Traditional Employment
Let’s take a look at traditional employment first. Onboarding a new employee can be a long process that usually lasts several months. You’re also fully responsible for the individual’s training and any equipment they require for the job, and you have to pay all the expenses related to recruiting the new employee. As the employer, the burden of motivating the employee also falls onto your hands—which generally means paid vacations, medical benefits, and more. The obvious advantage is that you can fully control the employee (within the confines of the law) and easily impose NDAs, deadlines, contract guarantees, and other security measures to ensure the employee complies with the rules.Pros: High levels of control and security
Cons: Time-consuming and costly recruitment process; full responsibility for training, equipment, and benefits.
Outsourcing
Let’s look at outsourcing next. In this scenario, you aren’t employing a new worker at your company. Instead, you’re hiring the entire outsourcing company for a given project. Although you can’t manage the individuals completing the work, you can steer the workers by communicating directly with the outsourcing company, bearing the risk of unsatisfactory work results. Contracting an entire company rather than individual talent might slow down the recruitment process for several weeks. However, you don’t need to provide worker benefits, as that responsibility falls on the outsourcing company, and it’s generally easier to set up a robust NDA and contract agreement with the company.Pros: Relatively high security; benefits are not required.
Cons: There is no direct communication or employee management; the recruitment process is lengthy.
Hiring Freelancers
How about bypassing the company entirely and hiring an individual freelancer? This option has become increasingly more attractive due to the fast and reliable internet access available to users globally. In this type of hiring, you pay an hourly or project-based rate to an individual, and you communicate directly with them, although they often dictate their own schedules or conditions. The hiring process can be very efficient; it usually takes no longer than a few weeks. You’re responsible for motivating the freelancer, but what satisfies each freelancer varies. Legal means to ensure the freelancer follows the rules are drastically limited compared to other types of hiring. Be aware that, in some cases, those who are particularly skilled at promoting themselves may not always possess the skills you require.Pros: Quick recruitment process, direct communication, and no legal obligation to provide benefits.
Cons: Lack of accountability, limited legal security options, working on freelancer terms, risk of false advertising
Outstaffing
Outstaffing essentially combines the best features of outsourcing and freelancing, resulting in a safer way to hire freelancers or a version of outsourcing that gives you more control and management. Outstaffing is a little more expensive than hiring a freelancer because you also have to pay the agency’s fee, but the advantages make it worth it. The hiring process is quick and easy and usually takes a few days to a couple of weeks. You can communicate directly with the candidates, who are made accountable by the outstaffing agency. Thus, you have more control over the schedule and conditions. Outstaffing agencies usually set up contracts and NDAs to protect the company, and they ensure that workers deliver high-quality work on time. The outstaffing company motivates by providing benefits to the talent, so you don’t have to worry about that. The only risk is that the worker’s skills may be lower than described on the outstaffing company’s website. In that case, you can address complaints directly to the agency.Pros: Quick hiring process, direct communication and management, robust NDAs and legal protection, no legal obligation to provide benefits.
Cons: Risk of false advertising; requirement to pay the agency’s fee
on top of the worker’s rate
The Advantages of Outstaffing
As the analysis above clarifies, outstaffing is the best hiring model for most cases. Here are a few of the top benefits of outstaffing:Broaden your hiring pool. Unlike in-house employees, who must generally live in your area and either be citizens of your country or have a work permit, outstaffing allows you to hire talent from all over the world. With a wider hiring pool, you significantly increase the chances of finding better talent.
Save money. With outstaffing, you don’t have to provide benefits to workers or open a new company branch. You don’t have to supply workers with the equipment they need to complete the job, and you don’t need to train them—they’re already top experts. You also don’t have to hire lawyers or accountants, as it would be necessary for in-house staff. The outstaffing company takes care of all legal and accounting issues.
Save time. The hiring process is quick and easy with outstaffing—you simply browse the outstaffing website for the most suitable workers and reach out to set up a contract. You can significantly save your time, effort, and money by hiring reliable and accountable top talent in a matter of days.
Easily scale your team. Hiring in-house employees makes your team inflexible to some extent. It’s hard to navigate the hurdles of legal requirements to scale your team when needed. With outstaffing, it’s easy—just work with the company to effortlessly scale your team up or down to meet your project’s needs.