Every organisation you look at has other organisations and agents serving it. Starting with only a few areas in the earlier decades, in many sectors today, the number of people serving the organisation as part of vendor organisations has become large, pervading ever more number of functions and types of assignments. For many businesses, it has now become unthinkable to run without outsourced pools.
These external entities can be put into two broad categories – ‘hands and legs’, and expertise providers.
What is the quality of relationship?
There are two parts to managing these partnerships. There should be robust processes of contract management – structured assignments with clearly demarcated roles for the off-rolls staff, periodic feedback sessions, timely negotiation processes, and timely contracting. It is fairly easy to see whether these processes are in place. Typically, a separate Legal / Administration / Contract Management team drives these processes, and hence they stay on track.
But there should also be attention to the quality of relationship. There should be periodic meetings with supervisors of the service providers. There should be low attrition among the deployed pools, indicating that they believe they are getting a good deal and also are being treated with respect. Low attrition enables higher quality of service, that makes the outsourcing effort a success.
There should also be attention to the quality of relationship. There should be periodic meetings with supervisors of the service providers.
Understanding how the function treats service providers is important and not straightforward – usually, no feedback is taken from the off-rolls staff on their experience of working for the client organisation.
Related Readings :
MEYERS C. Three Tips for Managing Outsourced Employees, Forbes ( 2015 )
NAUGHTER T. Outsourcing, Contractworks ( 2017 )
BATTY C. Managing Outsourcing As A Business Relationship, ISG
