For larger companies, having their own HR department can be beneficial, but even MNCs are known to outsource a section, or their entire HR in some locations. As for most SMEs, the cost-effectiveness of working with an external HR service provider is far too high to be ignored.
As cost-effective as external solutions can be, it is contingent on their HR services actually being up to the expected standards. Any company looking to partner up with an external service provider for partial or complete HR management needs to make sure that the consultancy is up to their expected standards. In fact, that’s the first point of discussion here.
Expect them to Meet Your Company’s Requirements
As mentioned, it’s important to ensure you don’t end up partnering with an HR firm that cannot meet the human resource management needs of the company. While it’s a highly variable factor, there are two primary concerns here:
- Can they offer all HR management services that the company needs?
- Can they meet the volume of work which the company will need them to handle?
Talk to their representatives directly about both concerns and ask for past and present client references. If the HR firm has a history of managing the type and volume of work that they will be handling on your behalf, then that’s always a good sign.
Expect them to Have an Office in Your Vicinity
It’s easy and convenient to work with an HR firm that’s located near your business’s physical location. When you are still checking your options, there is no better way to verify an HR firm than simply walking into their nearby office and seeing what they are all about. This is the primary reason why some of the best HR agencies in the UK have their offices located in prime business locations.
After you partner with the HR consultancy, the physical proximity will also allow for easier, quicker, and more responsive on-site communication. Therefore, if you have an office in or around the Abingdon Science Park area, look for an HR management firm that’s physically located in Abingdon Science Park.
Expect them to be Proficient in Creating Custom Templates for Business Documents
There is a reason why standard templates for various business documents exist. They save time, money, and effort, allowing the HR company to automate some sections of their work for faster completion. At the same time, your HR partner should have properly qualified and adequately experienced staff onboard to go beyond standard documentation templates.
When needed, they should be able to create new, customised, and unique templates for your company’s documents. Customised templates that are created specifically to suit the unique requirements of an especially important document are invariably more impressive and effective. On the other hand, going beyond the standard templates or slight variations that everyone else is using, lets your company documents stand out for the right reasons.
Expect the Firm to Have Experienced and Qualified HR Experts Onboard
The primary reason why people opt for external HR management is the expected cost cut. However, that cost cut cannot come at the expense of quality, accuracy, and speed. Experienced HR professionals, and especially HR managers, are not cheap employees to keep on the permanent payroll. That is the main reason why maintaining an efficient in-house department is so costly.
However, when you go to an HR firm, they should theoretically be a team that’s powered by plenty of experienced and specialist HR professionals to take care of the company’s needs at a more affordable rate. If the staff there are inexperienced and underqualified for the work, there would be no point in partnering up with them at all.
Expect them to be Cost-Effective in Practice
The general notion is that an external HR consultancy will be more financially viable than bearing the expenses of having an entire HR department on the company payroll. That is more than a general notion and an actual requirement that your HR management partner must be able to meet. Before you partner with any firm, work with your accountancy department to figure out if the partnership will indeed save money for the company, as opposed to hiring in-house HR, and the predicted reduction in expenses is significant enough to justify not maintaining in-house HR.
If the calculations look favourable, then that’s the kind of HR partnership you should be looking for, at least from a financial perspective. They must meet all other previously stated standards first though. There would be little point in working with a cheap HR service provider if the quality or capacity of their work fails to meet the company’s expected standards.