Hiring VS Outsourcing (in small business projects)
As part of our Unicloud project, we tried both a model of hiring a project of our own specialists, and working with individual freelancers and companies in a contract. In the topic, we argue about the results and their underlying causes.
You can often hear the opinion that outsourcing has not taken root in Russia and is just as rare as Amur tigers. There are many reasons for this: the fear of “merging” your information to little-known third parties, and the low supply of such services (as a result, the high price), and insufficient quality. Among the reasons they often mention the impossibility of yelling at the outsourced executor and forcing him to work overtime up to 23 hours without additional payment, only because “this is necessary”. The same with security - a “own” employee may be intimidated by his own security service in such a way that he not only does not sell any information to a competitor himself, but also passes his colleagues who have already done so to the Security Council.
Almost all the reasons mentioned were indirectly inherited from the psychology of the Soviet era, when the employer owed his employees something for life, and a small business did not exist.
')
In developed countries, outsourcing is a commonplace phenomenon. Almost all branches of Western companies in Russia live according to the principle “on their own - only the main activity”, and all other services (IT, legal, financial, accounting, advertising, logistic, headhunting, etc.) are acquired according to the outsourcing model.
In the well-known book of K. Nordstrom and J. Ridderstrale Funky Business, the authors write that all companies that want to survive in the conditions of global competition will soon switch to a model of deep and narrow specialization. This will mean that all the functions that are performed by the company not in the best way will be outsourced to those who do it perfectly. Everyone will benefit from this - both the company and its customers.
As part of the Unicloud project, we have to attract completely different specialists: sales specialists, designers, developers, PR specialists, Web designers, Web programmers, testers, analysts, user interface designers, lawyers, financiers, accountants, advertising specialists, SMM, architects of complex information systems, as well as many highly specialized companies.
A small business company, only being created or intentionally small to maintain flexibility and speed of change, constantly tries out various development options and tests these options. Today, SMM or a PR specialist who correctly installs a viral company on the Internet may be hotly needed. But this is a temporary action - in a month we will need to work on analyzing the results of such an action and correcting plans, and then a designer will be temporarily required who will draw a new interface scheme for a new system functionality. At this point, a PR specialist is not needed.
The conclusion we made for ourselves is this: many things are in fact temporary for the company, one-time, even if they are repeated on a regular basis. And it is better to entrust such events to professionals.
In addition to attracting from time to time, outsourcing allows you to get the final result instead of a process. If you competently build interaction with the one who does the work, then you will pay only for its result. Compare with your own employees - you simply do not have the lever of such an impact on them, if they are in the state and receive a salary and a bonus. Deprive a premium? Do not tell, it is perceived by the absolute majority of candidates as a personal insult and demotivation. After a couple of months receiving awards, they consider it a must-have addition to the salary, even if you pointedly talked about the opposite while applying for a job.
The outsourcer works under the contract and receives money for the result. If the result is unimpressive or out of time - you can either avoid the cost of its work altogether, or limit yourself to an advance payment (rarely more than 50%). But the most important thing is that after that you can change the provider of this service for yourself, and you can’t work with the defendant. If this was a person in your staff, you would have to be long and tedious (such is our Labor Code) to dismiss him, and this rarely ends quickly and without hassle. Unpleasant sediment will remain on both sides.
Do not forget about personnel hunger. There are specialists in the market, but very few good specialists. The chance of working with a super-specialist increases if you go to a specialized studio. So a super-specialist can work (or own a studio), and give you his attention, even if only for a few hours. But these few hours may eventually lead to an order of magnitude better results than if several second league specialists invent the same thing for you.
About the cost should talk specifically. In our country, with high taxes and other payments for employees, hiring an external company may be more profitable from a financial point of view. For example, if a specialist in Moscow “on hand” receives, for a flat account, 100 thousand rubles, then the organization actually spends on the unified social tax, keeps personal income tax, buys a desktop and a chair, a computer, pays for telephony, insurance, office rent, stationery And so on. It turns out that in fact the company spends on it up to 200 thousand rubles a month. On the other hand, as we remember, we do not need the services of non-core specialists 100% of the time, so if you upload 20% of the time in a web designer’s studio a month and pay 30,000 rubles for it, see what a saving! And the studio is satisfied, and the specialist receives his 100 thousand, and the customer spends less money. In reality, of course, everything is somewhat more complicated, but in general, the calculations reflect the very essence of economy.
If our outsourcing model specialist is not from Moscow, then this may be even more profitable. He will work for Moscow - while receiving more money than if he simply worked in a local company. The customer in Moscow will pay him less than if he hired such a specialist in Moscow. There is only one difficulty - remote control and monitoring, but it is allowed thanks to the work on the result. With such a formulation of the problem, the question of motivation and control is greatly simplified.
So what happens is it is necessary to find in the regions those who are willing to work for the result and at the same time not take people to the state? Unfortunately, not everything is so simple.
First, people or companies willing to work according to this scheme still need to be found. Well, if there are such friends.
Secondly, only those functions that are not core functions can be outsourced. For example, as Apple transfers to Samsung or Foxconn the production of its technology, focusing on advertising, branding and thinking through features. For specialized specialists, it is necessary to still offer benefits of employment (as something luxury - yes, being in the company's staff should become a value for a person!), But I insist that the model of working with them should be changes to pay "by results".
Thirdly, it is necessary to make sure that the company that provides you with services does not have “rats” and does not merge information to your competitors - this may indeed be a problem. You must be confident in the company that provides you with services, at least by 90%.
Fourth, you need to be well aware of what you are ordering. That is, if in the recruitment model you can simply tell them to “have to be done coolly”, then since the employee has been working with you for a year, he understands you perfectly well and does everything. But if you work with a new contractor, you need to explain and paint everything correctly. This is extra time, and the requirements for the customer himself, who wants to repeat again: the customer must understand what he is ordering. In other words, to be an active entrepreneur, to be a real “generalist”, i.e. understand at once in many areas of activity.
If everything is OK with the above, you can safely switch to outsourcing.
I want to believe that over time in Russia, people will learn to work for the result, and not from 9 to 18. Not because working a lot is good, but going to 18 is bad, no. It’s just that in the very consciousness our people are used to thinking that the employer owes them, and they can work “according to their mood”. To check this, try to offer the employee to cut from his permanent salary part, which will turn into a variable. The employee will immediately remind you that "we did not agree on this." But, after all, we also did not agree that the employee would do all “hoo-yap”, demand constant monitoring of himself and reminders to work on the result.
It would be possible to answer this way: “You admit that you didn’t manage to do an important job on time - so I, like your employer, may not have time to pay you a salary on time, have you agreed?”. But, alas, in our country with its Labor Code, the execution of such a threat will really make the employer guilty and, moreover, violated the laws.
In many ways, this is why we support the idea of ​​rewriting the Labor Code - it’s enough to take care of the razdolbayah, who use the privileges taken from them unclearly to businessmen - people who risk everything, plow like horses, and eventually have a chance to remain extreme. If we in our country really want to raise the economy through the support of small business, then the laws should be on the side of small business. And only then the people who will get a job finally realize that their wallet is only heavy with the well and timely work done. This will change their view on entrepreneurship in general, and many will start to become businessmen themselves - simply because they understand that no one owes them. I am sure that this change alone can give impetus to the development of our country.
Upd. At the request in the comments below, I supplement the results we received for ourselves:
We found a company that promotes, instead of its own PR-manager. We also found a long-term design studio that does the design and design of the user interface. Both tasks saved time, nerves, and money, and both gave more results than when we tried to do the same with our probationary staff.
At first there was the thought that we are poorly managed or poorly explained - and therefore the result is deplorable.
It turned out, no - contractors understand us at a glance and do it twice as fast as regular specialists. Quality assessment is a subjective thing, but it feels better by three times :)
You can often hear the opinion that outsourcing has not taken root in Russia and is just as rare as Amur tigers. There are many reasons for this: the fear of “merging” your information to little-known third parties, and the low supply of such services (as a result, the high price), and insufficient quality. Among the reasons they often mention the impossibility of yelling at the outsourced executor and forcing him to work overtime up to 23 hours without additional payment, only because “this is necessary”. The same with security - a “own” employee may be intimidated by his own security service in such a way that he not only does not sell any information to a competitor himself, but also passes his colleagues who have already done so to the Security Council.
Almost all the reasons mentioned were indirectly inherited from the psychology of the Soviet era, when the employer owed his employees something for life, and a small business did not exist.
')
In developed countries, outsourcing is a commonplace phenomenon. Almost all branches of Western companies in Russia live according to the principle “on their own - only the main activity”, and all other services (IT, legal, financial, accounting, advertising, logistic, headhunting, etc.) are acquired according to the outsourcing model.
In the well-known book of K. Nordstrom and J. Ridderstrale Funky Business, the authors write that all companies that want to survive in the conditions of global competition will soon switch to a model of deep and narrow specialization. This will mean that all the functions that are performed by the company not in the best way will be outsourced to those who do it perfectly. Everyone will benefit from this - both the company and its customers.
As part of the Unicloud project, we have to attract completely different specialists: sales specialists, designers, developers, PR specialists, Web designers, Web programmers, testers, analysts, user interface designers, lawyers, financiers, accountants, advertising specialists, SMM, architects of complex information systems, as well as many highly specialized companies.
A small business company, only being created or intentionally small to maintain flexibility and speed of change, constantly tries out various development options and tests these options. Today, SMM or a PR specialist who correctly installs a viral company on the Internet may be hotly needed. But this is a temporary action - in a month we will need to work on analyzing the results of such an action and correcting plans, and then a designer will be temporarily required who will draw a new interface scheme for a new system functionality. At this point, a PR specialist is not needed.
The conclusion we made for ourselves is this: many things are in fact temporary for the company, one-time, even if they are repeated on a regular basis. And it is better to entrust such events to professionals.
In addition to attracting from time to time, outsourcing allows you to get the final result instead of a process. If you competently build interaction with the one who does the work, then you will pay only for its result. Compare with your own employees - you simply do not have the lever of such an impact on them, if they are in the state and receive a salary and a bonus. Deprive a premium? Do not tell, it is perceived by the absolute majority of candidates as a personal insult and demotivation. After a couple of months receiving awards, they consider it a must-have addition to the salary, even if you pointedly talked about the opposite while applying for a job.
The outsourcer works under the contract and receives money for the result. If the result is unimpressive or out of time - you can either avoid the cost of its work altogether, or limit yourself to an advance payment (rarely more than 50%). But the most important thing is that after that you can change the provider of this service for yourself, and you can’t work with the defendant. If this was a person in your staff, you would have to be long and tedious (such is our Labor Code) to dismiss him, and this rarely ends quickly and without hassle. Unpleasant sediment will remain on both sides.
Do not forget about personnel hunger. There are specialists in the market, but very few good specialists. The chance of working with a super-specialist increases if you go to a specialized studio. So a super-specialist can work (or own a studio), and give you his attention, even if only for a few hours. But these few hours may eventually lead to an order of magnitude better results than if several second league specialists invent the same thing for you.
About the cost should talk specifically. In our country, with high taxes and other payments for employees, hiring an external company may be more profitable from a financial point of view. For example, if a specialist in Moscow “on hand” receives, for a flat account, 100 thousand rubles, then the organization actually spends on the unified social tax, keeps personal income tax, buys a desktop and a chair, a computer, pays for telephony, insurance, office rent, stationery And so on. It turns out that in fact the company spends on it up to 200 thousand rubles a month. On the other hand, as we remember, we do not need the services of non-core specialists 100% of the time, so if you upload 20% of the time in a web designer’s studio a month and pay 30,000 rubles for it, see what a saving! And the studio is satisfied, and the specialist receives his 100 thousand, and the customer spends less money. In reality, of course, everything is somewhat more complicated, but in general, the calculations reflect the very essence of economy.
If our outsourcing model specialist is not from Moscow, then this may be even more profitable. He will work for Moscow - while receiving more money than if he simply worked in a local company. The customer in Moscow will pay him less than if he hired such a specialist in Moscow. There is only one difficulty - remote control and monitoring, but it is allowed thanks to the work on the result. With such a formulation of the problem, the question of motivation and control is greatly simplified.
So what happens is it is necessary to find in the regions those who are willing to work for the result and at the same time not take people to the state? Unfortunately, not everything is so simple.
First, people or companies willing to work according to this scheme still need to be found. Well, if there are such friends.
Secondly, only those functions that are not core functions can be outsourced. For example, as Apple transfers to Samsung or Foxconn the production of its technology, focusing on advertising, branding and thinking through features. For specialized specialists, it is necessary to still offer benefits of employment (as something luxury - yes, being in the company's staff should become a value for a person!), But I insist that the model of working with them should be changes to pay "by results".
Thirdly, it is necessary to make sure that the company that provides you with services does not have “rats” and does not merge information to your competitors - this may indeed be a problem. You must be confident in the company that provides you with services, at least by 90%.
Fourth, you need to be well aware of what you are ordering. That is, if in the recruitment model you can simply tell them to “have to be done coolly”, then since the employee has been working with you for a year, he understands you perfectly well and does everything. But if you work with a new contractor, you need to explain and paint everything correctly. This is extra time, and the requirements for the customer himself, who wants to repeat again: the customer must understand what he is ordering. In other words, to be an active entrepreneur, to be a real “generalist”, i.e. understand at once in many areas of activity.
If everything is OK with the above, you can safely switch to outsourcing.
I want to believe that over time in Russia, people will learn to work for the result, and not from 9 to 18. Not because working a lot is good, but going to 18 is bad, no. It’s just that in the very consciousness our people are used to thinking that the employer owes them, and they can work “according to their mood”. To check this, try to offer the employee to cut from his permanent salary part, which will turn into a variable. The employee will immediately remind you that "we did not agree on this." But, after all, we also did not agree that the employee would do all “hoo-yap”, demand constant monitoring of himself and reminders to work on the result.
It would be possible to answer this way: “You admit that you didn’t manage to do an important job on time - so I, like your employer, may not have time to pay you a salary on time, have you agreed?”. But, alas, in our country with its Labor Code, the execution of such a threat will really make the employer guilty and, moreover, violated the laws.
In many ways, this is why we support the idea of ​​rewriting the Labor Code - it’s enough to take care of the razdolbayah, who use the privileges taken from them unclearly to businessmen - people who risk everything, plow like horses, and eventually have a chance to remain extreme. If we in our country really want to raise the economy through the support of small business, then the laws should be on the side of small business. And only then the people who will get a job finally realize that their wallet is only heavy with the well and timely work done. This will change their view on entrepreneurship in general, and many will start to become businessmen themselves - simply because they understand that no one owes them. I am sure that this change alone can give impetus to the development of our country.
Upd. At the request in the comments below, I supplement the results we received for ourselves:
We found a company that promotes, instead of its own PR-manager. We also found a long-term design studio that does the design and design of the user interface. Both tasks saved time, nerves, and money, and both gave more results than when we tried to do the same with our probationary staff.
At first there was the thought that we are poorly managed or poorly explained - and therefore the result is deplorable.
It turned out, no - contractors understand us at a glance and do it twice as fast as regular specialists. Quality assessment is a subjective thing, but it feels better by three times :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/126744/
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