While high expectations often go hand-in-hand with employment, a high-stress environment can be hard on employees and employers alike. One great way to relieve stress and still ensure that critical tasks are completed is to turn to freelancers and outsourcing to fill in the gaps. With a set of contract employees available to pitch in on specific tasks, your regular staff can manage strategic initiatives and higher-level projects.
Outsourcing Can Also Help Your Bottom Line
A high-stress work environment can lead to employee turnover, which is costly for any business. Current estimates suggest that the loss of a key employee can result in unanticipated costs related to replacing that employee. Some surveys put the cost of replacing a valuable employee between 50% and 200% of that individual’s annual compensation!
Employees leave (or are let go) for a variety of reasons, but commonly, they include recovery from personal illness, the addition of a new child to the family and the need to provide care for a sick family member. For the employer, balancing the need to retain valuable employees against the personal needs of employees can be tricky. In the grand scheme of things, employees’ personal needs are often relatively short-term, but an absence of even a few months can really impact the business.
Rather than discharging an employee (or letting them walk out the door), many employers are now moving toward offering paid leave and filling in with outsourced staff and services to cover the absence. Outsourcing offers a number of benefits to a business. Aside from ensuring workflow, outsourcing can also save time, save money, and provide a realistic option for temporarily expanding the capacity of the business when workflows increase.
A creative retainer is one option for outsourcing graphic design work. A creative retainer is an agreement between a business and a graphic design firm that provides a specified minimum number of hours per month of service. Creative retainers are usually flexible, and allow a business to add hours to the agreement at a previously negotiated rate. Retainer agreements cover a wide variety of work, and can be used to create or support business marketing strategies, create new sales collateral for print or online viewing, redesign an existing website or create a new website, among other things.
By outsourcing the responsibility for certain creative tasks to a third party, employers can reduce stress and increase the productivity of their permanent workforce without taking on additional employees, or running the risk of overburdening their key staff. A creative retainer is a great way to save money, and keep the strategic goals of the business moving forward.
If you would like more information about a creative retainer or outsourcing graphic design work, please contact our Creative Director Dave Ramsell or give Dave a call at (330) 243-0651 to set up a consultation.
Photo Credit: Carl Dwyer, via FreeImages.com
