The challenge of generating income while maintaining profitability is the biggest challenge businesses face. Unsurprisingly, the standard estimate of a business’s profitability is two to three years. In addition, Sage found that SMBs spend an average of 71 days, or 1,700 hours a year, on administrative tasks such as documentation, recruiting, and accounting.
Therefore, companies must understand the importance of streamlining business processes and embark on a change. One of the ways to optimize business processes for all enterprises, including large organizations, is outsourcing. This article will provide an in-depth analysis of how outsourcing can relieve the pressure of time-consuming administrative tasks and enable businesses to concentrate their resources on growth and high-value tasks.
How can admin impact businesses?
All organizations have a certain number and types of admin tasks that must be completed for business to stay afloat. As mentioned earlier in Sage’s report, small and medium-sized businesses spend an average of 71 days a year on administrative tasks. Therefore, companies need to understand which tasks are causing the most disruptions.
Different types of administrative tasks depend on the business, size, and industry, while others might be more time-consuming or more valuable to the business than others. Talking about the most common administrative tasks, accounting is considered the most time consuming and costly, accounting for 20% of all time spent on administration, followed by invoice creation and taxation.
The most common admin tasks include:
1.Accountancy
Accountancy was identified as the most time-consuming administrative task. Moreover, there is a good reason for that since this is the foundation of the success of any business. A successful business must have a successful accounting team as accounting plays a vital role in enabling businesses to track income and expenses, ensure legal compliance, and provide quantitative information to investors.
General accounting tasks:
• Generation of profit and loss reports
• Updating financial data
• Reconciliation of payments and receipts
• Work in progress calculation
• Managing with bank accounts
2. Human resources
HR plays a crucial role in developing and maintaining a business culture. Companies must align their HR processes correctly as this can have a lasting impact on their employees and their layoffs. The HR department also helps develop and define the business strategy.
HR plays a key role in developing the culture of a business and sustaining that culture. Companies must get their HR processes correct as they can have a lasting impact on their employees and attrition. The HR department also involved in the business’s strategy development and definition process.
General HR tasks:
• Staff handbooks
• Policy development and documentation
• Regulatory compliance and reporting
• Employee satisfaction
• Employee orientation, development, and training
• Conflict resolution
3. Payroll
Perhaps the most important payroll function is to ensure that every employee is paid correctly and on time. To do this, businesses need to make sure they follow the right payroll system and have the right people in place. For instance, looking at the UK data by 2019, around 75% of large UK companies admitted that they paid their employees late or incorrectly.
Common payroll tasks:
• Collecting employees’ timesheets and payroll data
• Calculating wages
• Detailing earnings
• Payment of bonuses
• Preparing paychecks
How can your business use the admin?
If your business is struggling with administrative work, there are several options to resolve the ”administrative headache effectively”.
Administrative outsourcing is a reliable and effective solution for many companies. It allows you to delegate tasks to a third-party company, which then performs all your administrative tasks for you.
Outsourcing companies often charge you an hourly rate and record the time to complete each task to the minute, which ultimately means you only pay for the working time.
Here is a complete list of all the administrative tasks that can be outsourced:
• Call handling
• Handle file management
• Managing correspondence
• Management of emails and diaries
• Documentation
• Coordination and scheduling calls and appointments
• Trip management
• SMM (social media marketing)
• CRM Management
• Email marketing
• Event management
• Market research
• HR support
• Data input
• Bookkeeping
• Research
Choosing Right Outsourcing Vendor
Be sure to select the right supplier before handing over the reins. While it is not difficult to find suppliers, the selection process is often vital and will ultimately determine whether your outsourcing efforts are successful or not.
The first thing to look out for is the credibility of the supplier. Do they have positive reviews, and what does their online presence look like. Trustpilot can provide complete business transparency and provide an insight into the service quality of this provider. Once you have found a supplier, be clear about your expectations and milestones. In the end, if they have a clear idea of your expectations, they will live up to them.
Finally, once your outsourced vendor is up and running, it is time to step back and relinquish control. As you work, new team members will integrate into your business, and your business will experience changes. Do not micromanage, as this can negatively affect the team and the quality of work.
