8 Keys to a Successful Outsourcing Relationship
For new and small businesses, outsourcing is a game changer. If you own such a business, you should know how to form a successful outsourcing relationship with your services provider.
Outsourcing opens up many opportunities for you. It gives you access to global talent to maximise your competitive edge. To succeed, you must strive to form a harmonised outsourcing relationship. It also means investing in strategy, quality of communication, and effective management.
Outsourcing Puts the Global Talent Within Your Reach
Outsourcing means delegating a time-consuming business administrative activity or process, partly or wholly, to a third-party firm. The non-core activities, such as payroll processing, produce no revenue for you. In addition, they mess up your workflow.
When they become unmanageable, it is wise to get rid of them. If your payroll is giving you headack, you can save yourself a lot of anxiety and stress by hiring an experienced provider for payroll outsourcing Singapore.
Outsourcing saves you time and effort. On the other hand, a team of experts from your outsourcing partner ensures the successful conclusion of your delegated task. These experts put their deep experience and industry-wide knowledge at your beck and call. You pay for the services you receive, which leads to cost savings.
8 Keys to a Successful Outsourcing Relationship with Your Outsourcing Partner
1 Interpersonal Relationship Matters
Even though you are delegating your task to a service provider, it eventually comes down to relations between persons at both ends. And, you know, human relations are multilayered and complex.
As outsourcing relationship is important to you both, choose someone with knowledge and experience. When dealing with such an authority, it is easy to admire and respect them for their skills and professionalism. A professional attitude from both ends helps click the partnership.
2 Establishing Clear Expectations Help
You cannot strike a successful outsourcing relationship just like that. You have to create a foundation for it. Start by establishing clear expectations. Establish what you and your outsourcing partner expect from this relationship.
Invest some time in clarifying deliverables, deadlines, quality, and communication schedules. Doing so will simplify your interactions and will make them fruitful. It will also enable you to analyse the partnership’s performance.
3 Avoid Hiring a ‘YES Man’
Remember that you are outsourcing your business function to reduce your workload. You want to divest yourself of the task as much as possible to get the chunk of your mental capacity back. It means you need to hire someone proactive and not an ‘YES’ man.
You don’t want to engage an outsourcing partner to confirm what you already know and believe in. You want to come at you with the latest info, updates and changes in laws, and suggestions to replace or improve your existing processes and procedures with the new ones.
You need someone who is capable of coming up with suggestions to increase your business efficiency and spotless compliance within the deadlines.
4 Ask for References
There is a vital step that you must perform before you make your relationship legal.
You can also ask your business associates for references to locate the right partner. Ask them about the quality of work and what made their relationship successful.
After you have shortlisted a few candidates, ask them whether they can provide you with a list of their past or existing clients. Check them out.
This will enable you in determining whether or not you are getting the right skillset.
5 Ask Your Team for an Opinion
There is no need for you to act alone. Involve your staff members in the decision-making chain. It will give them a clear idea about who they will be working with and what they can expect from the outsourcing partner.
Listen to their opinion; if it is valid or has the grain of truth in it, do not shy away from using it to make outsourcing-related decisions.
6 Take Your Outsourcing Partner’s Advice Seriously
After you have hired an outsourcing partner, pay heed to their advice. Execute it to improve your business processes and outcomes.
After all, they are in constant execution-plane of the services they are offering. They know the theory and also know how to practice it. It is a very valuable combination. Leverage it.
7 Maintain Transparency
Every business day comes with challenges. It is not a news. If you are experiencing problems in your business that could affect the rendering of services from your partner’s end, inform them.
Don’t keep your outsourcing partners in the dark. Forewarned, they will be better prepared to upscale their services whenever you have solved your issues.
8 Invest in Your Outsourcing Relationship
The success of a relationship depends on various factors. The purpose and timeliness of the communication play a major role in it.
So, stick to the communication schedule, submit the documents asked by your partner to expedite compliance, ask pertinent questions, and execute their advice to the best of your ability.
It will help if you see this outsourcing relationship as a bond between two teams. It will greatly enhance your chances of managing its important aspects, such as working at effective communication, overcoming cultural differences, striving towards strategic goals, and ensuring the quality of output and high levels of performance.
You will need to work on all these elements to establish a successful, trusting, and long-lasting outsourcing relationship that enables you to achieve your operational needs, business goals and objectives. The longer the relationship, the more beneficial it is for both of you, leading to a Win-Win situation.
We are a reliable firm that provides quality and timely corporate services to small and medium businesses. We take up the workload and help them save time, effort, and resources, which they use to achieve their business goals.
You can trust us to handle your bookkeeping accounting, taxation, payroll processing, GST filing, and XBRL filing work. Contact us at +65-6536 0036 or info@sbsgroup.com.sg to talk to our experts and learn about the customised solutions they can offer you.
Also Read: What Are the Key Benefits of Outsourcing Accounting Services?
