While outsourcing is now increasingly being viewed as a necessity rather than an option, there are scores of companies, mostly the SMEs, who face a typical dilemma when it comes to outsourcing. The most pertinent is obviously hiring the desirable worker. Till recently, it was the ubiquitous and easily available freelancer who topped the list of outsourcing companies. There has since been a marked paradigm shift in this. Having learnt through bitter trial and error that hiring a freelancer may not be in the best interests of their company, more and more organizations are now setting their sights elsewhere. Enter the new breed of dedicated employees: the Virtual Employee.

These are the top 5 ways in which a dedicated employee can simplify your outsourcing process:

1. 1. Hiring a dedicated employee ensures accountability. A dedicated employee is hired by you but is legally bound by contract to an outsourcing service company.  This means that they will always be accountable for everything – from work deadlines to shift hours.
      
      A freelancer compares somewhat unfavourably with a virtual or dedicated employee when it comes to accountability. Since a freelancer operates alone, is not affiliated to any organization, there is no way to keep tabs or ensure that work is being carried out as specified. A freelancer works his own shifts, mostly from their own home and as per their convenience.
      
      
   2. Hiring a dedicated employee means your work proceeds smoothly.  Outsourcing involves a lot of things and money is not just the only factor. When a company outsources, it is also investing time, efforts and energy in selecting and training the right candidate. A dedicatedor virtual employee has been carefully screened and selected by you and works for you full-time. They are bound by a legal contract to both, you and the outsourcing service provider, so there is no question of abandoning any work before it is completed as per schedule.
      
      With a freelancer, on the other hand, there's never any guarantee that they won't leave you stranded in the middle of a project for whatever reason.
      
      
   3. Hiring a dedicated employee means you are spared the tedious process of recontracting with freelancers. Imagine that a company based in a small town in the US or the UK has taken the major decision of outsourcing. Next comes the hiring part, and not knowing any better, the company secures cheap and affordable freelancers, thinking that it is already enjoying the benefits of cost-saving. However, freelancers rarely work long-term as most work for several clients simultaneously, handling multiple projects with multiple deadlines. This means a new freelancer for the same type of work. So, every time you contract with a freelancer, you have to go over the explanations of your business model, your work requirements etc all over again.
      
      That is never the case with a dedicated employee. A virtual employee is your employee, who works long-term for you and not just for short-term projects. Over time, a dedicated employee becomes as integral a part of your team as the rest of the members who are physically present.
      
      
   4. Hiring a dedicated employee means that you are always in the driver's seat. The outsourcing service vendor who provides you with your very own dedicated employee is the liasoning agency between you and your employee. So, not only are you always in the loop, you are also able to have your remote employee monitored and supervised at all times. Thanks to the outsourcing vendor's HR team, you'll be able to easily keep abreast of your employee's work performance. This irrespective of whether the work shifts are different, overlapping or the same.
      
      
   5. Hiring a dedicated employee means that hardware, software and infrastructure are not your headache.Since your virtual employee operates out of the outsourcing service provider's office, they stand a good chance of having access to the best and latest software, hardware and infrastructure to ensure that work proceeds without a hitch. IT and HR support is available round the clock, so you have very little cause for worry.