Seat leasing is where an outsourcing or coworking space leases you space for a team that you recruit, train, and manage. They usually provide equipment, infrastructure, and office security while also often offering recruitment and HR/payroll support. Here are some examples of seat leasing: 1) Design Studio: Any sort of creative workshop or design studio will look to hire people that are aligned with their vision, which means that they will need to assess individual portfolios during the recruitment process, train people on how to use specific software, and manage them directly to ensure that their clients can be satisfied with the finished product. It might be difficult to find an outsourcing partner with both expertise in the creative space and an understanding of your clients. Therefore, in this case, it's best to handle recruitment, training, and managing of that directly. In my recent experience, an architecture studio in Colorado engaged an outsourcing partner who had seat leasing options. The outsourcing partner helped with some initial components of recruitment and then continues to provide payroll/HR. They did not do staff leasing as no one on the outsourcing company's team could support the architecture team in that way so it would have been a waste of money. The architecture studio's Philippine team has grown enough to where they can now handle recruitment on their own as well.
2) Finance Company: Finance companies have a lot of high value information and are always looking to minimize their exposure while staying compliant with both client demands and laws. One finance company saw seat leasing as a solution and engaged an outsourcing partner for help. The outsourcing partner helped recruit team members, upgraded the firewall system, and then installed them in a secure office space. The finance company still depends on the outsourcing partner to help with recruitment and HR/payroll and appreciates invites to the outsourcing company's events.
3) NGOs and small entities: Some NGOs and small companies really just need seats and they'll look at outsourcing centers and coworking spaces for best prices. There's not much of a difference between the two and sometimes outsourcing centers might not promote their ability to provide seats as well as other services. Oftentimes, you just need to ask and see what arrangements can be made.
No matter what, ask questions about infrastructure, cyber security, and general office security as these can differ widely from what a seat leasing provider describes in marketing materials. You can request direct meetings with a company's IT manager, operations manager, and office manager to best understand what a company provides.
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