Training Your Offshore Team to Company Standards

By: Paolo Arguelles

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In today’s digital age, you cannot blame other companies for their pursuit of offshoring solution. You will find that almost every business operation or task can be accomplished overseas for lower costs and higher quality. The benefits of incorporating offshore into your company can be attractive enough for you to bite, but you have to remember that seeking the services does not equate to success.

Your company is a unique entity. While you can find lookalike companies or direct competitors that operate similarly, you will have unique distinctions in many areas. This situation is where the success of offshoring can be misleading. Your preferences for your offshore team and tasks might be different, which affects the success rate and results you expect when you offshore work to another country.

Offshore partners can provide you with an offshore team that contains the talent, experience, and personalities you need. However, you will struggle to produce the results you want if they aren’t familiar with your company standards. The offshore team will be part of your business, making it critical to treat them the same way you would for your in-house team.

Why Training Matters

When you partner with offshore service providers, you might be expecting that the team has enough experience and talent necessary to accomplish roles. However, there is still one element missing from their skills and knowledge. They need guidance and direction to become effective specifically for your company’s operations.

Training will always be necessary when it comes to business. Nobody gets it right during initial attempts. Because of its value, you will be setting up training programs and courses for your in-house team. Extending those to your offshore team, how limited they might be, will still lead to improvement. A Forbes article states that effective management of an offshore team requires adequate time to train them, particularly to learn your company’s technology and product.

Training ensures that the offshore team aligns with your company’s standards and goals. Your efforts will lead to a more productive unit capable of achieving your goals.

Create a Cross-Cultural Onboarding Process

One of the barriers to training your offshore team is the cultural difference between both sides. You cannot expect professionals from the other side of the world to perform their tasks the same way your local employees do. They need to understand what it means to be effective for your business. Their efforts to learn about your company’s operations start with the onboarding process.

You can use the existing onboarding process designed for your in-house team to teach your offshore unit about your company rules and regulations. A few tweaks and adjustments might be necessary to avoid communication breakdowns. Physical onboarding processes such as walkthroughs might have to take place virtually.

The onboarding process allows your offshore division to fit into your company seamlessly. It contains an overview of their work, the particular roles each member has to perform, and the results that you expect from acquiring their services.

Identify Resources and Equipment Your Offshore Team Requires

Offshoring can become a solution for every type of company. As long as you are searching for ways to lower costs, attain experienced professionals from the get-go, and maintain competitiveness in your industry, you can pursue the strategy as part of your growth and development plans.

You will find plenty of business divisions and tasks that allow your company to enjoy the benefits of incorporating offshore. The Philippines, one of the world’s most accomplished outsourcing hubs, have been seeing spikes of outsourced solutions in these fields:

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As one of the best countries to incorporate a business for offshoring, the Philippines has a reliable workforce across multiple professions. However, you might end up with an offshore team that uses software and equipment different from what your company is using. 

Once you decide to hire an offshore team, you must identify the specific tools and resources they need to learn for seamless collaboration with your company. It might take a while before they become experts in those applications and software. However, you will find that training will ensure that they progress quicker than average.

Determine Training Metrics

Your offshore team should be reducing expenses for your business, but the cost of resources and programs you dedicate to training them might not be attractive. You must ensure that your investment yields value, so you will have to identify if your efforts lead to progress.

Try to establish benchmarks that allow you to measure the progress of your offshore team. Your training metrics depend on the business task you do offshore. Once you identify how you measure their progress, you might not have to worry about ensuring that your offshore team fits company standards.
Conclusion
You might not be able to pay attention to the training of your offshore team because of your other responsibilities to your business. Fortunately, you can assign a project manager to oversee their progress and report back to you. Offshoring is a viable strategy for success, especially during the digital age. However, it can only happen when you dedicate yourself to ensuring that your offshore team is tailor-fit to company standards.