When companies compare outsourcing to hiring, they usually compare hourly rates. That’s the wrong number — and it almost always understates the savings.
The fully-loaded cost of an in-house hire
An in-house employee costs far more than their salary. To compare fairly, include:
- Salary plus taxes, benefits and insurance (often +25–40%)
- Recruitment and onboarding cost (and the weeks of ramp-up before productivity)
- Management overhead, tools, software licences and workspace
- The cost of coverage gaps — holidays, sick days, attrition and re-hiring
Add it up and the true cost of a single full-time hire is typically 1.4–1.7× their base salary.
What outsourcing changes
With a managed outsourcing partner, most of that disappears into a single predictable cost: no recruitment cycle, no benefits administration, no idle capacity during troughs, no re-hiring when someone leaves (continuity is the partner’s job). And with an AI-augmented model, the cost-per-outcome keeps falling as repetitive work is automated.
The number that actually matters
Don’t compare hourly rates — compare total cost per outcome: per resolved ticket, per processed invoice, per booked appointment. That’s the metric that reflects reality, and it’s where AI-enabled outsourcing tends to win decisively.
Plug in your own numbers with our savings calculator to see an estimate in seconds.