Which is better for my business, in-house or outsourced HR Administration?

As a large or growing organisation, you are probably finding that as your business is growing, so is the list of vital but time-consuming admin tasks that take place in your business. This may be leading you to wonder whether it would be better to handle all your HR Administration in-house or to outsource it to a trusted partner. In this blog I will be taking you through the following four considerations to help you make this decision

1 - What do you have in place right now?

2 – How consistent are you?                                

3 – What do your volumes look like?

4 - If outsourcing is the right option for me, how do I select a provider?

1 - What do you have in place right now?

You might be noticing that things have become fragmented with HR admin being dealt with in different locations or by different people leaving you concerned about consistency of content and timescales to turn things around. You may have diminishing levels of visibility of new starter packs, contractual change letters and invitations/outcomes to formal meetings going out leaving you feeling out of control.

You may be seeing this work sitting with someone who:

- Is based centrally e.g. an office administrator or accounts person.

- Deals with HR admin around their other main duties.

- Doesn’t have the required level of knowledge on employment law or best practice.

- Is reaching full capacity in their workload.

Whatever your current arrangement, it is important to take stock of what you have in place right now, how effective it is, and whether this is sustainable as your business continues to grow.

2 - How consistent are you?

All employees should be receiving the same level of service and quality as the “customer” of your HR administration support…but are they?

You have a clear picture of who is delivering your HR admin so it’s now important to understand what the quality of delivery is like and how consistent this is. As an employer, when you communicate with your employees in writing, there are key points you need to get across to ensure that you are meeting legal and best practice standards.

You will have a preferred tone of voice that represents your business when you send out these communications. I understand from my own experience of being a HR Leader in large multisite operations how difficult it can be to keep this consistent.

My suggestion? Carry out a “temperature check” by reviewing a selection of letters that have been issued to gain an understanding of what level of consistency is being achieved and what the overall standard of the content is.

From here you will be able to identify whether you have the appropriate skillset and consistency in those delivering the work and an assessment can then be made on whether you need to invest in training/upskilling of those involved. You can also ascertain any changes needed and what level of change would be required.

3 - What do your volumes look like?

You may find yourself in a position where you don’t know what volume of HR Admin is being generated or understand trends in those amounts. If this sounds familiar, I would suggest tracking this by carrying out a time and motion study to establish the following:

  • Number of tasks completed by each person per day, week and month and the time spent on each piece of work;
  • What types of HR admin are being completed each day.

From here you can pick out trends and any associated reasons for these. For example: increases in contracts of employment issued on the back of a recruitment drive in one business location; an increase in contract addendums across all locations due to the annual salary review.

4 - If outsourcing is the path ahead, how do I select a provider?

It’s fair to say that all outsourced providers will work differently. It is important that you choose one which offers the level of service you need and who operates in a way that matches up with the core values of your business. I believe that a provider who gets to know about your business and how things are done will be able to deliver the best level of service to you as an outsourced partner.

From your research you can provide clear details of your requirements to enable an outsourced provider to quote accurately for you.

To bring this blog to a close, I hope you have found exploring this subject useful. If it has raised more questions, please feel free to give me a call on 07738 050147 or email me at kat@blackkat-hr.com