Entrepreneur’s Guide to Impact Outsourcing …How do you go about getting started?
Impact Sourcing is a form of business process outsourcing (BPO) that’s very popular for businesses large and small. Impact sourcing differs from traditional BPO as it often utilizes a work force of people that may be unemployed or challenged in some other way. Outsourcing can be provided by businesses here in the US who work with physically and mentally disadvantaged individuals, but it’s more often associated with regions around the world associated with well-educated but underserved labor pools. The idea of impact sourcing is to employ people that have a great deal of potential, but with limited opportunity for work.
Often, impact outsourcing companies employ people from regions where they can have the most positive financial and social impact, sometimes aligned with matriculation from NGO educational institutions in those countries. Ensuring that disadvantaged people get the opportunities to make a career for themselves can have massive impacts on those communities. It also serves as a great way for businesses that consume impact BPO services, to take advantage of a relatively untapped talent pool.
Making the most of impact sourcing
With extra talent, more engagement and lower staff turnover rates, impact sourcing can allow businesses to grow while positively impacting marginalized communities. Providing opportunity to those that otherwise might never see it is an ethical way for businesses to grow. But knowing how to do it the right way will ensure businesses can make the most of impact sourcing.
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Knowing when you need to outsource
First, you need to know when it’s time to outsource. Not every business can benefit from BPO in the early stages. However, as soon as you find yourself faced with tasks that are not at the core of your business, you can take advantage of impact sourcing.
Tasks like lead generation, data research and data enrichment are all ideal tasks to outsource. Outsourcing these tasks will free up your employees’ time to allow them to focus on core aspects of the business, while also not letting these crucial tasks go undone. With reduced labor costs, it’s a more cost-effective way to get more done in less time.
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Choose the right third party to work with
You need to know who to work with when you’re using impact sourcing. This will largely depend on the size of your business, and the scale of the individual project with which you need help. If it’s a one-off project, you might only need a handful of people on retainer.
However, if it’s a larger project that requires several months to complete, you’ll need a team that can provide you with enough staff on a recurring basis. Knowing what you need well in advance will ensure you get the best results. Engage in contact research early on to ensure you get the right team together.
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Have the right expectations
When you choose an impact sourcing provider, you need to have the right expectations. If you’re unsure if they’re up to the task, try and negotiate a free trial run. This will allow you to gauge the need for any training, along with the hourly pace and quality of the work you can expect from the team.
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Have the right processes in place
In order to make the most of impact sourcing, you need to find a vendor that has the right processes and solid quality assurance (QA) in place. They will provide the necessary training programs, which may add a few more days at the beginning of the project, but it could save you a lot of time (and money) in the long term, giving you the peace of mind that you’re making a difference in these communities, while also saving time and money.
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Build a solid system
Finally, having a solid system in place is key for any form of BPO. Along with a good training program, you also need to ensure that your vendors have the internal infrastructure to deal with impact sourcing before you begin.
Once you hire the right impact outsourcing vendor, they will train and orient the team that has been assigned to your business and manage them effectively. You’ll want them to work as part of your business’ team. Effective integration will ensure everything goes to plan and that everyone knows what they’re doing. It’s important to make sure that your impact provider has a system in place that allocates work, tracks workers’ progress and manages them throughout to ensure you get the most from your outsourcing system.
Employing each of these tips will ensure your impact outsourcing initiative is effective. It’s easy to see growth in your business when you delegate the right tasks to the right vendor. So, follow these tips, work with the right people and you’ll be able to get the results your business needs.
Impact Outsourcing
In this article, we looked at the benefits of using impact outsourcing and how it works. As marketing becomes more data driven, businesses need to outsource data gathering for analysis to get this actionable information.
Impact Enterprises is a premier impact outsourcing company with offices in Zambia, Africa that can oversee this entire process for you, improve your data quality and save your company money. Reach out to us to see how we can help you with your BPO.
https://www.cio.com/article/3510651/how-to-get-the-best-from-impact-sourcing-in-africa.html
https://gisc.bsr.org/about/what-is-impact-sourcing
https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/report/impact-sourcing-101/