02 Oct Outsourced Admin – how long before I see the difference?
New clients often ask me, as we talk about the outsourced admin support that OY provides: “How long before I see the difference”?
As humans we have a tendency to put difficult or more complex jobs off. To delay them and focus on the easy, quicker jobs first. Never is this more true than when we are incredibly busy and feeling stressed. Advisers are normally in this situation when they come and speak to us. They know they need help, but they’ve put it off because there’s going to be a little leg work from them to set it up.
Advisers who come to us for outsourced admin support have usually been thinking about doing so for some time, but have finally got around to it because they are completely overloaded and not enjoying their job anymore. At that point, they want a quick fix, and a way to pass as much work over to outsourced admin as quickly as possible. I totally understand that, but I am always careful to position with them that the relief they are hoping to feel will not occur over night.
When I am meeting with new clients, talking them through the process of getting them up and running with Organised You , I often use the phrase, ‘Short term pain for long term gain’.
You get out of it what you put in.
The more you put into your outsourced admin support, the more benefit you will get out of it. It may seem counter productive, spending time with someone explaining how you like things to be done and setting up good systems and processes when you are already under pressure. However, but the more time you spend on this, the fewer issues you will have once you’re up and running and the more efficient and effective your outsourced support will be.
There will be some jobs that we can take off your plate straight away, usually:
- Data inputting
- Template letters
- Phone calls to chase information.
These are the easiest jobs for you to delegate because they don’t require a lot of input from you. Passing them over immediately reduces your workload.
Do you want your outsourced administrator to have a real, lasting impact on your workload?
To achieve this, you need to do more than delegate specific actions and tasks to them.
Take some time out, even if you’re incredibly busy, and spend time with your administrator to:
- Go through the tasks that you’re spending the most time on. Is there is a better way to do them, or can you can delegate them over to the administrator, with a little training or support.
- Go through your current processes for new business, client reviews, etc. Look for ways that you can make them more efficient, and which parts of the process you can delegate to your administrator.
- Introduce your administrator to your clients and other parties, encouraging them to seek their help if you’re not available.
- Create templates.
I know how hard it is to take time out when you’re firefighting and sinking in paperwork. However I see first hand, every day, the difference it makes when an Adviser invests time in the work they pass over to their admin, in comparison to those who don’t.
It will take a little longer but, if you can take a step back to give your administrator the knowledge of what you need, and the time to work together on how best to achieve it, that’s when you’re see the most difference in your workload.
