This article forms part of our How Our BPO Service Works page, our complete guide to working with Felcorp Support.
Job allocation is where the BPO engagement becomes operational. It is also where many of the practical difficulties that affect BPO relationships originate from.
A staff member who receives vague or incomplete instructions will either spend time seeking clarification or make assumptions that produce rework. The quality of job allocation directly determines the quality of what is delivered.
How Work Is Assigned
Your offshore staff member works within your business systems and processes. Task allocation happens through whatever tools your business uses: email, practice management systems, task management platforms, shared drives or project boards. The staff member integrates into your operational environment.
Effective job allocation communicates four things clearly:
- What needs to be done: a specific, unambiguous description of the deliverable
- What inputs are available: the data, documents and system access required to complete the job
- What the expected output looks like: the standard, format and level of detail expected
- When it is due: a realistic deadline that accounts for the complexity of the task
Engagements that structure job allocation around these four elements consistently produce fewer errors, faster turnaround and less back-and-forth than engagements where tasks are assigned informally.
It sounds very basic, but many firms become time poor and job allocations become unclear meaning that time budgets are pushed out.
Managing Priorities and Workload
You control the priority and sequencing of work. If multiple tasks are in the queue, you determine which should be completed first and communicate that priority clearly. Where no priority is specified, your staff member will work through tasks in the order they were assigned.
Workload management is the client's responsibility. If you consistently assign more work than can be completed in the available hours, the output will reflect that.
Understanding the time required for each task type and allocating work accordingly, is a basic operational discipline that significantly affects engagement performance.
Monthly reporting data analysing actual time spent per job versus estimated time provides the evidence base for workload capacity over time. Engagements that use this data actively tend to reach a stable, productive workload rhythm within three to four months.
Escalation Channels
When a staff member encounters a technical query they cannot resolve independently, there should be a defined channel to raise that query rather than proceeding on an assumption or stopping work entirely.
Before the engagement begins, establish:
- Who the staff member should contact for technical queries about your systems or processes
- What the expected response time is for those queries
Felcorp management provides a parallel escalation pathway for operational or HR issues that sit within Felcorp's responsibility. The client is not the first point of contact for those matters.
Common Allocation Mistakes
The most frequent job allocation problems Felcorp observes are:
- Assigning tasks without providing the source documents or system data required to complete them. Very common occurrence.
- Giving priority instructions that conflict with previously assigned deadlines without acknowledging the conflict.
- Expecting the staff member to know how to handle a task type they have not yet been trained on
- Assigning more work than the available hours can accommodate and attributing the resulting backlog to staff performance. Very common occurrence.
- Failing to provide feedback on completed work, which prevents the staff member from self-calibrating their output standard.
Job allocation sounds simple, but it is where most of the day-to-day friction in a BPO engagement lives. The businesses that spend just five minutes in writing a clear job brief consistently get better results than the businesses that send a two-sentence email and expects a complete deliverable.
Tobias Fellas — Founder & CEO, Felcorp Support
FAQs
Can I communicate with my staff member directly throughout the day?
Yes. Direct communication between you and your staff member is expected and encouraged. The staff member is part of your operational environment. Felcorp management is available for any matters relating to employment, performance, compliance, HR and process but day-to-day work direction comes from you.
What happens if I assign more work than can be completed?
The monthly reporting data will show this clearly: actual hours versus estimated hours per job will indicate whether the workload is calibrated correctly. Felcorp management can assist with workload analysis and discuss options if the scope of the engagement needs to be reviewed.
Do I need to use a specific task management system?
No. Your staff member works in whatever systems your business uses. Felcorp does not require you to use any particular task management tool. We have our own internal tool. If you are looking to improve your job allocation process, this can be discussed during onboarding.
Next Steps
- Read How our BPO Service Works for the full eight-step operational framework
- See Full Time Staff Engagements for service structure and scope
- Start with a BPO Services Trial to test job allocation in practice before a full commitment
