Should My Company Be Using Fractional Services?

Fractional work is on the rise—and for good reason. Fractional services can reduce costs, increase efficiency, and provide access to skilled expertise. According to a global market study by KPMG and HfS Research, 40% of organizations expect significant increases in outsourcing (up from 13% in 2014). You may be asking yourself – Should My Company Be Using Fractional Services?

Fractional work is commonly used to provide services including accounting, warehousing, and customer engagement. It can also be effectively utilized for companies that require supply chain management services, marketing, or someone to step in as an acting CFO.

If your company is considering fractional services, you need to weigh the pros and cons.

SPECIALIZATION

Many founders feel confident in their ability to handle tasks in house, or feel they are capable of learning. They worry about deploying fractional work in certain areas where they don’t want to invest.

“When I started my first company, I held myself back, thinking: I can figure this out,” notes ThinkSynergy President Keith Werner. Utilizing a fractional workforce is an opportunity to focus on your strengths and have someone more efficient take over specific tasks. You don’t have to train someone who’s specialized.

One source of company attrition is due to employees frustrated with changing responsibilities. If you have employees, you don’t have to cross-pollinate skills—you can utilize your staff for their efficiencies and help them become successful in one area without spreading them thin.
Think of the learning curve and the time you would spend either figuring out how to do a task or training an employee outside the industry to learn it. Hiring someone who’s not a good fit for a company can cost up to 25% of an employee’s salary. And your company ends up spending more on recruiting, rehiring, and onboarding a new employee. It’s more efficient to outsource certain tasks to an experienced individual or company whose core competencies are stronger. Simply put: Certain people do certain things really well.

FLEXIBILITY

Technology provides flexibility in terms of maintaining communication with fractional people or companies. Countless cloud-based communication tools exist to keep internal and outsourced individuals in the loop, including calendars, project management programs, Zoom, and other virtual conference options.
With outsourcing, many companies are concerned about time differences, particularly because they often associate outsourcing with offshoring. Bear in mind that offshoring transfers work to other countries and may not always involve outsourcing, which contracts work to a third party.

COST SAVINGS

From training to providing benefits, hiring full-time employees is expensive. Fractional hires can be less costly. There’s a shorter onboarding process and the company doesn’t need to invest in recruiting or training. Most companies do everything internally—marketing, accounting, research, and so forth—and don’t recognize the indirect cost of having work done outside the office. They may also be concerned that their investment in hiring skilled outside help isn’t transferrable. However, bringing in an outside team that works like ThinkSynergy can help employees learn valuable skills.

HOW CAN WE HELP?

When you bring in a ThinkSynergy team, we work alongside your existing team and help enhance their area with our experience. For example, we may suggest bringing in technology to automate a process—which helps your employees focus on the work they do best. ThinkSynergy works as an extension of the total team with the goal of making growth and positive change happen in your company. Wondering if your company will benefit from fractional teams? ThinkSynergy, can help.  Contact us today for a free consultation.