Employers Employ In-House Or Hire A Digital Agency

Employers Employ In-House Or Hire A Digital Agency If you run a digital business, theres bound to come a point when you need to hire more expertise or you need a service or certain set of skills that you dont currently have in-house and at this point youre left with two options hire new talent in-house or outsource  the work to a digital agency. It goes without saying that both have their own pros and cons and the right option for your business will ultimately depend on your current and future needs, your budget and the values of your business. When considering your options, its important to keep an open mind. While you might be dead against hiring an agency due to a bad experience in the past, its important to carefully consider both options, to ensure you dont overlook the perfect solution. Before we go into the pros and cons, you need to ask yourself some important questions and the answers that you give should start to give you an idea of which option is right for your business at the moment. 1. What type and level of talent do you need? If youre looking for someone who has a super niche set of skills and youre based in the middle of nowhere, theres a chance you could struggle to find the perfect candidate particularly if you want them to work in your office full-time. In a situation like this, a specialist digital agency which has national coverage might be worth considering. Alternatively, if youre looking for a candidate who has more common skills and experience, its still worth considering hiring in-house. 2. Is this an ongoing need or will is it more sporadic eg. youll only need them at certain points in the year? If you know you the work is going to be ongoing and constant, hiring in-house might be a better option because you know that that person will be dedicated to that job and you know youll have the skills to hand 9-5 every day. On the other hand, if the work is sporadic eg. you just need someone to redesign your website and additional marketing material such as banners and email templates at certain points throughout the year, it might make more sense to hire an agency on an ad-hoc basis. 3. How big a budget do you have? It goes without saying that digital agencies can be pretty pricey but then again, so can investing in top talent! Think carefully about the budget you have. Is it enough to offer someone of the calibre youd like to employ a realistic salary? Or would it just about cover an agencys cost? Take a look at our jobs board to have a look at what companies are offering for similar roles in your area at the moment and potentially even ask a few agencies for some realistic quotes. Once youve done this, you should have a better idea of what you can and cant afford with your budget. 4. How much control do you want? Now the answer to this one is really important do you want to be in full control of the work thats being done or are you happy to take more of a back seat? When it comes to things like SEO and Social Media, Id be inclined to say that youd have much more control if you hired someone in-house (because you can keep an eye on them!)   whereas you cant really do that with a digital agency. That said though; some agencies are really transparent and allow the client to have lots of control over their projects so again, this is something you need to ask the agency about when gathering quotes. Like I said; the answers to those questions should already be steering you to one option over the other but if not, here are a few quick pros and cons of each. Obviously, these pros and cons wont be the case in every situation, but they should give you a good general overview. In-house: Pros: Grows your business More control Adds another layer to your business Have the talent to hand at all times Can invest more time and input into the work Cons: Can be hard to find the right candidate Another salary to pay out plus holidays, sick days, pension etc (more HR) Might disrupt the balance of your business Agency: Pros: Lots of talent and experience Up to date with the latest technologies/trends Can be used as and when needed No additional HR issues to deal with Cons: Have other clients to deal with you might not get as much attention as youd hoped! Can be expensive You might have less control May be limited to a certain amount of hours on each project As I said at the start of this post, theres no one size fits all answer when it comes to deciding whether to hire in-house or employ a digital agency because it ultimately depends on the needs and position of your business but hopefully this post will have helped to highlight the key things you need to consider and the overall pros and cons of each. Think Ive missed anything out? Or have some good advice for an employer who cant decide between hiring new staff in-house or employing an agency? Leave me a comment below.