Outsourcing Mistakes Businesses Make & Ways To Avoid Them

Companies work with outsourcing Partners for different reasons and benefits. For example, outsourcing providers allow business owners to focus on core operations. Outsourcing enables businesses to leverage global talents, allowing them to build capacity, complete projects on time, improve margins, boost productivity and efficiency.

Although businesses are able to improve operations, outsourcing as a solution works best when both parties collaboratively work with awareness. Here are some of the biggest outsourcing mistakes and ways to avoid them:

“A mistake is only an error. It becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it.”

— John Lennon

1. Setting and communicating your expectations

Some businesses fail to set measurable expectations or communicate their expectations to their outsourcing partner. It can cause inefficiencies and productivity problems and impact the overall team’s performance.

• Failing to outline the scope of work and the expected deliverables. When outsourcing to a partner, it is critical to communicate clearly what is expected of them in terms of the services they will deliver and how their performance will be monitored. Without this transparency, both parties may get confused or frustrated.
• Failure to establish realistic deadlines for tasks and project completion. When dealing with an outsourced partner, it is easy to misjudge how long specific activities may take, therefore it is critical to set realistic expectations for the project or assigned task turnaround times from the start.
• Lack of communication with your outsourcing partner on a regular basis during the project’s lifecycle. Maintaining continuous communication with your outsourcing partner throughout the project lifecycle is critical to ensuring that everything is on track and that expectations are met. This helps to avoid misunderstandings or delays and promotes a more harmonious working relationship between both parties.

Solution: Outlining your expectations and objectives is important for your business and the offshore team. You should identify what’s expected of them, the task needed for the project, and the deadline to deliver the results.

Setting clear expectations and goals will make it simpler for you to give instructions to the remote team and assess if they’re meeting the expectation.

2. Failing to offer training for your offshore team

If you consider outsourcing a single-time contract, you may resist remote staff training.

• Failure to provide basic training on company procedures and policies: Without sufficient training, offshore team members may be unaware of their role’s expectations or how to accomplish tasks correctly.
• Cultural Difference: Typically, offshore teams are located in countries with distinct cultures and practise from your own. You can realise these disparities can play a minimum influence when your offshore team members are properly introduced and integrated into your team like your onshore team. This initiation helps foster a sense of trust between the offshore team and your company.

Solution: When working with an offshore team, ensure to train them as it helps your company reach its goals sooner and better. It ensures to supplement their knowledge with the right training as per your processes and helps you get better results from them. 

Accsource offers training to its team as per the needs and requirements of the company. As a business, you can choose your workforce and train them according to your business goals to gain the best results.

3. Leaving your offshore team to do jobs without suitable guidance

Remote teams may be trained to do what they’re expected to be doing, but you know your business better.

Solution: Offer them a guide that outlines your company’s standard operational processes to ensure they align with it and execute their tasks as expected. Always guide your remote team with your internal practices so they can see how and where their services will fit. It can significantly reduce any delays and errors.

4. Not assessing team performance

Whether in-house or remote team; team members are expected to meet expectations and produce results. A simple way to evaluate whether the members are keeping up is to organise a team performance audit.

Solution: It can be tough for your offshore team members to know how they’re doing or if they’re on the right track to complete their responsibilities correctly if you don’t provide regular constructive feedback. Make sure to provide constructive criticism as well as a positive reinforcement as needed to keep everyone engaged and working efficiently together.

5. Not handling data safety and confidentiality

Securing clients’ information is a standard practice in the BPO sector. However, companies don’t pay attention to this aspect and work under open confidentiality protocols.

Solution: When working with an offshore company, remember you will be sharing high confidentiality data such as financial data, employee files, and payroll reports. Ensure the outsourcing service is up to speed on security and has taken appropriate measures to maintain data security.

Conclusion

The outsourcing process includes getting to know your outsourcing partner, assessing if they are a good match for your business requirements and working towards improving the process.

Once the contract is signed, the idea is to interact effectively with the outsourcing company to ensure all expectations are met. Training your remote staff and offering them growth opportunities will motivate them to deliver productive results and improve the efficiency of the process.

If you need a reliable outsourcing partner with a good track record in delivering quality results, consider working with Accsource. We employ practices that comply with industry standards and follow strategic methods in offshore services to businesses.