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How have you been approaching the changing work arena the world faces? There’s no ignoring it: 2020 with its pandemic has adjusted how people have to set up work environments. And luckily, it’s not all bad news.
New Work Arrangements Emerging
When a lockdown forces employers to send their teams home, it becomes vital to find a new method of operating. It must work even though you’re not in the same building anymore. This forced people to think out of the box. The result is that what people thought was the most dynamic way, was replaced by innovative and often more efficient methods. Facilitating remote working for employees—even for work related to sensitive information such as remote accounting jobs—was only one of them.
Now, what will your long-term plans be? In some areas people may start returning to normal but does that mean you have to resume your previous office setup? Being forced to consider unorthodox options, now is actually the best time to set yourself up for success for the future. And how you and your team get work done is a primary factor in achieving your goals.
So, to what extent should you consider remote working as your business’ default setup? There’s also the consideration of outsourcing, which many experts promote. Use our summaries below to help you plan the most effective way forward.
Outsourcing vs Remote Working—Is There Really a Difference?
There are definite differences between outsourcing and remote working. These differences also determine how each method will affect your company, so understanding them is vital:
- Outsourcing: You allocate certain job functions to a third party. This can be an individual such as a freelancer or a company taking on responsibilities on your behalf or providing services to your company.
- Remote working: Your own employees work off-site at home or at a venue of their choosing, even at a restaurant. Not all remote working is necessarily a ‘work from home’ scenario. You may allow employees to work anywhere at any time, even while they travel for personal or business reasons, as long as they reach their work-related goals. A vital factor is having the right electronic, digital connection to engage with others on the team and access information. The latter is essential for important data-driven roles like remote accounting jobs.
In contrast to outsourcing, with remote work, you’ll still aim to include remote workers in aspects such as company culture and your processes. You can’t have this same expectation from a company you outsource to.
Outsourcing
At one stage outsourcing was only popular with large corporations. These days smaller businesses can also benefit, especially in areas where you and your team don’t have the right skillset, time, or resources.
For example, bookkeeping is a major challenge for small business owners who don’t have the knowledge or experience to handle it effectively. They may also not have the budget to hire a full-time accountant. Outsourcing this as remote accounting jobs to established vendors means experts work on their accounts, minimizing errors and ensuring accurate reports and tax filing.
With outsourcing you can still tailor your setup to your needs, thanks to different outsourcing types:
- Onshoring: The third party will be in the same geographical area—country—like your business.
- Offshoring: Your service provider is located in a distant country.
- Multisourcing: The company’s needs may require you to outsource to multiple vendors in order to cover all necessary activities.
- Nearshoring: The service provider is in a different country, but it’s a neighbor of the country where you’re stationed.
Your exact needs will determine which type will be most beneficial. For example, you may only find the necessary skills or cost-effectiveness with a company in another country. If the skillset is a priority, having those experts work on your project will be more important than being close to the vendor.
Popular areas of outsourcing to consider include:
- Accounting and tax services, motivated by time-saving, accuracy, and ensuring compliance
- Marketing, in order to ensure a dynamic strategy in an ever-increasing competitive market
- IT services, eliminating the need to employ staff while ensuring you always have an expert to assist
- Lead generation, to provide an internal sales team with more prospects
- Payroll, which is often cheaper to outsource and it saves your staff time
The Benefits
- Experts perform tasks, leading to quality work
- There’s a larger talent pool that will impact your business outcomes
- Fewer salaries to manage and pay
- You don’t need to hire office space for that task to get done
- Possibility of cost savings when using services from regions where you’re charged less than locally
- Vendors are able to handle complex projects more efficiently compared to your team with less experience
- Your time and resources are freed up for other tasks
- No need to pay for infrastructure to perform a task
- You don’t have to source the necessary talent to employ
- Your operations may continue 24/7 when you partner with vendors in different time zones
The Challenges
- You have less control over the execution of tasks
- The vendor won’t always give your project their full attention
- Less communication about your business compared to having the responsible party in your office
- You can’t micro-manage every step in the process, which can result in the quality of work you’re not satisfied with
- If you’re dependent on the third party’s feedback to perform some of your tasks, their delays can disrupt your workflow
- Some employees may feel their jobs are at risk when you start outsourcing, which can affect office morale
These pros and cons can guide you in identifying tasks that you feel comfortable outsourcing to a third party. For example:
- With activities that require your company culture or values to not be compromised at all, you may prefer keeping it in-house.
- When you’re facing challenges of getting tasks done, such as not having the knowledge to ensure tax returns are done correctly, outsourcing becomes the better option.
Remote Working
The truth is, thanks to technology, many jobs these days can be done from anywhere employees find themselves. Cloud storage and secure networks mean that even sensitive information can now be handled while people at home. Remote accounting jobs or even HR work is done off-site won’t carry many risks of data getting leaked. So, employers can offer a remote position to almost any office worker.
In recent years, this has also become a preferred method of work for workers who don’t want to waste time commuting or want more flexibility in their lives. For some, it’s a prerequisite and they won’t shift to a new position unless remote working is guaranteed.
For employers this means that to be the employer of choice—to attract the best talent in the industry—you now have to consider remote working as a perk.
The Benefits
- You keep the staff you have but you need less office space
- Studies show remote workers are often more productive
- Employees have fewer distractions to deal with from colleagues, often leading to higher productivity
- Workers create their own environment at home and the comfort and familiarity can boost work quality
- Many in the workforce prefer remote working—especially at home—so you can attract more talent
- More flexibility leads to higher job satisfaction, which boosts employee loyalty
- On a larger scale, less travel to work will lower workers’ carbon footprint; modern work arrangements can have a ripple effect on society and the environment
The Challenges
- It’s sometimes difficult to keep the team motivated if you don’t interact in person
- You need the right infrastructure; this could require capital investment to provide workers with a secure network, equipment like printers at home, or software to optimize collaboration
- Remote workers in different time zones can be a challenge in terms of communication and hosting meetings
- It’s more difficult to maintain company culture from a distance
- There is a slight loss of control compared to having your team close to you
- You’ll be more dependent on technology—such as laptops and quality Wi-Fi—to get work done
- There could be tax implications for workers or employers if work is done in a different state
Conclusion
As with many decisions in business, there is no ‘best’ alternative that works for everyone. You need to research the facts of all options so you can determine which will provide you with the best outcome. But you can’t keep operating the way businesses did over the past few decades. For productivity, for personnel’s sake as well as your bottom line, new methods like outsourcing and remote working should definitely be on your team’s discussion list.
Do you have any suggestions for others contemplating these matters? Share in the comments section so we can help each other flourish in this new environment.
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This content sponsored by Jessica Valgari.
Photo: Shutterstock
