How To Grow A Remote Team When Outsourcing
In this blog, we will teach you how to grow a remote team when outsourcing. There is no doubt that the pandemic around the world has added several challenges for business owners. Cost pressures have become more severe, income prospects have been fluctuating. In addition, maintaining the right workforce balance has proven more difficult than perhaps ever before. Business owners have to juggle their operational capacity with their ability to cover the wages of their staff.
That is to say, businesses have quickly developed flexibility in their approach to cost savings. Adaptability and definitive action have become indispensable skills for those looking to stay afloat. The sense of agility and underlying savings opportunities presented by outsourcing has become impossible to ignore any longer.
The decision-making process has been accelerated, and this state of urgency has empowered business owners to look at outsourcing solutions. That is to say, strong actions must be taken quickly, even if they might be tough. That is to say, it can free the owners from the anxiety of indecision. In addition, a number of upper management teams have been seizing the initiative to make bold strategic and structural changes. Many of the most successful businesses that are expanding their offshore workforce have done so within this framework, not as a means of replacing the existing onshore team but rather to augment and strengthen them. There is a perception that many businesses outsource to substitute their in-house staff.
Why Good Processes And Boots On The Ground Matter?
Let us continue on the topic to learn how to grow a remote team when outsourcing. Some business owners have also noted, a shift in corporate culture, as formerly in-house full-time staff members, have taken to working remotely. Even as some domestic rules were temporarily eased earlier, we saw a number of businesses retain that framework, recognising an opportunity to cut down on overheads including rent, travel expenses, and utilities. That is to say, the talent pool should stretch wider and deeper than ever before. The recruitment of new staff no longer hinges on where they live. There has also been a time throughout the pandemic to iron out any operational wrinkles with regards to remote workers. In addition, owners and management now feel more equipped to both communicate and manage their remote workforce.
With this newfound technological expertise, an offshore team member(s) is not nearly as intimidating to business owners as it might once have been. It’s certain that the pandemic has put unforeseen levels of pressure on small business owners across the board. However, some have been galvanised into action, spurred on by the need to survive and outlast these conditions. That newfound sense of urgency can declutter the process of making decisions and create a time for agility and flexibility. That is to say, they’ve been bold and decisive, underwritten by the experience, skill, and knowledge that outsourcing can provide. In times when incomes are fluctuating, developing the confidence to take concise, necessary action in the knowledge that your outsource partner will provide the best possible asset for your needs can make all the difference.
Now that you know how to grow a remote team when outsourcing, let us move forward to how to ensure quality.
How To Get Consistent, Quality Outcomes When Outsourcing
It can be extremely scary to put the trust of your internal or customer-facing business processes in the hands of a new team. You learnt how to grow a remote team when outsourcing. Now let us learn how to ensure ongoing quality and consistent outcomes.
Quality assurance starts before the working day with your team. That is to say, constant conversations should happen to ensure a service provider is going to provide what you need. Managing quality is a priority and should be based on measuring the ability to meet the needs and expectations around a set of service agreements or measurable outcomes and milestones. Of course, the details and depth of this may vary between services and delivery models. But, if your outsourcing vendor can’t show this at the start, are you sure they can provide consistent quality through delivery?
Your outsourced team should act as an extension of your business, and the way you manage quality should be applicable from the beginning. But there are challenges that mean this isn’t simply plug and play. Finding an outsourcing vendor to partner with who provides a consultative approach to transitioning, building, and managing your business is of utmost importance. That is to say, below are some ways to ensure quality when outsourcing.
● Team meetings
Organise daily meetings where quality is discussed and other focus points are brought to light.
● Weekly coaching
Individual qualities should be discussed on a weekly basis with team members and leaders.
● Monthly scorecards
Scorecards that are updated weekly could be set up to award incentives as well as track and manage performance.
● Continuous development
Regular, ongoing training sessions could be set up that are focused on customer experience, communication, etc.
● Job descriptions
Expectations, focus on quality, and one key area for team members and leaders should be discussed and set up.
● Policies
Working methods that have become inherent should be written and signed off by senior management, HR or other stakeholders.
● Process mapping
This should be done by a specialist to document processes. This ensures that new employees, clients, etc. who are not fully exposed to the processes are able to understand how a particular function is performed.
● Work level instructions
Procedures should be created, used, and maintained by an operations team. This details how tasks are performed, up to the minute. That is to say, they will contain step by step of actions to be performed to achieve an output. These are reviewed periodically to ensure they are accurate and up-to-date.
● Continuous improvement
Processes should be re-engineered or designed depending on the test done per the improvement initiative. Factors are considered, and risks are assessed. As a result, the possibility of failure is anticipated, and preparations are plugged into the project.
● Best in Breed
Being unbiased towards the use of different tools to solve different problems is the key. That is to say, there should be no “one size fits all” approach to using technology.
● Infrastructure
Technology should extend further than the applications used daily to perform work functions. It should extend to the network, systems, and hardware that support an outsourcing vendor’s operating model. That is to say, understanding this upfront is critical to future quality, consistency, and security.
● Consumption
The consumption of technology is almost as important as the technology itself. Technical implementation should be executed as a basic. But understanding how technology is going to form part of the daily workflow is important to consistent outcomes. Your outsourcing vendor should be able to help with this.
That is to say, no matter where you are on your outsourcing journey, thinking about the relationship between you and your outsourcing vendor as well as the experience they bring in delivering measurable outcomes is key. Now that you know everything about how to grow a remote team when outsourcing, we hope this helps you with your future decisions.
