We all look forward to the holiday season for a great number of reasons. It’s the time of the year when we all get to wind down and spend time with our loved ones. Even during COVID-19 year, the holidays promise a time of rest and reward after a long and stressful year. Even if you have to celebrate it, as you would, behind the safety of your computers. For entrepreneurs, the holiday season is equal parts stressful and exciting, insofar as the opportunities for growth are concerned. It is one of the busiest times for the food and beverage industry. And it takes a lot of preparation and strategy to make the most of the period. One of the best and go-to strategies for keeping up with the holiday demand and avoiding burnout is outsourcing.
Historically, in order to deal with the seasonal demands, companies contract seasonal workers for extra hands on the deck. The advantage of seasonal hires is that you’re not obliged to keep the extra hands on your payroll come February They’re only there when you need them; they leave as soon as the last tassel on the Christmas tree goes back into the box. However, having to find seasonal workers, train and onboard them every year does incur its own costs. In addition, you constantly risk working with people who might not be prepared to work through the pressure of the holidays.
Another strategy is to have an outsourced team all-year-round. A team that can deal with seasonal demands and provide other much-needed assistance the rest of the year.
Here are five reasons why a dedicated outsourced team can strategically augment your business’s core functions:
One: A dedicated outsource team ensures continuity and cohesion during the holidays.
In contrast to hiring seasonal or as-needed workers, outsourcing your holiday team eliminates having to undertake seasonal recruitment. A business doesn’t have to constantly replace people and incur the costs of training and onboarding new people every time. After all, businesses want to have, at the bare minimum, a sense of continuity during the holidays, not to mention the ability to augment their services and meet the spike in demand.
Many outsourcing companies work with experts and professionals drawn from a global talent pool. Usually, these professionals from places in different time zones with different holiday practices. A dedicated outsourced team ensures that your business has the extra hands to convert that holiday potential into actual revenue.
Two: While plenty of digital resources offer automation to fill in the labor gaps, never underestimate what personal touch can do. Especially during the holiday season.
If you plan to take advantage of the holiday craze, prepare to face logistical challenges. Even before COVID-19, shipping during the holiday season was a battleground. Expect much more in the current climate. Money saved from cancellation of travel and gatherings will most likely be spent on sending gifts to loved ones instead. Businesses should consider the possibility of delays and cranky customers waking up to voids in the gift pile beneath the tree.
The past few months have introduced alternative shipping solutions to Amazon and UPS such as Instacart and Shopify. Additionally, a dedicated outsourced team to monitor deliveries, field customer inquiries, and answer complaints can help manage a lot of the problems that may arise. Many of these tasks can be automated, sure. But having another person on the other end of the line is far more helpful, especially in protecting the company brand.
Remember: nobody wants to have their calls about delayed gifts forwarded to answering machines. Least of all, during the holiday season.
Third: The holiday season can be an opportunity for you to test things out – organizationally.
If you can handle the pressure, the holiday season can be a great time to test things out. Just as the holidays are a time to roll out seasonal flavors, it’s also a time where businesses can test out new e-commerce and go-to-market strategies. With the right team, you get to meet the needs and demands of consumers during the holidays. At the same time, you can also roll out tests, track and measure feedback, and create responses that will help you grow your business better moving forward.
Businesses can always outsource to specific third-party firms to take on specific job orders. They can also can create their own dedicated team. Companies like Staff Street, for example, specialize in staffing solutions that offer differentiated expertise as needed. Either way, these strategies can help a business test drive new ideas during the holiday season.
Fourth: Needless to say, a dedicated team during the holidays can help you scale up in a cost-efficient way.
Besides continuity, an outsourced team during the holiday season helps scale things up. There’s no need to be afraid of not being able to meet demand. Preparation is key in setting out new strategies and offering new products and services. Outsourcing allows you to create a responsive and efficient solution to augment other strategies, such as automation and using e-commerce tools, and strengthen rapport with your consumers.
Fifth: Outsourcing functions during the holiday season frees up time for you to take the time off and rest
Lastly, the most important thing you get out of handing the reins to someone you trust is time. As aforementioned, most outsourcing companies work with people from other time zones and other cultural regions. You can make that diversity work for your business during the holidays in two ways. Firstly, you can benefit from the fresh and insightful expertise that your outsourced team brings the business. Secondly, the difference in holiday celebrations means a day of cultural importance for you is just another work day for your outsourced team.
Outsourcing during the holidays helps you grow your business and find strategic solutions. Most importantly, they can help you take back the time you need to spend on the moments that really make it all worthwhile.
To start off, here’s a list of the top outsourcing companies and the various solutions they can provide your business during the holiday season.
- Engage2Excel. They offer staffing solutions for jobs that require in-person employees, such as warehouse associates and lab technicians. They also fill jobs that can be done remotely, such as finance and legal work. Engage2Excel regularly conduct research with various industry experts and academics on recruitment. Some of their resource manuals focus on topics like, how to strategize for recruitment for the future, what type of leadership employees are looking for, and how to recognize the employees that are specific and suitable for a company’s needs.
- Tiempodev. They are a nearshore outsourcing company that offers staffing solutions for tech development needs. Whether that’s in web or mobile development, data analysis, and other microservices. They operate with their own Tiempo Quality System to maintain high quality and agile development of their partners’ products.
- Aerotek. Aerotek works with engineering experts in North America, Europe, Australia and China. They provide staffing solutions for a wide array of industries, including aerospace, architecture, engineering, government and public administration, and pharmacy, among others. Their broad reach across several industries enables them to provide solutions to timely problems such as worker health and safety, reskilling and retention of employees in various locations and industries.
- Berkshire. Berkshire has a dedicated training center that uses a combination of different delivery methods to develop and streamline talents. In addition to plenty of programs for their clients, they also have programs that provide pay equity solutions to help companies learn how to ensure they meet their social commitments.
- Staff Street. Although a newbie to the outsourcing game, Staff Street has positioned themselves as the up-and-coming go-to choice of outsourcing for real estate and consumer packaged goods in the West Coast. With a robust and evolving skills assessment program, Staff Street offers customized staffing strategies to help small and medium firms scale-up strategically.