Outsourcing to YOPA or employing staff - what are the costs?
When it comes to hard money facts, let’s see;
Checking out an average salary for a Bookkeeper via www.totaljobs.com is one example, as this site provides average salaries based on recent job postings. So we typed in ‘Bookkeeper’ and the results were an average UK salary of £25,000 based on a range of £21,000 to £28,000. The salary for Personal Assistant is similar.
So on paper, given 52 weeks a year, 5 days a week, 7.5 hours a day an average Bookkeeper costs £12.80 an hour. Oh, hold on, we forgot to add Employer’s National Insurance. That’s 13.8% on anything over £8,112 a year. So you’re now paying a Bookkeeper £27,330.55 in costs of employment.
Also, there are some days that an employee has to be paid for doing nothing at all. Assuming 28 days paid holiday a year, our 260 days at work become 232.
According to the Department of Work and Pensions, the average number of days sickness a year is 5.5, so the days at work for our average person is now 226.5.
Something else to take in to account is productivity. Typically this is given as 60% and we can vouch for the fact that if we sit at our computers for 7.5 hours, billable time is often around the 5 hour mark because we only charge for the time accrued working on clients work – not for the trips back and forth to the biscuit tin, the loo and dealing with co-workers. So let’s take 5 hours. What’s the hourly productive rate of our average Bookkeeper now?
£27,330.55 in 226.5 days at 5 hours a day = £24.13
and that’s before thinking about paying for liability insurance, cost of furniture, office rent and service costs, beverages, computers and software. Additionally you will need to train, monitor and manage staff, what are those costs and don’t forget implementing current HR legislation – maternity/paternity pay etc the list of costs and responsibilities keep mounting up.
What about other considerations – Personality and Work Ethics;
- At interview your candidate was keen, enthusiastic and full of potential then 12 months down the line she/he has become complacent, moody, difficult and lazy and guess what, you have to sort it out.
- What is the cost to the business through staff illness disruption? Do you have anyone to cover or do you, ‘the business owner’ have to step in – answer the phone, send out invoices and what effect does your role fragmentation have on the business - do your sales or contracts suffer?
So if you want someone who’s better than average, who will go that extra mile to get the job done right, be professional and efficient with a smile, make the right choice and call our team 01926 355777. What are you waiting for, you will never look back when you experience a more efficient, staff hassle free way of running your business.