Knowing what quality means in your business and then maintaining that quality can be easier said than done. This is because quality can be understood differently by different people so by its very nature is subjective. You could be tempted to generalise that quality means something that is fit for purpose but then you would be able to argue that there could be many fit for purpose solutions but not all are quality solutions. And so the argument goes on!
In short, whether you believe how you deliver your services or products, the way you communicate with your clients and customers, and the way they experience you, is quality or not, others may think differently. But keeping everything in-house is one sure-fire way of maintaining quality. You know exactly what it means to you and how to embed it in your business, what your customers expect and how to meet those expectations time and time again.
It is hardly a mystery then why so many small business owners struggle with the concept of outsourcing key elements of their businesses. The very word ‘outsourcing’ can send shivers down the spine of even the most experienced business owner. But at some point or other a business will grow and outsourcing will become a necessity. This is a point at which you no longer have the time to do everything yourself and so quality, in whatever form that takes, may be slipping.
Without the right safeguards in place outsourcing can be a minefield of complicated handovers, incomplete instructions, high expectations and poor return for money. And yes, quality can slip and your customers or clients may notice. You have probably heard just as many horror stories as I have. When your business is your baby (after all you have given it life, worked hard at making it grow and had your fair share of sleepless nights along the way!) outsourcing can seem like a step too far. Trusting someone else to do a part of your business that you know no one else can do better than you, can seem counterintuitive. Particularly if you are to maintain quality! This is despite the fact that you know all the benefits and have already planned out exactly what you would do with the extra time that person would free up for you IF you were going to make that leap of faith!
But what would happen if we simply changed the terminology and thought about outsourcing in a different way? If we were to replace the word ‘outsourcing’ with ‘resourcing’ could it change the way we feel about it? If we were simply bringing another resource into our business to help us out (resourcing), rather than letting some small part of our business (and us!) go (outsourcing), would that impact the way we approached it? Suddenly we are merely bringing in a valuable resource that is going to be an asset and will safeguard our quality and work with us to help us grow our business. This new member of the team needs to be supported by us to understand what quality uniquely means to us and our customers. We need to manage them as we would any other resource in our business, communicate well with them and share our successes and lessons learnt with them.
When we think about resourcing we feel much more in control and managing quality can feel ever so slightly easier, more straightforward.
The term ‘Outsourcing’ used throughout the standard will be replaced by the term ‘external provision’. A change in the right direction? Definitely. But maybe ‘resourcing’ would be better!
Article Written by Claire Scott.
