Managing change within a company can be challenging at the best of times. Understanding the impacts on stakeholders including employees and customers is very important. By taking a consultative role, management will be able to respond quickly and appropriately to any questions which arise during the offshore transition, either from staff, suppliers, customers or the community.
Large multi-national corporations have been realising the benefits of having an offshore workforce for some time. The world has shrunk due to massive changes in digital communication and the development of advanced technology. Access to highly-skilled offshore teams has never been as easy as it is today. These benefits are now available for all businesses to take advantage of and many SME’s now benefit.
Offshore teams can reduce operational costs and provide a central focus for business processes and functions. This, in turn, can increase competitiveness and allow a business to grow from a national to a global operation. This can all be achieved while reducing the costs of doing business and empowering local team members.
So how do you empower local employees when you decide upon an offshore solution for your company?
Managing change within a company can be challenging at the best of times. Understanding the impacts on stakeholders including employees and customers is very important.
By taking a consultative role, management will be able to respond quickly and appropriately to any questions which arise during the offshore transition, either from staff, suppliers, customers or the community.
Having a clear strategy and making sure that key management staff is properly briefed on the offshoring plans is critical to the success of the transition. Key research into the effects of offshoring will normally show that it will increase local employment. The decision taken by the company is obviously to increase the profitability of the company and in the long run, lead to growth. Sacrifices will have to be made first before making everything worthwhile for the local economy. And local staff will quite often take on different or new roles. Removing time-consuming tasks from local employees and transferring the tasks to the offshore team can free up local staff to build on their strengths and be more productive, empowering them to better overall performance and success.
Eventually, for every offshore staff member on average, there is an addition of two or three local employees in the company. Essentially outsourcing and offshoring support the local economy through the creation of new business and businesses.
Managing the transition from a conventional operation to an offshore model well is most critical. There will be challenges, certainly, and some if not all of the old ways of working will no longer be appropriate under the new arrangement. There will be new workflows, communications and processes required. Your local staff will need to ensure a smooth and efficient interaction with the remote team. This new relationship will need to be quickly formed, and many of your current staff will need to adapt to a new way of operating.
Clearly, this is one of the crucial stages of the relationship and therefore needs close examination. Using an offshore staffing provider or an offshoring facilitation service will ease the way. Building a business relationship with an expert provider to set up your remote managed office will ensure you have the best preparation, the best recruitment, and a service that will oversee the offshore operational office on your behalf.
As an example, Remote Resources located in Vietnam is one of the most highly respected providers of remote office services in Asia. This company provides the platform to hire your own staff and they host, support and manage offshore teams in their state-of-the-art offices in Ho Chi Minh City, they can offer the best advice to companies seeking detailed information about specialised requirements.
