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Overcome capacity constraints with outsourced staffing

Written by SAPRO | Nov 7, 2022 11:26:27 AM

         

Overcome capacity constraints with outsourced staffing

Do you know how much capacity you will need to fulfil anticipated future demand and keep customers happy?

In accounting firms, talent constraints stem from many factors. For example, Netsuite recently mentioned 17 capacity-related issues – from hiring and retention all the way to properly managing remote workers.

Talent recruitment and retention have been identified as the leading challenges for firms globally, particularly in the U.S., where many organizations are searching for alternative staffing models to ensure they can handle their workload.

Now is an opportune time to evaluate staffing models, which are especially critical to companies filling professional positions. Apart from hiring and training “in-house” employees, there are other ways of adding to your team.

An Overview of Managed Staffing Models

With managed staffing, candidates are recruited for the company and directly managed within the organization. The firm still bears responsibility for the training and development of new hires.

Alternative staffing models managed by your firm

  • Part-time/seasonal employees
Choosing not to work full-time, some accounting professionals opt for number-crunching roles during the busiest times, taking the rest of the year to pursue other interests. Finding and building these relationships is difficult, to say the least.
  • Remote work environments
With the explosion of cloud-based accounting, both your clients and your team can live and work anywhere! Technology has opened the talent pool for those that choose to manage a remote team. A distributed team can be great, but it takes the right systems and methods to run properly, including sophisticated collaboration, communication, and task management solutions.
  • Partnering/contracting

Many firms specialize in providing certain services, like tax or practitioners, or fractional CFOs. They often provide additional services like bookkeeping and payroll through partnerships and contract relationships. This frees up your firm to do what it’s best at, while you work with partner firms who specialize in other services.

Potential drawbacks of managing alternative work arrangements

While managed staffing alternatives open up options, there are drawbacks and other considerations to be considered. For instance, part-time and seasonal employees must be hired, trained, and onboarded. These processes require time and money to be spent on an employee that may only serve in your organization for a few months and not return the following year. Bringing temporary employees on too soon may also drain your labor cost reserves.

Remote work is a popular solution for many staffing woes but switching to fully remote or hybrid arrangements takes copious amounts of planning and solid systems and processes. Plus, while it’s possible to maintain company culture with remote workers, it takes a lot of work.

Partnering with other accounting professionals requires a large amount of trust, setting of standards, and ample communication to ensure your clients receive the same level of service your firm provides.

In short, these solutions all require extensive planning and management, as well as tightly structured roles and responsibilities. Fortunately, there are other more innovative options for finding the best candidates that correspond to your business requirements.

The outsourced staffing model

An outsourced talent provider can provide the flexibility and just-in-time solution your firm needs during busy periods. Among the biggest advantages of this option is that your firm doesn’t have to manage these resources, as all administration is handled by the outsourcing company. What you get is the advantage of having the right people with the right skills and qualifications when you need them.

Benefits of an outsourced staffing model

  • Outsourced resource providers find qualified professionals for you, and often have them lined up and ready as a result of demand forecast accuracy, the sophistication and capacity of the sourcing team, and the lead time available to meet future demand.
  • Many providers understand the capabilities of their professionals as well as the necessary specialized skills and knowledge your firm needs to successfully your services and meet client expectations. Some even offer further training to get them ready for the services and roles you require.
  • You only work with those individuals who thrive in your work environment. If someone is not a good fit for your environment, they can quickly be substituted.

All of these expected benefits are dependent on choosing a quality partner that has expertise and experience in alternative staffing models.

Choosing a quality partner to provide outsourced resources is the key to success in an alternative staffing model.

Leverage SAPRO’s outsourced resources

A full-service talent augmentation company that provides specialized assurance, audit, tax and advisory professionals, custom trained, SAPRO delivers managed outsourced resources when you need them.

Partnering with SAPRO allows you to:

  • Access a larger number of candidates within our global talent pool.
  • Have highly qualified individuals who are trained and ready for the services you provide.
  • Choose from a large team that we have built with a focus on caring deeply about their well-being and continued training and development.

Ready to have a team that’s highly qualified, trained, and managed by our caring consultants?

Get in touch to schedule a discovery call.