Outsource or In House?
Outsource or In House?
It’s good to be king, isn’t it? Running your own company, making all the big choices, and reaping the rewards of them, it’s all a dream come true. Well, at least it would be if not for the fact the rewards come with responsibilities as well. You may be the big boss of the company, but that doesn’t make you are the most important or most powerful part of it. Unless you are running a one man show, your employees are the most important part of the company. In a way, they are even more important than the customers. Well it’s true that customers are where the money to run the company comes from, it is the employees who make the product or service available to the customers.
It’s also the right amount of employees that keep a company going smoothly. If you hire too few employees, you may not have enough productivity to keep up with customer demand. Hire too many employees, and you may have too much productivity and not enough sales to keep up with wages. You also have to balance the amount you pay your employees so you don’t lose money while also paying them their worth. It is a lot to balance when you are running a company. When you want to feel accomplished though, you have to go through some trials.
Luckily you don’t have to figure all of these numbers out yourself. That could take too much time away from performing the other responsibilities of being a business owner. Better yet, you don’t even have the handle the source of these numbers yourself. Instead, you can hire someone in house to help you, or outsource the responsibilities to a payroll company like Vision H.R. Which is the better method of handling responsibilities such as payroll and human resource management? Let’s break the two down and take a closer look at them.
In House: The great part about having someone in-house is that they are right there when you need them. If you have a question about the payroll, you can just take a quick walk and there they are. At least, they are right there except when they are not. What we mean by that is since an in-house person is an employee, they are owed days off, lunch breaks, holidays, sick days, etc and so on. Any questions you had for them will just have to wait. On top of that, payroll is not always a constant job. For a smaller company it could be something handled mainly at the end of the week, and periodically in the middle of the week. So you need to find someone who can do dual roles, which will take their full focus off of things like payroll and human resource management, or just have them come in for less days.
There is also the rarity of the proper training for payroll and human resource management. If you put out an ad for either, you will have a smaller bucket to choose from than a general labor position. You can always train someone to fulfill the roles, but that is more time and money being spent. Not to mention that learning usually involves trial and error. While trial and error is fine with a hobby, it can cost you when it’s done with payroll.
Outsourcing: When you outsource either your payroll department, human resource department, or both, you don’t get someone just down the hall to talk to like with in-house. You do, however, get someone you can contact at any time with questions about payroll and human resource management. You also don’t have the issue of time off, or when to have them work. When you outsource payroll and H.R. you get a team working for you instead of an individual. This way, even if half the team is on vacation, your payroll is still being covered by the other half. As long as you don’t try and get payroll advice in the middle of a hurricane, someone should be there to help you out during business hours. Even if you don’t contact them for help, you will still get regular reports on your payroll. Having a company like Vision H.R. handle these responsibilities also comes with the bonus of options. They can connect you to insurance providers to create employee bonuses.
The rarity issue is also removed since you are not hiring anyone for the job. The company you are hiring has already handled that part. You just have to reap the benefits of having them handle the payroll for your company. You also don’t have to worry about that employee’s performance, or replacing them if they leave. You can’t just payroll go empty because the person quit, or you might find a lot more people starting to quit as well.
Do It Yourself: There is the third option of course, of doing it yourself. Technically this would count as in-house, but without hiring someone to do it for you. For a new company doing your own payroll may be the easiest answer. You don’t have to worry about that many employees and their paychecks. Benefits and things of that nature usually don’t start until later anyways. The problem with doing it yourself, however, is not right now, it’s tomorrow. As your company grows, you will have more responsibilities and possibly more employees. When tax time comes, you will have to handle all parts of that, including the employee’s taxes and your own taxes. You will need a way to stay current with changes in payroll and taxes as well. Can you handle growing your company and keeping it’s employee’s paid on time?
The success of any company is looking at what tomorrow might bring. Ty Beanie Babies was an unstoppable force in the 90s, but as soon as their beanie babies lost their trend status it went downhill fast. People who invested thousands into them ended up with barely any of that worth left. Is that going to happen to your company? If you don’t stay on top of the ever-shifting market it just might. So don’t spread your attention too wide by taking on too many responsibilities. Let someone else handle departments like payroll and human resource management. Apple explores new features and upgrades for their iPhones and iPads constantly. They have been one of the top mobile suppliers since the iPhone came out in 2007 and don’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. They couldn’t do that if they were too busy focusing on internal departments instead of inventing the next big product.
Which is Best for You?: We have explained why doing it yourself is not a great idea, but what about in-house vs outsourcing? Both have their strong points, but which is really the best choice in the long run? Like we said with doing it yourself, your company is going to grow. Is the person running your payroll now going to be capable of keeping up with it all, or will you have to hire more people? What if you branch out with new store locations? There are a lot of questions to consider. This is why outsourcing is such a popular trend in the business world. You can grow your company without worrying about payroll being taken care of. If your company grows significantly, the outsource company can handle it. They can also handle multiple store locations instead of having different employees at each location perform the duties required. They adapt to your needs as the company grows and can be seen as a part of the team instead of an outside company.
So if you are ready to try outsourcing your payroll and human resource management, contact Vision H.R. today and get a free quote!
