What Should a Company Keep In Mind When Outsourcing work?
Project and Project Management
Project and project management are the most important parts of any company as both of them drive the institution. Management includes all kinds of skills, knowledge, tools and techniques which will be worked on to give out the best possible outcome to any project, as, it is the project that drives the institution and is dependent on it.
People working on a project always need to stay on the same page regarding each and every detail of the project. A mismatch of any manner creates a great mis-communication between the members which can lead lot of issues in the progress of the project.
And such an issue increases more if not properly managed, when the project is outsourced. A project can be outsourced due to many reasons.
Outsourcing a project saves a lot of cost for the company and helps to get skilled expertise and also benefits in flexible staffing, in turn increasing efficiency, reducing time and generating more profit. But to achieve the following benefits some things are needed to be taken care of.
Planning & Collaboration
A project always a team of people working for the same cause and trying to find out the best possible outcome. Hence, a lot of planning goes into making a successful project. Further, when the work has been outsourced, it has to be planned still properly in order to obtain the required outcome in the stipulated time.People in a team have different skills and everyone has to stay on the same page. First of all, the outsourced team should be given a proper idea on the company’s goals, their standards and objectives and they should be made familiar with the working so that the work is done according to it. The better the understanding to them, the better would be the outcome. The workflow of the project has to be made familiar to each and every team member, the background information and the references, if necessary for the project.
A proper and organized written document with the objectives, project details, timelines and payment details should be made in order to keep all the things in order and to avoid un-necessary delays and confusions. Sometimes, if the written matter is not sufficient for the members, in case the language of them is not same, they should be provided with visual aids or diagrams to understand the matter in a better manner. The people who have been outsourced should also be able to present their views, so that they feel that they are heard and everyone stays positive on work.
Project Management Tools to the rescue
The project management tools like Trello, Asana etc. have made the work easier for any project as there are numerous features available to customize, what all is happening in the project and the handling of each and every step of the project work, work distribution and communication becomes easy and enjoyable and does not seem a mundane task.
There are many free and paid project management tools in the market. Each of them has separate features and the users can choose which features they require and accordingly select the same. The tools no only make the work manageable, but also help to stay in touch with everyone and keep them on the same track. If the project management tool is not present, the work and its handling becomes a great chaos and once someone doesn’t understand or mis-understands something, it affects everyone and ultimately the work quality gets affected.
Stay in Touch
The outsourced project team members may or may not be in the same place or in the same time-zone even. At this time, communication with them at the proper time and in a regular manner is of utmost importance. Each and every update has to reach to all the members of the team through the tools, or through video chats. Emails now, do not work well that much as, it becomes difficult to track the threads of messages, instead the project management tools, distribute these discussions according to the topics, notes and boards, hence easily retrievable. Once the team managers trust the team, the work goes ahead smoothly.
Everyone in the team should also be treated in the same manner, irrespective of their work and designation in the team. Treating everyone with respect solves the problem if some of the other people in the team do not feel welcomed. It assured them of positive feedback from all, they work still hard and try to bring a better result each time, the next meeting is scheduled.
Another thing to keep in mind is to trust each and every member of the work assigned to them, have faith in their work and go ahead. As much as staying in touch is important, so is having transparency with the team and faith is.
Be in Sync
Meetings and video chats should be held on weekly or regular basis as the project continues as staying updated and in sync with everyone, helps everyone to stay in contact and also resolve their doubts whenever they arise at the middle of the tasks going on. This helps to solve the issues at the starting time only, without waiting for anyone to look on it or waiting till it has been completed.
Conclusion
In the rapidly changing world of work, any business or company outsourcing the work, needs to stay updated with the latest tools of project management and also with the techniques how to do it, and should be able to select the correct outsourcing team in order to complete the project by proper and ,
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Selective filtering, which can be done by asking them basic questions like what they might do in any kind of negative situations; this would prove their ability to work under pressure.
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Through past experiences of other companies.
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Take second opinion from someone if the company is not well experienced so that, the suitable team gets on board for completing the task and do it as per the company standards, without any biases or improper selection.
