4 Ways To Kill The Productivity Of Your Outsourced Business

Outsourcing has obviously emerged not only as a better way to do business but quite clearly the only way to run a highly profitable, streamlined operation for most entrepreneurs. However, you must watch out for productivity killers that can quickly sap your organization from the inside if overlooked. So keep these five items in mind in order to maintain a highly efficient, motivated and effective outsourced team running at top capacity.

1. Clarity

Yes, you will find many highly skilled and intelligent freelancers offering their services as independent contractors today. However, you must realize that they don’t read minds. You must be clear about what your expectations are for their work and give good instructions. If you don’t, failures really come back to you, despite your urge to give them a good ear bashing. This is where great systems can help your organization to consistently excel. Every time you do something, create a system for it so that the next time around you can truly delegate and empower your outsourced team to deliver the results you want.

2. Last Minute Projects

There is no question that you have your plate full with things to do as a small business owner. However, waiting until the last minute to request work or start a project with a deadline only a couple days away is not going to be an efficient way to outsource. If you are only using freelancers a couple of hours a week or on an as needed basis, remember that they will normally keep their time booked up at least a week or two in advance. So throwing them a rush project due in 48 hours from now is either going to end up in shoddy work or missing your own deadlines. Freelancers don’t like to say no to work or to their clients, but they shouldn’t be penalized or given bad feedback due to you being unorganized.

3. Demoting Someone

Demoting people or taking away responsibilities does not make for a great work environment or great work. It doesn’t matter whether they really dropped the ball, or you had put them in the wrong position, given them too much to do or you just found someone better. People generally don’t react well to being demoted. You don’t want a grumpy team member spreading bad vibes and just filling a seat to collect a paycheck if they aren’t happy working for you. So, just fire them.

4. Poor Payroll Organization

It doesn’t matter whether it is on purpose, a genuine mistake on your part or a poor payroll system, if you fail to pay your freelancers on time or the right amount you are going to kill your productivity and likely lose some great assets. People work for you for an on time paycheck, other wise they could be working for someone else or sitting on the beach. If you don’t deliver your end, don’t expect them to keep on delivering their top performance either. Eventually they will just replace you with another client, probably one of your competitors, which could be bad news.

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