“When and Why Should I Outsource HR?” Here are 11 Definitive Signals

March 18th, 2015
Written by: Elizabeth Richards

When it comes to the various ways organizations manage (or don’t manage) HR, we’ve seen it all here at TPO. Or so I thought. We recently received an inquiry from a non-profit executive who said,

“Our Board is acting as HR. As the Board changes by 5 members out of 15 each year, we often don’t have anyone who has experience or HR knowledge.”

In the immortal words of humor writer Dave Barry, “I am not making this up.” I have to admit I have never seen a situation quite like that.

But it gave me a good reason to inform you of the most common signals or triggers that are telling you—either subtly or in no uncertain terms—that you should consider outsourcing your Human Resources function or change the way you resource it in some way:

11 Definitive Signals That You Should Consider HR Outsourcing (HRO)

1. You’re growing so fast that you can’t keep up with labor law compliance and other issues.
2. The HR person you just hired isn’t fitting in or producing.
3. Every time you make a great hire, he or she turns around and goes to a competitor.
4. You’re restructuring and need to understand how best to realign.
5. You need help bringing your new vision and mission to life with your workforce.
6. You need to boost morale among your team members.
7. Your HR director is going on leave and you need to fill the void while he or she is gone.
8. You’re implementing a new service line and need to understand how this impacts your people—and whether you even have the right people.
9. You need help aligning your individual staff objectives with your business objectives.
10. You need help finding people with new skills and fresh thinking–change agents and people who can lead initiatives.
11. You have a new CEO or President, causing change that needs to be implemented organization-wide.

And I guess based on our recent experience we should add one more: When your Board is your HR function!