Optimizing Outsourcing through Remote Staffing
Remote staffing has tremendous potential for employability in optimizing businesses successfully and has fast become a popular choice over freelancing and project-based outsourcing. Full-time, dedicated office-based remote staffing brings all the attendant perks of an offshore facility, particularly for the growing small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs). Moreover, outsourcing has a number of lacunas which can be managed well through remote staffing, ensuring a positive experience.
Let’s take a look at some key outsourcing drawbacks which can be competitively handled by remote staffing providers.
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- Not your exclusive employee: Freelancers working independently serve multiple clients and may not always offer you the dedication and loyalty that you expect. This can entail considerable turnover and training costs because they are only accountable to themselves.
Remote staffing companies offer you full-time dedicated resource or teams who work exclusively on your project in a brick and mortar office, open to managerial monitoring and communication opportunities in your time zone.
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- Communication barriers: When you hire an independent offshore resource, language barrier can be a considerable challenge in work-related communication. Even when the freelancer has some familiarity with your language, it’s difficult to convey the complexities and nuances associated with slang, industry-specific jargon etc. in relaying directions.
However, remote staffing providers generally ensure team managers and points of contact who can overcome the language barrier to ensure seamless communication. Along with email, telephone and Skype, they also employ high-end video-conferencing facilities to give a face to your remote employee.
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- Technology meltdown: Internet connection plays a major role in managing remote workers. However, as your freelancer is likely to be from another part of the world, you cannot control the factors that affect their internet connections or phone lines, power interruptions, or equipment failure.
Remote staffing companies provide state-of-the-art office environment and backup infrastructure such as multiple internet connection and telephone lines, powerful generators, and a 24×7 IT and administrative support team to cater to any emergencies.
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- Intellectual property and security breach: There is always a potential risk to an organization’s confidential information when it outsources access to a third party, with dire consequences for legal and regulation breaches. An independently self-employed freelancer may not be able to afford comprehensive measures necessary to safeguard the information.
Virtual staffing companies have well-entrenched security policies for IP and data security, including no-disclosure agreement, specific project related IP protection as well as employee confidentiality contract. They also have organizational routines in place to check such issues.
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- Poor management: Sometimes, freelancers can suffer from a loss of productivity and lack of ownership in their work. Also, despite being sound professionally, they may not have the requisite communication, problem solving or project management skills to carry through an assignment successfully. This can be problematic for independent contractors as also the client, especially if it comes up midway through the assignment.
Remote staffing companies generally employ direct management which eliminates a lot of back-and-forth communication; the protracted communication can waste time and effort and potentially lead to delayed, if not lost, projects. They also provide effective supervision and support through team mangers.
Conclusion
As we have seen, remote staffing solutions have helped to fill up the gaps created by outsourcing as it is practiced by small businesses hiring freelancing independent contractors or employed by multinational companies who retain the top notch professionals in swanky offshore facilities. It offers a crucial alternative that combines the benefits of an in-house employee in a cost-effective manner, providing the SMEs a much needed fillip in growing their business.
