Saving on personnel: what is the difference between outsourcing and outstaffing. What is the difference between outstaffing and outsourcing and the difference from an outsourcing agreement

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The concept of “outsourcing” translated from English means the use of an external resource. Another foreign word “outstaffing” is translated into Russian as freelance.

Outsourcing and outstaffing

Most people often confuse these two terms. Personnel leasing, personnel leasing, outsourcing are essentially the same thing, but there is a difference nonetheless. Let's take a closer look at outstaffing and the differences between one and the other.

It is possible to differentiate the concepts by studying in detail the terminology of outsourcing and outstaffing. Outsourcing services refer to the relationship between the customer and the supplier. In other words, in this process, tasks are transferred and executed by the executing organization. In this case, employees work for a company providing services and receive a salary. The customer gives tasks that he cannot cope with, the contractor who resolves all organizational issues and is responsible for the quality of the work performed.

At enterprises of the Russian Federation, accounting functions, personnel hiring services, production services, IT services, marketing services and company security are outsourced.

To improve the quality of production activities, taking into account saving time, money and staff positions, organizations providing outsourcing services will help you. A team of qualified professionals who know their business and are able to cope with the task in the shortest possible time.

Outstaffing and outsourcing, differences

Outstaffing and outsourcing - differences is there or not? So, having examined outsourcing and outstaffing in detail, we can conclude that these services provide businesses with the necessary support. Without outsourcing services, some companies will cease to exist, largely due to competitive pressure.

As we have found out, the concepts of outsourcing and outstaffing have different meanings and different types of activities. But I would like to note another very important difference - costs. What is the difference between outsourcing and outstaffing in this area? Each company tries to achieve high quality work, taking into account reduced financial investments. So, outstaffing is the most profitable type of service. The costs of payments and salaries are much lower than in outsourcing. In this case, there is another advantage - low time costs, since outstaffing companies work constantly.

To all the differences, I would like to add a feature that unites these services. A common feature of outsourcing and outstaffing is that their main task is to focus on minimizing risks, reducing financial, personnel and production costs, as well as optimizing taxes.

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The concept of outsourcing can be literally translated as “external source”. In practice, it most often means the transfer of functions of certain internal departments (for example, human resources and accounting departments) to some external contractor.

Production outsourcing refers to the transfer of any production functions or business processes. In this case, the main goal is not saving money, as one might think upon a quick analysis, but freeing up resources for the development of new directions or focusing efforts on really important things.

Accounting outsourcing actively began to develop in 1996, when the law “On Accounting” was adopted. It was this regulatory act that made it possible to transfer accounting management to any external organization specializing in this type of service. It is worth noting that today this particular practice is very common (unlike other types).

The main problem in the development of outsourcing in the Russian Federation is the lack of a legislative framework that would regulate the relationship between customers and performers. This concept is not reflected in the civil code. There is no clear legal structure or scientific classification of contracts, so everyone draws up such transactions based only on their own assumptions.

Outstaffing

The term outstaffing, in turn, can be translated as “freelance”. The essence of the mechanism is as follows. Some of the company's personnel are transferred from the main staff and registered in the executing company. The newly hired employee fulfills the same obligations, but on behalf of the new company, while receiving remuneration.

The difficulty is that employees, while continuing to actually work in the same place and perform the same functions, switch to a contract for paid services on the part of the customer company, as well as to work on a travel list from the performing company. So, the main difference between outstaffing and outsourcing lies in the relationship of the customer to the staff.

In fact, all legal relations end at this stage. The outstaffer does not have any responsibilities other than working with staff. The actual result is not guaranteed in any way, and they are directly connected with employees only on paper. The responsibility, by the way, lies entirely with the staff.

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In the current economic realities, outstaffing, which many people confuse with outsourcing, is becoming increasingly popular. Of course, these concepts are similar in many ways, but there are also some differences. To avoid unintentional violation of legal norms, it is imperative to understand what the difference is between outsourcing and outstaffing of working personnel.

To do this, we first define the concepts:

• Outsourcing is the delegation of authority, a form of labor organization in which non-core functions of the company are transferred to third parties. Most often this is the management of personnel and legal issues, accounting, less often - the production of secondary and auxiliary products, and the sale of goods.
• Outstaffing is a form of employment in which personnel are hired by one organization, but are actually provided “for temporary use” to another company. This is suitable for any sphere of the economy, from production to trade.

Outstaffing is very often confused with outsourcing. Meanwhile, these are completely different services. They have legal, legal and functional differences.

Outstaffing companies provide their personnel to third-party organizations for a period of 9 months or more. The peculiarity of this form of personnel selection is that legally the employees remain registered with the outstaffing company. They are bound by a temporary contract with the customer company, under which the company undertakes to pay the agreed amount after completion of the work.

The main point of outsourcing is to transfer part of the business processes to a third-party company, and this is the main difference between outsourcing and outstaffing. But there are other differences. An employee of an outsourcing company, as a rule, receives a workplace, a salary and a number of job descriptions. In fact, he differs from a full-time employee only in that he is hired for a short period of time. If a specialist is hired by an outsourcing company, then his schedule is usually not standardized; he is only required to complete the assigned tasks.

Having studied these features, you can get an idea of ​​how outsourcing differs from outstaffing. It should be noted that both forms in Russia are still poorly developed at the legislative level, so there are often scammers among outsourcers.

Comparison table with the main differences between outsourcing and outstaffing

The table fully reflects the main differences between outsourcing and outstaffing:

Also, the difference between these two processes is the specificity of the work performed. Outsourcing, as a rule, is aimed at performing intellectual work, while outstaffing involves performing absolutely any work.

Order of conduct

The outsourcing procedure may differ depending on the field of activity of the enterprise and various nuances. In standard format, this procedure looks like this:

1. The entire scope of work is assessed. The employee’s rates and the main terms of the contract are agreed upon.
2. A special agreement is formed. After which it is signed by the customers and performers of the work.
3. The outsourcing employee implements all the tasks assigned to him, according to the schedule attached to the contract.
4. Reporting is generated in a pre-established form upon completion of all work.
5. Payment is made in the prescribed manner. If there are no disagreements, a work completion certificate is drawn up.

Outstaffing is carried out as follows:

1. The organization providing the personnel to study the field of activity. Finds out the tasks that need to be solved at the expense of hired workers.
2. Based on the data received, a contract is formed, which reflects the exact cost of the service.
3. After signing the contract, workers begin to perform their work.

It must be remembered that the outstaffing process itself does not necessarily imply the final action - like a contract agreement for outsourcing.

Main differences in the agreement

The world of modern business and production has its own language and its own terms, which are not inferior in complexity and complexity to the world of science or youth slang.

“Startup coworking in a loft open space” sounds like a spell to summon demons, but in fact it is opening a business to offer comfortable workspaces in one large office space with industrial design. How many words are saved when using slang!

Fortunately, there is no need to memorize all these terms, since most of them occur from English. It is enough to simply translate the terms into Russian in your head, and you will get an approximate interpretation of strange words. But sometimes the terms have almost identical translations.

For example, a couple of terms – outsourcing and outstaffing – have similar origin and meaning. What do they mean, how to distinguish them and how to use them correctly?

Outsourcing

As mentioned earlier, this term comes from the English language, or rather, the term outsourcing, which can roughly be translated as "using an external resource". It means exactly this – the company’s involvement of third-party performers and the complete transfer to these performers of the performance of any function in the company.

Most often, such functions and responsibilities are transferred to third-party companies that do not require close attention or are outside the core business of the parent company.

If no one on their staff wants to engage in a certain activity, or maintaining such a workplace will be too expensive, or you simply don’t want to inflate the staff and get into unnecessary bureaucratic hassle, this activity is outsourced to a specialized company that professionally and specifically deals with exactly this function.

Outsourcing can be used practically at any level of professional activity. The most popular services are an outsourced accountant, hired outsourced security, a translator, and even a visiting cleaner who collaborates with several offices at once and performs cleaning for many companies, ultimately making a large profit.

Outsourcing can often be confused with freelancing– one-time engagement of a third-party specialist to perform certain work. Unlike freelancing, outsourcing involves long-term cooperation with the conclusion of a contract and the complete transfer of a function or activity to another company, while a freelancer does not completely replace the labor of his workers with his presence.

Outstaffing

The structure of this term is similar to outsourcing. Stuff from English it is translated, among other meanings, also as “staff”. That is, if translated literally, outstaffing is the attraction of third-party personnel? Not certainly in that way. Most often, outstaffing is the reverse process - removal of personnel from the company's staff.

Why is this necessary, what is the point? Transferring personnel to a separate company allows you to focus all the efforts of this company specifically at work with personnel– payment of taxes, pension contributions, salaries and bonuses, work with vacations and sick leave, hiring new employees and their dismissal.

The main company can focus its attention entirely on its core activities, concluding agreement with a subsidiary on attracting hired workers.

This technique allows you to bypass many different obstacles, for example, restrictions on the size of the staff. Also, all risks associated with personnel, various unforeseen cases and disputes with employees fall on the shoulders of the subsidiary, outstaffing company, which frees the main company from headaches.

Of course, outstaffing opens up a wide field for manipulation and other abuses. Often, so-called “fly-by-night companies” are used as outstaffing companies, which allow outstaffing customer companies to exploit staff, violating labor laws.

If claims or even lawsuits arise, the shell company simply disappears, leaving the employee with nothing.

Difference between outsourcing and outstaffing

Once the exact meaning of the terms is explained, the difference is easy to spot. Outsourcing is transfer of any activity to another company. That is, another company undertakes to perform certain work, but how exactly it will do it is its concern; the customer is only interested in the fact of fulfilled obligations.

Outstaffing is not a transfer, but rather a reception, and not an activity, but third party workers. The customer company literally rents workers for its activities, which it itself will organize and monitor. And the outstaffing company undertakes only to provide suitable personnel and assume all contacts and all obligations for working with this personnel.

If you have ever looked for a job, then most likely you have come across outsourcing companies. They help companies hire workers by charging a fixed fee. At the same time, the employees themselves do not need to make any cash payments. Along with outsourcing, there is the concept of outstaffing. They are similar, but are not synonyms. You can read about the difference between outsourcing and outstaffing, and what are the pros and cons of these areas, in this article.

History of outsourcing

The term “outsourcing” comes from the English expression outside resource using, which translates as “use of external resources.” The profession of a recruiter appeared back in the 19th century, but then, of course, no one called it that. The first outsourcers can be considered people who hired sailors for long voyages. They looked for staff, negotiated wages and received their percentage of the proceeds. Peter I can also be called a kind of recruiter, because he attracted hundreds of personnel from abroad for the construction of St. Petersburg, among whom were engineers, architects, teachers, and nobles.

In the 19th century, hiring security guards, domestic staff, accountants and stenographers began to become popular in Great Britain and some other European countries. In the 20th century, outsourcing began to develop rapidly. One of the key figures can be called General Motors, which received a powerful impetus for development precisely thanks to the attracted qualified personnel. In the 1950s, the first highly specialized companies began to appear in the United States, which were engaged in searching and hiring personnel for a specific area. For example, an IT outsourcing company or a company hiring accountants for small industries. Such services became very popular as they helped to save budget without hiring full-time employees. Outsourcing came to Russia quite late: already in 1990. The first agencies had limited capabilities, but gradually employers realized the benefits of attracting employees from outside. Currently, many business structures and government organizations use outsourcing technologies.

What is outsourcing?

Outsourcing was popular several centuries ago for a reason. It is based on the idea of ​​separating individual business processes and delegating some tasks to third-party companies. The division of labor is very effective, and not only for large organizations. Conducted studies prove that when an employee works in multitasking mode, his ability to work decreases, and the quality of task performance suffers. Transferring some of the responsibilities to a professional has a positive effect on the speed of work and the result. More than 84% of company owners remain satisfied with the outsourcing services provided. Among other things, the concept of outsourcing helps improve the quality of the product. Thus, attracting personnel “from outside” has an impact on three sides:

• Time of production or provision of service.
• Cost of goods.
• Quality.

There is a certain classification of outsourcing companies by industry and production. As a rule, one company specializes in only one area. What kind of industry recruitment companies can you find?

• Construction.
• Accounting.
• Financial.
• Legal.

These are the most popular destinations in the modern world. It can be quite difficult to attract qualified personnel on your own, so companies often use the help of outsourcing companies. The benefits of this practice are obvious: for example, in America, where hiring has been flourishing for decades, labor efficiency is several times higher than in Russia.

Outstaffing

Management development dictates new criteria for optimizing business processes. One of these technologies is outstaffing, which allows you to reduce production costs. Many people confuse it with outsourcing. But there are differences between outsourcing and outstaffing, despite the similar sound of the terms. What is outstaffing? This is a kind of “loan” of personnel from another organization that has the necessary personnel. This is indicated by the origin of the word: out - “outside” and English. staff - “staff”. The employing company enters into an agreement not with another enterprise, but with employees who are placed at its temporary disposal. At the same time, they enter into a temporary agreement, which specifies a list of works that they undertake to perform. That is, formally, employees are on the account of one company, but perform the tasks of another.

Outstaffing is usually a temporary measure that is required under different circumstances:

• During maternity leave or sick leave of a full-time employee.
• To complete short-term projects.
• To perform work under hazardous working conditions.

The concept of outsourcing and outstaffing helps you choose the right way to attract personnel. Outstaffing gives employers unlimited freedom of action. They are not required to deal with tax deductions and paperwork - this is usually taken care of by the company that provides the personnel. Also, the employer can refuse the services of such an employee at any time, without explaining the reasons for dismissal and without paying a penalty. Therefore, in 2016, amendment 53.1 was made to the Labor Code, which limits outstaffing of personnel. Now temporary staff must work for the company for at least 9 months.

Functions

In order to answer the question of how outsourcing differs from outstaffing, you must first understand what functions they perform. Outsourcing, like outstaffing, can take over any functions of an enterprise. The most common tasks are:

• Payroll calculation, taxes, preparation of accounting reports.
• Software development.
• Cleaning of private apartments, offices, buildings.
• Construction work: construction and repair of buildings and complexes.
• Maintenance of land and air transport (airports, railways).
• Legal support of transactions and company activities.
• Advertising companies, development and promotion of new products.
• Personnel management, cost optimization.

For any function or task that you need to solve, there is a specialist who will do it in the shortest possible time and with high results. This is why outsourcing companies exist. They allow you not to hire permanent staff, but from time to time to look for professionals for the necessary purposes.

What is the difference between outsourcing and outstaffing?

Outstaffing is very often confused with outsourcing. Meanwhile, these are completely different services. They have legal, legal and functional differences. Outstaffing companies provide their personnel to third-party organizations for a period of 9 months or more. The peculiarity of this form of personnel selection is that legally the employees remain registered with the outstaffing company. They are bound by a temporary contract with the customer company, under which the company undertakes to pay the agreed amount after completion of the work. The main point of outsourcing is to transfer part of the business processes to a third-party company, and this is the main difference between outsourcing and outstaffing.

But there are other differences. An employee of an outsourcing company, as a rule, receives a workplace, a salary and a number of job descriptions. In fact, he differs from a full-time employee only in that he is hired for a short period of time. If a specialist is hired by an outsourcing company, then his schedule is usually not standardized; he is only required to complete the assigned tasks. Having studied these features, you can get an idea of ​​how outsourcing differs from outstaffing. It should be noted that both forms in Russia are still poorly developed at the legislative level, so there are often scammers among outsourcers.

Similarities

If everything is clear with the differences, the similarities between outstaffing and outsourcing are even more obvious. Both firms use their reserves for the following tasks:

• Minimizing risks.
• Improving product quality and company efficiency.
• Reduced financial costs.
• Tax optimization.
• Acceleration of production processes.

Despite the differences between outsourcing and outstaffing, both directions are designed to save the company money on the biggest expense item: staff costs.

Advantages

Outsourcing has become quite popular recently, and many companies are considering using the services of staffing companies. What are the advantages of outsourcing and outstaffing?

• Saving money and time is one of the most significant arguments in favor of outsourcing. Often in small companies there is a lot of specific work that requires certain knowledge and skills. In the absence of a better alternative, it is blamed on company employees who do not have such experience. The result leaves much to be desired, productivity drops. In this case, hiring temporary professionals may be a good solution.
• Freer contractual relations make it possible to terminate the contract in accordance with the procedure established by law. There are still significant concessions when it comes to attracting personnel from outside.
• Outsourcing can prevent many unpleasant situations. For example, in the event of dismissal, maternity leave, or an employee going on sick leave, the company will simply offer another professional. Also, an agreement with an outstaffing company can protect you from labor disputes and reports to the tax authorities.
• You can be confident that your tasks will be completed on time. The outsourcing company is interested in the high quality of its services, so employees complete the work efficiently and on time.

Flaws

Outsourcing and outstaffing also have certain disadvantages that are associated with the characteristics of these areas.

• An incorrectly performed task is the result not so much of the negligence of hired employees as of an incorrectly assigned task. Therefore, when setting goals, it is important to draw up technical specifications in more detail.
• Bankruptcy of an outstaffing company may lead to failure to fulfill obligations.
• By transferring some tasks to third-party employees, you risk the company's confidentiality. Of course, the contract will include a non-disclosure clause, but this does not exclude the possibility of industrial espionage.

Personnel leasing

In addition to outsourcing and outstaffing, there is personnel leasing, which is the hiring of seasonal workers. One party to leasing is recruitment agencies that search for and provide the necessary personnel. On the other hand, there are enterprises that need temporary staff. For example, for seasonal cleaning of the area or renovation of the premises. The difference between leasing and outstaffing is that in the latter case, personnel are provided by another, non-core organization. And leasing, as a rule, is carried out by professional recruitment agencies.

Outstaffing and outsourcing agreement

The difference between outsourcing and outstaffing lies not only in the forms of attracting personnel, but also in the contract. The application for outsourcing services displays the following parameters:

• Nature and scope of work.
• Payment.
• Number of external employees.
• The result of their activities.
• Maintaining confidentiality.

When concluding an agreement for outstaffing services, the employer carefully describes:

• Number of recruited employees.
• Remuneration.
• Additional legal agreements with temporary staff.

Thus, the main difference between outsourcing and outstaffing agreements is that with outsourcing services a full-fledged agreement is concluded, and during outstaffing only an agreement on the provision of personnel is valid. But even for this, the recruiter must meet certain criteria provided for in Article 56 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. The difference between outsourcing and outstaffing is clearly visible at the legal level, so it is incorrect to compare these concepts with each other.