Mistakes when outsourcing repetitive tasks, and the fixes

Key takeaways

Most failures in outsourcing repetitive tasks come from the handover, not the team. The common mistakes are handing over an unwritten method, outsourcing too many tasks at once, skipping the parallel run, leaving no in-house owner and judging the work on hours rather than accuracy and turnaround. Each has a simple fix that costs little up front.

• Write the method before handing it over.
• Start with 1 task, not 10.
• Run in parallel before go-live.
• Name an in-house owner for every task.

What are the most common mistakes?

The same mistakes appear across sectors and task types. Most come from rushing the start because the in-house team is already overloaded.

• Handing over a method that lives in one person's head.
• Moving several tasks in the same week.
• Going live without a parallel run.
• No named owner in your business.
• Measuring hours instead of accuracy and turnaround.
• Never stepping down the quality checks.

• How UK SMEs can use outsourcing to handle repetitive tasks
• Outsourcing mistakes that make a business less efficient

Why does an unwritten method cause failure?

Because the outsourced team learns the method by making mistakes, and every mistake is visible to you. The person who knew the method spends weeks answering questions, and decides outsourcing does not work. Writing the method, rules and exceptions first takes a few hours and saves weeks.

• Document your processes before you outsource
• Decision tables: turn judgement calls into clear rules
• ECRS: simplify a repetitive task before you hand it over

Why does moving too much at once fail?

When several tasks move together, problems overlap and nobody can tell which method, rule or input caused them. In an illustrative example, moving five tasks in one week produces dozens of queries; moving one task a fortnight produces a few each time. These are example figures. One stable task builds the method for the rest.

• A 90-day plan to outsource your repetitive tasks
• Parallel running: test an outsourced task safely

Why do you need an in-house owner?

Someone in your business must answer questions, approve exceptions, review samples and agree method changes. Without that person, queries wait, exceptions pile up and quality drifts. The owner's time falls quickly once the task is stable, usually to an hour or two a week.

• The process owner: who keeps an outsourced process healthy
• Quality drift: why outsourced routine work slips over time
• How much of your time does an outsourced team need?

When is outsourcing the mistake itself?

Outsourcing is the wrong move when the task scores low on the fit score, when it is quicker to do yourself, or when the real problem is a process nobody has agreed. Fix or stop the task first. Sometimes the right outcome of the review is to keep the task in-house.

• The repetitive task fit score: ready to hand over?
• 'Quicker to do it myself': when that is actually true
• When not to outsource

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a business tries outsourcing once, hands over three tasks with no written method, and concludes it does not work. The second attempt, one written task with a parallel run, succeeds with the same type of team.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Mistake-avoidance checklist

Check these before any handover.

• Method, rules and exceptions written.
• Only one task moving now.
• Parallel run planned.
• Named owner with time set aside.
• Accuracy and turnaround targets agreed.
• Step-down rule for quality checks.

• Outsourcing repetitive tasks checklist: 20 checks

Next step

Tell us which task you plan to hand over and how. We will check the plan against these mistakes and say plainly what to change.