Outsourcing: how to manage a team that is geographically spread out?

Today, a company can be perfectly efficient while having some of its human resources based abroad, in different time zones and belonging to different cultures. Outsourcing brings together all these challenges and allows the said company to continue to develop, to innovate, therefore, to outperform the competition. If you find managing a geographically dispersed team intimidating, check out the following tips to remedy this issue.

Choose the best outsourced agents

Here, it is up to the provider to make sure to select his agents carefully. At ProContact, we constantly train our agents to ensure that they feel comfortable in their role, that they are confident and that they know that ProContact is concerned about their professional development. The adage “Happy employees make happy customers” is part of our values and our daily goals.

• Our agents are motivated, autonomous but still aware that their supervisors are always present if necessary.
• Our agents are able to communicate and master all the tools that we have to deploy to conduct our missions and offer our services.
• Finally, they are results-oriented and ensure the success of the projects entrusted to them.

Clearly established objectives

Teams made up of internal employees and external agents need to know why they are working together. By having a clearly defined common goal, it facilitates mutual understanding, exchanges and the desire to progress.

A team charter

A real roadmap, the team charter enables the distribution of the right tasks to the right people. Thanks to it, everyone’s roles and responsibilities are established from the start and each stakeholder is able to identify key resources.

The team charter is especially useful at the very beginning of an outsourcing partnership, when everyone is still unsure about their role. The company is able to downscale the stress level in the name of concentration and help everyone achieve their goal.

A global communication strategy

For a collaboration that works regardless of the distance, it is important to choose the right provider and above all, to set up reliable and convenient communication channels.

By implementing a global communication strategy, the company and its service provider manage to break down the walls that surround the different time zones. For this, rely on reliable technologies, so that they are available at all times and do not have bugs or any other form of failure.

Team dynamics

Team dynamics can be defined as “the behavioral relationship between members of a given team. The way a team interacts, communicates and works together has a huge impact on the team’s success in achieving its goals”. This definition makes even more sense in the context of outsourcing, which implies that the members of the famous team have probably never met physically. The right team dynamics guarantees several elements:

• Production;
• Motivation to communicate;
• Innovation.

Team cohesion

Team cohesion requires simple moments of sharing, for example, having lunch together. This type of behavior is naturally impossible when outsourced agents enter the equation. This is where creativity should come into the picture: virtual meetings every month, the creation of an intranet page, a virtual team room, the use of webcams, remedies for small language and cultural barriers that may arise… There are many solutions to solve this problem.

Fair and homogeneous feedback

When a team is hybridized, feedback should be fair and consistent. Due to the physical distance, outsourced agents must be able to count on feedback that is on the same level to that provided to their internal counterparts. Isolation is undoubtedly the enemy of problematic collaboration.

In summary

In a recent article on the management of companies scattered around the world, we read “In this new world, whatever and however it is defined, the reality is it has changed and will continue to evolve. The “old” way of leading is just that—old.

Globalization, hybrid working, and remote working are all new ways of working. Leaders will need to understand the nuances of managing geographically dispersed teams successfully. They also need to learn how to adapt to create team cohesion and success.

Communication is foundational to successfully managing a globally dispersed team. It is also a springboard to building team unity and trust among the team.

But flexibility and patience should not be forgotten. This is a third best practice I’m throwing in based on doing this for 30 years. Flexibility is when I take a call during their hours versus having them take one during mine. And patience from both parties in dealing with technology hiccups remains crucial.

Finally, ensuring globally dispersed teams are managed successfully is in the hands of companies. They need to give their leaders the right skills and development to lead across dispersed teams in an ever-changing world”.

Hybrid teams, consisting of internal and other outsourced resources, can become an extraordinary force for the company. Outsourcing with ProContact is a way to gain efficiency, make savings and to obtain skills that are absent internally without having to recruit locally.

Contact us!

Many tasks are time-consuming and require experience and skills that you may not have in-house. Stop suffering from the lack of manpower that affects Western markets hard and choose outsourcing to expand your teams. During this period of Covid-19, demonstrate agility by signing a solid and transparent partnership with one of the leaders in outsourcing in the Indian Ocean.

ProContact is more than a contact centre. Thanks to trained, qualified, handpicked and multilingual agents, we allow companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to satisfy their customers. To find out more about our services or for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.