‘Is it more cost-effective to employ or outsource?’
The true cost of a worker is strictly speaking something beyond their yearly compensation. There is no point in making an expense correlation between utilizing a CAD Technician and CAD outsourcing if the true cost of employment is not known. Given the fact that the average salary of a CAD Technician is solely subject to experience and CAD Software; We can see on the graph below a representation of how the average salary of a CAD Technician has increased during the years, going from £20,428 and £34,089 (2015) to £23,345 and £37,500 (2021). (Source Payscale, Totaljob, Reed, Indeed, Glassdoor). It ought to be noticed as well that if an organization is hoping to utilize a CAD Technician who will be overseen by a non-CAD experienced Manager, a profoundly talented and experienced CAD Technician should be utilized which will lead to an increase in expenses. On the contrary, if a company, which has no CAD expertise, employs an average or even worse junior CAD Technician – failure is surely guaranteed. How can you manage a person if you have no knowledge or experience of the task required? Experience with the current job market shows that one should be able to employ an experienced CAD Technician (not a designer) for £30,000. The graph below shows the true cost of an employee including several factors such as: One-off cost for CAD Software, Annual Subscription, Fees of CAD Software, CAD Workstations (they are far more expensive than an average Office PC), Regular Training, holidays, sick days, unproductive working etc.

This picture shows that the true cost of an employed CAD Technician is £32.12 per hour whereas the average cost of subcontracting professional CAD services ranges between £35 and 95£. It should also be noted that the unproductive time specified is only 10min per hour. Surveys have shown that this can be up to 1/3. (Source - https://www.vouchercloud.com/resources/office-worker-productivity) On the other hand, a CAD Outsourcing Company will operate far more efficiently as CAD is their core business and there will be systems in place to maximize efficiency such as libraries, templates and a team of people to use for knowledge. Unsurprisingly this visual representation shows that a full time employed CAD Technician is cheaper than outsourcing, but this is only if the CAD Technician would be working on CAD every single hour of every working day for a full year without wasting any productive time. · CAD Technicians managed by a CAD Manager, who understands how to translate your requirements into CAD, which CAD processes to use and how to check drawings against industry standards.
· Increase your existing CAD team on demand allowing you to tender for larger contracts
· No minimum hour requirements
· Only pay for what you use
· Employ a professional team of CAD Technicians with a range of industry experience. This results in a vast pool of knowledge, experience and expertise.