“When is it time to Outsource Human Resources?”
Whether you have just a few employees, or thousands, your employees are your greatest asset. They represent a significant investment of your dollars, resources, and time. When they are happy, healthy, and qualified to do their work, they make your investment in them worthwhile. Whether you choose to hire or outsource - it's important to make sure that the people responsible for your employees are qualified and experienced so you get the best possible return. Unfortunately, there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to whether your needs are best met by hiring our outsourcing.
OUTSOURCING TO AN HR FIRM: Can be a simple way to reduce your internal burden quickly and trust that your needs are handled professionally, timely and accurately. Most HR firms are going to include a team of people - so you get a vast wealth of experience and qualifications for a fraction of the cost of assembling a similar team in house. In most cases, you can utilize them as much or as little as you need to. Many firms offer a variety of services - so you can scale up or down and use as many or as few of their services as you need.
BEST OF BOTH... COMBINE IN-HOUSE WITH OUTSOURCING.
Sometimes the best choice for a company is to combine in-house resources with outsourced professionals. Your in-house talent might be an office manager, or even a small staff of HR professionals. They can handle some of the general in-house responsibilities that are best done internally, and then offload the tasks to the outsourced professionals that are best handled by them. Some of the tasks that are most commonly outsourced to an external HR team are:
Payroll, Benefits Administration, Wellness Benefits, Employee Recruitment, Training, Compliance Recordkeeping, Development of Employee Handbooks & other documentation.
SO... WHAT IS "NORMAL"? The general rule of thumb is that you need at least one HR professional for each 100 employees. Your company is unique, so you really do need to evaluate your needs, resources, budget, and experience level and make the best decision for you... but there are some general guidelines that most companies fall into. Companies under about 50 employees tend to outsource almost all of their HR tasks. Over 100 employees, they tend to have at least one generalized HR person in-house and outsource more specialized duties. With several hundred employees, companies will have a generalized HR person, and one or two specialized people in-house, and will outsource other specialized responsibilities as well as use outsourced talent to "fill in the gaps" when they need extra man-power.
Whatever your needs, if you find that you or someone on your staff is getting overwhelmed with managing your team to the point that it's interfering with them being able to do their job correctly and in a timely fashion, then it's time look at getting some help. If you are considering outsourcing, EBS Consulting can help!