Dealing with Layoffs: How Outsourcing can Support HR Teams and Small Businesses in a Recession

As businesses brace for the likely recession, HR teams undergo additional responsibilities. For many small to medium businesses, the economic downturn means that inevitable layoffs will come into play.







For HR teams, layoffs require additional responsibility and work. They can be incredibly stressful for the entire team. To ensure business productivity continues despite the layoffs, HR departments must assist with outsourcing as well.



During these times, many HR efforts go to outsourcing company roles to external providers to help the company with both productivity and financial strain. When done correctly, external delegation is one of the best ways to handle layoffs and keep the company afloat.



Let’s take a closer look at how HR teams can support owners with outsourcing throughout the recession and beyond.



Why Outsource?



Layoffs are an unfortunate and inevitable part of the financial downturn. Many small businesses have to downsize their teams simply to stay afloat. But layoffs are not without consequences.



One of the biggest concerns when it comes to layoffs is meeting all the company’s needs with fewer full-time employees. If this is not addressed properly, it can lead to the remaining employees taking on far more responsibilities than they can handle. Down the line, it can mean conflict and trouble that HR must help mitigate.



Therefore, the key is to address all responsibilities in a cost-effective manner. But when new hires aren’t an option, what can HR do?



Outsourcing is one of the best ways that businesses can reduce operating costs, open up internal resources, and meet all of their functions. External delegation shifts the responsibilities to experts for less than the cost of hiring and maintaining internal employees. Ultimately, externally delegating many roles costs the company less while garnering them more support. During times of financial strain, it’s one of the top cost-efficient solutions for keeping companies productive.



Consider a role you may have had one employee doing. The cost to outsource the same responsibility to a team of 4-7 people is much less than hiring one full-time person directly. Imagine the cost of one marketing individual vs hiring a company where services can be as low as $10 per hour for a team.



Furthermore, the HR team won’t have to spend time and effort reviewing and managing employee benefits. That’s not something they have to provide for outsourced support. This frees up some HR resources as well.



The Role of HR in Outsourcing



At first, it can seem like outsourcing is not relevant to HR, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. While HR may not have to handle employee benefits for outsourcing, there’s plenty they can do for their company throughout the process.



HR teams should leverage their expertise to craft relevant descriptions for external delegations. They have the background, knowledge, and experience to outline the qualifications needed for the job based on previously filled internal positions. Instead of spending time on hiring and employee benefits, they can outline the necessary requirements for outsourcing. It’s a bit different than posting job descriptions and vetting candidates, but the experience from doing that carries over well.



The Benefit of a Full-Service Marketing Team



One of the most common responsibilities companies will turn to outsource during this period is marketing. For one, marketing includes many sub-tasks that quickly add up. A single employee is not really able to execute a complete marketing strategy alone. But having an entire marketing team with experts in design, copywriting, SEO content, social media, marketing automation, and more is not realistic for many businesses, especially during a recession.



Simply put, an in-house marketing team is far more expensive than outsourcing the solution. At first, it’s tempting to consider various freelancers. But companies that need complete marketing support quickly find that it’s not cost-effective or time-effective to work with multiple freelancers.



Instead, one of the top solutions for meeting company marketing needs in light of layoffs and a recession is to work with a full-service marketing team. For access to the equivalent resources in-house, you would need multiple employees (which means multiple benefits packages and far more overhead). Likewise, working with multiple freelancers requires extensive project management and quickly adds up in cost.



When working with a full-service marketing agency, your company gets access to a broad range of services, including web tech, automation, design, SEO content, social media, and more for much less than the cost of hiring even one person. For less than $10 an hour, a full-service digital marketing team can handle most of your core marketing needs. It’s one solution that many HR teams should evaluate while helping their companies outsource during the recession.



Support Your Small Business



Ultimately, outsourcing is a great way to meet internal responsibilities while operating with a smaller budget. When it comes to dealing with layoffs, outsourcing to an experienced team is a strong option for most HR teams and their small businesses.



Valeh Nazemoff is an accomplished speaker, bestselling author, coach, and the founder of Engage 2 Engage , a digital marketing services company. She is passionate about improving people’s lives through strategic planning, collaborative teamwork, automation, and delegation. She removes the frustration, overwhelm, burnout, and stress that entrepreneurs and small businesses face in figuring out the various marketing elements so the focus remains on growing and scaling. Her books, Energize Your Marketing Momentum (2023), Supercharge Workforce Communication (2019), The Dance of the Business Mind (2017), and The Four Intelligences of the Business Mind (2014) aim to help businesses create order from chaos. She has also been featured in many publications such as Inc., Entrepreneur, SUCCESS, Fast Company, Huffington Post, and more.
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