“Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late.” – Seth Godin
One key aspect of implementing a great outsourcing strategy is creating an understanding of how your outsourcing strategy will work for your existing team. Here are 7 steps to accomplishing a flawless transition.
1. Set your goals
Define and document the reasons why you’re choosing to outsource. Do you want to improve productivity, save money, reduce employment costs or increase profit margins? Define your goals and establish starting metrics and success criteria. Set down your method of measuring the impact outsourcing will have on your business. Your outsourcing partner should work with you on this. Ensure you have this agreed and incorporated into your partner agreement before contract commencement. Read more about winning outsourcing strategies here.
2. Set your home expectations
Make sure your indigenous team understands how their team will grow and change. Work at this early stage is key to fast and consistent buy-in from your home team. Highlight the benefits of your outsourcing agreement. Work with each affected team member to highlight how the arrangement will help them and describe how they will interface with the outsourced team member. Make sure their job descriptions reflect reallocation of duties to ensure minimal disruption when workflows change.
Outsourcing can be a great tool to avoid employee burnout and enhance staff retention. Communicating your plans clearly as early as possible will avoid employee worry and confusion.
3. Set-up for success
Establish and document your communication procedures. Establish work flows and availability norms. Prescribe communication channels (email, IM, Teams, ZOOM, file share, etc.) and establish regular team meetings. Exploit time zones where possible by ensuring work is done when your indigenous team is out of the office. This will allow them to pick up seamlessly from your outsourced team member’s output, giving you quick productivity wins.
4. Define the job
Ensure tasks are well-defined and well-documented. During your outsourcing partner onboarding, you should have agreed and documented the high-level scope of your processes. Use this work to prepare a detailed job description and make sure it interfaces with your existing processes. You may have to do some up-front work here to make sure that your team procedures are aligned following the addition of a new member. Involving your existing team in this process is a useful buy-in tool.
5. Prepare the tech
Establish what technology and systems your outsourced team member will need access to. Make sure permissions are established and granted in advance so that they can start adding value from day one.
6. Training the new member
Allocate a training buddy to your new team member. A member of your indigenous team should be responsible for making sure that your new team member is trained properly, understands your company culture and provides them with a vital point of contact in the team. Provide all available job descriptions, organigrams, and access to company information to ensure prompt integration.
7. Feedback is critical
Develop feedback procedures with fixed frequencies and channels. Insist on multiple check-in points with your outsourced employee and your partner account manager, particularly at early stages. Align your feedback to your success criteria. Early and often is key to successful feedback.
A successful outsourcing partnership depends on these steps and the involvement of senior management. Make sure your company has an outsourcing champion at senior level. Frequent feedback and measurable outcomes will enhance their work and ensure the best outsourcing outcome possible for all concerned.
_____________________________________________________________
Ireland’s outsourcing landscape has changed with the arrival of Teams PLUS, an outsourcing innovator offering accounting and auditing practices a pioneering manpower solution to allow you focus your time, resources and manpower on high-value tasks.
Our solution offers you the opportunity to enhance your existing team with qualified and experienced accounting staff who understand Irish culture and working environments. We’ll work with you to understand your need and find you the right person to complement your team. You get experts who can handle routine work, freeing your local team to work on higher-value jobs. Your new team member is solely dedicated to your practice guaranteeing knowledge retention and continuation of great team work.