Hire or Outsource - Which Is Better For Your IT Business?

Hiring employees or outsourcing a section of your responsibilities seem to have as many supporters as opponents, mainly because both solutions have their advantages and disadvantages. When you feel it's time for your small business to expand, or you're simply unable to deal with the workload, it's a good idea to start looking for additional assistance. To make you task easier and help you choose between outsourcing your responsibilities or hiring professionals for in-house jobs, we have combined the top pros and cons of both solutions.

If you're ready to hire some new employees, here are some things you should know before screening the local market for valuable candidates.

The most significant advantage of hiring is that you can choose the new employees yourself and then you'll have full control over their work. You'll be able not only to regularly supervise them, but make sure that the quality of service and pace of work are top-notch.

Having a full-time employee has other perks too - each task will be completed by a person that operates according to a routine schedule, so you'll have a clear idea about when to expect some results. Related to this is a sense of trust you can place on your employees - creating a strong team reduces the risk of random people dealing with sensitive data or important company information.

Having the same people there all the time has its disadvantages too. One of the biggest ones is the fact that at some point you might see routine and boredom creeping into the office, limiting the room for creativity and flexibility.

Then there are the financial issues that need to be considered. Hiring new personnel sometimes simply proves too costly - monthly salaries for full-time employees will surely impact your company’s budget.

Your industry is constantly changing and so should your practice and workforce. Unfortunately, this is hard to achieve when hiring full-time employees, unless you're prepared to invest a lot in their training. Otherwise, outsourcing provides just the right option for benefiting from the experiences of industry experts who are always up to date with recent developments.

If the perspective of hiring makes your knees go weak, you can benefit from external resources - but that depends mainly on which area you'd like to cover.

Outsourcing gained its popularity mainly due to one reason - it's cheap. You can pay only for the exact job done each time, instead of providing full salaries every month. You'll also have the guarantee of expertise - each task will be performed by someone who knows very well what they're doing and that's something you can just gain on.

If you choose to outsource, you'll avoid all those distractions that come with launching and completing a hiring process. You'll be able to focus on your main duties and keep a defined process of project development at your company.

Like everything, outsourcing has its disadvantages. Its main risk is related to the fact that if an external agent commits an error, you're the one that has to pay for it. The accountability is always on your part.

The other problem is the level of uncertainty involved in outsourcing your key tasks. You won't get a chance to get to know the worker as well as you normally would. Even if their credentials say otherwise, they might still be unprofessional, unreliable or simply lack the necessary experience to do the job.

Finally, there's the issue of unavailability. The fact remains, good service providers tend to be busy and you might not be able to find skilled freelances just when you need them.

The summary sketched above should help you in choosing between the solutions. Whether you decide to rely on the power of outside resources or opt for some full-time in-house employees, you should remember that combining the two is possible and might prove effective in certain circumstances. It's your job to make the right choice on the basis of your requirements - once you find an optimal solution well, you can just sit back and watch your business blossom.