“If you can’t hire a team internally, you should outsource one.”
Today we are living during an unprecedented time. Our world has become a place where people cannot congregate towards any common goal. People are getting too sick to work and are being forced into quarantine if they, or someone they have been in contact with, are or have been sick with Covid-19.
This is true even if such contact is merely suspected. Ironically, when people are being told to distance themselves from each other, having a team is even more important than in normal times. Unfortunately, many businesses do not have the capacity to hire a full internal team for their IT needs.
Historically, we espouse building a team because having only one employee or resource that can handle a specific job poses a variety of risks. Redundancy in the workforce provides additional layers of security—just having one additional employee for any one task makes a difference. With the addition of a partner, the original employee benefits from another set of eyes on the problem, new perspectives, and the faith that there will be someone to solve the problem if he’s not available. If your company is relying on a single person for your IT needs, you don’t have that safety-net.
In the IT industry, we see the problem of a single IT resource commonly demonstrated by a client not having answers to the following questions:
1. How is your problem resolved when your employee is sick?
2. How is your problem resolved when your employee takes a vacation?
3. How is your problem resolved when your employee finds another opportunity?
4. What incentives are there to make sure your employee fully documents all your institutional knowledge? How do you know they are done?
5. Who has the leverage when it comes time to negotiate salaries?
6. Is the person who oversees the resource capable of doing the job?
7. How do you manage your employee if you do not know their role?
One of the least talked about risks (and most expensive problems) for small to mid-sized businesses regards the optimism they have around their ability to hire and manage competent people. You cannot rely on any single hire to successfully do work that they aren’t familiar with. We understand that doing so is tempting; it makes you feel in more control, and it might seem more integrated with the rest of your team. Unfortunately, the true cost of relying on a single individual (in terms of both knowledge stagnation and business continuity) will be significantly larger over the long-term than hiring an external resource.
Put simply, it’s in your best interest to hire an outsourced team if you don’t have the resources to hire 3 or more people internally. It’s the best solution in the chaotic times to ensure you are always covered and not at the mercy of the single IT guy.
As business leaders, it is up to us to evaluate the risks in our businesses. Are you leaving yourself at risk by trusting a single individual or resource in charge of a critical job? Chances are you can hire a team of experienced, diligent people for significantly less cost. What would it feel like to be treated as a valued customer, as opposed being the employer that always needs to provide more? If you want to know, book a meeting with us here to get started.
