Online collaboration software like Asana allows businesses of all sizes to collaborate with multiple users. These project management platforms enable companies to implement outsourced teams with ease and efficiency, allowing contractors to seamlessly integrate into the appropriate projects with access to only information necessary to their tasks, freeing up business owners and managers to remain focused on other facets of business operations. Join the outsourcing trend and scale up by using Asana as a collaboration tool to maintain a team of outsourced professionals.
Outsourcing some of your tasks to third-parties can benefit both your team and the person or business to whom you are outsourcing work. With Asana, you can hand over any project or task without worrying about time-frames, administration, or checking and rechecking items that eat up your time.
Whether you have day-to-day IT needs, software development plans, websites to build, projects to manage, marketing campaigns to launch, or many other roles, collaborating with an outsourced team can certainly benefit you and maximize your time.
How to Create an Outsourced Team
1. Decide which tasks you will outsource.
Most business coaches agree that business owners should stay focused on their genius work, overseeing operations of their companies to maintain a big-picture visionary mindset to more easily notice patterns and make changes toward growth and efficiency. This means they need to delegate the rest. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What’s the biggest headache for you?
- What daily or weekly tasks don’t you want to do or have the right skillset or personality for?
- What position haven’t you found the right employee for?
- Can you delegate bookkeeping, marketing, or administrative tasks to a remote worker, or outsource company?
You could start by looking at which people in your organization could use some help, an assistant, or someone with a lot of experience to help them grow. A pool of freelance copywriters could relieve your marketing manager’s load, for example, allowing that person to focus on bigger-picture business strategy and prioritize other projects which have had to take a back seat due to time constraints.
2. Develop an onboarding process.
Create an onboarding process for collaborators that collects all the necessary information for how you’ll work together and how they’ll be paid. This will ensure that any new remote workers understand how the work they’re doing fits in with your strategies, and creates a level of trust and expectation for both parties. Specify an overview of the chain of command, be clear about who they will collaborate and communicate with, and offer plenty of comprehensive training so that they’re familiar with the tools and processes they’ll need to use to successfully collaborate with your employees or other contractors.
3. Create a communication and workflow plan.
Communication must remain a top priority for every new team member, whether working in-house, virtually, or as part of an outsourced team.
Projects get done through constant and effective communication. Ensure that communication is frequent, clear, and concise. Outsourcing companies are often located in countries where English is not the team’s first language. To avoid miscommunication or issues, in-house team members need to strive to communicate in simple, easily-understood expressions. Don’t over-complicate explanations or tasks. Make sure team members who need to communicate with outsourced teams understand that they may need to be patient and speak clearly.
Treat outsourced team members or contractors like a new in-house co-worker. It’s good business for both sides to work to make the other feel welcome and create excitement to get started working together on the projects ahead. Boost morale, and you will naturally create a work environment that fosters co-working relationships and improves productivity levels both in-house and remotely. It can also be helpful to create collaboration exercises or contests, and utilize lots of positive reinforcement.
When working with any kind of team, whether in the office, virtually, or in another country, it can be difficult to know the status of each individual team member’s tasks. With Asana management tools, it’s easy for managers and other team members to track progress and intervene, if necessary, to keep project deadlines on track. The platform allows managers and members to assign tasks, create deadlines, and set goals with milestones in a visually referenceable way. For extra motivation and team morale, provide bonuses, gifts, or fun activities when milestones are achieved.
How to Add a Team:
You can create a new team in just a few clicks. Just tap on the + icon in the upper right-hand corner, and select “Team”.
Create a name for the team and invite team members by name/email.
Create a Project:
When you create a team, you can create a project at that time for the team, depending on the purpose of this particular team. Select “New Project”, or choose from a template.
If you choose a template, you have many options to select from, depending on your needs.
Assign a Team Member from Another Project: Connect the project with the team. Now you can share the link with everyone from that team, which can also include other team members from other departments or projects.
Inside the project, you can also add collaborators just for a specific task.
On the left menu, you can quickly browse teams and departments.
Asana makes outsourcing easier. It is a great system for keeping all the pertinent information at your fingertips while supporting all key players to work in sync with one another for greater efficiency. Managing a team can be one of the hardest things you have to do as a business owner, so making sure that all members of the team are on the same page will make your outsourced team as efficient as they can be. Make sure to foster collaboration and encourage growth with nice incentives for reaching team and company goals. For more read How to Manage a Team in Asana and The Step by Step Guide to Setting up a Team Project in Asana, Subscribe for more business, sales, and investing posts. Have a lovely day!
