Sometimes, the\u00a0best hiring decision<\/a>\u00a0is no hire at all. At the same time, if your current employees are overwhelmed, it\u2019s time to take action \u2014 and fast.\u00a0Forty-five percent<\/a>\u00a0of burned out employees are searching for a new job, even if it comes with a pay cut. By making their workload more manageable, you\u2019ll enhance their well-being and job satisfaction.<\/p>\n If it\u2019s not yet time to hire, going a different route can bring major cost benefits, avoid unnecessary headaches, and reduce stress. This can save you time and recruitment costs while still making sure the work gets done well.<\/p>\n So, what are some alternatives to hiring permanent employees? Let\u2019s dive into some of these options now.<\/p>\n To avoid making an unnecessary hire, look for more efficient ways to work. By using your time wisely, or bridging skills gaps with simpler, more economical solutions, you can boost team productivity.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about two key options to consider.<\/p>\n By letting people focus on using their core strengths, you can build a far more efficient team.\u00a0Departmentalizing<\/em>\u00a0means redefining what each person is doing in their role, so they won\u2019t be bogged down by things they aren\u2019t good at or don\u2019t enjoy. Essentially, you\u2019re reorganizing the work under specific functions, which gives employees a narrower, more specialized scope of work.<\/p>\n As you restructure the roles in your company, make sure each person\u2019s workload matches their aptitudes and interests. Maybe you have one employee who thrives on behind-the-scenes efforts like data management, for instance. By delegating these tasks to them, you can free up sales staff to focus on their greatest strength: working with clients. Each person will then be more productive, handling a higher volume of work more effectively.<\/p>\n What if employees are still swamped after you departmentalize, but you don\u2019t have enough work to warrant another full-time hire? In that case, think about outsourcing a service by working with a contractor for certain tasks.<\/p>\n For example, say processing data and paperwork has become a major bottleneck. Currently, this work is consuming 15\u201320 hours of time for full-time staff, who struggle to handle it efficiently. But a contractor who specializes in this area might handle the same volume of work in 5\u201310 hours, providing a cost-effective solution. As your client base grows, you can reevaluate the need for a full-time hire.<\/p>\n If any of these scenarios describe you, it might be time to hire a new employee after all:<\/p>\n Say you hired a contractor six months ago to work roughly 15 hours per week, but now they\u2019re working 30. They\u2019re handling crucial functions as your business scales, but at their hourly rate, this just isn\u2019t economical. It makes more sense to hire a full-time employee, gaining greater value at a similar cost.<\/p>\n Or, as another example, say Company A departmentalized its work but all team members are still drowning in paperwork. Tallying up the number of hours spent on tracking and verifying insurance payments, monitoring and dealing with policy changes, and handling data entry, leaders realized they needed a full-time assistant who thrives on these tasks.<\/p>\n The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant are significant, when it\u2019s the right moment. If you\u2019ve realized that time has arrived, use these strategies to find the best person for the role.<\/p>\n Pinpoint the tasks that have become logjams in your company. Or, identify the specific kind of expertise you need for upcoming projects, looking at skills gaps you\u2019ll need to bridge. Consider whether these tasks fall under a clear role, or look for common themes or competencies that they involve. Then, spell out what you\u2019re looking for under a concise job description and seek out recruits who match those needs.<\/p>\n I live in a town of 4,000 people, so our options for local hiring are limited. But hiring virtually provides a great alternative, giving you access to a much broader talent pool.<\/p>\n Founders sometimes worry about how clients will perceive virtual staff, but these days, it\u2019s the norm. Today,\u00a080% of U.S. companies<\/a>\u00a0have remote or hybrid workers (though many still have in-office staff, too).<\/p>\n One of our agency clients in Woodland, Texas, wondered how her clients would feel about having a VA with a different accent. It turned out that clients had no problem with it at all \u2014 he was courteous, professional, and provided excellent service. Hiring him only strengthened the agency\u2019s relationships with its clients.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re scaling up, outsourcing recruitment can remove some of the overwhelm of finding a new employee. When you\u2019re new to hiring virtually, it can feel daunting. Plus, it can quickly grow time-consuming, taking your focus away from core business activities.<\/p>\n Outsourcing recruitment makes following\u00a0good hiring practices<\/a>\u00a0effortless, too \u2014 and the ROI for a good hiring decision can be tremendous, rivaled only by the cost of a bad hire. Bringing the wrong person on board can cost up to\u00a0200% of their annual salary<\/a>, when considering things like lost team productivity, wasted training time, and the time it takes to replace that person. Hence, having an experienced recruitment partner can pay big dividends.<\/p>\n Each of these options can be right for a different stage of business growth. Hiring a contractor can provide a great interim solution as you continue scaling. Departmentalizing will help you work more efficiently, even if you do end up making a full-time hire in the near future. And once you have enough tasks for a new employee, hiring a full-time person will probably be the most economical solution.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re wondering when to hire a virtual assistant for your company,\u00a0let\u2019s talk<\/a>. I\u2019ve advised lots of companies on this decision, helping them make the choice that best fits their current needs. We\u2019ll walk through some key considerations to help you determine whether a VA\u2014or one of the alternatives discussed above\u2014is right for you at this stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As your company grows, deciding whether it\u2019s time to hire a new employee can prove tricky. It might feel like your workload is expanding by the day \u2014 yet you may not have enough work to justify a full-time hire. That\u2019s a quandary faced by countless businesses as they scale. Do any of these scenarios… Continue reading You’re Drowning in Work. But Hiring Another Full-Time Employee Isn’t the Answer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-beaux-pilgrim","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions\/132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Alternatives to Hiring a Full-Time Employee<\/h2>\n
Departmentalizing the Work<\/h3>\n
Outsourcing a Service<\/h3>\n
When It\u00a0Is\u00a0<\/em>Time to Hire a Full-Time Employee<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-1024x683-1.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
Look for the Logjams<\/h3>\n
Consider Virtual Options<\/h3>\n
Outsource the Recruitment<\/h3>\n