Outsourcing – All Around Benefits
Outsourcing has benefited consumers with low cost goods and services, is a vehicle for increased productivity and has served to reduce unemployment through job creation.
Plagued With a Staffing Dilemma?
Every organization and industry has multiple tasks that can be outsourced. Some may be able to outsource the bulk of their tasks, while others may be able to outsource only certain, select tasks.
The First Steps to Outsourcing
If you really want to take advantages of the benefits of outsourcing, take a closer look at the day-to-day business activities that you perform, in addition to regular operations. List all such activities and identify and separately note those activities that have to be performed together. This identification is extremely important in order to ensure the combined retention or outsourcing of these activities, which in turn would guarantee higher proficiency levels.
Once the list is compiled, carefully examine and identify the activities that need your personal attention and those that can be performed by any other individual. This should be able to help you make a decision about the activities that need to be performed in- house and those that could be safely outsourced. Having made this list, define the time required to complete each activity that you have earmarked as being fit for outsourcing.
Once you have a list of all your routine activities, with some earmarked “in-house” and some “fit for outsourcing”, prioritize all the activities from both lists together, in order of importance. When you actually begin outsourcing, do it in phases, starting it with task(s) that have the highest ranking on the priority list. Let the first phase be a test to determine whether the outsourcing works for the business or not. If you find that the tasks outsourced in the first phase are carried out smoothly and geared towards the goals you have set, you can proceed with outsourcing other activities, gradually descending down the priority list. This helps you to identify personnel who can successfully take care of the business activities when they are outsourced.
Keep Going
When you find outsourcing of your own work successful, start examining the tasks completed by your staff members, to ascertain which tasks can first be assigned for outsourcing. Administration could be one area, with potential for tasks that can be outsourced. An objective assessment will enable you to decide if you can benefit by the increased efficiency and lower administrative costs if some of the administrative responsibilities are outsourced.
The list of tasks that can be safely outsourced could include transcription, data entry and activities that generally require personal assistance for completion. There is a growing pool of virtual personal assistants in the virtual personal assistant industry. That is where you can identify specialists who are capable of successfully handling outsourced work.
Freelancing is also a growing area that can help with outsourced work. Freelancers provide many services efficiently and can assist you in your growing business.
