5 Outsourcing Don’ts to Avoid

Every company deals with time-consuming functions and processes that might drain business resources. Tasks such as administrative work, accounting, marketing, logistics, customer service, and other back-office functions could be taking much of your time and money. 

As a business owner, you should be focusing on core business functions. While back-office functions are equally important, you also need to prioritise growing your business. This is especially true if you run a small or medium-sized business and have limited staff.

Outsourcing enables you to focus on business-specific tasks. Meanwhile, offshore staff takes care of business functions not directly related to your industry. Outsourcing also allows you to save on costs while increasing your capacity, productivity, and organisational efficiency.

However, when outsourcing, you might become prone to making a few mistakes. Here is a quick rundown of some outsourcing don’ts to guide you in your outsourcing journey.

5 Don’ts to Avoid When Outsourcing

Partnering with an outsourcing provider is a major decision and finding the right one can be a challenge. You must consider several things—work quality, price, professional experience, company reputation, infrastructure and setup, systems and processes, HR support, and many others.

If you are new to outsourcing, here are some things to keep in mind.

1. Do not rush into hiring an outsourcing service provider

Before you even think of partnering with an outsourcing service provider, you need to be clear with your goals. Outsourcing requires careful planning. You need to identify the services you need help with and the results you expect. Otherwise, planning may be difficult since you are unsure of the direction you want to take.

2. Do not think of outsourcing as a quick fix

Outsourcing means taking a step towards your business’ evolution. As such, it is not a quick fix to your business problems. It is not a magic bullet—it requires a strategic plan. 

Ideally, outsourcing should not be a short-term strategy, especially for a growing company. It should be integrated into the business plan as a long-term strategy to ensure the organisation can effectively and fully achieve business goals.

3. Do not set undefined expectations

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in outsourcing is not setting clear expectations for the outsourced team. If you fail to define your expectations, confusion may result.  For example, if you are working on a project with multiple deliverables, you must outline what those are at the outset. 

At optiBPO, we help clients resolve this issue by implementing a daily report with their offshore team members. There are many different formats for a daily report, but a simple format is included below:

This practice helps in keeping everyone aligned, leading to positive outcomes.

4. Do not micromanage

When working with an offshore team, resist the urge to micromanage. Instead of saving time, it is just going to slow down the process and drive up costs. 

You hire an offshore team because of their proven skills and expertise. Therefore, give them the freedom to perform their functions. Just make sure to clarify their tasks, set clear expectations, measure their progress, and give constructive feedback on how they can perform better. By trusting your outsourced staff, you let them understand how they can surpass expectations.

5. Do not ignore the communication gaps

Communication is key when working with an outsourced team, and if you do not have a good system in place, you may have trouble getting things done.

Ignoring any communication gaps with your outsourced team can also cause problems. For instance, if an employee is not aware that a task has been completed by a colleague, then task duplication may occur. Besides being a waste of time, it also costs your business additional expenses.

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An Ideal and Real Working Relationship

Many factors come into play when working with an outsourced team. Trust, communication, providing the right tools, systems, training, and appropriate expectations are good starting points in establishing a fruitful relationship with your outsourcing provider. By following the guide above, you can minimise your chances of committing outsourcing mistakes that can cost you time, money, and even your business reputation.

If you are looking to hire an outsourcing provider, consider working with optiBPO, a trusted outsourcing company in the Philippines. We can help you build and manage a dedicated offshore team in the Philippines that serves as an extension of your organisation. Your dedicated team members will be supported to ensure they can be effective contributors from day one.

Contact us today for your outsourcing needs!