Accept that this is a real opportunity for you and your organization

You start by accepting the simple idea that your operation can be more efficient and more profitable than it is right now by doing what the largest companies in the world do — by placing some of their people offshore.

Figure out how big your opportunity is

Next, look at your organization. Get a list of actual headcount and how much it all costs. Salaries, benefits, taxes. Take a hard look at how many people you have and where the dollars are going. List up likely additional hires planned or really needed and add those to the mix.

Now identify your management, the critically skilled specialty positions, and the positions and staff who contain mission-critical knowledge. These people are the beating heart of the organization and, as always, you should move Heaven and Earth to retain them. Mark those as long-term keepers.

Next, mark everyone in your organization who routinely needs to operate in the physical world — warehouse and plant workers, staff who need to interact with customers face to face, staff who handle a lot of physical objects around the office, and so on (keep in mind that documents often don’t count, since they can be scanned).

Now look closely at all the positions you haven’t marked. Circle each one that is executed nearly exclusively on phone and computer, that is a commonly-available type of work, and that does not require expert level execution.

Add up all the costs related to those positions, and divide by two. Very roughly, that is the total level of savings your organization is capable of generating from moving those positions offshore. If your primary interest is savings, then the dollar figure you arrive at will drop straight to your organization’s bottom line and go straight to its bank account.

Alternately, you can use the same approach to identify how many people you really need versus how many you can afford. Instead of dividing by two to get savings, multiply by two to arrive at a picture of the workforce you can build for the same money if they are working for you offshore.