Activation Consultation 3.0 – Training and Skill Development

Just a quick note I want to tell you the incredible value that the Outsource Activation Consultation Program has for you. Okay. So, there’s these upcoming episodes are about the six modules of the Outsource Activation Program within the podcast episodes. I give you an insight into the learnings that you would have on the Outsource Activation Consultation Program but there is so much more value if you actually do the full program. Now I’m not suggesting that you have to do this. I am sharing with you key points and value within this consultation regardless of whether you want to do the course or not. This is because I am so passionate about outsourcing and encourage everyone out there to try it. But if you do decide to take the activation consultation then there is so much more in there for you. Okay. There is over 1300-1400$ worth of actual course content for you. Okay. There are multiple charts and infographics. There’s 21 learning resources there is I think two to three dozen videos. And then there are expert videos. There are virtual BPO tours and then also there’s mastermind groups. And of course, there are one on one business consultations. There are open office sessions and we build for you a network in Manila of key people that you can turn to if you need contacts, leads if you need to start your outsourcing journey. Then you have them up your sleeve. So, there’s a huge amount of value there but more specifically it’s not just about the learning and education you get. You actually receive bespoke consultation and advice from myself and Outsource Accelerator. Okay, you get one on one consultation time and you get quick results and solutions for your business that you can if you feel the time is right immediately implement. So, I really believe that there are phenomenal results and potential for you and your company by doing this consultation. That is why I’m so excited. If you just want to listen to the podcast that is absolutely fantastic. That is fine because I’m just so enthusiastic about people starting their outsourcing journey. But if you do want to consider the outsource consultation then go to our website to find out more.

Hi and welcome to another episode of the Outsource Accelerator podcast. My name is Derek Gallimore and this is episode number 61. So, if you want any of the show notes go to outsourceaccelerator.com/61.

This episode now is a continuation of an overview of the Outsource Activation Consultation Program. The activation consultation is a program that Outsource Accelerator offers to people where we basically fast-track your knowledge from little knowledge of outsourcing to expert level of outsourcing knowledge so that you can implement outsourcing your business effectively and get the best deal going. OK it’s a super effective course and we have had fantastic results. But we are giving away and you know in this podcast it’s an outline of course. So, if you aren’t prepared to take the course if you don’t want to take the course if you’re too busy then these podcasts give you the essential insight you need so that you can still start your outsourcing journey and you have the key points to consider. Also in the show notes we provide some of the essential resources that you need to help you along this journey. Okay. So, if you do need any information then go to the show notes. And of course, reach out to us at outsourceaccelerator.com.

Today. We’re now outlining module three of the consultation program. If you want to review the earlier aspects of the consultation program then look at episodes 52, 55 and 58 for the earlier aspects and again all of these things will be in the show notes if you want to refer to those. Today. We are looking at the training and skill development within outsourcing. Okay, within an outsourcing team or even if you’re just looking to start with one person. I can’t stress enough that training and skill development with outsourcing is absolutely essential. Okay. All too often I see that people try outsourcing and then it’s a failure and they blame the person, they blame the Philippines, they blame the concept you know, outsourcing will never work. They don’t have an idea. Yet, there hasn’t been enough upfront investment into that role again. Okay, and by investment I don’t mean money. I mean time, I mean rapport building, I mean attention, okay, I mean process mapping. So, let’s go through this today. This is module three of the outsource activation consultation program.

Briefly today I’m going to go over I think the key things that we cover. OK. So, it is the onboarding preparation that is the first topic I’m going to look at. And then it is the key performance indicators. Then we have an activity that I suggest everyone does and that is the key KPI attribution exercise. OK. Then as the third topic we look at staff orientation or team member orientation and as the last topic it’s about training and skill development. And then the module has one final activity which is basically the training materials that you need to develop a great team. So, as I mentioned you know and all throughout this I mentioned that in some ways outsourcing is absolutely no different to running any company effectively. Okay. And there is a huge amount of management books out there of how to structure company, well how to train people, how to recruit staff and blah blah blah. And you know there’s also a million different ways of skinning that cat. Of coming to the same result by doing a lot of different approaches. So, I acknowledge and what I don’t want to do is tell you things you already know. And also, this is not about a general management book. OK. So, what I want to do is concentrate on the aspects of organizational management specifically to outsourcing. So, let’s get going.

Topic one is onboarding preparation. When as I mentioned I can’t stress enough that you need to put time in the frontend if you want your outsourcing to be successful. OK. And depending on how big your team is now whether you’re a solopreneur or you have one or hundred staff at some stage you would have hired your first employee. OK. And it is essential I don’t know if you did this or not but it is essential to invest significant time into that person. OK. The business team that you have is no longer just in your head. It’s no longer you know a kind of figment of your intellectual capabilities. It’s no longer just you at the coalface as soon as you hire someone it’s about transferring your knowledge, your aspirations, your goals for the company, your knowledge of the company and you know the culture of the company over to that new person. This is why in module one I get you as one of the first activities to do a one-page strategic plan. This plan helps you write down on paper everything to do with your business. Okay. And once of course you’ve written it down. Then it’s easier to transfer to other people. Now with onboarding as I mentioned a lot of these skills transfer to any sort of management fundamentals. But when you are outsourcing it is even more important that you spend a little bit more time upfront to ensure that this information is conveyed across OK. It’s not because these people are from a different planet. It is because they are sitting in an office somewhere a few thousand kilometers away from you. And there’s a different time zone. OK. With these small hurdles in place it increases friction. OK. And so, you need to acknowledge that there is friction within the structure. And so, you need to do everything you can to try and reduce that friction and reduce those hurdles. So, what I want you to do is allocate time to your onboarding process, make sure that when you bring on your first staff member or your initial team you spend time with them. It is important that you convey to them the processes, you convey to them the expectations, you convey to them the culture of your company and you know all of these all of the macro aspects then but then also all of the micro aspects. Significantly as well, it is super important and it is so important specifically with the Philippines that you build a rapport with your team. It is not, a lot of people come to outsourcing on the Philippines wanting to hire someone but they really just look at it as an output. Okay, I want my accounts done. Give me all my accounts. But really when you’re hiring a team member they sometimes overlook that it’s actually a person behind the screen. Okay. There is a person there’s you know they’ve got their own life going on their own emotions. They come to work the first day they’re excited happy and there is no worse way of standing up for a relationship with an employee than ignoring the fact that you know they’re a person, they’re human. So, spend time getting to know them. I can’t stress this enough. So, in module one of this consultation program we walk through activities, so there’s the one-page strategic plan. There is the business process mapping exercise okay, and then there is the task delegation exercise. And so, we have basically mapped out this process for you. Then of course there is the outsourcing requirement template. So, there’s a huge amount that has already been mapped out for you so that when it comes to onboarding these things can easily be transferred across to your new team. So, what it requires is a sensitivity and awareness that these people need onboarding, they need to build a rapport with you. But then once that happens you will have probably the most loyal team, enthusiastic team you could ever imagine. As I’ve also mentioned there is a certain learning curve. OK with outsourcing it’s interesting you know I want to assure you that the average BPO worker when they start outsourcing with your company it’s not going to be new to them then likely to have come from an outsource job previously and for them working with someone like you is now commonplace. The actual learning curve commonly is for you for the employer, for the boss. OK because you need to get used to outsourcing and running a remote team effectively. So, you know we’ve covered some of the skills and expectations with you in the earlier modules but there is this growth curve and learning curve that I want you to acknowledge.

So then moving right along. We outline the key performance indicators. So, if you aren’t aware of KPIs in your country then very quickly you should and would become aware of KPIs in outsourcing. KPIs are basically metrics to measure the success of an output. Okay so is it customer review score above 8. Is it 100 emails sent in a day. Whatever the key metrics are of each role, these are KPIs. In the West, these have been utilized a lot but they are potentially less in favor than they are in the Philippines. In the West, people like to be less guided. Okay. I think people like to feel that they are using their initiative a lot more. Their autonomy a lot more. And you know there’s a bit more of a free flow especially with smaller organizations. In the Philippines, people prefer structure a lot more. People prefer KPI. People prefer process mapping. People prefer an organized organizational mapping structure. Especially one not especially in small companies but even when they work in small companies they expect these things. OK so there is a learning curve there that when you know a small company starts outsourcing the outsourced team, let’s say in the Philippines want aspects from the company that the company is not used to providing. OK so from an immature company it is potentially uncommon for them to have all of these process maps and you know org charts and training structures and things like that. When you come to the Philippines it is more of a standardized expectation. So, I don’t want to blow your mind and really you know it’s not something you have to worry about but KPIs, key performance indicators are one of the easy wins that you can do. They’re easy to implement. And what it does is basically gives everyone visibility on the goals and the steppingstones to the goals. So, we talk a lot about KPIs and give you the tips that you need to set good KPIs. Monitor good KPIs and also be able to police and enforce them and run these KPIs effectively.

We then get you to do an exercise which is KPI attribution and it’s about them basically attaching specific KPI to each specific process and listing down key drivers for the values of the company. So, it’s effectively a reductionist kind of process to go from what is the primary goal of the company to what are the processes to what are the KPIs that will affect those processes. So that’s an exercise that we’ll get you to work through.

Right. So, the next topic is the staff orientation and you know as I’ve mentioned previously you cannot overdo this enough. Invest time upfront in your team and that shows them that you know you are investing time, you’re investing trust, you’re investing yourself into them that will imbue them with a huge amount of energy and pride and loyalty going forward. So, I really encourage you to spend a lot of time on this. It’s important to provide structure especially for people in the Philippines. They really appreciate structure. It’s important to clarify the roles. OK. And again, people like clear role definition, they like titles. It’s important for them to have a hierarchy and know where they stand. Okay, some of these things don’t now hold so true in the West but this is very very relevant in the Philippines still. It’s important to set motivating goals and it’s very important to regularly give and receive feedback especially at the start of a relationship and especially as you’re starting to get work back from them because you know it’s in the first few days, weeks, months that you are establishing norms and expectations and things like this. So, hugely important in the staff orientation period that you really spend time clarifying processes, structures, roles and set good goals and then give and receive good feedback.

So, then training and skill development there is a. There’s a famous quote I don’t know who said it but what if we train our employees and they leave. OK. There is a concern that if you invest in them and you leave then you’ve lost something. The response to that is what if you don’t train them and they stay. OK. Can you imagine how critical it is to have A-players on your team. You don’t want people you don’t want B-players, C-players, you want to get people up to the top standard that you can possibly get people so that by building a fantastic company for you. So, to do that invest in them and train them and enhance their skill development. So again, all these are basic management fundamentals I’m not teaching you anything new there. So I want to link it specifically to the Philippines. The Philippines in certainly in the BPO sector, they’re used to a very structured workplace. A lot of the BPOs they have you know 10, 20, 30, 40 thousand staff. So, they have very structured processes and the team members they genuinely generally appreciate that. OK. And what they actually appreciate from that is the structured training, the support they have and also the growth that that then leads to. OK. They also appreciate a career ladder so that if they go through these trainings, if they improve their output then they can see a reason for doing so. OK. And they like to see all of these things laid out in front of them. So that is where smaller companies certainly you know micro and SMEs freak out a little bit when they come over to the Philippines and start outsourcing because actually they find that they need to mature their processes more than they thought they had to. So, you know it’s an interesting irony that they come to the Philippines and then they realize actually their company has to mature and get a little bit more sophisticated than they thought they needed initially. So, training and skill development is super, super important. We provide insight into this and also you know basic resources for this. It is important to train and encourage your team to think outside of the rules. In the Philippines, they’re a little bit more prone. And this is as a result of the kind of workplace, the kind of hierarchy, the traditional education system and also the traditional employment system in that they are taught more to follow orders and fall in line and respect the seniors and have a pyramid hierarchy approach. Now this is a double-edged sword. There are pros and cons to this but the reality is that that is what the Filipino workforce is used to and that is what they default to. And if you encourage them or expect them to think outside of the box and be independent and be kind of free living kind of Western type startup kind of model then they’re really going to struggle. And it is not just a case of you know you just kind of liberating them and giving them freedom and then they will respond. Actually, it’s a little bit anti to that natural default position. So, if you really do want people to think outside of the rules and exercise their independence and you know think around problems then it’s going to be something that you have to proactively encourage and develop them in that way. OK. This is something that commonly trips up outsourced people, okay, outsourcing companies. It’s interesting to note that a lot of people come to the Philippines they start outsourcing and they immediately say I want an open office, I want relaxed start times, I want people to have autonomy and no org chart and no titles to them behind their names. It often doesn’t work out. Do things slowly. Don’t try and turn the whole system up on its head on day one. Hire and create an environment, hire a team and create an environment where they are comfortable and they perform and make sure you have your business processes clearly identified and in place and then eventually you develop the team and your groomed to be more autonomous and independent. OK so these are some of the key tips for outsourcing and developing a team.

We also have a training materials template that we offer people in the Outsource Activation Consultation so that training and skill development is an easier process. And again, you know we all want to concentrate on our core company and sometimes our core output. So sometimes training and skill development can be overlooked. But if you want to develop a strong team then it’s super important that you do this. So, we provide you with the training materials template to help you with this.

So just to recap. The module three of the Outsource Activation Consultation is about training and skill development. We talk about onboarding preparation. It’s super, super important that you spend time upfront and invest time in your people, your team and they will pay you back in spadefuls. Next, we talk about key performance indicators that very common in the Philippines and people actually don’t just want them but they expect the KPI are in place because they then know how they are performing. We go through an exercise which is the KPI attribution. Then we look at actual staff orientation and the important aspects to that. And then specifically training and skill development it is so important and we look at how the Filipino workforce is different to the kind of freewheeling autonomous west environment especially within the kind of startups scene so it’s a good module. It’s a little bit getting into the nitty gritty of people management. But you know it’s super important. Do not come to the Philippines and think that it is the same as managing a team in your hometown. It is different it is different because you are geographically separated so you need to spend more time on building rapport. And then it is different because there are cultural differences. Okay. And so, it is important to acknowledge the geographical distance and geographical cultural differences so that you get the best out of your team and you know I hope this last kind of 15 Minutes has helped you, help give you insight into that. And of course, the outsource activation consultation looks further into that as well.

So, if you want any of our show notes go to outsourceaccelerator.com/61. And of course, if you are interested in the Outsource Activation Consultation then go to our website as well and I encourage everyone to take this. It is a fantastic consultation program and it can really take you and transform you and your business because you will then get the best of outsourcing. So, I look forward to seeing you next time. Episode 64 is where we discuss module 4 for of this outsource consultation. See you next time.