How to Outsource Virtually Everything

How To Outsource Human Resources

Alliled Projects Ltd. is an electrical systems company that employs upwards of 170 people, but has no human resources department to speak of. Mike Brunner, Allied’s president, likes to run lean and to focus on his core competencies. He sees himself as a seasoned consumer of outsource services. “Our major accounting is outsourced, our legal work is outsourced, some of our everyday hiring we do through a temp agency, our payroll is taken care of by ADP,” he says. “It’s a cost-effective way for a medium-sized company to do business.”

But a temp agency wasn’t adequate when Brunner ran into some high-level HR issues. So he turned to Brian Hamilton of Corplan Advisors. Hamilton helped Brunner out with “some high-level recruitment,” Brunner says, then worked on an employee ownership project with the company’s management.

Like Allied Projects, SMEs across the province are struggling with recruitment and retention issues. Contract and on-call human resources specialists are happy to help. “We’re getting calls from small companies that are struggling with human resources management as they’re trying to put together recruitment and retention strategies, not just to bring in new people, but to keep the people they’ve got,” says Janet Salopek, founder and president of Salopek Consulting. Salopek’s company offers a gamut of HR services, from a complete out-of-house human resources department that strategizes with company management on people issues to on-call HR specialists that exchange e-mails and telephone calls with clients on a casual basis. “That’s a cost-effective way for a small business to stay on top of their HR issues without having someone on staff or even having someone on retainer,” says Salopek.

And When You Should Think Twice

For SMEs, outsourcing even a small aspect of their business involves considerable faith in the capability of the contractor. It also requires them to accept that they are relinquishing some aspect of control over their business. For passionate, hands-on entrepreneurs, that’s tough. Snap’s Karri Flatla delayed outsourcing her bookkeeping not because she liked “spending three days locked in a room swearing at bills and receipts and not using that time to grow my own business,” but, at least in part, because she liked feeling she had control over all financial aspects of her business. “That’s such a common feeling among us entrepreneurs. Every entrepreneur I’ve ever known does this: holds on to the last second until their sanity or productivity goes,” says Flatla.

And it doesn’t get any easier with bigger business processes or functions. “There is definitely a perception and there can be a reality of loss of control,” says Frank Hoogendoorn, executive vice-president (business solutions) with Calgary-based Cognera Corporation, an outsourcer of utility services billing. “When you outsource, you’re giving key business processes to someone else. You can feel like you walked out of the house, turned the key and just hope they will be OK.”

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