Looking for a cost-effective strategy to comply with statutory requirements an increasing number of

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companies are outsourcing compliance services to third parties.

The trend of 'statutory compliance outsourcing services' is gaining momentum across sectors, especially with authorities keeping an eagle's eye on statutory compliance requirements.

The outsourcing market of such services, estimated to be worth about Rs 350 crore, is expected to grow further in the coming years, according to experts.

"Compliance services outsourcing has become a life saving element for companies across industries," staffing firm TeamLease Services Senior Vice President (Regulatory) Amitava Ghosh told PTI.

TeamLease offers these services -- related to labour -- to many clients, including "Dell, ITC Kolkata, Shoppers Stop and Dr Reddy's", among others, he said.

With the rising number of notifications and amendments as well as increased vigil by concerned government authorities, experts felt that companies are starting to realise importance of outsourcing their statutory compliance activities.

"Transfer of liability towards statutory compliance at a reasonable cost to consultancy firms can ensure both – compliance and cost effectiveness," Ghosh noted.

The government scrutiny of companies has increased significantly, which has given a boost to statutory compliance outsourcing services, global HR services firm Ma Foi Randstad's President (Consulting, Outsourcing & Training) Rahul Goyal said.

"More number of companies are doing statutory compliance service outsourcing and are spread across sectors," he noted.

Ma Foi Randstad offers compliance services in various areas related to labour to around 150 clients nationwide.

"Compliance outsourcing market is currently worth about Rs 350 crore. It is expected to be worth Rs 500 to 600 crore in five to six years," Ghosh said.

Noting that such outsourcing is cost effective for companies, Goyal said the market for these services is expected to grow at around 20 per cent annually.

"By outsourcing compliance services, we have been able to stabilise as well as streamline this whole process. Moreover, the resolution time related to (labour) issues has come down," apparel retailer Shoppers Stop's Head (Customer Care & HR operations) B V Mallikarjun Rao said.

Shoppers Stop has outsourced its compliance services to TeamLease for nearly one-and-a-half years.

Entities having multiple offices in different regions are mainly found to be outsourcing statutory compliance services, experts said.