Arline RamirezUpfront, offshore outsourcing is the manager’s dream come true. All those little details that nibble away at your time – direct reports, accounts payable, emails – are already taken care of before you reach your office desk. Plus, you managed to slash staffing costs by 60-70 per cent.
While dreams are often far from reality, offshore outsourcing has been proven to work as long as it’s done right. Here are five steps to drive your offshore team towards success:
Visit early and often.
Meet the service provider and visit your offshore staff regularly. Apart from learning the culture of your offshore employees, it’s a huge boost when they see that they work for a real company and meet the people behind the names in their Skype contact list.
Ensure that the local team is on board with the offshore strategy.
People have different views towards outsourcing. By informing your internal staff about the offshore outsourcing strategy, you have control over the narrative. This prevents gossip and fears over job security.
Be proactive in hiring the right candidates.
While recruitment is done by your outsourcing partner, it is still your responsibility to pick the right candidate. Instead of just giving a list of requirements and qualifications, provide tests, questions, and information that will help narrow down your selection.
Look at the bigger picture.
Rather than a separate entity, treat your offshore staff as an extension of your local team. Use quantifiable key performance indicators (KPI) and align them with business goals. Establish a workflow that will integrate local and global teams, with an emphasis on communication and collaboration. Once you get more experience with outsourcing, you can shift from offshore staffing to managed services for global expansion.
Governance
Governance is important even if you just have one service provider. It ensures that the value you receive aligns with your expectations. There are cases when “watermelon metrics” occur – metrics are green but stakeholders see red. A dedicated manager (or team) will keep the outsourcing relationship in the right direction and achieve expected benefits.
In offshore outsourcing, it’s not enough to get the right outsourcing partner and the contract, businesses should also invest effort and time in developing the outsourcing relationship.
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