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Incorporating Outsource Staff into the Routine of your Office
| Guest post by: Heather Villa |
Article Overview: Incorporating Outsource Staff into the Routine of your Office Business owners who grow their businesses with outsource staff (including freelancers, consultants, and virtual assistants) enjoy many benefits to this arrangement but face one critical challenge: Businesses run better when everyone gets along and collaborates with good rapport. So, how do you build that among virtual staff when they are separated by many miles?
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Incorporating Outsource Staff into the Routine of your Office
Incorporating Outsource Staff into the Routine of your Office
As a business owner you are comfortable with the daily routine of your office. You know the intricacies of your workplace and are comfortable with the workflow. You can see the friendly faces of your employees in every cubicle or behind each desk. Your business has a rhythm and when you achieve that rhythm, everything seems to go so well.
What happens when you decide to use the services of virtual staff? How does that impact your traditional office? What adjustments will you need to make? These are good questions and the answers can help you easily navigate the transition.
Robyn is the president of an online publishing software company and found herself faced with these same questions. She transitioned from working at a newspaper to operating the software company. Robyn was used to the daily interaction with other employees and discovered that there are some adjustments to working in the virtual world. Robyn shares three helpful tips when making this addition to your company.
First, “An employer must be intentional about creating a bond with a virtual employee,” Robyn states. “When you are in a traditional work environment, that interaction comes naturally, but when you deal with someone that you may never actually meet, building that relationship and establishing a bond of trust takes a little more effort,” Robyn continues. Of course, working on the relationship is part of the outsource staff member's responsibility as well.
Good communication is essential to forming an effective working relationship, no matter where your employee is working: Establishing a good working relationship with your outsource staff is just as important as the relationships you have with your in-house employees.
Next, Robyn encourages other business owners to establish a schedule or routine with their outsource staff. Since these offsite staff do not necessarily have set hours, the employer and virtual workers need to agree upon what is expected in regards to a work schedule and the duties to be performed. Having a pre-determined list of expectations can prevent any confusion in the future and keep the lines of communication open.
Finally, implement all of the available technologies to keep the work flowing between employer and outsource staff. According to Robyn, the more you make use of things like instant messaging, teleconferencing , faxing and emailing, the easier the communication will be. “Don’t limit yourself to one method of keeping in touch. Be sure your offsite employee has all of the software that is needed to complete the work you have assigned,” emphasizes Robyn.
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About the Author: Heather Villa RSS for Heather's articles - Visit Heather's website Click here to visit Heather's website   Incorporating Outsource Staff into the Routine of your Office How Much Does A Small Business Owner Make The Building Blocks of a Successful Company How to Make Your Entrepreneurial Dream a Reality Finance More Than Number Crunchers |
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Social media
- which is more effective social media networking; Facebook or twitter?
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Re: Ways to Boost Productivity
- 1. Give Employees More Than a Paycheck
2. Provide Better eSupport Channels to Promote Self-Service
3. Complete your most dreaded tasks first thing in the morning.
4. Outsource as much as possible
5. . Turn off the TV.
Re: Trade Show Success Strategies
- As a frequent attendee and participant in trade shows, I've found the following tips to be useful:
1) Staff in the booth must be trained to listen to the needs of the visitor, record those interests and if appropriate, commit to getting back to that person within a short time frame. Capture those leads and act on them!
2) The booth needs to be 'busy' - hustle is eye catching and generates interest
3) Homogeneity (common dress) facilitates the visitor to find someone to speak to
4) 'Freebees' need to be selectively handed out and when they are, there must be a personal conection to them (e.g. "You'd like one of our 'whatevers' - we're running a little short right now but here, please take mine")
Cafe Expenses
- Hi Michele
I used to work in a place that had a cafe that broke even every month. This is due to the fact that we couldn't get enough people through buying food and drinks to make a profit and the expenses consisted of:
- Staff wages
- Not selling all food so it would go to waste
- Rent for occupying the premises
- Selling products that had a low turn over
- Customers would never come back a 2nd time due to the location
I would imagine a restaurant would be the same with the hardest part attracting people every night to make a profit while setting your prices at the right price to keep people coming back.
Re: Content Development Vs. Advertising
- [quote:16o36mhk]1. What do you consider content?[/quote:16o36mhk]
Articles, posts, pages, videos... any information that adds value to the website.
[quote:16o36mhk]2. If you had $10,000 to invest in marketing/promoting/advertising your company what would you do with it?[/quote:16o36mhk]
Outsource a LOT of link building and article writing.
[quote:16o36mhk]3. What companies do you buy from because they have excellent content?[/quote:16o36mhk]
Can't really think of anything off the top of my head right now so I will just go with Amazon as Terri did above.
[quote:16o36mhk]4. How long would it take you to write 2 great articles a month?[/quote:16o36mhk]
I think a "great" article takes at least an hour to write even for a really good writer, but could take a lot longer. So I would say no less than 2 hours up to maybe 6 hours.
[quote:16o36mhk]5. Do you think you could produce a semi-professional video?[/quote:16o36mhk]
Yes
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