During the pandemic, many organizations have opted for outsourcing to get their job done on time. It was quite a challenging period when they did not have access to too many resources. At that time, outsourcing seemed to be the right solution. However, there are also some companies who implement remote staffing as another option.
Most of you might have got confused and don’t even know about the difference between remote staffing vs outsourcing. Don’t worry! Not only you, but many professionals also consider both as the same thing. Let’s understand more about it.
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Difference Between Remote Staffing & Outsourcing-
From the word itself, you might have understood that remote staffing denotes the hired remote working employees. On the other hand, outsourcing means hiring other company services for a period of time to complete work on any selected tasks or projects.
As you can see, there is a blurred line between outsourcing and remote staffing. Especially when you have an extra workload in your schedule, outsourcing remote workers can be a quick solution. However, for long-term assurance, instead of contracting a few remote workers, why not just hire skilled employees.
It’s not like you have to find talent outside your team network. There might be a few people who are capable enough in handling such jobs. So in that reference, remote staffing seems like the right choice.
Remote Staffing vs Outsourcing Comparison-
Suppose you have a team full of skilled people who can finish all the tasks without external help or support from other services. Then that means you could save your expenses for paying the contracted remote workers for the same job. However, there can be situations when you can’t just rely on your team members as you need more helping hands. In such a case, it would be a tough decision for an employer whether to go with remote staffing or outsourcing.
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Remote staffing offers cost flexibility/ Outsourcing Is Inexpensive
Having your own staff working on a project means you have the surety of completing that project before reaching the deadline. But the problem arises when you are shorthanded. In that sense, remote staffing may seem like an expensive option compared to outsourcing. However, you can’t just rely on such a contract-type work structure for long since you don’t have any control over them. In fact, remote staffing gives you flexibility with expenses. It depends on you and your company’s requirements to hire a few more people in your team or not.
One of the biggest benefits of remote staffing is that you have a similar work culture as in the office. The only difference is that now employees have to work from home. It means – you can have a regulated work environment, where every employee in the firm is doing their job in the right way to reach expected goals and objectives.
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Remote Staffing For Shorter Turnaround Time
Thanks to the technology, even with a remotely working staff, now it has been easier for the management to communicate with employees. There are such tools and software out there in the market, which let you manage and collaborate with your remote working employees. Therefore you can be sure about accountability and timely work delivery.
But on the other side, when we talk about outsourcing, you are dependent upon the freelancer to complete your tasks on time. Although, they might also promise you to deliver the work on course. But they are only accountable till the project is over. Considering that there are certainly some good points about outsourcing. But still, its remote staffing gets you more assurance regarding both accountability and timely delivery of work.
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Remote Staffing Vs Outsourcing: Work Culture
In remote staffing, you have the advantage, as you can pick some selected talents in your team. And in most outsourcing options, there you don’t have any criteria to be selective. Particularly the people who are working for your company, you know more about them and their capabilities.
Remote Staffing vs Outsourcing
Since in work culture, you can evaluate the different skill sets and efficiency of employees and assign them tasks accordingly. However, when you outsource or take help from any third-party services, you have less control over the people working on your tasks or projects.
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Get a Clear Picture of Work Progress
Even when your employees are working remotely, by digital means, you can get the report of work progress anytime you want. Isn’t it? On the other hand, when you outsource, you can only ask the service provider about the work progress and wait for their response. As we have said earlier, you don’t have the power to check their progress directly.
Remote Staffing Vs Outsourcing: Pros & Cons
By going through these points, we get to know the differences between remote staffing and outsourcing. While it also gives us a slight idea about pros and cons of using them.
Pros Of Remote Staffing-
- Having a remote working staff doesn’t mean that you don’t have control over them. Nowadays, with the help of tools like EmpMonitor, it has become easier to manage remote staff without any problems.
- Remote staffing productivity is easily scalable since even while working remotely, management can monitor work progress and their activities anytime.
- The cost of hiring remote employees is not too high. And if your management can hire some good talents, that is more than a profit you can get.
- With conferencing and messaging tools, it has been easier for employers to work with their remote teams. They can be easily contacted to have work-related chats or meetings, which is not possible with outsourcing.
Cons Of Remote Staffing-
- Finding talented and capable remote workers is quite a hectic job for HR management.
- Due to a lack of proactiveness and motivation in the remote workers, they may not deliver the same as expected.
- In a remote work culture, what you need is a proper management system that can manage your remote work staff. Although it is not an easy job. However, with EmpMonitor – remote workforce management features, it has become easier to manage remote workers.
Pros Of Outsourcing-
- Outsourcing can be a cost-effective solution, especially when you are short-handed while working on many projects.
- With lots of agencies and freelancers in the market, you have quite an option with a wide range of talent pools.
- The process of hiring a talented person is tougher than finding a comparable good outsourcing vendor.
- It also provides an uninterrupted workflow in your system, as you have more time-space to work on in-house projects and tasks.
In the end, when you opt for a reliable outsourcing vendor, most of the time, you are sure about the quality of work done by them. However, if you see them, there you don’t have much control over them. With so many advantages of outsourcing, there are some disadvantages as well.
Cons Of Outsourcing-
- Like we have already told you, with outsourcing, you don’t have complete control to check or look over the ongoing work progress.
- Outsourcing vendors are working on so many projects at the same time so it’s possible that they don’t put much effort and focus on your particular project.
- Sometimes relying too much on outsourcing may put more burden on your company’s budget.
Wrapping Words:
There are some good and bad sides to both Remote staffing and outsourcing. So here we recommend you to hire remote workers, based on your company’s requirements. However, if there are some rare work processes you find in a task, in such a case, you may opt for an outsourcing strategy.
So what’s your take on remote staffing vs outsourcing? Write us your thoughts in the comment section given below. And also, don’t forget to share this blog post on social media.
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