Introducing outsourced employees to your in-house team, whether it’s for the first time or even if they’re used to cohabiting with offshore workers, is going to be a transition. At Extend Your Team, we’ve worked through this transition and onboarding phase with hundreds of organizations, and we know the importance of preparing your team for their new colleagues and establishing clear expectations and processes for both in-house and outsourced employees to follow.
Task delegation, project ownership, and chain of command are all important to discuss, but it’s also critical to explain to your in-house team why you’ve decided to outsource to begin with and how it plays into your long-term strategy. In this blog, let’s break down the steps we recommend taking as you prepare to onboard outsourced talent.
Outline the Benefits
As a business owner, your decision to outsource was strategic and likely aligned with short and long-term growth goals. Outsourcing allows organizations to free up valuable resources, increase productivity, and cut costs. It can also benefit in-house employees by eliminating their manual tasks and allowing them to focus on the most important projects. Unfortunately, according to the Harvard Business Review, almost one third of employees who experience organizational change don’t actually know why the change is happening. It’s critically important that you outline these benefits to your existing team before their outsourced counterparts arrive.
In some cases, in-house workers may see outsourcing as a threat. After all, these outsourced employees are more affordable and, in some cases, take the jobs of former colleagues. Feelings of threat or jealousy are going to negatively impact not only your culture, but your team’s ability to work together. Instead of letting these emotions brew under the surface, sit your team down and explain why you’ve made the decision, how it’s going to impact everyone in the room, and how outsourcing will free up everyone’s time and benefit the organization as a whole.
Keep The Lines of Communication Open
After you’ve explained the thought process behind your decision to outsource, make sure to implement an open-door communication policy that goes both ways. Keep your team up-to-date on further decisions about outsourcing and make sure your employees (both in-house and outsourced) feel comfortable bringing up any concerns.
Opening up your calendar and allowing people to book one-on-one time with you to raise questions is a great way to promote transparency and cohesion. Your team may even have suggestions for how to better integrate your outsourced employees and better utilize their skills once they feel that this collaboration actually benefits them instead of threatening their job security.
Establish Task Ownership & Responsibilities
Where most organizations fail when it comes to onboarding outsourced employees is in the task delegation and project ownership department. Your new team members are here to take on very specific tasks and responsibilities, but those tasks most likely used to belong to someone else. You should determine what the project ownership shifts are going to look like before your outsourced employees show up for their first day of work to eliminate any confusion and ensure they can immediately provide value.
Next, think through the chain of command. Who is going to be responsible for training and managing this new team? How are you going to incorporate them into your existing structure? Best-in-class outsourcing partners will help you through this process and provide guidance throughout the onboarding phase and beyond, but at the end of the day it’s up to you to determine how you want your outsourced employees to fit into the bigger picture. Without a defined structure in place, tasks will fall through the cracks and in-house workers will become frustrated with their new team members, thereby derailing your ability to hit growth goals.
Conclusion
Though different, introducing outsourced employees to your team can be compared to rolling out a new system or software solution. It takes time and patience for everyone involved to get used to the new process and way of working, but it’s all in the name of growth and improvement. The more your team interacts with their outsourced counterparts, the more comfortable they will feel.
If you’re considering outsourcing for the first time and planning this transition, schedule a free consultation with Extend Your Team to learn more about how we approach the onboarding process and ensure our talent integrates seamlessly within our clients’ teams.