How does an outsourcing company help your business?

The practice of outsourcing has been a continuously growing trend over the past decade. Its demand is also expected to rise, as more and more businesses tap into outsourcing a couple of their essential and non-essential tasks to third parties.  

From startups, small businesses, and medium sized companies, they make use of outsourcing to acquire skills and expertise that usually take time to develop. This may be due to the lack of manpower, financial capacity, or even both. Having said that, what can your business actually gain from outsourcing? More so, what skills and services can you hand over to a third party? 

How outsourcing works

Outsourcing in simplest form is the process of leasing skilled resources from third party providers instead of hiring in-house employees to handle some of the company’s specific job functions. These third party providers could be in the form of an outsourcing firm or freelancers. Outsourcing firms usually offer a range of services and expertise to help other companies streamline their job functions and reach greater goals while saving costs. 

As for companies that are looking to outsource, it is also important to consider your third party providers as partners. Note that a huge part of success in outsourcing will depend on how you manage and maintain relationships rather than just concentrating on securing service level agreements for certain projects and deliverables. 

Roles of an outsourcing company  

In terms of deciding what tasks to outsource, it usually depends on your company’s growth and demands. Specifically, your number of employees, the type of talent and expertise present, resources, and of course, your business revenue. 

Outsourcing companies generally help alleviate specific functional processes and other back office complexities. To be more specific, an outsourcing company can function as the following roles below:  

Manage documentary requirements 

This job function plays an important role in securing, organizing, and controlling the information of a business. As your business grows, a splurge in the volume of your transactions is also imminent. The growth of information and complex requirements is also expected. 

A trusted outsourcing firm can provide you with a document management software that adheres to all government regulations. At the same time allows you to store, scan, retrieve, and shred information while reducing privacy risks. 

Arrange office and other workplace needs 

Aside from the lack of finances, startups and small to medium-sized business are usually faced with other dilemmas pertaining to the lack of tools, resources and manpower. 

One concrete example of which is hiring an in-house back office team. It requires expenses such as office space, technological equipment, and software tools. These requirements, if added up, could result in a huge expenditure – not to mention each overhead cost. Outsourcing allows your company to meet your workplace needs but at the same time saving up on costs.     

Recruit and screen applicants for their clients 

Recruitment process could be a tedious task. Finding the right talent to meet companies business requirements is not that easy. It requires keeping up with recruiting technologies, asking the right questions, and cultivating relationships with successful applicants. 

Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) helps you to have a much more holistic approach in screening and recruiting the perfect candidates to fulfill your specific job requirements.  

Train employees

As businesses step up their game, so should the people behind it. Hiring employees should also come with training. This helps them improve the skills which they already possess and contribute more to the business success. 

Outsourcing training programs will help your business to attain its competitive advantage. This is because training service providers are made up of experts that have the passion to deliver successful training solutions. Also, by outsourcing specific training programs, you are also given an advantage to tap into experts with certified industry experiences and quality resources.  

Manage workforce

One of the challenges in a workforce is maintaining and improving best practices within the organization. A growing company also demands added job responsibilities and sometimes it could be pretty overwhelming for the people that the company already has. 

By outsourcing certain job roles, specifically administrative tasks like bookkeeping and order taking, accounting, recruitment, etc., you are able to turnover these tasks more efficiently and sometimes even faster. 

Provide reports and updates to the client

Outsourcing specific tasks doesn’t necessarily mean that outsourcing service providers will fully take over your company’s job functions or projects. Aside from performing the given tasks, outsourcing companies also provide updates and reports as to how a certain project or deliverable is performing, its development, timeline, and of course, its success.  

Encourage client engagement 

It is also a role of the outsourcing company to have you involved on each project in every step of the way. In order for outsourcing to become successful, it requires sufficient planning, clear communication, and a good vendor to client relationship.   

How to outsource successfully 

Companies of all sizes and institutions can actually opt for outsourcing. By doing so, your business will be able to become more efficient, enhance its speed, and reduce costs. Furthermore, by outsourcing, you are also given the opportunity to focus more on your company’s core competencies. As a result, you are able to gain a competitive edge over your adversaries. 

However, there are also certain things that you have to take into consideration in order to achieve a successful outsourcing process: 

Communicate regularly

Communication is always the key to a successful outcome. Before deciding to outsource, you have to ensure a clear vision as to what your expectations and desired outcome is. Also, maintain a regular conversation with your outsourcing partner to keep you posted about how a certain task or project is doing, things that need to be changed or improved on. It is also important to specify your key milestones and delivery dates to track progress. 

Provide necessary support 

Aside from consistent communication, providing all necessary support to your outsourcing services partner is also essential in maintaining a good client to vendor relationship. This will help you have a smooth exchange of ideas and information with your outsourcing provider.  

Treat employees as extension of the company

Although technically your outsourced employees are from a third party, they are still providing all necessary skills and services to help out on your business. Treating them as an extension of your company will strengthen your client to vendor relationship.