Necessity of Outsourcing in the Time of Pandemic

Our social framework is not the only facet of society affected by the pandemic, but the effect also extended the economic and financial fronts. The uncompromising nature of this pandemic caused lockdowns in most countries to combat the spread of the newly discovered virus. The pandemic tolled heavily on the economy as the lockdowns caused various businesses to close or scale down their operations, letting go of their people whom business owners could not pay anymore.

The loss of sources of income caused a slowdown in sales and operations of the other businesses that have initially remained. However, the continuous payment of rental fees, office maintenance, and salaries of remaining employees could eventually dry up the remaining finances.

By lessening routinary and repetitive tasks, key employees can concentrate on their job functions.

Outsourcing Benefits

There are businesses, however, that have thrived under adverse conditions. They are the ones that have adopted new strategies to stay in business, addressing factors that contribute to costs of operations. One way of addressing these is to contract some functions of your business to outsourcing companies.

In this scenario, the company spreads its labor costs to outsourcing companies while minimizing or potentially eliminating costs of rental, utilities, and office maintenance. An outsourcing company can either be for back-office operations such as accounting or data entry or as a front-office concern that handles marketing or other related acts. Outsourcing as much functions as possible provides other benefits apart from letting you focus on the core of your business. The following are some of the derivative benefits of outsourcing:

1. The business can focus on what matters. By lessening routinary and repetitive tasks, key employees can concentrate on their job functions. Through this, your company can save on labor hours that could have been misspent on updating or maintaining individual records of transactions, for instance.

2. Reduction of employment costs. Let’s admit it, maintaining your own employees can be quite a headache. From job hiring and onboarding to assessing performance and final payroll processing, you’ll need to devote both time and financial resources. With an outsourced workforce, you’ll never have to perform these functions as responsibility for deploying and maintaining people are the outsourcing company’s task. Consequently, you can also save on expenses for staff training and government-mandated benefits. Furthermore, reduction of utility and office maintenance costs follows with the outsourcing of such tasks.

3. You do not have to spend on costly automated systems. Outsourcing companies usually are the pioneers of digital solutions. As such, they ensure that their systems are in tip-top shape and up-to-date to protect them and clients from potential cyber-attacks. The outsourcing company usually shoulders the inherent costs of the development or procurement of digital and online solutions including the maintenance and upgrades costs.

4. Ready access to an abundance of talents. Outsourcing companies provide you with a focused group of talented individuals specific to your company’s needs. Outsourcing companies also tend to train their talents to keep them abreast of the latest innovations in their respective fields, freeing you from employee training and the inherent costs involved. It is as if you are hiring a whole team for the price of one.

5. Business continuity guaranteed. Your employees do not have to adjust to increased workloads just because one team member has resigned. Thus, virtually eliminating work disruption from such events since outsourcing companies have an arsenal of employees who fill a gap without a hitch.

6. Enhanced work efficiency to focus on strategies for advancement. With all the repetitive tasks and other functions outsourced, your key employees can now participate in strategy meetings to move your company forward.

7. The COVID-19 Pandemic has forced some companies to adapt to an unprecedented reorganization of employee management. In a flash, employers allowed some of their personnel to work-from-home. The setup allowed the company to comply with health protocols mandated by the government to arrest the spread of the virus. The limitations of this setup prompted some companies to hire outsourcing companies to address the gap in back-office and front-office functions with their innovative online solutions or as a support function.

Functions and Tasks that can be Outsourced

Listed below are some tasks and functions that can be outsourced by the company to reduce costs:

1. Finance and accounting

2. Tax compliance and preparation

3. Internal audit

4. Human resource and payroll management

5. Social media management for the company website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. May also be tasked to prepare email and text blasts.

6. Leads generation and cold calling of prospects

7. Content creation or writing for blogs and other media

8. IT support

9. Data encoding

10. Direct marketing

Depending on your company requirements, these may or may not be suitable for outsourcing. It will, of course, depend on the specific needs of your firm. The good news is -- most outsourcing firms usually perform business consultancy to determine and review processes best to be outsourced.

Final Words on Outsourcing

To outsource these tasks, however, does not mean that employees are automatically let go. Other departments can absorb the employees. Assignment to other divisions of the company is a possibility. The Philippine workforce will also systematically adapt to the new situation. The displaced employees will organically move where there will be job openings to fill up. In this scenario, workforce efficiency and productivity are expected to elevate to new heights.

---

About the Author

George was a finance and tax manager of a large group of companies engaged in salon services, leasing and construction. He worked as a Senior Audit Associate at Reyes Tacandong & Co. where he handled audits and other engagements for clients in mall operations, car dealership, logistics and healthcare. George has an extensive experience in tax compliance and advocacy, including handling BIR assessments and cases.

He garnered his bachelor’s degree in Accountancy from the Philippine School of Business Administration. He is a BOA and BIR-accredited Certified Public Accountant.

Share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below or email the author at gjr.ofilanda@apexsolutions.ph.