The Argument for IT Outsourcing for Your Small Business

Using IT outsourcing for your human resources department will take your business to new levels. While the HR department is valuable for their human component, you can let technology do some of the work for you and save both manpower and time. What are some ways the HR department can utilize the power of technology? One way is through crowd-sourcing.

Crowd-sourcing is offering jobs to people via job boards or other portal sites and hiring out specific tasks to be done by independent contractors or workers. So how can you harness the power of technology to work for you as a HR department? Here are a few tips.

1. Use talent management software. Using software to pool your resources to find the best workers is an ideal way to maximize your ROI and find the best people for the jobs. It matches personality traits, employment history, and even background checks, to make sure the people you are getting are trustworthy.
2. Keep records of current and past employees in a computer database. By keeping a database of employees, you can pull up records anytime they are needed, or to call back former employees when you need more manpower.
3. Post projects and jobs on job boards. Job boards are a great technology you can use to connect your needs with potential workers. Many are based on a bidding system, so you get to decide how much you are willing to pay as well.
4. Network with crowdsourcing companies. Crowd-sourcing sites assemble hundreds of qualified workers together to browse through jobs they are qualified to do and you get to select which ones will be able to do the job you need. 
5. Use technology to do digital interviewing, communicate with and receive completed jobs from independent, outsourced workers. The use of tools such as "Google hangout," online chat, Facebook, and others provides a way to do "live" face-to-face meetings and collaborate with people from around the globe with no airplane fare, and immediate connections.

How To Utilize The IT Talent Pool

There are many ways today that IT outsourcing used including organization of your human resources department. But the potential is only beginning to emerge regarding crowd-sourcing. With more and more employers opting to hire only the best workers for specific tasks, and hiring out smaller jobs to independent workers, they are learning to maximize their investment by paying for only the work that is done, rather than paying full-time employees for down time.

In addition, they tend to get workers who are the most specialized in their category, and are likely to get the job done the quickest in general, since they are only paid upon completion of the task. This saves thousands of dollars in employee pay per year, and this is a growing trend among corporations and big business today. Utilizing outsourced workers often gets you the best talent and the best rates and you are only paying for the time they actually worked, rather than all of that down time you pay for among your employee pool. Plus, there are no worries about employment insurance or taxes. Outsourced IT people work for themselves and they are responsible for paying and keeping up with their own income and taxes.  So it puts the paperwork in their hands, not yours.

And IT is not the only category you should consider outsourcing. Many more companies are turning to independent contractors for virtual assistance jobs, administrative tasks, and other jobs. It's becoming more and more the smart business option for entrepreneurs.