Category: Outsourcing

  • An Interesting Interview Question

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    RecruitmentI’ve been to a few interviews over the years looking for a role to finance my preferred lifestyle, and during those interviews I have been asked a few questions which left me baffled as to what answer they were actually looking for, a good example is the following question;

    Q. What did your previous work colleagues think of you?

    When I was asked that question, the first thought that went through my mind was, did I make a mistake about the position I was applying for, it wasn’t a sales position, it was in fact a position where psychic powers were required, because I know for a fact I can’t read minds, so it was going to be impossible for me to answer the question as it was asked.

    Then I starting thinking about what they were really looking for; did they want me to say, they thought I was brilliant at everything I did, and could do no wrong; or that they didn’t think about me that much because they were busy carrying out their own tasks. At the time I didn’t know what information they were looking for.

    over time I have given it some thought, and now I think the question they could have asked was;

    Q. What was the atmosphere like in the office where you last worked?

    Or

    Q. Do you interact well with other people?

    Both questions are simple, direct, easily answered and relevant to the position being filled.

    I did learn a valuable lesson that day, don’t concentrate so much on the question being asked that you forget to provide the information they’re looking for.

    I also learned; When you have interesting people asking interesting questions; they are going to hire interesting people.

     

    • I’d love to hear about the most interesting questions you’ve been asked, please put them in the comment section below.

  • How To Delegate Successfully

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    Delegation

    It says it all.

    What is Delegation? Delegation is entrusting somebody else with your authority to complete scheduled tasks on your behalf. It seems simple enough; tell them what you want accomplished? And then let them off to complete the task. But before you can put that simple sentence into practice, you have to answer the following; why do you need to delegate anything? What do you need to delegate? And how are you going to delegate?

    Why delegate?

    Scarce resources are the main reasons to delegate tasks to someone else within your organisation or to delegate those tasks to a third-party. Money, time and knowledge are the resources that are normally under pressure in most businesses; when you are short of any of these resources, the business as a whole suffers because tasks do not get the adequate concentration required to complete them to the required standard.

    What to delegate?

    This is important.

    Most business owners will have the capacity to execute all the tasks that are required by the business, but in order to determine what to delegate? They have to do an honest S.W.O.T analysis of their abilities. When they identify the abilities where they are weak, these tasks should be delegated to someone else. This does not mean they remove their responsibility for the completed task which this leads us to how to delegate?

    .

    How to delegate?

    The successful delegation of these tasks will not be accomplished overnight as it takes time for the trust required for delegation to work to be built up between both parties.

    The owner will want to ensure that the tasks to be delegated are going to be completed to a continuously high standard.

    The owner will have to draw up an in-depth brief of the task that is to be delegated? And if possible, there should be examples of previous tasks that have already been completed.

    At the beginning for the relationship, the owner will edit the work before it is published, but over time this will not be required, as the person completing the delegated task will have a clear understanding as to what is required of them.

    • When you delegate scheduled tasks in a responsible manner, you will never be disappointed with the end result.
    • The careful delegation of authority is one of the most important aspects of building a successful business. When done correctly, it pays huge dividends and adds valuable experience to the business, leaving the owner more time to concentrate on the core activities of growing the business.

    Please share this blog with your colleagues,

    Arrow Digital Marketing

  • “Outsourcing is essential to Growing Your Business in our current economy”

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    “Do what you do best and outsource the rest” is the only way to survive and thrive in our current economy. The banks are doing what they do best and are banking away what money they have until enough business’s prove that they don’t need the money they are looking for. The only alternative for small business is to concentrate on the core business and outsource the elements of their business that they are not efficient in.

    What is outsourcing?

    Outsourcing is defined as any task, operation, job or process that could be performed by employees within your company, but is instead contracted to a third-party for a given period of time.

    History of outsourcing

    Outsourcing was once seen as a strategic tool to gain advantage in the world of supply chain management to gain a competitive advantage over the competition perfect examples of this is the car industry or the computer industry where suppliers were expected to set up distribution outlets within a five-minute drive of where the computers were assembled, it was then moved to the services industry where your local call center can and often does all your customer service,  now outsourcing is seen as the only way that some business’s can survive what has been reported as the most difficult period of trading that the world has seen in our current history.

    Why businesses outsource?

    Business are forced into outsourcing by the continuous drop in demand for their products and services, as demand falls, the number of full-time positions also drops. The business is put in a situation where they can no longer justify paying a person a full salary for what can be accomplished in two or three days. No employer likes to be in the situation where they have a loyal employee who has been with the business for years and has shown a great deal of loyalty over that time period. The employer is now left with the choice of letting the business fail or making the tough decision of making the employee redundant and outsourcing the remaining tasks that the employee used to accomplish.

    Businesses that are fortunate enough to be growing in our current economy are also faced with difficult decisions; there is more work to be done than people available to get it done, as mention above banks are not as generous now as they have been in the past, they advertise that they have money to lend but when businesses apply, they are given a different response. In this situation there are two alternatives let the business stifle through lack of drive or outsource the tasks that you just don’t have the time to get done to the standard you wish to achieve.

    What can be outsourced?

     Administration and Human Resources: There are a number of businesses who specialise in secretarial, payroll processing and HR paperwork.

    Transcription outsourcing: Businesses offering transcription services will often include legal notes, emails, newsletters, reports, interviews and press releases to name a few. They will also do the content for your websites, Facebook and other social media sites.

    Accounting: Balance sheets, financial statements, billing, auditing and tax returns are some to the services provided by your local accountant.

    Information Technology: IT outsourcing gives you access to the best brains in IT at a much cheaper cost. Companies can outsource functions like software and hardware development and maintenance. The IT functions of businesses are the most infrequently used.

    Logistics and Distribution: Logistic and distribution companies have networks in place that make them much more efficient at delivering your parcels that you could ever be unless you are Dell and your suppliers have to be within 5 minutes of where the goods are needed.

    Knowledge Process outsourcing: There will always be area’s that will have to be outsourced due to professional and legal requirements. Barristers, Solicitors, Doctors, Engineers and industry experts will fall into this category. These all have expert knowledge and know how to charge appropriately.

    Sales & Marketing: Activities such as Social Media Management &Strategy, Advertising, Customer profiling, Logo design, Campaign design, Public relations, Communication and event management can all be outsourced.

    *Outsourcing allows businesses both large and small to reduce costs that will benefit the consumer and the survival and growth of the business in the long run.

    *If you need to outsource your social media management or just require training in social media please contact me,

    Till Later

    Kind regards,

    Brendan Dunne

    Arrow Digital Marketing

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