Hiring Your First Offshore Employee – Outsourcing Tips for Beginners
Outsourcing may sound easier to set-up compared to offshore outsourcing, but really, both share the same patterns of success and failure. What’s important is that you must have a well thought out plan.
After all the tiring research and canvassing you’ve done on all the offshore outsourcing partners that pique your interest, there’s still one more thing to do before you can hire your first offshore employee; signing the contract.
The Agreement
Offshore outsourcing companies will present you their contract for review and approval. They might offer you two types of services; staff leasing or project-based. Choose one and if everything in it goes well with your plan, sign it! But if you’re striking a deal with an offshore freelancer, you must remember to deal only with the one who has the highest probability of delivering what you asked for. That’s why prior research and a bit of investigation are important.
Here are some of the common problems with offshore freelancers you might encounter.
- No contract that binds him to his responsibilities;
- Skill level on prospects’ online resume isn’t always what it seems;
- The risk of data security – your offshore employee might not have the best protection system in place;
- How you’re going to send him your payment if he doesn’t have a Paypal account; and
- Not 100% committed to your project due to multiple clients – for some, it depends on how much you’re paying him.
Take note of the above if none of those ever crossed your mind before!
Getting Started
Now that you have an offshore employee, you can get started.
The most important part of getting your projects done right is communication. If you chose offshore staff leasing or project-based with a third party company, expect that communication will be smooth because they will be the ones to contact you regularly. But if you opted for the offshore freelancer; there’s Email, Skype, Yahoo! Messenger and even Facebook, use all tools available if those will get the job done correct and on time!
Assigning the Project. It will be very helpful if you list down all the projects for your offshore employee, sit down with him on a live chat or Skype video call so you can do a bit of demonstration yourself.
Daily Reports. It is also important that you require him to send you daily updates at the end of his shift, a summary of the progress will do. Get daily reports via DropBox or any other online tool you feel comfortable using.
Provide Positive Reinforcement. Every now and then problems will occur during the development of your project, you will get sad and angry, but do not hurdle the tension and frustration to your offshore employee. Instead, provide yourself with positive reinforcement. Your employee is also human, he gets hurt and the work he does for you might get affected if you pressure him too much. If the problem is too big to handle, take a break and discuss the solution with your offshore employee.
Be Always Available. Accidents happen and most of the time without a warning. So be sure you can easily be reached.
Payment for the Services. You can have your offshore employee work for you full-time or part-time, depends on how much is the work load. But when it comes to payment, I would suggest that you do not to pay in advance for offshore freelancers. You may pay in advance to third party outsourcing companies if you feel comfortable about it, they’re easier to locate and contact compared to a freelancer who has no physical address.
Over-all, offshore outsourcing is really a matter of choice, for most businesses today, it’s a matter of cutting down costs. You may find equally competent professionals in your own country, you may hire them or not, it truly depends on your decision. But if you do decide to outsource parts of your business, make sure you do it the right way. Take time in reading success stories of businesses that have outsourced to the country you’re interested in. While online, take down important notes and digest the tips provided to you by others, never pass the chance of learning more about offshore outsourcing even if you think you’ve already gone through all the nooks.
