In this Q and A we’re going to answer :

  • How  much experience do I need in outsourcing?
  • What is a statement of works?
  • How do I resolve conflict issues with outsourced staff?

Transcript of the video:


Eva Judge from Affordable Staff and welcome to our RAW Q&A session around outsourcing.

We’ve created this series of videos for businesses that have considered outsourcing and have genuine questions or concerns that need answering.

The format? 3 questions and 3 answers based on over 275,000 hours of outsourcing experience.

Let’s get into it



How  much experience do I need in outsourcing? 


This depends if you’re looking at outsourcing yourself or if you’re looking at using a managed service like we offer.

If you are using a managed outsourcing service then you should confirm that company will guide you and ensure you have the right infrastructure in place before you start the process.

If you are looking at outsourcing yourself then there are a few things you’ll need to consider:

First is the infrastructure which is mainly referring to the power and internet. If you can’t fly to the location where you are looking at employing your staff, then you would need to ask and get your potential team member to run speed and ping tests of their internet connection.

You would also look for the local power suppliers website of scheduled power outages. Another tip is look at employing staff within commercial areas as this will reduce the risk of power and internet issues.

Second is the recruitment process you follow. We learnt early on, that a resume has very little indication whether the person applying is actually capable of performing the task.

You should test their abilities (hands on) and get an understanding of the person’s character to ensure they will be the right fit for this type of work, and the right fit for your local team.

Finally, how will you incentivise and offer job stability. Once you find the right person, how will you convince them that you’re a long term employer that will offer them a stable role? On this point, whilst you can employ people on contract basis, we’ve found we attract a much better quality applicant if we offer them a full time job that offers consistency and stability.

While there are many other things to consider, these three I mentioned are the most important to gain experience in.



What is a statement of works?


A statement of works, also known as an SOW is a document that outlines the tasks a staff member will perform within their role.

You would normally include this as a part of the Service Agreement to confirm and clarify the tasks at the very beginning of an outsourced arrangement.

Over time you can amend the Statement of Works as you continue to develop the tasks of your outsourced staff member.

How do I resolve conflict issues with outsourced staff?


There are 2 common ways we’ve noticed people use to handle conflict issues.

The first is to threaten and yell at your staff until they get it right.

While this may work for some we’ve found it can greatly impact how long your outsourced staff will stay working with you and how well they will perform.

Our approach is to be consultative with your team and to:

  • Understand what the issue is by talking with the team member/s
  • Ask why they think this issue occurred
  • Look at how we can overcome the issue
  • What we can put into place to prevent it from happening again
  • How will we measure the effectiveness of the action plan

As I mentioned we use a very consultative method where we address the behaviour behind the actual issue and focus on how to move forward.

We find this approach is very effective in helping your staff to want to improve and take total ownership of their role.


Ok, that’s it


If you’d like to find out more about how outsourcing can work within your business you can call us anywhere within Australia on 1300 139 482.

This is Eva from Affordable Staff showing Australian businesses how to succeed with outsourcing.