The Benefits of Outsourcing & the Employee Experience

As companies turn to business process outsourcing (BPO) across various industries for a variety of procedural reasons, there will most likely come a time when the business process outsourcing company employees will spend time and integrate with your in-house workforce. When this time comes there can certainly be communication challenges that will potentially arise.

Typically employees can find value in specific efforts taken by employers to inform and educate them about procedural improvements and changes associated with BPO and how it benefits both employees and the company bottom line. And, in the majority of cases, when an employer takes the initiative to improve internal processing, it can also be considered to be a way of the employer removing a portion of the processing burden off its employees. This, rather than BPO replacing employee jobs. The key to a streamlined and seamless implementation of BPA is by sharing information and helping your employees to see the benefit of BPA and how it improves their specific position within the company.

While employees are likely to accept an outside company taking on the more frustrating and burdensome administrative processing tasks, it is recommended that companies should be aware of how to make sure someone internally is sufficiently knowledgeable regarding the BPO efforts and remains available to step in when an issue is escalated and unresolved by the BPO organization. BPO is not a set it and forget type of business. This is especially true when you are planning to outsource an integral part of your business. Also, the internal professional should be ready to handle issues that are particularly time-sensitive and need to be rectified as soon as possible.
The more hands-off the company using BPO becomes, the more difficult it will be for them to effectively intervene should issues arise.

Aside from working together, and considering any complications that can stem from this situation, there can certainly be added value for both the employer and employee by using BPO. How can BPO become beneficial to all parties involved? It’s actually quite simple, especially in terms of administrative functions that are time consuming, have specialized updates, compliance requirements and/or highly specialized eligibility audits. Participants recognize the cost savings that their company will reap when eliminating those who should not be enrolled in the program—savings that can be passed along in the form of smaller future increases in cost sharing.

Another specialized function commonly outsourced is the wellness program. These initiatives, though, will usually have a “champion” within the company’s HR or benefits staff. The vendor is used to assist the company in successfully rolling out its wellness brand to the workforce, tracking participation and administering rewards. Employees will see this as a natural partnership, and in most cases can readily determine who serves as the internal wellness liaison for their company. Questions and issues can be directed to and resolved by HR internally or with the vendor.

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