Perhaps surprisingly, some of the most beneficial long-term company collaborations are between those with differing work cultures. Outsourcing is essential for bringing in software developers and outside technical expertise where new insights are needed for a product’s development. However, while outsourced technical knowledge may have an impact on the product, the outsourced company’s culture can also have an impact on the culture of the hiring company. Here are three ways an outsourced company culture can impact another company.
Inspiring creativity
While seamless collaboration is a priority, organisations should also take into consideration an outsourcing company that both embodies and encourages creativity. If your company has used the same processes and products for a long time, it may need fresh insight to introduce flexibility and originality. The success of companies whose work cultures are grounded in innovation is extremely clear.
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A study by PwC revealed that between 2010 and 2013, companies that demonstrated the most innovation grew by 38%, compared to only 10% by those with limited creativity. Infusing this creativity can follow a variety of routes, from brainstorming sessions with the employees of your company and the outsourcing partner, to days away together and reviewing current work methods in form of workshops.
Outsourcing with a company that celebrates divergent thinking can not only inspire an entrepreneurial approach to product development, but also new ways of working and ideas for your organisational culture.
Moving away from a traditional culture
Although change can be daunting, adopting new technology to help to improve company culture can make an important impact on employee engagement and happiness. An example of new technology that may be introduced with help of an IT outsourcing company is a workplace intranet. This contains all the features of a social network, so employees can upload content, like, share, and comment under other users’ content.
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In addition, the intranet can host a board or communications executive to answer any questions that employees may have, ensuring transparency.
The concept of introducing new technology to improve the company culture should not be intimidating however. If the company has standards in place, such as International Organisation for Standardisations (ISO), you can have peace of mind that they are an established and serious company, and that their creativity isn’t violating any regulations through its inventive approach to the workplace.
Questioning the norm
A good outsourcing company will have a strong culture of questioning ways of working. It will be constantly finding means of improving processes or making them more efficient. Instead of simply being handed a product and asked to improve certain qualities, the outsourcing company should work alongside your organisation to review the current processes, and to agree on the best steps for the project.
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By doing this, your organisation can then examine its own product and ways of working through an entirely new perspective. And, as we’ve established, a good outsourcing company emphasises a culture of continuous learning, ensuring that both employees and outsourced team alike feel a responsibility to challenge the norm when the opportunity arises.
The process of outsourcing allows companies to reevaluate their ambitions and direction. It can bring new creativity to the way your company operates, as well as new technology that initiates this culture and accommodates employee needs.
However, what is perhaps most important is the culture of questioning the reasoning behind a product’s direction. Fresh insights enable companies to fully understand why they want their products enhanced in this way, which leads to more efficient and successful long-term decisions.
Sourced by Jaroslaw Czaja, CEO of Future Processing
