits like commissions, bonuses and incentives, infrastructure, technology, and equipment costs all need to be apportioned and included when calculating the actual cost of employing somebody. Then there are staff events, seminars and even uniforms, canteen or staff food allowances, holiday, maternity and sick leave. These and other financial outlays all add up to a figure that far exceeds merely the salary component.

However, outsourcing can significantly reduce or eliminate many of these expenses. As an external provider, I don't require you give me a desk or any office space; I don’t receive any of your employee benefits; I don't need your computers, internet or food; and you don't cover any of my expenses for travel, health or holidays. I don't impose any financial pressures on you beyond a one-off, pre-agreed fee for the service I'm temporarily providing. Mine is therefore a capital cost as opposed to an ongoing one.

If you have a full-time executive vacancy, you should first approach a professional provider qualified in finding the perfect candidate for that vacancy. Outsourcing it will streamline the process and reduce your internal costs dramatically, and in turn free up money for other purposes in your business that otherwise would be earmarked for an unnecessarily inflated recruitment budget.

Outsourcing also allows you to access, through the Executive Search provider, a much, much bigger "pool" of talent than you can ordinarily tap into yourself without many years of investment into acquiring experience and nurturing expertise. In the vast majority of cases, companies simply don't have anyone internally that has a lifetime of executive search experience behind them.

2. An Improvement in Performance

By outsourcing to an Executive Search provider with the reach and expertise to find the talent you need presents you with the opportunity to access the best in the market and attract superior employees into your business: Candidates with the levels of experience needed for the role and with the appropriate mindset to match the culture of your organisation. They might bring, for example, many years of combined experience; they may provide unexpected expertise, and their presence can contribute to improved business practices or innovative business initiatives.

Not having to embed and train a "newbie" or induct somebody with insufficient experience represents a massive cost-saving when employing a new member of the workforce who does have the qualities you are seeking, especially at a senior or managerial level.

3. Growth within Budget

Outsourcing enables businesses to grow and expand without risking their budgets. In fact, it affords them greater flexibility and control over their budgets.

Bear in mind that not many companies require a permanent, full time "recruiter". HR Departments deal with new employees after the recruitment stage and very few have much exposure to, or experience in, the professional executive search process itself. And why should they? HR is a specialised and essential function of a business, whereas recruitment is very much a stand-alone procedure that complements, rather than includes, human resource activities. It is a sensible, cost efficient, and time effective solution whereby an external Executive Search provider works with the HR Department to achieve the desired outcome - the finding and successful placement of a perfect candidate.

Outsourcing to a cost-effective professional that specialises in Executive Search is generally preferable and cheaper (in the short, medium and long-terms) than either building your own in-house recruiter team or training and developing members of the HR Department to a degree that they can match the skills and experience of an external expert. The same, for example, would apply to a business with an ad hoc requirement for such things as legal representation, audit, decorating and building repairs, or a new internal IT system, etc.

By outsourcing these "occasional" requirements to professionals that specialise in them saves you time and money, and achieves a better outcome.

4. Focus on your Business

As a business, your emphasis is, and must be, on your company and its survival, growth and market competitiveness. You are an expert and professional in your chosen field and so your vision and your goal is naturally (and correctly) clearly focused on the development of your product or service. It should not be focused on administrative functions that can otherwise be delegated to others. Executive Search is one such essential area of your business that it pays to outsource. By outsourcing (or delegating) the function of recruitment to an external professional allows you to maintain the focus on your core business.

By contracting out time-consuming non-core areas of the company, you can concentrate on more meaningful work that will positively impact your business operations.

5. Instant Access to Local and Global Talent

In a particularly competitive market at the moment, highly qualified, skilled talent is harder than ever to locate and entice. Employees have more demands than in the past and are more acutely aware of their value. This presents a challenge to the employing company who cannot (nor ever really could) rely on finding the people they need by using job boards or posting the vacancy on social media and online networking groups, etc. Unless their reach, network and candidate databases are vast and they can afford to suspend their normal daily activities to spend three or four weeks doing nothing but search the global marketplace for a suitable candidate, they should instead outsource the task to somebody that does have a vast local and global network of potential candidates, who does not need to resort to ineffectual job boards and social media pages, and who specialises in identifying talented people matched to the vacancy you have.

"Scaling up right now is incredibly difficult, and outsourcing can play a critical role in filling this void..." Instead of struggling with doing it yourself, balancing your normal duties with an additional and complex one, and rather than losing weeks of valuable time that can be better invested elsewhere, by engaging a professional Executive Search specialist and outsourcing that vacancy, you can tap into a world of quality candidates and enjoy the benefits of having access to the talent you really need for your business.

Outsourcing helps you get there quicker, saves you money and relieves you of the stress and frustration of doing it yourself.

6. An Increase in Productivity

Outsourcing can help your HR Department remain on top form when their workloads are intense: When they're busy, Executive Search providers become even more important and appreciated. Most businesses go through seasonal busy periods when they struggle, or even fail, to keep up with demand. At these times, you rely on your workforce to prove their worth and "step up to the mark". The last thing you want to do is to divert your HR Department's attention from their regular functions and inflict further demands on them with a complicated recruitment campaign!

"There are [outsourcers] contractors or freelancers to handle just about every type of work. They can be brought in to pick up responsibilities outside the core scope of your work. For example, suppose your business is ramping up for a social media campaign: You can outsource this work rather than adding it to the plate of an already-busy communications team. This setup allows your own professionals to focus on their best work". In the same way, vacancies and essential positions that need filling in a timely and cost efficient way are done far more effectively by passing them to an external provider than by taking twice as long and expending twice as much money doing it internally.

Engaging with a professional outside of your company will cut your administration costs while reducing your reliance on the human resources department, which in turn allows them to carry on with their normal day-to-day function.

7. Outsourcers are Uniquely Motivated!

I'm motivated to keep you happy! Whilst all company employees should be motivated by, among the other benefits of having a job, receiving a guaranteed salary every month, external providers enjoy no such security. When whatever project or assignment an outsourcer is working on comes to an end, their purpose has been achieved. It is therefore not in the best interests of somebody like me to underperform or provide a mediocre service. I rely on referrals, testimonials, references and my reputation for being a professional and experienced provider of Executive Search. Accordingly, all my clients are assured of an attentive, thorough and efficient service at the end of which they have acquired the highest calibre of candidate.

Outsourcing your Executive Search requirements is an efficient way to run and grow your business. It’s not perfect for every situation, but there are many advantages to developing and, importantly, retaining your essential staff and management teams. Engaging the services of an external professional for a specific vacancy frees up time and enables you to manage the other challenges in your business whilst keeping your costs under control.?

DWR Executive and Expatriate Search - Ghana, Nigeria & West Africa?offers a bespoke, confidential and personalised service aimed at companies who take their recruitment needs seriously and understand the value of an outsourced provider of professional services.

As well as visiting the?DWR website, you might also want to check?Dominic's LinkedIn page?to connect and to review his background and business experience.?

Join the LinkedIn DWR Executive Page?and?Follow?for updates, news and vacancy posts. You can also find DWR on Facebook

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Ghana Tel: +233 (0) 202 800 466

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Previous DWR Newsletters -

An Introduction to Dominic Ryan and DWR

The Dynamic Relationship between Recruiter & Client

How Serious are Employers about Recruitment

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