How to manage an outsourced team

Many companies, regardless of their growth rate in the market, have chosen to recruit an offshore team to improve efficiency, productivity, skills and make considerable savings. How did these companies manage this team? How did they manage to make this team cohabit, collaborate, with their own internal resources? Outsourcing is not about approaching a provider, recruiting their resources and checking on the progress of the work requested, as is common practice in the office. The process is difference. Here are our tips for a successful outsourcing partnership.

Implement the right strategies and tools

While outsourcing is now a well-honed business strategy, it is not without its challenges. As an in-demand company, you need to analyse, have trials and implement certain strategies and the best tools to manage your third-party team.

What is an outsourced team?

An offshore/outsourced team is when a workforce operates outside the country where the company is located. To make this concept more concrete, let’s take the example of the company with remote prospecting and remote marketing needs. Today, instead of going through heavy and costly local recruitment processes, it is possible to recruit a specialized team located abroad.

ProContact offers a wide range of services so that companies can save time, better distribute tasks among their internal resources and spend less on labour:

• Telephone reception
• Remote secretary services
• Polls, surveys, satisfaction studies
• Remote marketing and remote prospecting (appointment setting, prospecting…)
• Files classification
• Management and enrichment of databases
• Customer loyalty
• Technical assistance (hotline, webhelp, technical support)
• After-sales service (SAV), customer service
• B2B / B2C prospecting;
• Tele-secretariat ;
• Customer relations;
• CRM tool and software;
• Satisfaction surveys;
• Human resources;
• Digital service.

Our tips for managing your outsourced human resources

To address all the challenges that can arise with an outsourced team, here are some best practices to implement.

Select the right team

Before we talk about management, let’s talk about the outsourced team. Depending on your company’s needs and business objectives, it is important to select agents with the right profiles. Points to consider when choosing the right outsourced workers:

Keep in mind the company’s long-term goals at all times. To achieve these goals, it may be useful to hire an internal person to manage the selection of offshoring resources.

Performance Appraisal

Performance-based reviews provide an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the team proposed by your outsourcing provider. For a smooth collaboration without any misunderstanding, don’t hesitate to prepare a list of tasks to test. This technique simply defines the level of skills required to work on particular projects.

Patience

Building an outsourced team may take time, but you must be patient: the success of future management and results depends on it.

Priority to communication

You must be precise about your objectives from the beginning of the project! Clearly define the milestones, priorities, targets and deadlines for your project. For a result that always lives up to your company’s expectations, schedule weekly or daily checks and meetings to be aware of the progress of your projects.

Several tools are available today to facilitate communication in an offshore collaboration:

• Instant messaging and email;
• Audio and video calls;
• Video conferencing.

Establish a clear and organized workflow

For all projects, managers know how to establish step-by-step operational procedures. This strategy is known to streamline the company’s workflow and development process.

As part of efficient outsourced team management, it is important to document company procedures in a way that is accessible to everyone involved. By having information that is ease to understand and process at their fingertips, , outsourced agents quickly learn and apply the standards to be followed.

Avoid micromanagement

Based on Wikipedia’s description “Micromanagement is a management style in which the manager closely observes or controls the work of subordinates or employees. This type of management is characterized by excessive control, or giving too much attention to detail”. Outsourced teams are simply and naturally cut out for self-management. When they feel that their sponsors trust them, they are always willing to go the extra mile for the success of the project.

There are many ways to give each member of the offshore team maximum autonomy:

• Induction training;
• Simple and clear communication of the company’s objectives;
• Use of adequate tools to facilitate remote work and collaboration;
• The recruitment of a local project manager to supervise day-to-day operations;
• And others

The importance of human interaction

Between the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing regulations and other restrictions imposed around the world, remote work has become the new normal. However, this style of work is not for everyone. Indeed, you may find that some employees struggle daily to work in a setting that seems virtual. For some, working remotely has led to a strong sense of isolation.

Adding an outsourced team to the equation can reinforce this feeling, affecting mental well-being and productivity. To avoid a regression in the company’s development due to this mode of operation, managers must encourage social interactions between external team members and internal teams.

This can be done through regular meetings, team building activities via Zoom, Skype or any video conferencing application. Also in this spirit, why not create a chat channel or a chat room on a communication platform?