With the holiday season coming, you can’t help but feel ready to spend some time off with friends and family. However, some businesses find this to be their busiest time of the year. Others have Christmas parties, outings, sales, promos, and other such events that, however festive, can add to the already heavy workload. It usually means that you’ll have a stressful couple of months before the year ends, and that can really dampen anyone’s holiday spirit—worse still if it’s a task you can’t make heads or tails of.
There is a way to lighten the load and keep yourself and everyone else in the company excited for the holidays—as you may have guessed from the title, it’s strategic outsourcing. This isn’t just about tasks to third-party organisations; it’s about doing so with maximum efficiency in mind. How do you leverage digital outsourcing services to be the best for you? You need only answer three questions to figure it out:
Question 1: Should I outsource?
Offshore outsourcing may mean less work for everyone involved, but it also means extra costs. While it’s hardly expensive, you need to take into account the opportunity cost. Remember: we are aiming for maximum efficiency and outsourcing without purpose will only drain your resources. Although, there are times where you have extra money to spend, we’ll assume, for the rest of this entry, that this is not the case.
That said, to answer the question, look at the workload you have for this month. Has there been anything that has been added to your daily tasks? Were you given too much work or an unreasonable deadline? Is the extra work reducing the quality of your employees’ output or that of your own? If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, especially the last two, then you should seriously consider leveraging business solutions to ease the load. Otherwise, do so only if you have capital to spare.
Question 2: Which tasks should I outsource?
If you decide you should do so, you need to choose what to outsource. List down all the tasks you’re expected to finish this holiday season and order them by priority, with the lowest at the top. Low priority items are a good choice for tasks to outsource, since doing so would let you focus on more important ones. Next, cross out all tasks that you are confident in accomplishing on time and in good quality; there’s no good reason to outsource these.
For the remaining tasks on your list, consider the following. If there’s anything holding you back from accomplishing any of them at the level you want to—whether it’s because you lack training, skills, or manpower—then you should consider outsourcing those tasks. Lastly, cross out the items that you simply don’t want to do. While only some companies have the luxury to do this, doing something you don’t want to do may affect the quality of both the project and your other tasks.
An example of work that fits these categories is planning a Christmas party. A Christmas party may be high on the priority list, since the date of the event is approaching, but not everyone can plan parties very well. You may not like parties to begin with, but this is still a task you need to complete. In this case, there are many organisations that can handle the planning—scouting for venues, hiring entertainment, and so on—so you can focus on the more important work.
Question 3: Who should I outsource to?
This is the final question to ask, but can be difficult to answer for those unfamiliar with outsourcing. Unfortunately, there isn’t a company that can handle every kind of job and there are multiple companies that exist for one specialty. Take the example above: many organisations can plan that Christmas party for you, but the question is which one would do it best. The only way to decide is to research your options, but first, you need to have a clear picture of what you want out of the partnership. Examine what you want to see during the project (e.g. schedule, processes, tools used, etc.) and the final output.
Now is the time to do your research. The best way to distinguish between firms is to look at their past projects. Read through their case studies and whitepapers to get a glimpse of how working with them would be like. In these, you would be able to find their methods, rationality behind each action, and the final product. You will be able to clearly see if the this firm can complement your company’s standards.
With this, you’re ready to enjoy the holidays without a worry as all your tasks are done on time and without a drop in quality.
Have some extra workload for the holiday season, like an annual video or a seasonal email, and don't know where to start? Schedule a consultation with us today, so we can offer advice on how you can finish quickly those side projects without dampening your quality. Get all your work done in time for the holidays!
Comments