For many in the typical office setting, the pandemic has forever changed the way people work. Long commutes are out, over communication on Slack is in, to name two major adaptations.
While it's certainly an adjustment period, and there are pros and cons to any new situation, there are huge opportunities for professional service firms in the current workforce landscape.
Professional service firms operating remotely, such as finance, digital service companies, lawyers, accounting firms, and others, are seeing more opportunities than before the pandemic. The global professional services market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.9 percent between 2021 and 2022, according to Report Linker.
Hiring service providers before and after the pandemic
Before the pandemic, many professional service providers were not the go-to solution for certain business challenges. More often than not, teams or individuals would be hired in-house.
If service firms were hired, companies would often want those professionals to come into their main offices to work so that things could be seemingly more "under control."
Executives were not as willing to work with a service provider, especially a remote one.
But in a post-pandemic world, the barriers are canceling. Remote work became the norm so now working with service firms that are local and able to be present in the office physically, is no longer considered necessary.
Working with service firms, now, is a sought-after plug-and-play solution for companies. Companies can hire the best of the best service providers by finding top, specialized talent with a culture and process unique to that service they are offering.
There are many benefits to working with a professional service firm, including:
Expert talent. Remote work has expanded the size of the talent pool. Companies are now able to find the best of the best talent, as well as providers that are hyper-specialized in certain types of projects.
Seamless team integration. Because remote providers typically have their project management and communication processes very dialed in, they often start working more effectively and transparently with teams than regular employees do.
Accountability. Typically, when companies hire a remote service provider, there is a specific reason that they are hiring them, and it is detailed and outlined in a contract. While it could be argued that this is also true for full-time employees, often roles adapt and change, and it can be harder to hold a full-time employee accountable because employment contracts are generally vaguer.
Connection. Because so many companies have full-time employees working remotely, there are ways that team leaders and managers try to cultivate deeper connections with their employees. This can easily apply to an outsourced service provider as well. There's just as much face-to-face interaction with the service provider as there is with full-time employees.
Hiring. Instead of going through the long process of finding and hiring many individuals, managers just have to spend the time finding one right team that already has it all together. It's one hiring process, versus many, with less time spent on negotiating and other tasks associated with hiring.
Team culture. By hiring a remote service provider, a company can keep its culture focused on the service it delivers. Let's say a company provides marketing services, but must also have a financial department. By outsourcing its finances, it can create a culture focused on marketing versus a more general operational culture. Service providers can build cultures around their specialties as well, meaning they can keep the top talent in that field. Cost. When a company hires a service provider versus several individuals to tackle any given project, the company just has to pay one fee versus having to pay salaries, benefits, overhead, and other costs. When companies are calculating this math, hiring service firms tends to be a winning proposition.
Timing. When a company is ready to hire for a new role or get a new project tackled, the hiring process and onboarding time can slow the time to deliver on a project. When hiring an outsourced service provider, the outsourced team can be ready to execute as soon as the contract is signed.
These are just some of the benefits that companies can expect when hiring a professional service firm. Through our peer groups, we are seeing professional service providers do well for these reasons and others.
If you have a specialized skill set, it might be time to consider starting your professional service, firm as the demand is not going anywhere.
If you are in a management position, finding a professional service firm might be a great way to cut costs, get top talent, and solve your business challenges quickly.
The opinions expressed here by Inc. Masters members are their own, not those of Inc. Com.
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