Outsource vs In-house hires. How to get the right people for your business development

1. Pros of getting freelancers
2. Cons of getting freelancers
3. Pros of hiring in house
4. Cons of hiring in house

The working habits have changed from the old 9-5 day. With the technology available today the workplace has become more flexible and companies that have adapted to these changes have a distinct advantage. Consequently if your business needs expertise but lacks the resources you will probably consider hiring a freelancer.

There are several reasons why this would be advantages for your business:

• Freelancers based at home incurs less overheads and as a result can pass on the savings in the form of more affordable rates. Being self employed, they cover their own health care and taxes.
• Freelancers by nature like to work their own hours so are more flexible. They can be taking care of your blogs, social media and managing your website while you are attending meetings or have finished for the day.
• Rather than having the expense of a full time employee, you could use a freelancer on a need to basis, thus cutting your operating costs.
• Training new staff can be time consuming and costly, however using a specialist freelancer means they already have the knowledge and are keen to deliver a professional service. After all thats what they are paid for.
• If your business needs a special task to be done but you don’t have that skill you can hire a freelancer who has that expertise and can be hired just for that one task.
• Many people are now leaving their full time jobs to become freelancers, giving them more time.

There are also disadvantages to hiring freelancers:

• Clients can lack the right skills to interview freelancers, especially developers. They can provide samples but often than not they are faked. Choosing the right freelancer can be difficult, so finding one that gives a sample which is similar to your task and is backed up with supporting evidence you have a good chance that they can be trusted.
• Freelancers can be based anywhere in the world, so there little opportunities to have personal contact with the freelancer so there is only professional communication
• If a clients site goes down, they cannot phone the freelancer, at the same time, you may not be able to communicate with them due to time differences.
• Freelancers can be disloyal and disappear and there is little the client can do, So as a freelancer  it is an advantage to be available and dependable.
• Freelancers by nature tend to work solo so there tends to be no or little team spirit.

There are companies that are known as In-House businesses as they don’t use freelancers and all their employees work within the company. There are advantages and disadvantages to this, so lets explore both points of view.

Advantages

1. If the companies employees have to be trained for a particular task it is easier to bring the trainer to the company where they can train within the companies guidelines and training can be carried out in familiar conditions. This can be a good cost saving exercise.
2. By bringing the trainer to the company can reduce expenditure considerably, as only one person has to be accommodated, not all the trainees.
3. It avoids inconvenience in the work place and the workers can adjust their working times around the training without interfering with the working practices
4. Employees from different departments may attend training which will encourage team building and strengthen the team spirit and build trust between management and employees.
5. Employees from different areas of the company will come together and develop new ideas which will benefit the company.

Disadvantages

1. Although its advantages to bring in a trainer, extra costs will be incurred in the form of costs for the training room, projectors and handouts, so extra administration costs will be incurred.
2. Training to some employees is boring and unnecessary resulting in a lack of commitment and subsequently miss some of the sessions.
3. Training in house means that the employees will not get the opportunity to engage with employees from other companies, as a result they will be stifled from getting new ideas so their knowledge will be one dimensional and limited.
4. The timetable for training may not be convenient for all departments which may mean working extra hours which may not be agreeable to some employees, so won’t attend the training.
5. Training for some employees may not be relevant, as they may be transferred to another department after the training which they will not be happy with.

Whatever your preference on any of these options, once weighed up, will depend on your skill set and your budgets. At least there are options, so which one will suit your business?