The Ultimate Guide for Getting the Most out of Your BPO Team

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Business process outsourcing

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a hot topic of today’s working world.

With good reason.

Outsourcing aspects of your business is one of the highest ROI decisions you can make. It can save you countless time, money, and help your business scale faster.

In years gone by, outsourcing was reserved for multinational corporations. Not any more.

Today, thanks to specialist providers across the globe, BPO is a smart, cost-effective solution for companies of all sizes and industries, from Fortune 500 corporations to startups.

But how do you best manage your BPO team?

What's the best way to track time spent on projects?

How do you know which country to outsource to?

And what tasks can be outsourced?

This guide will answer all those questions -- and many more.

By the end of it, you’ll know whether BPO is right for you, how to hire and manage  your BPO workforce.

This guide is for you if…

Your business depends on BPO providers and you want to get the most out of them.

You’re looking to hire a BPO for the first time and want to know all the ins and outs.

You’re a BPO provider looking to streamline management and maximize productivity.

Sound like you? Then let’s get to it, shall we?

What is Business Process Outsourcing?

So, first things first. What is BPO company?

Business process outsourcing is a subcategory of the broader outsourcing industry. It involves companies outsourcing specific business functions and tasks to specialist third-party providers.

A growing number of companies across practically every industry now outsource essential and non-essential functions of their business.

As we’ll cover in detail, BPO comes with significant advantages.

It can help companies compete, scale, and make their operations more efficient and cost-effective. It also allows affordable top talent to be sourced from around the world, unrestricted by borders.

Managing a BPO workforce? Insightful helps you boost their productivity and precisely manage their time on every task…

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Business Process Outsourcing by the Numbers

Global outsourcing market size reached $92.5b in 2019, set to grow to $405b by 2027

More than one-third of small businesses currently outsource a business process

83% of small business are planning to increase business process outsourcing in 2022

80% of Americans say outsourcing hurts US jobs

89% of companies say they wouldn’t outsource strategic planning

The No.1 reason (59% of companies) for outsourcing is to reduce or control costs

Around 300,000 jobs are outsourced by the US annually

bpo data

Why Use a BPO?

Companies of all sizes and industries turn to BPO as a way to run more efficiently, stay focused on core capabilities, and best allocate available resources.

A study by accounting firm Deloitte found the top reasons companies outsource aspects of their business are:

59% – Reduce or control costs

59% – Reduce or control costs

47% – Solve capacity issues

31% – Improve service

28% – Gain access to expert talent and knowledge

17% – Manage business environment

17% – Accelerate organisational transformation

reasons to use bpo

Types of BPO

Onshore Outsourcing

These are providers that are located within the same geographic borders of the hiring company, but in a different state or city. For instance, a company based in New York outsourcing to Austin, Texas.

Nearshore Outsourcing

As the name suggests, nearshore providers are those in countries that border or neighbor the hiring company. For example, Mexico or Canada for US-based companies.

Offshore Outsourcing

Offshoring is outsourcing business processes to foreign countries that could be located anywhere in the world. For instance, a US company outsourcing to the Philippines or India.

How Much Does Hiring A BPO Cost?

It depends.

You see, there’s no single answer about what hiring a BPO will cost your company. There are many factors that go into determining the cost of BPO services, including:

Type of Work

More complex tasks typically come with a higher price tag. For instance, outsourcing legal or financial services will cost more than hiring virtual assistants or call center operators.

Level of Support Required

Do you need support on a daily basis? Once per week? 24/7? The level and availability of support you need will play a big part in the cost of hiring a BPO.

Location of Service Provider

Different locales come with different living and employment costs. And these will be factored into BPO services costs. For instance, hiring a couple of states over in the US means you’ll be paying much more than hiring in the Philippines.

Level of Experience of BPO Employees

Just like in-house employees, experience costs extra. So, if you just need basic, low-skill data-entry this will cost far less than hiring an experienced back-end software development team.

Length of Contract

Are you looking for an extra hand for a months-long project? Or need BPO services for an indeterminate ongoing basis? The length of engagement you require will play a role in the costs to hire a BPO.

What Industries Use BPO?

These days, business process outsourcing has become a key driver of success for just about every industry.

While their motivations and strategic aims may differ somewhat, the main industries that depend on BPO services are:

Healthcare

Insurance Claims

Data management

Retail and e-commerce

Marketing and digital

Banking & financial services

Logistics & supply chain management

Legal services

Business services

The Pros and Cons of Business Process Outsourcing

Business process outsourcing comes with countless positives, but there are also some potential drawbacks businesses must consider.

Let’s take a look at both the pros and cons of BPO.

Pros of BPO:

Access to a Larger, Global Talent Pool

Competition for top talent is hot and in short supply.
BPO opens up a global talent pool for companies, enabling them to access previously out-of-reach specialist talent to grow their business.

Make Your Operations More Cost Effective

The potential cost savings of BPO are numerous, including economies of scale, reducing office space, and the low-costs of other countries.

BPO can also help companies save on tax and adopt more flexible, cost-effective business structures, like reorganizing departments and team responsibilities.

Ease Employee Workloads

BPO can help reduce the demand on your employees by allowing your team to outsource portions of their workload, freeing up employees to focus on their core capabilities.

An eased workload does wonders for employee performance, wellbeing, and your company’s growth.

Increase Company Capacity

BPO lets you quickly and efficiently scale up the capacity of your company with less effort, investment and limited new infrastructure.

This allows you to do things like increase monthly output, handle more customer enquiries, or add a new specialist business function.

Minimize the Need to Hire New Staff

Hiring can be a costly, laborious process. Especially for smaller companies without a dedicated HR team.

Business outsourcing processing limits the need to hire new staff by giving you the specialized capabilities you need on a third-party, as-needed basis.

Become a More Global Company

Hiring a BPO provider can give your company an increased global footprint by providing your services in different markets, languages and time zones. Effectively, it lets you set up a virtual office anywhere in the world.

This newfound global presence helps you deliver a better customer experience to more customers via regionally tailored services and enhanced support.

Enhanced Performance and Quality of Work

The hyper-specialization of BPO providers means they can deliver higher quality work, whether it’s data entry or web development.

And when they are squarely focused on one task – and not split between responsibilities – tasks get completed more productively, at a faster pace.

Cons of BPO:

Less Control

Outsourcing essential or non-essential tasks to a company thousands of miles away can mean relinquishing some level of control.

This is why choosing the right BPO partner and using virtual employee monitoring software is critical. Get these two things right, and the benefits will far outweigh any sense of less control.

Time Zone & Communication Issues

Time zones can be a barrier when your website needs an urgent update but it’s the middle of the night in India. Or a piece of marketing content comes back all wrong because something was lost in translation.

BPO providers go to great lengths to counter these potential issues, including appointing account managers fluent in various languages and around-the-clock support teams.

Data Security Concerns

Hiring a BPO provider often means giving them access to sensitive data, which opens companies up to possible data breaches.

It’s important for companies to work with their IT and cybersecurity teams as part of the onboarding process of BPO providers to minimize the risk of data breaches.

Strategic Disconnect

When you outsource a core function of your business, it can become disconnected from your overarching strategic goals. There can be a divide between your real and virtual office.

This can be due to proximity, knowledge gaps, or because the provider has a vision and approach that differs from your company’s.

Depending Too Much on BPO Providers

Outsourcing too many of your core functions can leave your company vulnerable to increased service costs, diminished service quality, or even your essential provider going out of business.

Always ensure BPO is supporting your business, but not a critical linchpin where any small hiccup with your provider brings your business to a halt.

What are the Most Popular Outsourcing Countries?

In today’s globalized world, BPO services abound across the globe. Just about every country offers BPO services of some kind. Below are the most popular BPO countries.

India

India has long been a preferred destination for outsource customer service, call centers and web development. Many insurance companies have also turned to an insurance BPO in India to process claims.

Advantages: Efficient, hard-working, cost-effective and high level of English spoken.

Potential drawbacks: Cultural differences have been known to cause some issues with collaboration and communication.

Philippines

Outsourcing is a fundamental pillar of the Filipino economy, contributing $26 billion to its economy annually – almost 10% of its GDP. The nation has become a go-to for call centers, virtual assistants, and virtual teams, in particular.

Advantages: Low labor costs, embrace of western culture, high level English language proficiency (often with an American accent).

Potential drawbacks: Susceptible to internet and power outages caused by damaging weather events and a difficult time difference with North America.

Mexico

Nestled at the border of the US, many American companies rely on Mexico for their outsourcing needs. The country is commonly used for bilingual call centers and BPO services.

Advantages: Bilingual agents, proximity to the US, time zones and labor costs.

Potential drawbacks: Difference in work culture that requires a closer management style.

Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Poland, Serbia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic)

Eastern Europe has become a hotbed for IT outsourcing in recent years. This is due to the region’s high number of IT graduates and experts, and the technical capabilities they provide.

Advantages: High English proficiency, more affordable than Western countries, favorable EU time zones, higher technical capabilities than Asia.

Potential drawbacks: Time zone differences for US-based businesses, not as cost-effective as some other regions.

Which is the Best Country for Outsourcing?

Naturally, it depends on your company’s needs.

Do you need a specific time zone?

Will your BPO agents be dealing directly with customers?

What technical abilities do you need?

What’s your budget?

These are just some of the questions to ask yourself when researching the location of your BPO provider.

From a more objective standpoint, a study by ATKearney took a data-driven look at which countries are best for outsourcing.

The study evaluated outsourcing countries based on fundamental aspects, such as cost, availability, talent, skills, and business environment to determine a Global Services Index Score for BPO countries.

The top outsourcing countries according to their methodology are:

India - 7.07

Vietnam 5.92

China 6.31

Philippines 5.87

Malaysia 6.11

Thailand 5.86

Indonesia 5.99

Chile 5.76

Brazil 5.93

Colombia 5.73

best places to outsource to

What Tasks Can be Outsourced?

In short, just about anything.

That’s just how far BPO has come in recent years.

It would be impossible for us to cover every possible service. So, instead, below is a list of the top seven outsourced services provided.

Call Centers

Virtual Assistants

Data Entry

Software and Web Development

Marketing and Design

Market Research

Insurance Claims

Accounting, IT Services, and Digital Marketing

Now, let’s take a look at the top BPO services more closely.

The Top BPO Services

Call Centers BPO

Call centers are the most common BPO service providers. Rather than building a large in-house team, they enable companies to create a virtual call center anywhere in the world.

Anytime you’ve been on hold about a credit card or received a call about a survey, there’s a good change it was a BPO.

There are two kinds of call center BPO:

Inbound – Calls received from customers, usually for support, order processing, complaints, etc.

Outbound – Cold calls, sales calls, survey calls, etc.

The Benefits of BPO Call Centers

Decreased costs – More cost-effective workforce and no additional infrastructure costs related to training, technology, office space or utilities.

International expansion – Many call centers employee staff who speak multiple languages, allowing you to cater to more regions.

Increasing support coverage - virtual call center companies usually cover support on all channels (email, phone, chat, social media), and you can have 24/7 support.

Scale Up – With customer service outsourced, your team can focus on growing your company.

Outsourcing to a Call Center - Things to Keep in Mind

Create a clear set of guidelines, policies, procedures and reinforce them with call center monitoring to help agents provide the best support.

Setup and walkthrough hypothetical scenarios with your virtual call center staff as part of your training process.

Invest in tools for communication, file sharing, conferencing, call center monitoring software, and call center tracking software.

Share your internal training videos, employee handbooks, product/service handbooks, FAQs, and guidelines for customer interaction.

Put in place a call center monitoring system and review process that allows customers to express how satisfied they are with the support they received.

Popular Call Center BPO Providers

Virtual Assistants BPO

Virtual assistants provide crucial administrative, technical, or creative support remotely. Today, virtual assistant companies deliver a variety of virtual assistant services across practically any industry.

Large corporations, small companies, and even solo contractors choose to hire a virtual assistant (or multiple) for much-needed support.

The most common virtual assistant services are:

Administrative tasks

Event planning

Managing calendars (scheduling appointments, meetings)

Managing emails

Marketing services

Insurance virtual assistant

The Benefits of Virtual Assistants BPO

Time-saving – A virtual assistant can handle the time-consuming day-to-day tasks that burden your team so they can focus on what’s most important.

Cost-saving – virtual assistants eliminate the need to hire full time administrative staff and pay for typical costs like onsite training, workspace and equipment.

Specialist value-add skills - virtual assistants can provide much-needed skills that your team doesn’t possess.

Outsourcing Virtual Assistants - Things to Keep in Mind

Identify exactly what virtual services you need before hiring –make a list of all of your tasks, focusing on the most time-consuming or those where knowledge gaps exist.

Set detailed requirements – create criteria that qualified virtual assistant companies must meet, including languages spoken, working hours, internet speed, and technical knowledge.

Ask for references - get the virtual assistant provider to connect you with other clients, provide testimonials, and supply examples of their work.

Perform a test task - To find the best virtual assistant provider, ask them to first perform a typical task as a test, and assess their performance.

Design SOPs and KPIs - create standard operating procedures to ensure virtual assistant services are done effectively, as well as goals to assess performance.

Popular Virtual Assistants BPO Providers

Data Entry BPO

Data entry is important business. But it’s also incredibly time-consuming and specialized. That’s what makes data entry BPO providers a godsend for many companies.

Choosing to outsource data entry services can save your company huge amounts of time, and deliver more accurate, insightful, and valuable data.

Outsourced data entry services include:

Entry

Cleaning

Mining

Extraction

Analysis

Processing

The Benefits of Data Entry BPO

Saves cost and time – free up internal staff and avoid the need to hire an in-house data team.

Set detailed requirements – create criteria that qualified virtual assistant companies must meet, including languages spoken, working hours, internet speed, and technical knowledge.

Dedicated resources and staff - data specialists are experts at what they do, capable of handling and making sense of large flows of data.

Increased productivity of your team - without the need to process your own data, your team can stay focused on their critical tasks.

Improved data management - data entry BPO providers help you better organize and gain more value from your data.

Outsourcing Data Entry - Things to Keep in Mind

Identify requirements  – get clear on your data needs, including cost, customization, manpower, data entry monitoring tools, data privacy, turnaround time, support, and flexibility.

Prepare a transition plan – outline how you will hand over your data management to your BPO, establish data entry tracking software, and be clear on any responsibilities that will remain in-house.

Enforce strict NDAs - create agreements that ensure your data has legal protection in your jurisdiction and where the BPO provider resides, and be sure to track data entry services for legal safeguarding.

Implement a QC system - establish a system to track data entry services such as data entry monitoring software that monitors data quality and individual performance.

Confirm compliance certification - make sure the partner meets your security requirements, such as ISO standards, HIPAA, and other industry compliance standards and enforce data center monitoring for compliance.

Popular Data Entry BPO Providers

Software and Web Development BPO

For technology or digital-focused companies, software and web development BPO vendors are a ready-made technical team.

They allow you to create a development team from scratch, or provide much-needed support for your in-house team.

Software and Web Development BPO services include:

Software development

Web app development

Website development

Mobile app development

QA

The Benefits of IT Company Outsourcing

Cheaper than hiring your own development team  – no need to hire to pay high salaries or hand over company equity.

Redirect your in-house dev resources  – focus your internal dev team on higher level technical tasks and strategy.

Fill technical gaps  – source experts for specific technical needs, for example blockchain experts or back-end engineers.

Speed up development  – with extra developers, code gets written faster and the project completed sooner.

Flexibility and scalability  – bring on extra dev support for crucial project sprints or functionality as you need.

Outsourcing Development - Things to Keep in Mind

Finalize your goals before outsourcing  – create a clear development brief, roadmap, objectives, budget, and screening questions.

Review candidate portfolios – focus your internal dev team on higher level technical tasks and strategy.

Verify communication skills  – during the interview process, assess communication style, processes, and development methods.

Establish a workflow structure  – establish a project management system that features project and time tracking software, apps to be used, who to report to, and daily contacts.

Clarify code ownership  – have a legal agreement in place that outlines who owns any code created.

Popular Software Development BPO Companies

Marketing BPO

Marketing BPO providers lend some extra marketing muscle to help companies promote their products and services.

They allow companies to execute on company-wide marketing strategies via all aspects of digital marketing. They can also be used by marketing agencies or marketing consultants to supplement in-house capabilities.

Marketing BPO services include:

Link building

SEO

Content development

Email marketing

Paid advertising, PPC

Content marketing

Design

QA

The Benefits of Marketing BPO

Fresh insights  – access new marketing ideas and concepts about current and future campaigns.

Scale your marketing efforts  – increase your output and expand across more channels.

Improved strategy  – get strategic input from marketing experts to refine and enhance your marketing efforts.

Access to the best technology & digital marketing tracking tools  – agencies use a variety of tools that can be prohibitively expensive to implement internally (especially for small businesses).

Decreased internal staff load – relieve your team of a lot of the marketing grunt work, maximizing their performance and minimizing turnover.

Outsourcing Marketing - Things to Keep in Mind

Make language fluency a priority  – If you’re hiring overseas make sure the company guarantees English proficiency

Pay attention to the quality of previous work – ask for case studies, samples, achievements, references and testimonials from long-term clients.

Make sure they know your space – look for companies that work in similar industries and on similar campaigns, and always use marketing measurement software.

Check for areas of expertise  – many agencies offer all-in-one services, but double check they specialize in the areas you need.

Evaluate fee structures  – clearly understand costs (especially if performance based) and use agency time tracking software so there aren’t any surprises or hidden costs along the way.

Popular Marketing Outsourcing Companies

Market Research BPO

Market research BPO providers help you get to know your target audience more deeply.

They can handle much of the legwork involved with researching your market, as well as using their expertise to help shape your goals and methodology.

Market Research BPO services include:

Participant recruitment / fielding

Interviewer and moderation services

Data analytics and reporting

Survey design and programming

The Benefits of Market Research BPO

Flexible access to capabilities and talent  – build and execute market research projects on an as-needed basis.

Save on infrastructure and technology  – service providers have established, proven systems in place that you gain access to without the costs.

Expertise and efficiency  – call on market research specialists who can design and implement campaigns to achieve the most insights.

Data quality and quantity  – capture more accurate, objective and valuable data.

Faster results  – a dedicated market research team will collect, collate and report market research more quickly.

Outsourcing Market Research - Things to Keep in Mind

Methodology and processes – get a clear understanding of how a provider conducts their market research and their employee monitoring system.

Data representation and reporting  – ask for sample reports to see how data will be reported to make sure it meets your needs.

Brand reputation  – your provider will be representing your brand, so set clear guidelines about what is and isn’t permitted.

Privacy  – have strong, enforceable NDAs in place so that the data you provide and gather is protected.

Market research capabilities  – ensure a vendor can provide the depth of insights you need, collected in a way that guarantees the data quality.

Popular Market Research BPO Companies

Insurance BPO

Insurance companies have to deal with thousands of insurance claims each month, which requires a significant, dedicated workforce.

That’s why, today, many insurance companies depend on insurance BPO providers to process claims. Insurance claims business process outsourcing can handle initial claims calls, claim processing, and customer support.

The top insurance BPO services include:

Medical insurance BPO

Home and contents insurance BPO

Automotive insurance BPO

The Benefits of Insurance BPO

Highly trained specialists – The best BPO insurance providers have staff who are expertly trained in managing claims processing.

Save on infrastructure and technology – BPO insurance service providers have established, proven systems in place that you gain access to without the costs.

Limit staffing needs – There’s no need to hire dozens of claims agents when you opt to use insurance contact center outsourcing instead.

Around the clock support – a dedicated insurance BPO provider enables you to deliver better customer support by making your support more available.

Faster claims processing – dedicated insurance outsourcing service providers will respond to, process and complete claims more quickly.

Outsourcing Insurance Claims - Things to Keep in Mind

Claims tracking and management systems – make sure you have a robust system in place to track claims, such as insurance claims software.

Insurance specialization – Insurance BPO providers specialize in different areas (e.g. medical insurance BPO) so select the specialization you need.

Data Privacy and Security – Insurance claims involve highly sensitive data, so you must ensure your BPO has strict compliance measures in place.

Take a test run – To understand claims processing capabilities, run prospective insurance BPO providers through simulated claims scenarios.

Performance tracking – speed of processing and resolution are critical, be sure to establish productivity monitoring tools to capture these metrics.

Popular Insurance BPO Providers

How to Pick a BPO

When it comes to outsourcing aspects of your business, there are some must-dos as part of the vetting, hiring, and onboarding process.

Of course, there are specific needs that only your company can answer. Things like what capabilities you need, your budget, location preference, and others.

However, there are also some must-dos that every company should do as part of the BPO hiring process.

The Must-Do Tips for Hiring a BPO

Research and interview multiple options – draw up a list of your most critical needs, including capabilities, time differences, languages supported, and use this as a checklist for the research process.

Do some internet sleuthing – look for online reviews, mentions on forums, and find employees’ comments to get an insight into how the company operates.

Review service-level agreements – make sure you’re able to set the goals and KPIs for crucial tasks like call wait time, case time, and work deadlines. Also agree on a way to track time and the quality of work.

Perform a security audit prior to onboarding – ensure there’s no possibility for a BPO to gain unauthorized access to sensitive company data.

Undertake a thorough legal review – have your legal team review all relevant documents and laws in both your region and that where the BPO is based.

Appoint a staff member(s) to manage the relationship – Create a central point of contact who will liaise with and manage your BPO service provider.

Form a project team – treat the hiring of a BPO as a project, assigning staff members to handle things like creating accurate training documentation, day-to-day oversight, creating reports, etc.

Implement software – Use software to organize tasks, monitor time, share files, including productivity monitoring software and time tracking software.

How to Manage Your BPO Team to Get the Best Results

There are two sides to the BPO coin.

On one side of the relationship is the BPO provider. On the other hand, the company doing the outsourcing.

Whichever side of the relationship you’re on, effective management is key to getting the most out of business process outsourcing.

BPO Providers – Managing Your BPO Team

As a BPO provider, you’ve likely got dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people to manage. Your success depends on the performance of your people.

That gives you plenty to think about, and it can be hard to manage performance and productivity at scale.

So, here are the key aspects to building a productive, efficient and healthy BPO workforce. When you stay focused on these elements, you’ll deliver the high quality BPO services your clients expect – and tell their network about.

Track time on projects & tasks

The more precise you are with tracking the time of your workforce, the better you’ll understand how they’re performing. This highlights the importance of an effective project management time tracking software.

For instance, use a call center tracking system software to manage your call center BPO team. Or a marketing project tracking software for your virtual marketing team.

With the best time management apps, you’ll also be able to use historical data to see how employees perform over time, when they do their best work, and if extra training is needed for certain tasks.

Benchmark performance

Do some of your employees consistently complete work more effectively? Implementing an employee monitoring productivity software will help you find out why.

Armed with insights from a time productivity app, you can model your top performers, upskilling other employees with winning habits and behaviors to achieve the same results.

Track productivity trends

It’s typical for productivity to ebb and flow. But why? That can be hard to understand.

Staff productivity software gives you insights into how individual team members are performing, and what is impacting their productivity. With this information, you can create a working environment where they’re at their best.

Time and attendance

Being at work and actually working can be two very different things. Which makes time and attendance software a must-have.

An automated, activity-based time and attendance software is a great way to track time and attendance more accurately.

Activity time tracking software eliminates timesheet inaccuracies and maximizes work time. Plus, more accurate attendance also makes sure your staff are rewarded for the hours they put in.

Monitor & manage workloads

Overworked, burnt out employees aren’t effective employees. By adopting a people-focused employee monitoring system, you’ll be able to gauge employee workloads with a focus on their health and wellness.

When you create ideally balanced workloads, your employees will perform better and deliver high quality work.

Looking for a way to more effectively manage your BPO team?

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Companies – Managing Your BPO Provider

Are you one of the many companies who depends on BPO providers? Then you’re probably always looking for the best way to manage your BPO provider.

Choosing the best BPO provider is the first step. Next, you need to manage them effectively to benefit from their full capabilities.

The reality is, without a clear management process in place, a BPO will have limited impact on your business, cost you money, and actually decrease the performance of your team.

Here’s how to effectively manage your BPO provider.

Communication

Communication is make or break when it comes to managing your BPO vendor. It’s vital to set clear communication expectations, channels and points of contact.

For instance, you don’t want multiple messages going to different people within your company. Or your vendor sending emails that get missed because you’d agreed to use Slack.

Best practice is to agree to a central communication channel, project leaders, and a clear communication cadence. Project management time tracking software can also help here too.

Clear Instructions & Policies

It’s simple. The clearer the brief, the better the outcome. So it pays to invest time in creating comprehensive instructions and policies for your BPO.

Your instructions should provide a step-by-step guide for completing the tasks your BPO has been hired to complete.

Include every detail. Even if it seems obvious internally, it may not be for a third-party. Screenshots and video walkthroughs are especially effective.

Many of the policies will likely already exist for your company. So it can be as simple as sharing these with your BPO and getting their sign off that they agree to comply with them.

Build Trust

Handing over duties to a third-party can be daunting at first. Will they do the right thing? Can you trust them with your data?

While natural to feel this way at first, it’s important to have systems and processes in place that build trust. Because if you can’t trust your BPO and end up micromanaging them, you’re defeating much of the purpose of hiring them.

The foundations of trust are standard operating procedures, ongoing feedback, and strong contractual agreements.With these in place you’ll quickly see great results, and trust will compound over time.

Use a management tool

Your BPO provider should have their own productivity monitoring software and time tracking software. But this doesn’t prevent you from also instituting your own as an added layer of oversight using virtual employee monitoring software.

Using an effective employee monitoring productivity software to manage your BPO provider will help you answer the following questions (and many more):

How do I know how productive my BPO agents are?

What’s the best way to track time spent on projects?

How do I keep track of hours worked online?

How do I tell they are actually doing the work?

How do I track time spent on apps and websites?

The right employee monitoring and productivity software helps you boost control, communication, data security, tracks time, and ensures work is getting done.

More than that, staff productivity software allows you to share data with your BPO agents to improve their performance.

Effective BPO workforce productivity software should include:

Simple setup and use – staff productivity software must be easy for BPO employees and managers to adopt, without any interruptions to workflows.

Productivity tracking & trends – the best productivity monitoring software  lets you build an environment in which BPO agents can be their best, reward top performers, and provide additional training where needed.

Activity-based time & attendance – keep track of hours worked online, eliminate early clock ins and clock outs and extended breaks by tracking time when your BPO agents are actually on the job.

App & website usage – monitor web usage at work to make sure your BPO agents are spending time on the platforms necessary for their job.

Screenshots – employee screenshot monitoring gives you the ability to view what BPO employees are working on in real-time.

Project and task time tracking – employee screenshot monitoring gives you the ability to view what BPO employees are working on in real-time.

Automation – reduce human-error or padded timesheets by automating time collection, management, and calculation with an automated time tracker.

Transparent data – you and your team should have transparent access to time data that is collected to discuss and improve performance and time management.

Lucky for you, Insightful does all of the above – and more.

That’s why Insightful is a great employee monitoring productivity software option for managing your BPO workforce – as a client or a provider.

Insightful is designed for use across industries and services, including call centers, virtual assistants, data entry, software and web development, marketing, market research, professional services, and more.

Insightful is a simple yet incredibly effective time and project tracking solution for managing your BPO workforce’s time, productivity and wellbeing.