Freelance situation: business is switching to outsourced personnel

Business in Russia is reviewing its approach to personnel management: companies that actively use outsourcing are growing faster than their competitors. Their revenue increases by an average of 16% per year compared to 10-12% for organizations that perform most functions independently, B1 analysts found out. This model is most widespread in trade, where the indicator reaches 92%. Experts explain the effect by the transformation of business models: enterprises focus on key functions, transferring operational processes to contractors to increase productivity and accelerate scaling. An additional factor is the increase in payroll costs, which is why the involvement of external staff is used as an optimization tool. For more information about how the management system in Russian organizations is changing, see the Izvestia article.

Why is a business abandoning traditional HR management?

Companies with the highest proportion of outsourced employees grow on average 1.5 times faster in revenue than competitors who prefer to perform most functions on their own. This conclusion was reached by analysts of the B1 consulting group (formerly Ernst & Young, EY), who analyzed the activities of 55 thousand Russian enterprises from various sectors of the economy based on their accounting statements for 2019-2025.

According to the research, champion outsourcing companies increase revenue by an average of 16% per year. For comparison, the "average" companies show growth of 12%, while organizations focused on performing most processes on their own account account for about 10%.

Outsourcing is most widespread in trade, where the indicator, according to "B1", reaches 92%. This is due to the fact that such companies practically do not create a product on their own, but act as coordinators of commodity, logistics and service flows. The main value added is generated through assortment management, pricing, marketing, and customer experience, while production, a significant portion of logistics, and related functions are off-limits, analysts say. Slightly lower levels of outsourcing penetration are observed in the construction and manufacturing industries (81%), as well as in agriculture and transport (72% each).

A high proportion of outside recruitment is becoming one of the key factors for accelerated business scaling, the report says. This is due to the fact that companies reduce the need for capital investments and fixed costs by transferring a significant part of operations to external contractors. As a result, they get the opportunity to launch new projects faster and enter new markets, analysts say.

At the same time, the median share of outsourcing among private organizations reaches 83%, while for organizations with state participation it is about 54%. This indicates a structural gap between more flexible management models in the private sector and more conservative approaches typical of state-owned companies, the authors of the study believe.

Why does business grow faster without staff

Experts interviewed by Izvestia attribute this effect to a change in the business structure. Enterprises that actively use outsourcing concentrate key functions within the organization — management, marketing and product development, and transfer operational processes to external contractors, says Ekaterina Kosareva, Managing Partner of VMT Consulting. According to her, this makes it possible to optimize work in conditions of staff shortages and increase productivity per employee. According to the B1 data, the leading companies generate up to 29 million rubles per person per year, while organizations operating on the do-it—yourself model have only about 5 million rubles.

At the same time, the main effect of outsourcing is not so much to reduce costs as to reallocate the management focus, says Konstantin Saveliev, an expert in the Operational Efficiency practice at Strategy Partners. According to him, the transfer of routine functions to external performers frees up resources for product development, improving customer experience and implementing digital solutions, which ultimately contributes to higher revenue growth rates.

An additional growth factor is the increase in business costs. In a changing market environment, companies are optimizing corporate processes, said Dmitry Gorin, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Business Tourism Agencies (SAD). According to him, this practice makes it possible to reduce costs, primarily in the IT sector and in economic functions. Since 2019, companies' labor costs have grown faster than the cost of hiring external contractors. According to the B1 report, by the end of 2025, the salary fund of organizations increased by 16% in annual terms, while outsourcing costs decreased by 5% over the same period.

At the same time, experts emphasize that this model is not universal. Thus, the share of external contractors in the Steppe agricultural holding remains minimal — about 0.5% of the total number of employees, said its PR director Irina Gruzinova. According to her, the organization relies on the development of human capital within the staff, which allows for better control of the quality of work and the formation of sustainable competencies within the enterprise. In general, if a company really needs certain competencies, it is preferable to form them within the staff, the top manager noted. She also added that the cost of recruiting staff through outsourcing is comparable to the cost of full-time employees and is growing at a similar pace.

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A similar opinion was expressed by a representative of Cosmos Hotel Group. According to him, the company relies on developing its own human resources and training specialists through the corporate Academy of hospitality. Over the past two years, the share of outsourcing personnel in the network has decreased by 7-10 percentage points and now does not exceed 35%, he said.

Delegating some of the processes to external executors is "an extremely controversial topic," as it raises many questions for the tax authorities, said a top manager of a large restaurant company. According to him, the transfer of functions to contractors is economically justified by itself: it helps to curb the growth of personnel costs and increases business flexibility. However, for the Federal Tax Service, such schemes are often interpreted as an attempt to optimize the tax burden. The main risk, according to him, is related to the fact that some of the contractors actually perform the functions of full-time employees. For example, cooks, couriers, and line staff can work on a permanent basis, while remaining registered through third-party organizations or as self-employed. In such cases, the tax authorities have the right to reclassify civil law relations into labor relations and impose additional insurance premiums, personal income tax and fines, the source concluded.

Representatives of Lenta, Ozon, RVB (United Wildberries & Russ Company) and Lamoda declined to comment. Magnit did not respond to the request.

What does the business expect in the future

According to B1 analysts, the trend towards outsourcing will increase in the coming years. An additional driver will be the development of the platform economy and the growing number of specialists focused on project employment, predicts Konstantin Saveliev from Strategy Partners.

The share of such employees may also increase slightly in the future, Irina Gruzinova believes. This is due to the transformation of the labor market: there is an outflow of experienced employees over the age of 55, while young people are still in no hurry to go to the office and are more likely to focus on remote and flexible formats. According to her, this is gradually changing the approaches of companies to hiring.

According to Dmitry Gorin, project staff often demonstrate higher efficiency compared to full-time staff, and for employers this reduces the need for constant monitoring of work processes. At the same time, when performing constant tasks, the level of risks also increases: the company may become dependent on an external provider, which, for example, may unexpectedly increase the cost of services, Ekaterina Kosareva noted.

According to Grand View Research, in 2025, the global outsourcing services market amounted to about $4.2 trillion. By 2030, it could increase to $7.1 trillion, or about 1.7 times.