Outsourcing During Pandemic: What You Need To Know

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 13:30:00 -0400

The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented changes to every global industry--including real estate. Companies are making up for the lost time by rethinking their work strategy. As more employees have started working remotely, property managers are also considering outsourcing.

Outsourcing is not new to the real estate industry. But the pandemic has brought a surge in the number of companies that outsource. As the industry recovers from the pandemic, learn more about how you can leverage outsourcing to improve your business.

Prepare for employee turnover

According to Forbes, the year 2021 will see massive employee turnovers across industries. Many pandemic-induced factors are influencing people to resign from their current jobs. Some want to move closer to their homes while others are seeking new opportunities. In any case, high staff turnover negatively impacts businesses. Outsourcing can effectively help companies deal with employee exit and its impacts.

Employee turnover problems--such as increased training costs--can be easily solved through outsourcing. Troy Norberg, the General Manager of Tru-Serve Inc. says that building managers underestimate the true cost of employee turnover when considering outsourcing costs.

As a property manager, you can reduce the significant costs of training a new hire through outsourcing. Service providers have relevant resources and technology to provide quality services. Outsourcing also gives you access to a larger talent pool, saving you the cost and time of training new hires.

In addition, Morph Networks says outsourcing can increase employee retention and lead to higher client satisfaction. Outsourcing some of your services decreases the workload on your employees. During a stressful situation, better workflow management can keep your staff motivated.

Resolve immediate issues

Many businesses found it difficult to cope with the sudden changes due to the pandemic. A survey by BCG found that 78% of the respondents faced operational challenges in 2020. Even in 2021, companies that can’t facilitate remote work still face problems.

For small organizations, the cost of remote work can be a significant issue. They have to either provide the right equipment to the employees or offer a reimbursement--both of which can be expensive. If a company cannot facilitate remote work to all its employees, a better option is to outsource.

Outsourcing companies have the necessary infrastructure to deal with any volume of work. Property management companies only need to pay for the services without worrying about investing in costly software.

Speed-up digital adoption

Another change caused by the pandemic is an increase in technology adoption. Companies increased their budget for IT outsourcing from 12.7% in 2019 to 13.6% in 2020. The inevitability of remote work plays a huge factor in the increasing demand for technology.

As a property manager, you can fulfill this sudden tech requirement by outsourcing. Apart from the obvious cost benefits, outsourcing IT requirements also gives you access to state-of-art technology and relevant resources. Service providers also have a well-trained staff that can handle different technology requirements.

For example, real estate businesses might need customized software. Service providers can integrate several tools to build the right technology for such businesses. This is better than using more than one software for the same processes.

Outsource with new objective

While cost reduction remains the top reason to outsource, you need to set new objectives to adapt to the post-pandemic market.

For starters, your outsourcing strategy needs to be more focused on quality over quantity. Earlier, companies outsourced tasks that could not be handled by their internal team. But now, the focus of outsourcing has changed as it has become a necessity and not an option. As a result, more and more companies are prioritizing quality and customization over the amount of work outsourced.

When you are hiring a service provider, understand how the provider adds value to your company. Do they have expertise in your industry? Does their staff have sufficient experience? Since most of the tasks are handled through outsourcing, your service provider becomes an integral part of your business.

You also need to focus on outsourcing for business continuity. A business continuity plan helps companies recover from disruptive events such as the pandemic. By planning your outsourcing accordingly, you can keep your business running even in case of an unplanned shutdown.

Look beyond physical proximity

Before the pandemic, companies believed that physical proximity was important to get tasks done effectively. Post-pandemic, many organizations found that distance did not affect their productivity at all. A recent report by Deloitte ranked “lack of in-person management” as the greatest challenge of remote work. This issue is not significant when compared to the numerous benefits of outsourcing.

Outsourcing is an excellent way to leverage expertise from all over the world. By offshoring, you can reduce the total costs without compromising on the quality of the service.

Build a co-sourcing strategy

For better productivity, you need to decide which tasks are best handled internally and which tasks need to be outsourced. An excellent work management strategy is co-sourcing. Co-sourcing lets your internal team and outsourcing company work together to achieve business goals. Your team is aligned with your business strategy whereas the service provider adds valuable resources to your team.

Outsource more services

In the real estate industry, you don’t need to limit your outsourcing to IT and back-office accounting. The post-pandemic world is a perfect time to outsource more services such as CAM reconciliations and lease abstractions. This gives your business scope for more development while allowing your team to focus on more important tasks.

Outsource your property management functions to KriyaGo

KriyaGo’s core focus is helping clients manage their real estate businesses. We provide outsourcing services for different tasks like back-office accounting, lease abstractions, and CAM reconciliations. We also integrate various property management software to build a custom platform for your business.

Our team of experts can help you create the right outsourcing strategy. We work with you to understand your requirements and suggest solutions accordingly. By outsourcing to KriyaGo, you can leverage the best platforms and resources in the industry.

Book a free consultation call with a KriyaGo Advisor to get started with real estate outsourcing!

KriyaGo - Blog #COVID-19