Outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external individual or business to handle business processes on your behalf. This practice gives small and medium business access to skills and services they may otherwise find hard to utilise, either due to lack or resources, lack of manpower or both. It is equally useful for complicated processes that are needed infrequently, like submitting BAS statements and tax returns, or fighting litigation. Outsourcing is generally not advisable for the core services of a business, as these impact the organisation’s reputation and
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Plan for a smooth succession encompassing roles, structure, recruitment and reorganisation.
Create or hold fun and effective team building sessions that cater to your business goals.
Set up payroll process, salary packaging and superannuation systems
Re-align your resources and organisational structure based on new set of goals under a business restructuring.
Implement or host leadership training for your executive staff, partners and team leaders.
Help your employees to develop their career pathways in your company through a comprehensive program.
Implement a new or improve your current payroll system.
Design and host onboarding programs for new employees.
Support your staff with HR training and leadership programs
Implement or improve the renumeration, benefits or rewards program to increase productivity.
Design or conduct technical training programs or workshops for your programmers and staff.
Devise a recruitment strategy based on your needs covering budget, tools, process and promotion.
Retain great employees with career development and support programs
Outsource or build a system to take care of you and your employees' superannuation.
Implement or host OH&S training programs for your employees.
Deal or manage issues with dismissals according to the Fair Work Act.
Implement or conduct training for career development for your employees.
Create a strategy and find the right people for your organisation
Create a system or process for managing your employees' performance.
Devise salary packages to attract talent and build a sustainable business.
Andrew Egan, Director & IT Specialist at Adept IT
The one item in my business I would outsource is marketing. I recognise it's something I'm not particularly good at, but something that's critical to driving ongoing growth of my business. It's not necessarily that it annoys me, or it's time consuming (although it is) - it's just that i'm no good at it. That said, I've already outsourced some of the technical work I do to others that I know and trust. I've outsourced some work on our logo. I outsourced legal work to create contracts (although not many smes have inhouse legal). Naturally - I think all small businesses should outsource the ongoing support of their IT environment :P
Mia Alarin at Transeo Pty. Ltd.
Hi Susan,
I am Mia and I am from Transeo. We are a Digital Media and Offshore company. We offer this kind of services and I would like to know your specific requirements for a Virtual Assistant. What would be the best way to reach you if ever you are open for a discussion?
Cheers,
Mia Alarin
and how do you manage that risk when you first start outsourcing things or using contractors?
1.12K views
Hitesh Mohanlal, Director at WOW! Advisors & Business Accountants
Excellent question Nancy. I have been outsourcing since 2004 so if there is a mistake that can be made in outsourcing I have probably done it. I currently have three full time staff outsourced. One in Phillipines and 2 in Fiji. The first thing to note is that whatever issues you have with Australian staff you will have with outsourced staff. Now add in culture differences and the issue is a lot bigger. With contractors control is much harder and making them accountable to you is very hard. I have learnt for example that with contractors you take them on full time. If you have them part time they work for others and your work gets done last.Also the work you give out has to be controlled, systemised and procedurised. If this is not done your contractor will get lost no matter how good they are. If you can break the task down in little parts with full instructions you will do well. My admin team does a massive amount of work off shore but this is only possible because every task is either in a video or is a document. You need to talk to them regularly. Not only on email. Physically on the phone. We do it daily and they join in our Australian weekly meetings. You need to make them feel part of a team.We give access to our team to our server, they have passwords to websites and my administration person has a dedicated credit card as well. I have never had an issue with security. If you use an agent then you are quite safe. If a contractor you need to be careful at first but generally you should be OK. Trust your gut but yes be carefulWhen it comes to choosing someone do your research, try to get reviews or testimonials. Give a trial job, interview them. If using Upwork etc then make sure they have experience.
Lisa Ormenyessy, Founder at OMGhee
Hi Jef, we review our vendors on an ongoing basis and especially at the time of referring clients.
Why do people choose BPO outsourcing services from US and India? What are the difference between services of both countries?
1.9K views
Brad Lyons, Consultant at Thinkedu Pty Ltd
The Philippines is a much better place for support services in my view. In fact, an indian call centre employed by Telstra at one point outsource some of their work to the Philippines at one stage.
There are a number of reasons companies will use BPO. One is definitely the cost savings, there is a massive saving in wages. Also culture and time zones are also factors.
There are challenges with training when looking at outsourcing overseas and there are a lot of companies that will offer to assist with massive mark-ups, so you really need to do your research.
A lot of my clients have call centres in the Philippines and some still have call centres in India. Having seen firsthand how the different countries can assist I have always seen less complaints and issues come from a call centre in the Philippines.
All clients that have Australian staff in the offshore office to manage very rarely have training and compliance issues. It always pays to have an Australian employee working from the offshore office to ensure compliance, training and customer service is to your companies standards.
You wouldn't have an onshore office running without management, no difference for an offshore office.
As for what country, it really comes down to what you need. For developers I would look at Europe and the middle east. From past experience I have seen much better and stable code from these areas.
For support I would look at the Philippines. For Tech support, I would look at Australian call centres to handle the actual issues and the Philippines to handle the initial inbound call. Just so they can screen out the Common issues (user training) and actual technical issues.
What are some good alternatives to oDesk if you're looking to outsource some work to freelancers?
3.56K views
If you're looking to find skilled workers, then oDesk/Elance are not ideal as you probably know. Granted, there are some excellent contractors there, but you'll likely have to wade through quite a bit of less than ideal candidates to get to them. Take a look at Hubstaff - they have time tracking like oDesk but it's not an open job site for finding work. They only recommend contractors that they have retained in the past so you know you're getting quality
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Outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external individual or business to handle business processes on your behalf. This practice gives small and medium business access to skills and services they may otherwise find hard to utilise, either due to lack or resources, lack of manpower or both. It is equally useful for complicated processes that are needed infrequently, like submitting BAS statements and tax returns, or fighting litigation. Outsourcing is generally not advisable for the core services of a business, as these impact the organisation’s reputation and require more careful oversight.
When a business requires a particular skillset, for example payroll processing, but does not need it consistently enough to hire a full or part time member of staff to perform the required tasks, they can look at hiring an outside professional or team to help. This makes financial sense for one off tasks, like branding or creating a marketing strategy, or for services only needed several times a year, like accounting and tax lawyers.
The experts you outsource services to don’t need any one client to provide a full time workload, as they have multiple clients who each need their expertise. This creates a win/win situation, as the business who is outsourcing gains access to valuable services, while the business providing that service can charge a higher hourly rate as relatively few hours are needed.
Depending on the type of business and the size of the organisation, almost any function can be outsourced. From virtual assistants who can take over general admin tasks, to intellectual property lawyers who will register and defend an organisation’s trademarks, almost any business area can be outsourced. Commonly outsourced services include:
When businesses are assessing the viability of outsourcing, they cannot merely consider the financial repercussions. While outsourcing is generally cheaper, it comes at the cost of relinquishing control and therefore risking diminished quality. Almost any process or service can be outsourced, but if any of the following are true, it probably will not be appropriate:
If none of these are the case, and it is cheaper to send it out rather than perform in-house, the business may choose to outsource. It is important for businesses to consider both the long and short term costs of both options, as while a strong long term option may lead to greater profitability overall, it may also impact cashflow.