5 Mistakes to Avoid When Outsourcing
We’ve all heard some pretty concerning stories about outsourcing, but it’s the positive feedback that has you intrigued by the idea of offshore staff. So you might ask, “What is the difference between encountering a positive or negative experience with outsourcing?” There are a few mistakes you should avoid to ensure only the best experience.
Don’t look for candidates without professionals if you have never outsourced.
If you have never outsourced before, it can be quite difficult to know where to start. Make sure you work with a company that handles recruitment for you. That company will (hopefully) have a team of professionals who know exactly where to look for the perfect candidates to fill your role. If you start looking without help, you’ll surely end up wasting a lot of time and money on a process you shouldn’t have to conduct to begin with.
Don’t forget conduct a thorough interview
Just because your staff won’t be going into your office everyday, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get to know them. Always interview through a video calling platform as you want to be sure the candidate is someone you can work with everyday. It’s difficult to get to know someone via email, so save yourself the time and headache of a drawn out interview process and video chat.
Don’t forget to give clear instructions
Providing clear instructions is essential to the success of any project. When working with staff offshores, it can be easy to assume that providing verbal instructions once, is enough. We often don’t realize how many times an in-house staff member walks into our office to clarify a question. Offshore staff don’t have the luxury of walking in and out of an office and they certainly don’t want to seem incompetent by asking TOO many questions. In order to make it easier on everyone, make sure you write out very specific instructions or screen share using a video-chat forum. Also, make yourself available for staff to ask you questions about a given task and be mindful of cultural differences. This will help your staff feel comfortable enough to speak up and ask questions. It’s better to get it right the first time.
Communicate regularly
To touch on my previous point, a lack of communication will almost guarantee offshore failure. Check in with your staff regularly, the same way you would a staff that you physically see everyday. Having an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality when outsourcing creates major miscommunication, which results in mistakes, inevitably costing you time and money to fix.
Make sure you collaborate efficiently
Working with a remote team can be just as effective as working in an office-based environment. One way to ensure success, is to utilize tools that are meant to make collaboration more simple. Some tools, such as Google Drive, allow remote staff to create and edit documents for projects that you can view and edit as well. The great thing about programs such as this, is that all files are centrally located, so they won’t get lost in your inbox.