Insourcing is now a "real" option for any business with a distributed workforce.
Thanks to the advances in technology that have seen the migration to "cloud working", you now have a new option available in your company toolkit and need to determine how it best fits within your business.
When considering insourcing as part of your strategy, it can be viewed as an excellent standalone option but equally it can complement other options that you have in place today e.
g.
outsourcing.
The trick to insourcing effectively is identifying how you can build it in to your corporate strategy, alongside any other options, and then refining your initial solution as the situation dictates.
The initial step is to understand the benefits of insourcing and the advantages it can bring to your organization.
So let's be clear, when I talk about insourcing I mean: "using the available expertise from within other departments / offices across your organization to complete the work i.
e.
"identifying and using the spare capacity within your existing business (no matter where they are) to get work completed".
Some of the key advantages of insourcing are: • Cost Control - make use of the people you are already paying for instead of spending your hard-earned dollars outside of your business on someone else's resource.
• Reduce staff churn - Insourcing is about identifying your available resource (which will change constantly) and spreading the workload.
This can provide new opportunities for staff and can provide much needed assistance to the ones that are already over worked.
Spreading the load and having staff that feel as if they are contributing without being burnt out provides for a much happier and productive workplace.
• No additional HR / Recruitment costs - By identifying the resource that you have available at any given time you are finding spare capacity and capability that you have within your business.
By sharing the work across this pool, it means you don't need to hire in additional temporary staff or contractors to complete the work.
This will provide significant savings dependent on the level of advertising and recruitment fees you normally pay for.
• Less downtime - by using staff that are already within your organization you will prevent costly delays that occur when new people are brought on as they learn your systems / tools and processes.
• Retain your Intellectual Property (I.
P.
) - you have worked hard to develop your I.
P.
so use insourcing to keep this valuable knowledge within your organization rather than outsourcing it and risking possible security breaches.
(There are many more advantages when using insourcing and you can find additional information by Googling the "Benefits of Insourcing") Identifying the advantages / benefits that pertain to your specific situation will determine how you can best build this into your business strategy.
The second key step is identifying your available resource and any hidden skills / talents that they may have (People take specific jobs for a variety of reasons but that does not mean that they are not fully competent in other disciplines or have other skills that you are unaware of).
You can use several methods to accomplish this i.
e.
conducting a staff survey, some sort of tracking sheet that your resource managers control or an off the shelf application that is affordable and can easily be integrated within your business.
The third key step is to take account of this resourcing / talent pool and build it into your business strategy.
Look at the talent you now have available and the existing strengths within your organization to determine the key activities that can and should be kept within your business to protect your I.
P.
You should also determine which activities (if any) could or should be outsourced.
The final step is to implement a method of managing the work across your available resource pool (remember the availability of staff within this pool will be constantly changing).
When implementing a solution you need to keep the following points in mind; • Cloud working - sharing work electronically has never been easier or faster and makes for a good option in many situations • Simplicity - a simple, intuitive solution will be easier to implement with better uptake amongst your staff • Low administration overhead - the quickest way to kill a new idea is to make it a burden to use so make sure you implement something that is effective without being a burden.
At times, it will be important to have people together in the one location, which may involve short term secondments but there will be many situations where work can be undertaken remotely using readily available technology that you already have in place (or can implement easily).
Insourcing is now a viable option that allows you to enhance your existing business strategies and leverage the talent you already have to increase your overall business effectiveness.
Thanks to the advances in technology that have seen the migration to "cloud working", you now have a new option available in your company toolkit and need to determine how it best fits within your business.
When considering insourcing as part of your strategy, it can be viewed as an excellent standalone option but equally it can complement other options that you have in place today e.
g.
outsourcing.
The trick to insourcing effectively is identifying how you can build it in to your corporate strategy, alongside any other options, and then refining your initial solution as the situation dictates.
The initial step is to understand the benefits of insourcing and the advantages it can bring to your organization.
So let's be clear, when I talk about insourcing I mean: "using the available expertise from within other departments / offices across your organization to complete the work i.
e.
"identifying and using the spare capacity within your existing business (no matter where they are) to get work completed".
Some of the key advantages of insourcing are: • Cost Control - make use of the people you are already paying for instead of spending your hard-earned dollars outside of your business on someone else's resource.
• Reduce staff churn - Insourcing is about identifying your available resource (which will change constantly) and spreading the workload.
This can provide new opportunities for staff and can provide much needed assistance to the ones that are already over worked.
Spreading the load and having staff that feel as if they are contributing without being burnt out provides for a much happier and productive workplace.
• No additional HR / Recruitment costs - By identifying the resource that you have available at any given time you are finding spare capacity and capability that you have within your business.
By sharing the work across this pool, it means you don't need to hire in additional temporary staff or contractors to complete the work.
This will provide significant savings dependent on the level of advertising and recruitment fees you normally pay for.
• Less downtime - by using staff that are already within your organization you will prevent costly delays that occur when new people are brought on as they learn your systems / tools and processes.
• Retain your Intellectual Property (I.
P.
) - you have worked hard to develop your I.
P.
so use insourcing to keep this valuable knowledge within your organization rather than outsourcing it and risking possible security breaches.
(There are many more advantages when using insourcing and you can find additional information by Googling the "Benefits of Insourcing") Identifying the advantages / benefits that pertain to your specific situation will determine how you can best build this into your business strategy.
The second key step is identifying your available resource and any hidden skills / talents that they may have (People take specific jobs for a variety of reasons but that does not mean that they are not fully competent in other disciplines or have other skills that you are unaware of).
You can use several methods to accomplish this i.
e.
conducting a staff survey, some sort of tracking sheet that your resource managers control or an off the shelf application that is affordable and can easily be integrated within your business.
The third key step is to take account of this resourcing / talent pool and build it into your business strategy.
Look at the talent you now have available and the existing strengths within your organization to determine the key activities that can and should be kept within your business to protect your I.
P.
You should also determine which activities (if any) could or should be outsourced.
The final step is to implement a method of managing the work across your available resource pool (remember the availability of staff within this pool will be constantly changing).
When implementing a solution you need to keep the following points in mind; • Cloud working - sharing work electronically has never been easier or faster and makes for a good option in many situations • Simplicity - a simple, intuitive solution will be easier to implement with better uptake amongst your staff • Low administration overhead - the quickest way to kill a new idea is to make it a burden to use so make sure you implement something that is effective without being a burden.
At times, it will be important to have people together in the one location, which may involve short term secondments but there will be many situations where work can be undertaken remotely using readily available technology that you already have in place (or can implement easily).
Insourcing is now a viable option that allows you to enhance your existing business strategies and leverage the talent you already have to increase your overall business effectiveness.
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