Ask your team which tasks they would hand over

Key takeaways

The people who do repetitive tasks know best which ones waste time, go wrong and could be handed over. Asking them, with a short set of questions and a clear explanation of why, finds tasks owners never see and builds support for change. Be honest about what happens to roles, and act on what you hear.

• Explain why you are asking before you ask.
• Use 5 short questions, the same for everyone.
• Ask about tasks, not about people.
• Share what you will do with the answers.

Why ask the team?

Owners see outcomes; staff see the work. The person who reconciles the supplier statements knows which supplier causes most of the work and which step adds nothing. Asking finds hidden tasks, sharpens the inventory and makes people part of the change rather than subject to it.

• How UK SMEs can use outsourcing to handle repetitive tasks
• Repetitive task inventory: list every recurring job once

Which questions should you ask?

Keep it short and practical. The same questions for everyone make the answers easy to compare.

• Which tasks do you repeat every week?
• Which take longest for the value they add?
• Which most often go wrong or need redoing?
• Which interrupt work you would rather be doing?
• Which would you hand over first, and why?

• What are repetitive tasks? Examples from UK small firms
• The cost of context switching in a small team

How do you ask without worrying people?

Be clear about the purpose. If the aim is to free time for better work, say so, and say what that work could be. If roles might change, be honest and follow proper consultation, including TUPE where it applies. People answer openly when they trust the reason and see the results.

• How to tell your team you are outsourcing
• Job enrichment: better roles once routine work moves
• TUPE and outsourcing

What do the answers usually show?

In an illustrative example, asking eight people in a 15-person firm surfaces 12 tasks the owner had not listed, three of which take over two hours a week each. These are example figures. Staff also tend to name the same few tasks, which makes the first choice easy.

• Count your task volumes before you outsource anything
• The repetitive task fit score: ready to hand over?

When should you not run it as a survey?

In a team of three or four, a conversation works better than a form. During a restructure or redundancy process, take advice first, because the questions can be read as part of the process. Never use the answers to judge individual performance.

• Outsourcing repetitive tasks in a business of 2 to 9 people

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: the task staff most want to hand over is one the owner had assumed they liked. Asking changes the order of handover and the mood around it.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Team input checklist

Run the exercise with these points.

• Purpose explained first.
• Same five questions for everyone.
• Answers grouped by task, not person.
• Results shared with the team.
• First action taken within a month.

• A 90-day plan to outsource your repetitive tasks

Next step

Send us your team's answers, or ask us for the question set. We will help you turn the results into a shortlist of tasks worth handing over.