Procurement & Onboarding: Better to Handle In-House or Outsource?

Today’s HR leader has taken on more IT tasks than ever. From procuring technology to onboarding remote employees, these tasks can be time-consuming and can take human resource professionals away from their areas of focus.

Why are human resources professionals taking on these technology tasks? In some cases, it’s a matter of a company trying to consolidate roles and save money. In others, it’s a result of the company quickly shifting toward a remote workforce and not being prepared to handle the tasks that come with it. Therefore, they often fall to the HR team.

Whatever the cause of this addition to your HR team’s workload, is it better to keep these IT tasks in-house or outsource them to an employee provisioning vendor? Let’s look at both sides.

Handling IT Tasks Internally

For a small team of employees that work in the office, managing onboarding, procurement, and offboarding may be easy. With relatively few new hires throughout the year, these tasks likely don’t throw your HR team off its axis.

If an employee has an issue with a laptop, it may be fairly easy to replace it while the original device gets shipped off to an IT company to repair.

And if you have a dedicated member of the HR team whose role it is to ensure employees are equipped with the right technology and access to software, keeping it in-house may make sense.

However, if managing the procurement process, getting employees their computers, and juggling upgrades and maintenance schedules is interfering with an HR professional’s regular responsibilities, it can be inefficient for the entire organization. If an employee’s computer breaks down, you’ll have to scramble to get it fixed or replace it quickly so they don’t lose productivity.

When to Outsource Procurement Tasks

If your teams are distributed across the state, country, or globe, managing these IT tasks may become even more cumbersome. And for human resources professionals who aren’t well-versed in technology, it can provide a headache to try to quickly ramp up on all they need to know about the procurement process.

While you might assume keeping these tasks in-house would be more cost-effective, often the opposite is true. Vendors often have relationships with technology companies and can get equipment shipped faster and cheaper than you can. Having these relationships may help them save if they’re purchasing equipment and software in bulk, and they can pass these savings on to you. If your HR team doesn’t know enough about technology, you might spend more than necessary to get laptops and equipment.

The Benefit of Working with allwhere

Because a vendor like allwhere specializes in procurement, onboarding, and offboarding, they’re efficient at getting the job done quickly and cost-effectively. That means your HR team can focus on hiring and setting new employees up for success.

With remote employees, allwhere can ensure they receive an onboarding package and swag that makes them feel welcome, as well as ensure they get their laptop with the appropriate access to programs from Day 1.

And your staff never has to sweat about upgrades or repairs. allwhere provides expedited equipment swaps, which means employees aren’t wasting time while waiting for laptop repair.

There are situations where managing these IT procurement tasks makes sense in-house, but for most teams, especially if they’ve got a distributed workforce, working with a vendor like allwhere provides cost savings, reduced downtime, and streamlined productivity. Learn more here.