By Jeta Zagragja, CEO Anchorzup.com
Outsourcing is usually promoted as a smart business strategy for reducing costs, accelerating project timelines, and accessing a wider talent pool in the global marketplace.
However, many businesses need to set the right foundation for outsourcing. If your company hasn’t fully defined its goals, lacks clear success metrics, or hasn’t prepared adequately, outsourcing may not deliver the results you’re hoping for.
This article will explain why outsourcing fails some companies and provide actionable steps to turn these challenges into success.
1. Unclear success metrics and expectations
As a CEO of an outsourcing company, I often see why outsourcing doesn’t work for some businesses, and it usually comes down to a lack of clarity from the start. Before outsourcing, you need a well-defined understanding of what success looks like, whether that’s the time commitment, quality of deliverables, or how well the outsourced professionals will integrate with your internal teams. When this isn’t clear, it leads to communication breakdowns, project delays, and frustration on both sides.
On top of that, many businesses fail to set measurable goals, like Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which causes the outsourced team to work hard but not toward the right objectives. Without these clear success metrics, your outsourcing efforts will feel disconnected.
Having specific deliverables will help them focus on delivering what truly matters to your business while easily monitoring their progress. It is essential to lay this groundwork from the very beginning if you want outsourcing to work for you.
2. Neglecting preparation and research
You should properly evaluate what needs to be outsourced and why. Outsourcing promises strategic solutions and lower costs. Still, rushing in without a plan leads to unmet goals and wasted money. Instead of just chasing cheaper prices it’s important to focus first on understanding the real business needs.
You’ll know you have neglected preparation if you haven’t considered these key points:
- Define the reasons why you want to outsource.
- Clarify the scope and nature of the work that you want to outsource.
- Make sure your in-house team is equipped to manage and collaborate with the outsourced professionals.
- Vet service providers carefully look at their track record and client reviews.
This helps you narrow the gap between what you expect and what gets delivered. With a well-defined “why” behind outsourcing, aligning with the “what” (specific tasks) becomes easier.
3. Cultural and communication barriers
Many companies overlook the impact of cultural and communication barriers in outsourcing, which is often where failure begins. Working with teams from different regions means encountering varied approaches to work styles, decision-making, and business etiquette. Ignoring these cultural nuances can lead to misunderstandings, project delays, and ultimately, unmet expectations.
To avoid these pitfalls, it’s essential to:
- Understand cultural work styles: Recognize that differences in approaches to teamwork, deadlines, and hierarchy may affect how tasks are handled and projects move forward.
- Respect decision-making and communication preferences: In some cultures, decisions are made collaboratively, while in others, they follow a top-down approach. Adjusting communication styles accordingly can prevent friction.
By bridging these gaps early on with clear communication protocols and mutual understanding, businesses can create a collaborative environment that makes outsourcing a more effective and seamless process.
4. Hesitating to adjust rigid in-house workstyles
For successful collaboration when outsourcing, flexibility, and clear communication channels are key. It’s important to adapt your workflow to accommodate a remote team. Companies used to homogenous in-house teams may struggle with the nuances of remote collaboration.
Focusing on traditional metrics like the number of hours spent at a desk can reinforce rigid in-house workstyles that may not be conducive to modern, flexible work environments. This approach often values the appearance of busyness over actual productivity and can stifle innovation and efficiency. In the context of outsourcing and remote collaboration, measuring desk time becomes even less relevant, as team members may be working in different time zones or have varying schedules.
To move beyond rigid workstyles, organizations should shift their focus to measuring outcomes rather than hours logged. This means setting clear goals, defining key performance indicators (KPIs), and tracking progress based on deliverables and results.
By doing so, you encourage all team members, whether in-house or outsourced, to prioritize productivity and quality of work over merely being present.
5. Leaving the integration of project management tools for later
By neglecting to integrate the right project management tools early on, businesses fail to give the outsourced team direction, creating gaps in communication and workflow. Since time zone differences can also impact communication, relying solely on email for communication can lead to information delays.
Integrating collaboration platforms and task management systems ensures everyone in your team (in-house and outsourced) stays on the same page and can work efficiently together.
Tools like Asana for task management can help manage projects, coordinate remote teams, track deadlines, and keep outsourced professionals accountable. When working with developers, a version control system like Git (from GitHub) can help keep outsourced developers on the same page, avoiding issues like working on completely different code versions. CRM tools like Hubspot will help manage contact lists ensuring that unqualified leads are not dumped on the outsourced team, wasting time and resources.
Choose and integrate project management tools right from the start to streamline collaboration and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
6. Over-control and boundary issues
Some companies struggle with outsourcing because they want to control everything, closely managing outsourced teams to the point where the teams feel restricted and underutilized. Sometimes, companies see outsourced providers as an extension they can direct, rather than as a separate partner offering specialized expertise. These actions can damage collaboration, reduce trust, and lead to failed projects.
Perhaps not all these scenarios resonate with your experience, but if your approach prioritizes control over partnership, you may be hindering the full impact outsourcing could have on your business.
Focus on creating a partnership built on trust and clear expectations. Set boundaries that respect the provider’s expertise and autonomy while establishing regular check-ins to ensure alignment with your goals. By empowering outsourced teams to leverage their specialized skills, you foster a collaborative, results-driven environment that can enhance project success and strengthen the partnership.
Would outsourcing work for you?
Sending work outside your company can help you grow, but it requires a clear-eyed assessment of your company’s readiness. If you’re thinking about staff outsourcing, but need help figuring out if it’s the right fit and how to make it work, we can help.
With a proven track record in building successful outsourced teams, we prioritize cost-effectiveness, cultural fit, communication, integrity, and reliability. We handle all complexities of recruitment and management, relieving you of potential financial strains, which is a significant advantage of choosing our outsourcing solutions.
