Any time a company takes on a new project, it’s essential to measure and evaluate its performance to achieve tangible business results. According to Amalga Group CEO Jens Erik Gould, the same goes when working with nearshore outsourcing providers.

In fact, it can be even more important to have a defined plan for measuring and evaluating a nearshore outsourcing partner, as they won’t be located in the same building or country as you.

“When there are logistical challenges associated with working in different locations, you want to make sure you’re even more methodical about your approach to evaluating performance,” Gould says. “Things can easily fall through the cracks if you’re not careful.”

Here are some basic ways to effectively measure and evaluate the performance of nearshore outsourcing providers to achieve tangible business results.

No matter what services are outsourced, a provider must know exactly what is expected of them. The objectives need to be clearly defined and granular.

“If your nearshore outsource providers aren’t 100% sure what you need and want, it will be tough for them to meet your expectations,” Jens Erik Gould says. “At the same time, by hashing out the objectives from the start, you’ll ensure that you’ve found the right partner for you.”

Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, go hand-in-hand with objectives. Once the objectives have been set up, KPIs should be established to measure the progress toward those objectives.

Much like objectives, KPIs need to be clearly defined, and they need to be written in a way that you can measure against them.

Once the KPIs have been created and agreed upon, they can then be shared internally and with the entire nearshore outsourcing team. This way, everyone can be on the same page and work toward the same goals in the same way.

The best way to ensure that everyone stays consistently focused, on task, and knows how they’re doing is to conduct regular performance reviews. Some companies will do these reviews annually, but more frequent reviews should be considered for nearshore outsourcing providers.

“Feedback of any kind is constructive in improving performance and output and ensuring that you are continually getting exactly what you want out of the partnership,” says Gould. “Checking in and letting people know what they’re doing well and what they can improve on will only make you better, too.”

In addition to these performance reviews, it’s important to create a work environment where people can openly provide feedback. This two-way communication ensures that you’re made aware of everything that’s happening with your project as it’s happening.

Jens Erik Gould is the Founder & CEO of Amalga Group, a Texas-based nearshore outsourcing company specializing in providing highly qualified talent in IT, software engineering, and contact centers. Previously, Gould spent over a decade as a business, politics, and energy reporter who covered the U.S. and Latin America for esteemed media outlets like Bloomberg News, The New York Times, and TIME Magazine.