How to Successfully Outsource… Hint: It Starts With You
In my time at Virtual Coworker, I’ve seen countless numbers of companies successfully hire staff in the Philippines. This can range from the mom and pop shop who hired a part-time admin assistant, to the ASX listed company who hired 20 customer and tech support staff. When outsourcing works, it’s amazing. The ability to hire skilled labour at a fraction of the cost of local staff unequivocally puts companies in a better position to scale fast… and affordably.
Inevitably, it doesn’t always work. In recruitment, whether it be offshore or onshore, the success rate will never be 100%. There are too many tangible and intangible factors that go into hiring someone, which can be very hard to uncover before the new hire actually starts working.
There are plenty of reasons why new hires don’t work out, but one reason I rarely hear business owners or managers admit, is that it’s their fault the relationship failed.
When hiring a new team member, it’s extremely important to have a smooth and refined training process, procedures well documented, and a plan to delegate and manage the workload being assigned. This is doubly important when hiring offshore, yet seems to be given half the effort.
When managers fire staff, the majority of the time they blame it on lack of skill-set, initiative, and ability to follow instructions. However, in the majority of exit interviews we do, staff blame it on the client not providing proper training, lack of internal processes, and failing to provide the support every new hire needs.
So, which is it? Regardless of individual outcomes, business owners need to treat offshore hires with the same regard and attention as onshore hires. They need to have a solid plan to integrate this “virtual” worker into their local team and train them on company procedures and processes. Often, they need to over communicate in the beginning and really put effort into building the trust remote working relationships need.
Anyone who has built teams can tell you that even if you do all the right things, it still sometimes will not work out. However, by creating replicable processes and procedures, and putting maximum effort into making it succeed, then if it does fail, at least you know where the problem lies and how to fix it next time.