Offshore outsourcing is the process of hiring a third-party organization to complete certain business tasks or operations. This practice has become increasingly popular in recent years as companies look to reduce costs and increase productivity. By outsourcing labor to countries with lower labor costs, businesses can save money and free up resources for other areas of their operation. In addition, outsourcing can help companies access specialized skill sets that may not be available in their own workforce. As such, offshore outsourcing can be a great way for businesses to maximize their productivity and profitability.
By leveraging the services of a qualified offshore partner’s services, businesses benefit from increased scalability, and enjoy faster turnaround times.
Analyze the Benefits & Risks of Offshore Outsourcing
Offshore outsourcing is a process of obtaining work outside of an organization, often overseas. It has been argued by some that offshore outsourcing may be more beneficial than in-house services for a number of reasons. Many firms argue against this, as they feel that the benefits are outweighed by the risks and costs associated with offshore outsourcing. Examples of why offshore outsourcing might be unsuccessful include low productivity because there is not enough technological innovation on the side of the host country and increased risk due to global economic uncertainties.
Over the past few decades, outsourcing and offshoring have become popular business strategies that many companies use to increase efficiency. However, it is important to weigh and understand the benefits and risks associated with this type of business decision before committing to it because every business runs differently.
Companies today are increasingly turning to virtually driven solutions to help them streamline their operations by providing technology that can be used by remote employees for daily repetitive tasks. Businesses of any size are now able to delegate tedious and labor-intensive tasks and processes to outsourced remote employees, with the use of certain project management tools, communication apps and employee monitoring software. Moreso, software tools and apps may now be used to identify areas of risk that could have been missed by traditional methods, allowing organizations to take proactive steps in mitigating potential losses. By leveraging the power of technology, and multi-skilled outsourced virtual employees, organizations can gain a competitive advantage in the market while reducing costs significantly.
Productivity is the measure of output relative to your input. Outsourcing certain key areas of your business can lead to even more productivity gains especially if the offshore vendor country provides a suitable level of development and profitable business practices.
Outsourcing roles to a competent and skilled remote workforce is just like expanding your in-house team with the same abilities. You get to double your input resources for much less than the cost of hiring additional full-time in-house workers.
Why do everything when you can outsource?
Most often, startup entrepreneurs and small businesses tend to lose control managing every aspect of their business. This often leads to stress in trying to juggle multiple tasks and can greatly take a toll on productivity. A third-party provider shares the responsibility and accountability in making sure productivity goals are hit. Moreover, the vendor partner provides the equipment, office space, and technical needs so the entrepreneur need not add these to the list of things to stress about. Analyzing your business functions and identifying your strength and weaknesses is the first step to determining your need to outsource.
Productivity Areas You Can Improve Through Offshore Outsourcing
Payroll
Tasks involved in this key function can be labor-intensive and requires a level of specialization. Tracking employee attendance and doing taxes can be quite grueling if you have a limited number of employees. Outsourcing your payroll department can improve employment regulation compliance as well as curb HR issues.
Information Technology Management
IT processes can be just as grueling as these also need a team of experienced professionals to keep hardware, software, and office systems running smoothly. Outsourcing information technology services free you from having to worry over upgrades and maintenance matters.
Marketing
An outside marketing firm can easily take on this task through digital marketing strategies such as ad designs, content creation, and social media management. Outsourcing these services allows you to focus on other essential internal functions. Moreover, these marketing firms usually will have a talented pool of professionals that can help you. You may not have had the opportunity to access them if you decide to do the marketing on your own.
- Social Media Management – Connecting to customers and clients is an essential driver of business growth and productivity. But having to constantly update content and converting followers to customers can take a lot of time and patience. Outsourcing content creation and management ensures your target customer audience remains engaged.
- Digital Content Creation and Design Creatives – Generally, having a pool of creatives is fundamental in marketing any business. A creative team can consist of graphic designers, blog writers, and ad copywriters who know how what to say and connect with your targeted audience.
- Search Engine Optimization – These digital marketing pros were born out of the need to produce and build highly consumable content in the digital space. Although anyone can easily learn this, it requires a lot of time and energy to learn the process and its technicalities. This is why there are people and companies who specialize in this type of marketing skill.
Accounting and Bookkeeping
Similar to payroll, this is one key function that you would greatly benefit from outsourcing. It is one of the most undesirable, monotonous, and tedious tasks. If you’re not good with numbers and are overwhelmed with other tasks, there is a high probability that you will make mistakes. Handling books and running a company is a plate too full for a person trying to grow a business. Outsourcing this task does not even need an accounting firm. You can hire a trustworthy virtual accountant or bookkeeper who can do this task.
Customer Service and Support
When growing a business, your customer base increases. This means an increased demand for service and support to keep your customers happy. Handling customer service calls can be overwhelming and may get in the way of other important tasks. It can take a lot of time to attend to different kinds of customers. Contact centers or call centers have been on the rise in many bilingual developing countries that basically handle customer service and support alone. Outsourcing this task can free you from absorbing all the stress of call handling. You can hire remote virtual assistants from a different time zone as an extension of your in-house staff to answer calls outside of office hours. That way, this keeps customers from feeling frustrated with having to wait for someone to speak to.
Simple Tricks That Help Increase Productivity
In-house and outsourced teams can work together to scale a business without having to break the bank. While the goal of outsourcing is to cut costs, in-house employees also benefit from having other tasks outsourced because it also means being unburdened from processes that take them away from more important tasks. Here are some tips that can be useful to gear up on productivity:
- Keeping tasks simple.
- Streamline communications
- Implement flexibility into daily routines
- Reward good work and show gratitude
- Encourage accountability
- Work and collaborate
- Make the most of digital technology
- Connect on a more personal level with your team
- Creatively wrangle everyone to stay on the same page
Remember to always be a decent human being
Key Takeaways
Productivity is the driving force of growth. Outsourcing tasks and process operations onshore or offshore require careful analysis of how you run your business. Every entrepreneur has a different style and strategy for running a business and handling a workforce.
These tips and tricks will help your team feel more connected and valued which leads them to work more efficiently. Remember that they are not merely paid employees or an army of robots but are individuals who are there to earn a living just as much as you need them to help your business thrive. At EVS, productivity is a daily goal for our virtual assistants and managers. Our remote teams are well taken care of so our clients can be assured all outsourced tasks are completed efficiently. Find out more about our virtual staffing solutions. Book a call with us so you can gear up and make room for growth and productivity at reduced costs.