Tips on Managing Your Offshore Outsourced Team
When small or startup businesses are looking to lower their costs, they often look past the sea, into the world of offshore outsourcing. While this is a great way to reduce costs and get the work done, it also comes with disadvantages and challenges such as cultural and language barriers, time zone differences, and lack of quality control on the spot.
One of the biggest challenges is team management. Without a company manager to lead the team on spot, it is difficult to monitor progress and lead the outsourced team to success.
Potential Team Management Issues
When leading a team of skilled, outsourced workers located overseas, these are some possible team management issues that can rise:
No Supervisors or Monitors on Site
While you may have capable leaders and managers working at the offshore company, some things manage to get lost in translation. Not having one of your own people who are well-immersed in your company could leave you at the risk of communication issues and misinterpretation of requirements.
Employee Loyalty
Having one of your most trusted managers to lead the team means you have someone who thinks of the well-being of your company. An outsourced manager will be a bit different in that they will be an employee of the service provider. Keep in mind, however, that they will have your best interest in mind.
Quality of the Output
While most business process outsourcing (BPO) companies thrive to ensure that they put out the best results for their clients, it is not always a guarantee of the desired results. This might be due to important factors such as language proficiency and a cultural gap.
Data Sharing and Security
When dealing with offshore teams, part of the work process will require you to share files and data. While effective cloud solutions are available nowadays, you will definitely give up some of your security to another entity.
How to Address Offshore Outsourcing Concerns
Don’t despair. Just like every other problem in the world, these too have solutions. While these might not be the easiest or straightforward ways, they still work. Here are some tips to help you manage your outsourced offshore team and minimize the issues:
Ensure Language Skills
When choosing your offshore company, look for one that is located in a country that has a solid reputation for English communication excellence such as the Philippines. During your meetings and negotiations with this service provider, assess the level of English proficiency of its managers and team members with whom you will have business dealings. Speaking in the same language will help you greatly reduce the miscommunication and remote team management.
Keep All Managers in The Loop
When sending any correspondence or holding any meetings, keep all your involved managers in the loop, both in your company as well as the outsourced offshore team. This ensures everyone is on the same page.
Maximize the Technology
These days, a gamut of technologies is available to ensure no detail gets past the team. Aside from email, we now have smart phones, instant messaging, video conferencing, as well as other collaboration applications. Having these at the tip of your fingers could solve about 90% of the problems.
Data Sharing Consulting
A strong cloud solution can prove very useful indeed. Applications and files stored in the cloud will enable real-time sharing of important assets and work monitoring. To ensure proper security for your data, ensure that the outsourcing company you are partnering with you employs managed cloud services.
Partner with an Excellence-Driven Offshore Outsourcing Company
Yempo is a Western-owned outsourcing service provider located in the Philippines that specialises in assisting companies of all sizes who are new to offshoring. Our leadership consists of globally experienced executives who ensure that we employ only professionals with high English communication proficiency, deep expertise, and world-class skills. We use the latest technologies to ensure optimum collaboration with our clients and among our team members. To learn more about our services and how we can help you manage an offshore team, contact us today.