Outsourcing your HR service: 6 very good reasons to start!

Outsourcing is a process that should not be taken lightly, because while cost reduction is an essential element, decision-makers need to keep in mind several other factors. A strategic decision, it must be relevant to your objectives with regards to competitiveness, refocusing on your core business and tasks with high added value.

You plan to outsource your company’s HR activity, but have some doubts as to the relevance of such a choice. So here are 6 good reasons to go ahead and rely on outsourcing to help your company evolve, to be increase efficiency, to keep your employees loyal and to give a boost to your executives.

The benefits of outsourcing the HR department

If well-planned, outsourcing a company’s HR department can be very advantageous:

• Capitalizing on the expertise of professional HR actors,
• Balancing skills and the lack of internal resources,
• Access to performance indicators and tools that will enable you to guide your HR’s policy and strategy,
• Limiting legal and social risks,
• Cost rationalization, with wage costs included in the provider’s tariff. They are thus budgeted, avoiding hidden costs and other unpleasant surprises,
• Controlling the payroll,
• Better exploitation of HR activities with high added value (remuneration policy, recruitment strategy, training and skills development policy, proximity to employees, fluidity of social dialogue, etc.),
• Securing service fundamentals,
• Securing administrative basics,
• Flexibility during peak activity periods or when there are specific needs, all without disrupting the concerned department

The most commonly outsourced HR positions

Not all positions in a human resources department are suitable for outsourcing. Among those that are usually entrusted to a third party company, there are:

• The payroll service – for reasons related to convenience, confidentiality, etc. According to several studies, about 40 % of the major French groups have chosen to outsource this position.
• Recruitment, national and international,
• Training,
• Legal and social service,
• Management of careers, skills, talents

6 good reasons to outsource your HR department

• Keep everything under control! Outsourcing your HR department means outsourcing a department that was originally in-house to a third-party company. Once this is done, the employees will be taken over by people who are not part of the company. However, outsourcing the HR department will allow your company to focus on its core business, on high added value elements, and to focus its resources on tactical functions. In addition, the company to which you are going to entrust your HR department is made up of specialists, a company that knows how to adapt. The result: you will gain in confidentiality and the remaining HR team will be better trained in their trade.

• Increase the knowledge and skills within your company. In fact, outsourcing is an additional opportunity for the company to gain knowledge. By entrusting your HR department to an outside company, you will benefit from operational consultants without delay, with advanced skills, who are experienced in their field of activity and always available. Your organization will benefit from its rigorous monitoring of current legal practices. Finally, your provider will advise you according to your needs. With all these elements put together, your employees will have the opportunity to focus on the essential tasks, with great added value.

• Maintain the quality of your HR service with regards to employees by clearly defining your needs to begin with. Then, you will be able to express them to your service provider, which will avoid errors and regulatory monitoring problems, which, if regular, can be very costly in terms of time, etc. Moreover, by allowing the service provider to get used to the culture of your company, they will be able to provide a qualitative service focused on the satisfaction of its main customers, which in this case are your employees!

• Keep being independent from your provider and continue to evolve your business. Be it changing your pay processing solution or opening your business to international horizons, outsourcing your HR service is an additional opportunity to compartmentalize your needs as soon as the project is set up. In addition, it will create a sustainable, adaptable and trustworthy collaboration, including a clear and unambiguous SLA.

• Gain profits by outsourcing your HR department. Indeed, it has been shown that by planning the outsourcing of this service, a company is able to save nearly 20% of its internal expenses. Outsourcing thus gives the company the possibility to adapt its costs according to its immediate needs and to bear variable costs while continuing to evolve.

• Build the trust of your employees. Outsourcing can be a poorly experienced process in-house, especially when it comes to the HR department. However, it can also be an opportunity to redefine communication, the relationship between management and employees. This is what is made possible by human-sized service providers, whose operation is based on proximity, trained, responsive, reachable interlocutors who are able to adapt.

Planning and choosing the right provider: here are the two bases on which the successful outsourcing of an HR department or any other service depends. The combination of your company’s needs, the clear and transparent communication between you and potential suppliers, the involvement of your employees from the very first hour, an evaluation of the various solutions available to you, the association between a team outside the company and one inside, the quality of the service offered, the training of the contact persons, are some of the elements to be taken into consideration for a successful, sustainable outsourcing. This will allow your company to keep its essential resources and knowledge while evolving, while being able to strengthen its know-how and while benefiting from the knowledge of a third company!