Imagine waking up in the morning and knowing that while you were sleeping, your outsourced employees were finalizing your marketing plan, your website design or perhaps your blog content.
Sounds pretty good, right?
Well that’s the reality you could be experiencing.
Countless online entrepreneurs are incorporating outsourcing into their day to day operations.
Outsourcing is now a common solution for entrepreneurs who need an extra set of hands to take on vital aspects of their business. If you are one of the many who are planning to hire or perhaps already have hired outsourced employees, knowing how to manage them is very important.
And in the beginning when you’re new to the whole outsourcing game, some things aren’t so obvious.
What you need to know most is….
1. Collaboration is the Key
The first thing that you have to do is to create a collaborative business relationship with your outsourced employees. This should be done right from the minute you hire them.
By establishing a strong and effective collaboration, you and your outsourced employees will be able to take on any challenges that may come your way in the long run.
Keep an open line of communication available at all times.
2. Simple, Clear Directions
When it comes to providing directions, you also have to make sure that you’re as precise as possible. Your employees’ first language is probably not English. In order to avoid misunderstandings, you need to make sure that you provide clear instructions.
Use simple, clear language and avoid anything flowery. Your employees won’t understand, and sometimes they may feel uncomfortable asking what you mean so they try and do the job without being totally sure they’re doing it right.
3. Confirm Their Understanding
It is also very important for you to confirm if your outsourced employee fully understood the instructions given.
You should ask for confirmation in such a way that they don’t have to answer you with a “yes” or “no”. Ask them to explain to you the instructions that you have given using their own words.
You’ll be able to correct them if they misunderstood something and this will also ensure that the work will be done according to your needs and specifications.
4. Ask For Regular Updates
The most common mistake employers make is waiting until the project needs to be done or the day is over before they conduct an evaluation.
Checking in on your employees will increase their accountability and give you the chance to make any necessary corrections as early as possible. This will save you time revising your employee’s work for the whole day and this will also save your employee from spending several hours on a project that is incorrectly executed.
5. Assign A Deadline
The ideal deadline is within 24 to 48 hours. Freelance virtual workers usually handle several tasks from multiple employers. In most cases, they first work on projects with the nearest deadline. To avoid having your project at the end of their list, asking them to deliver the finished project within a short deadline will give you a bit of assurance that they will work on it right away.
But, you also need to remember that this deadline is only suitable for small projects. If you have a bigger project, it would be best to break it down into smaller tasks. Give the task to your freelancer with the set short deadline.
6. Prioritize The Tasks
If you’re sending a list of tasks to be completed, let your employee know what you expect to have finished first. Putting priority on what needs to happen first will take the guess work out of it for your employee and for you.
7. Give An Overview
Last but not the least, make sure that you provide your employees with an overview of the project. You know for a fact that taking on a task without having a clear vision of the end result will make it harder for them to give you what you want. They’ll also know what you want to achieve at project completion.
Outsourcing is the best thing that has ever happened to me. A with a little guidance in the beginning, I could have saved myself a lot of trial and error.
Implementing these concepts will do the same for you.
Cheers to easy outsourcing!
