Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Outsourcing can be a huge help to a lot of businesses.  It lets them increase their workforce for particular projects and tasks without increasing their outgoings too much. However,  for some businesses, it doesn’t quite work out. This is usually down to a mistake made by the person or people in charge of outsourcing. To prevent this from happening to your company, we have explored some of the most common errors people make when it comes to outsourcing, and how you can stop them from happening.

Outsourcing the wrong tasks

The most significant error that many businesses make does not fully understand what tasks need to be outsourced. Money is then wasted

on paying staff to do jobs that could easily be handled in house for next to nothing. The general rule of thumb is to outsource any technical work that requires more skills than your employees have, or jobs that need to be done by a specialist. For example, you might want to consider using the services of a social media manager to handle social media, or a website designer to keep on top of your business site, to avoid wasting time on sorting out problems. You may also want to think about outsourcing basic and repetitive tasks such as data input and admin.

Not Taking Time To Choose The Right Person

Looking for the best person to hire for ad hoc tasks should be treated exactly the same as when you are looking for a full-time member of staff. You should take the recruitment process seriously and take the time to look at a selection of portfolios and invite applicants in for interviews, whether this is an informal chat over coffee or a digital interview. This will give you the opportunity to figure out which of the applicants is the perfect fit for your company and the project in question. That way, you know the work will be carried out to a high standard.

Not Having A Contract In Place

Even if they are only working with you for a week, it is essential that you have a legal contract in place between the business and the worker. This should clearly lay out the details of the work, what is expected from both parties, how and when payment will be made and what will happen if either party breaks the partnership before the scheduled end date. This should stop any issues and disputes from arising in the future and protect both of you.

Not Checking In With Them

Often, freelancers and contractors work on a remote basis, so don’t come into the office. This is, of course, is beneficial as it means that you don’t have to pay any additional overheads, but sometimes, these workers can get overlooked. It is important that every so often you check in on them, to see how they are getting on, that they have all of the resources and information that they need and to keep them up to speed with any new developments.