I’ve had a marketing communications business for 39 years, so clearly I’m a fan of outsourcing solutions. There’s a lot to be said for hiring an entire, diverse, talented team over searching for one person to fill the role – especially now, when hiring the right people has been complicated by high candidate demands and low loyalty.

Ask any HR director right now, and you’ll likely hear that recruiting and retention of qualified employees is especially challenging.

Now, more than ever, the landscape is ideal for outsourced teams. Because of the pandemic, remote workforces have become much more the norm. As a result, the longstanding desire and expectations for in-house employees have shifted considerably. In addition, a right-priced outsourced team can bring more aptitudes and productive attitudes to the table than a solitary hire in many cases.

An obvious case in point is the potential for multi-generational perspectives with both younger and older team members. For companies selling to audiences of different ages with different attitudes and buying personas, this can be invaluable – and very profitable. Other benefits of an outsourced team include:

1. Many heads for the price of one. In many cases, the price of hiring an entire team – with a variety of strong specialties and talents – can be equal to, or even less than, hiring one executive. For example, by the time salary, benefits, and all associated costs of hiring one marketing manager or director are tallied, a company can find great benefits with the team approach.

Not only can there be cost equivalency or even savings, a marketing team can be far less complicated to retain. An outsourced, independent contractor model negates the issue of taxes, red-tape laden employee relations rules, potentially thorny labor disputes, and other legal and financial entanglements inherent with employees.

2. Top talent in multiple essential areas. Obviously, skills and talents desired vary tremendously depending on the hiring challenge. So, it’s important to have total clarity about the “job description,” then match up candidates to paramount needs. For example, a marketing challenge often addresses multiple roles – including such areas as strategy development and tactical deployment, social/digital channel outreach, SEO, and development of metrics to measure outcomes.

3. Ability to leverage one effort across multiple deliverables. For example, one piece of content can be repurposed/adapted for a variety of uses, including but not limited to: website, blog/articles, social media posts, news/feature releases, marketing and sales collateral, proposals, audio/video scripts, presentations, and email marketing. By efficiently viewing content across a variety of channels and uses, companies can achieve much greater bang for the buck than when each is viewed in its own silo. A top-notch outsourced team employing this approach can be extremely cost-effective and affordable.

4. Better opportunity to find attitudes and aptitudes that add to (not just fit) corporate culture. With one employee filling the role, fitting the corporate culture can be a chief aim. With the right outsourced team, the opportunity exists to add to, not just fit into, that culture. With diverse insights, backgrounds, and experience, a team can add substantial value over a single employee.

5. Fewer costs of hiring and training. Unlike a new hire requiring onboarding, training, and retention attention, a seasoned and savvy outsourced team can climb aboard quickly and get to it. In contrast to typical employee challenges that can prove costly, time-consuming, and demoralizing (including having to rehire and retrain in some cases), an outsourced team can be a cost-saving, time-saving, and morale-enhancing asset. And, if push comes to shove, revising a contract and/or terminating a team is far easier than having to follow a legally complex process involving warnings, documentation, and the like before an employee reassignment or termination.

6. Circumventing salary disclosure trends and laws. A recent article in SHRM.com notes: “More Employers Post Salary Ranges to Attract Workers…[Rucha Vankudre, a research manager at Emsi Burning Glass] said she expects the trend to continue in the months and years ahead, not only because of labor shortages and hiring difficulty but also due to political pressure requiring salary ranges be made available to job seekers. A new law in Colorado does just that: Employers with workers or job openings in the state must post wage information in their job ads…while the increase in job listings with salary information is evident across the country, the biggest jump occurred in Colorado – from 12% in 2019 to 48%  this past spring, Vankudre said.”

While the new Colorado law seemingly requires RFPs and similar “public” outreach to anyone to include compensation information not previously mandated, there appears to be more gray area for independent, outsourced contractor teams than salaried positions.

Viewing outsourced contracting as another avenue to consider when looking to fulfill certain roles and positions makes more sense now than ever – in everything from cost considerations to expected outcomes.

About the author: Denver-based Mark Lusky has owned and operated Mark Lusky Communications, a marketing communications firm, for 39 years. A registered dba of Lusky Enterprises, Inc., Mark Lusky Communications specializes in content-focused marketing strategy and program implementation featuring robust social media, traditional channels, digital marketing/SEO, analytics/metrics, and workflow and administration.