3 minute read
HR Outsourcing 101
Whether you have an in-house HR team that’s wrestling with an increased workload, or you own a small business that doesn’t yet have a formal HR function, outsourcing introduces a high degree of flexibility for your organization. Some of the key benefits of outsourcing include:
• Improved Scalability – As your business demands evolve, you may need access to HR resources on an episodic basis.
Common scenarios include benefits administration support during open enrollment, recruiting and onboarding services during periods of high growth, periodic salary surveys to ensure you’re paying market competitive rates, and other similar scenarios. Such activities might overload your existing team or require expertise you don’t have in-house but bringing on full-time employees to meet these needs would be impractical.
Outsourcing provides the support you need “on demand.”
• Decreased costs – As with many outsourced functions, leveraging an HRO to support your personnel needs can yield significant cost savings . . . both today and tomorrow. There’s the immediate return of providing valuable services to your business without incurring the time and expense typically associated with recruiting, hiring, training, and managing a new employee.
However, there are also longer-term cost improvements that an HRO relationship will bring to the table. Avoiding fines and penalties due to non-compliance, eliminating reputational risk to your brand associated with violating policies, improved employee retention by helping workers to better understand benefits options and the total rewards they’re receiving, and dozens of other examples . . . they all represent long-term impacts of finding and retaining an HRO partner that acts as a true extension of your team.
• Standardized processes – One of the most common HR challenges growing organizations face is driving “people processes” standardization across the business . . . particularly if your workforce is spread across multiple locations.
Ensuring different managers are treating employees in a consistent fashion, providing a central resource for all employees – manager and worker alike – can access content that addresses the lion’s share of operational considerations and policies, even delivering access to a standard set of forms and work flows, all help to improve the overall employee experience. Starting this from scratch is timeconsuming and typically involves some level of trial and error but working with an
HRO organization can accelerate the entire process.
• Reduced risk – For most employers, compliance has become an incredibly challenging issue. This is due largely to the fact that, from an HR perspective, there are multiple layers of regulations and policies to navigate. Take employee absence and leave, for example. There are federal laws impacting all employers operating within the United States, most notably the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). However, there’s also a constellation of state-specific absence and leave policies – 300+ and counting – that offer provisions not covered by FMLA or are more generous than what FMLA provides. Further, there are now some cities that are creating policies for businesses within their borders. This is just one example of the complexities that come into play. HRO organizations, however, are intimately aware of the policies and practices impacting the communities they serve and can help to ensure you’re addressing regulatory issues in a consistent, focused, and respectable fashion.
• Diversified skills – Given the turbulent nature of 2020, I think we’re all actively aware of the rapid changes that could impact our business. During the height of the pandemic, for example, HRO Partners began fielding questions about employee engagement, change management, and other similar services. When such circumstances arise, you need access to individuals who are skilled in addressing these issues, have access to additional resources, and can ultimately drive the fastest path to resolution.
About us: At HRO Partners, we’ve been serving the small – and mid-sized business community since our inception and we continue to deliver new products and services, each aimed at enhancing your value to the clients and employees they support. With more than 150 businesses, serving over 50,000 employees, and nearly $300 million in enrollment savings to-date, our experience and our track record is second to none. And now, we deliver access to an always available, constantly updated, online platform designed to provide expert advice “on demand.”
