5 Tips to Help Employees Embrace Outsourcing

People have varying reactions to change, but most don’t like it. Particularly big changes which will directly affect them and the way they do things.

If you decide your business is going to change to use offshore staff, you can expect mixed reactions from your existing employees. Many will be worried for their jobs. Some will be actively hostile to the idea. But for outsourcing to work well, you need to have all your key staff on board.

1. Be honest about your plans and reasons

The start of your outsourcing enterprise is the time to bring your key staff on board. Particularly if you are outsourcing to grow your company, rather than to cut costs, explaining that in the near future some of their colleagues will be based overseas will give your staff time to come to terms with the idea.
Disclosing some of the reasons for your decision to outsource – to access skills that are hard to find locally, to streamline processes and free up time – will put to rest any fears that you are outsourcing to cut jobs locally.

2. Emphasise benefits to employees

Whether it’s reducing downtime with regard to admin tasks, the opportunity to refocus on their core role, or simply another person to manage a growing workload, outsourcing will provide a benefit to your current employees. Make that the focus of the initial discussion that takes place with your key staff .
As your outsourcing project progresses, keep tabs to make sure that benefits are being realised. A sales rep who realises that since your remote employee has come on-board they are no longer spending hours a week wading through an inefficient customer database is likely to become a definite fan of effective outsourcing rather quickly.

3. Take time to meet with your employees

There are two reasons to make time to meet one-on-one with your employees to talk about outsourcing.
The first is that a lot of discontent can be resolved by just listening to employee concerns. Some of the concerns may be valid, some less so, but by listening you are able to provide specific reassurance and let your employees feel heard.

4. Use employee champions

You will probably find that some employees embrace change much more readily than others. There will be some who see the potential for offshore staffing to make their lives easier and improve business. Encourage these people to share their views with other staff. Give them resources to answer any questions which their co-workers might come to them with, and get these employees to be at the forefront of integrating your remote staff and your local staff.

5. Give employees the skills to cope

Even the most minor and best-run outsourcing project will involve a change in the way your company works. If your staff are going to have to use new software or communication tools, make sure there is some form of training available for those that need it. It is important that employees who do need training, or who bring other operational concerns to you, are recognised as working to embrace outsourcing. It is far better to have employees who are working to deal with change than those who refuse to engage at all.

Deployed helps you manage all aspects the outsourcing process. We provide you with a dedicated account manager who will help you find solutions to any issues you come across – including issues when introducing outsourcing to your staff. You will be completely supported throughout the process. To start developing a remote staffing solution which fits your business, get in touch with Deployed today.