The future of HR: Outsourcing redefined

For successful HR management, it takes a village. HR professionals may need some help to meet the needs of their organisations successfully and keep the HR machine running. Otherwise, they may face gaps in their HR process, a struggle to retain talent, increased legal risks and more. A well-oiled HR function leads to many benefits, including improved company culture, regulatory compliance and an increase in top-quality hires.

The role of HR has become more extensive with more responsibilities. This requires a broader skillset, a deeper level of expertise and the expectation that HR professionals must do it all at a high level while expanding or contracting around the company’s needs.

But HR is an uneven role, with aspects including recruiting, investigations, unexpected performance management needs, employee relations issues, illnesses, benefits enrolment, performance reviews and compensation all disrupting the otherwise steady HR schedule during the year.

An effective way companies can be successful despite these wide-ranging responsibilities and distractions is by partnering with a third-party HR consulting practice. Many companies hire targeted support for special areas or peak areas that are busy during certain times of the year. When you think of outsourcing, you may be picturing inexpensive offshore support. But there is another version of HR consulting and outsourcing that can help your business.

What is HR outsourcing?

Outsourcing in 2023 refers to enlisting experts to handle targeted HR-related responsibilities, partnering with the current HR team. However, high-quality outsourcing is more about specialised consulting and fractional HR services. Targeted, expert consulting provides advice and guidance instead of executing the work but can have just as many benefits.

Outsourcing offers numerous benefits, including cost savings, increased efficiency, access to specialised skills and talent and improved productivity. To be successful managing the HR function for your company, going it alone will not deliver success for your internal customer base (from C-level suite down to the staff).

With more remote employees and fewer offices, it’s become easier to deliver HR services via remote/offsite subject matter experts. It’s less likely staff will simply walk down the hall and see the HR manager nowadays, with more and more HR-related communication coming via video-conferencing technology.

The HR role has become more time consuming, requiring different skillsets and more expertise. So, if you want to do it right, you need help. The skillset that outsourced HR support resources provide should be comparable to what you would otherwise hire full time, with the same expectations for their skills. Furthermore, it’s crucial to find experts who enhance the current HR practice and can work at the pace of the employer rather than dragging it down. Partnering with subject matter experts to fill gaps and support workload fluctuations can be more financially practical than adding to your headcount.

The future of HR outsourcing

HR has always been the perfect area to consider outsourcing at an expert level, but that need has exponentially increased. According to HR Magazine, there’s been a 41 per cent increase in outsourcing services since before the start of the pandemic, including outsourced HR. It’s one of the areas expected to see a significant rise in investment in 2023 and beyond.

The role of HR pre-March 2020 was also different than it is now regarding the projects HR professionals are spending their time on. Going forward, we’ll see more emphasis on managing illness in the workplace in a different way. Coming into the office while sick is no longer considered a demonstration of dedication to your job – it’s dangerous and irresponsible.

What it means to manage remote workforces is also changing, including performance management and compliance issues with different locations. If you have employees in multiple countries, you may not be familiar with the laws and regulations in each one, and it can be difficult to keep track of them all. You must also ensure that all your employees have the same professional development opportunities, whether they work onsite or remotely. As such, it is critical not to let “out of sight, out of mind” cause remote work bias. Instead, bring in a third party to help with the performance management of these teams.

We are also seeing extended time to hire now due to the decreased number of qualified candidates in the talent pool. HR professionals are proactively reaching out to candidates instead of simply posting job ads and waiting, so it’s doubling the amount of time HR spends on recruiting. They must also change their focus to hiring for core skills and competencies instead of trying to find a candidate that checks every box in the job description. This can take more time and put a strain on your HR manager, especially if your team is not trained in hiring for core skills. Consider outsourcing to recruiting professionals who can help attract quality talent and fill your open positions.

When it comes to outsourcing HR services, you can have your cake and eat it, too. At certain times throughout the year, organisations can easily justify hiring more people for their HR department to address all the different needs that ebb and flow, but you don’t need to hire at all if you partner with the right HR consulting practice. These days, compliance regulations have increased, remote working is more common, and the challenges for finding and attracting talent have changed. Expert HR consulting support with a strong skillset and a finger on the pulse of today’s HR trends can help you meet all the needs of your business.

To learn more about HR outsourcing and how it can help your organisation, visit operationsinc.com.

by David Lewis, CEO of OperationsInc