Introduction to Outsourcing

Hiring people is a chore, retaining the people you hired is costly, and having to lay them off after all that effort is a huge blow to your company’s cash flow. Time and time again we see businesses plummet into their early deaths because of poor management of company expenditure and careless planning—or the slump could just sadly be a consequence of a series of unfortunate economy-related events. No matter what we do, the tables have turned and the road to business supremacy is no longer as levelled as it used to be. Hence, the regular and inevitable budget cuts that often elicit negative feedback from our workforce. So how do you make things a whole lot better for your company’s purse? Outsource.

Outsourcing is becoming more and more of a common practice for businesses. In a general sense, to outsource is to look for external service providers without having to undergo the laborious task of hiring and keeping people. Why is it cost-effective? First, you cut down on recruitment operation costs such as advertisements (whatever the form), salaries for your recruiters, cost of supplies such as application forms, staples, sticky notes, not to mention electricity, etc. Second, you don’t have to spend on training and talent retention and these often cost a fortune without even a guarantee that they will actually pay off. Lastly, there’s no need to pay for employee medical benefits or create a very comprehensive and expensive compensation and benefits package to keep them from leaving.

It’s easier now. You don’t even have to step out of your office (or your home if you’re operation is home-based). In this day and age, you may outsource certain tasks to providers from remote vicinities online with the use of oDesk. This is an online platform that connects employers such as yourself to thousands of skilled providers from all over the world that may do the jobs you need to be done for a certain agreed-upon fee of course. You have the option to pay an hourly or a fixed rate to contractors you hire. Communicating is easy in oDesk since it has its own messaging system and you may keep track of your contractors’ progress and view their work diaries whenever you please. Contractors download and install an application called oDesk Team and this tracks their working hours. How can oDesk be sure that they are indeed working? The oDesk Team application prompts them to supply timely updates of their progress and also takes random and un-timed screenshots for your review. Obviously, it doesn’t tolerate cheating.

So how do you sign up and start hiring people? All you need to do is register your business, verify your payment method, and then start hiring. Don’t worry about the second one; countless of employers have done this and so can you. Register your credit card for free (as of now oDesk accepts Visa, MasterCard, or American Express) and have your payment method verified so that interested contractors will be more than eager to work for you. To verify, oDesk will charge a total of ten dollars to your credit card, totally refundable, in two separate occasions and you need to tell them the exactly how the amount was divided. For instance, you were charged $4.50 on the first occasion and then $5.10 on the second one (a total of $10) and you need to report or type what the exact amounts were in oDesk. This will indicate that you are indeed the holder of that card and that it’s legitimate for use. After verifying, your job ad will include an icon that says your payment is verified and this will make applicants feel more secure.

Once you get this out of they way, you may start posting jobs, conduct online interviews, and outsource your way to stability and growth!