Maximizing Outsourced HR: 7 Tips for In-House HR Teams

CoAdvantage- If your organization outsources some of its HR activities – like payroll, benefits administration, and more – but you haven’t carefully aligned the way the two teams work, you might be losing some of the potential benefits of outsourcing. Following these seven tips can help your internal HR pros to maximize the advantages of working with an outside HR partner.

1: Understand where you need help.

Evaluate your current HR processes and technologies. What functional needs does the current system meet … and where are lost opportunities or ongoing frustrations? Are your current HR processes successfully driving efficiency, or are they dragging your efforts down? If so, where and how?

2: Look for service providers who can help manage the change.

A successful transition to outsourcing is critical to long-term success and beneficial outcomes. Look for a provider that can explain the transition process clearly and can bring change management assistance to help you make the shift successfully.

3: Look for quick wins.

At the beginning of the relationship, focus on generating quick wins: after identifying problem areas or areas of opportunity (as described above), have the service provider tackle the low-hanging fruit first to establish benefits early.

4: Designate a Single Point of Contact.

In many ways, effectively managing or working with a vendor of any sort is a matter of managing information and communication. To ease that process, assign a single person (with a backup, in case that person is out of the office) who can facilitate the relationship and minimize miscommunications.

5: Approach the outsourcing relationship as a partnership.

Always remember your organization and the outsourcing partner are on the same side; you’re entering into a collaborative, cooperative effort to improve business performance. That means the two organizations should align their work as seamlessly as possible; outsourcing is a team effort.

6: Keep your partner in the loop.

Don’t hoard information around business objectives and your hopes for the outsourcing relationship! Even if the vendor to whom you’re outsourcing only works on narrowly defined HR activities, it helps when they understand how their efforts are part of your company’s overall strategy.

7: Monitor vendor performance.

Include checkpoints at regular intervals in the relationship to assess quality and performance. The first three to six months are particularly critical, and it’s wise to keep your fingers on the pulse of the arrangement during that period.

CoAdvantage, one of the nation’s largest Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), helps small to mid-sized companies with HR administration, benefits, payroll, and compliance. To learn more about CoAdvantage’s ability to create a strategic HR function in your business that drives business growth potential, contact us today.