In today's litigious business environment this should surprise no one. But even simple icebreakers, including asking if an applicant has children, could be seen as unfairly discriminatory.

While seemingly nonessential to most businesses, duties such as human resources management, accounting and information technology, if neglected or mismanaged, can be as detrimental as poor sales or marketing.

Few people can be good at every task. This is where outsourcing comes in handy for many businesses. Though it has become a demonized concept to many in the U.S., not all outsourcing means American jobs lost to cheaper labor abroad. But even when kept in the country, or in the city for many Columbus businesses, successful outsourcing can save a business up to 30 percent, said Gartner Inc., a Stamford, Conn.-based IT research firm.

But the money saved in outsourcing is generally seen only in the long term -- if at all. Gartner found that outsourced operations are 30 percent more expensive than the top quarter of customer service operations. Further, 80 percent of companies that outsource purely to cut costs never meet that goal.

Therefore, it may be best for smaller businesses to streamline in-house operations by hiring experts where their expertise is most needed, said Cathy Phillips, branch manager at the Columbus office of Spherion, a nationwide staffing chain.

"They come in and ask if it's cheaper to hire people themselves," Phillips said. "There's opening ads and answering phone calls and interviewing... Think about who's an expert in the hiring industry. If it's not the core of your day-to-day operations, let someone else do it."

Much of the savings that outsourcing creates is by allowing greater productivity among the in-house resources. It may not work for all, but every business should check its IT/accounting department to see if it would work better as just IT.

While admitting inherent bias as a HR outsourcer, Spherion's district director, Jean Reynolds, said she feels it's just better business sense to outsource some duties, putting a premium on expertise. In using a temp-to-hire or temporary staffing chain, Reynolds said many staffing firms pay Social Security costs and other taxes that would otherwise fall on the business. But the intangible costs may weigh more heavily than the fiscal.

At Interstate Electrical Supplies, 2300 Second Ave., the business has outsourced its hiring duties to several Columbus HR firms, including Spherion most recently. With seven of nine employees in its accounting department hired externally, assistant controller Penny Bero says Interstate has been served well through outsourcing. She said the difficulty of finding quality people quickly makes the price of expertise worth the cost.

"You might pay a little more than if, say, we hired them straight out," Bero said, "but it's not like you're getting anyone better through doing it yourself."

-- Christopher Boyce