There’s this outsourcing cautionary tale of urban-legendary proportions:

A car company started outsourcing part of its operations. At first, it was just in the production of small components and systems; but within a few years, it shifted to everything from design and engineering to basic business operations. Soon enough, the company realized it couldn’t fix simple problems, from payroll to design, without considerable machinations and expense. The company had outsourced their competence with a cost-saving strategy that ultimately cost them money — the most ironic thing ever.

You can swap out “car company” for just about any other type of business, and the caution propaganda still applies. Contract out just one thing in your business, and you’re on the road to ruin!

But, really?

Automation vs. Outsourcing

We all know what outsourcing is: a business practice that ideally reduces costs and/or improves efficiency by having third-party workers perform jobs, tasks, processes, etc on a contract basis. Anything from accounting work to customer service to entire factories worth of production can be outsourced.

Automation could be considered a type of outsourcing wherein a process or system operates automatically via technology. Something that’s important to note is that humans and/or machines can do outsourcing. Automation, by definition, is done by technology only.

According to Ralph Perdomo, a research analyst at Nvoicepay writing for Website Magazine, in the past, outsourcing meant relinquishing a certain degree of control.

Today’s outsourcing however — the kind found working in conjunction with automation – requires effort, but actually adds control.

Today’s Outsourcing

According to Perdomo, the old style of outsourcing “doesn’t listen.” In this older version, outsourcing involved a simple directive to contract labor, with (ideally) correct execution to follow. This type of outsourcing, which may look simple on paper, assumes no contingencies, innovation or collaboration.

In many ways, this is the scenario envisioned by people who fear outsourcing. You release your work into the ethers, and hopefully something reasonably correct comes back. Perdomo suggested that organizations that employ this type of outsourcing are “prioritizing short-term, marginal success in exchange for long-term sustainability and growth.” This is an interesting note.

What Perdomo is saying is that, in this old version of outsourcing, businesses may trade the quick, get it off my plate solution for the long-term collaborative investment. But why does it have to be like that?

The difference between dated outsourcing and contract work to outsourcing that will work in 2018 is a simple ingredient: communication.

You have to talk to the people you work with.

There is no such thing as an automatically-running business. There probably never was, but there definitely isn’t in today’s marketplace. Something happens that goes viral, which means your social media strategy needs a real-time change up. Weather impacts travel plans, computers crash, people have personal lives – and you need to be in touch with the people you work with throughout all of this. This includes contractors and outsourced labor.

Communication is mandatory in modern outsourcing. Because even though there is so much we do that’s amazingly automated, there are real human interactions necessary to keep the innovation innovating and the automation flowing.

Do not fear contract work and automation. Just be mindful of your part of the agreement – it’s no longer just paying the bill. In 2018, it’s best to think of contract workers as parts of your team that manage significant dimensions of your business. And just like you would never ignore your in-house reception person, don’t expect your contract social media person or publicist to work like a machine.

Even if they could, the work they do does not occur in a vacuum.

Image via barun patro.