Building an Offshore Workforce to Manage Medical Test Processes

Genesis Biotechnology Group, a medical testing and biotechnology company, relies on skilled personnel to perform discrete laboratory processes. In the waning years of the pandemic, the company faced significant challenges in hiring, training, and retaining its entry-level workforce. As a result, the company had difficulty meeting its metrics of successfully processed incoming medical tests, which could severely impact its business.

Fortunately, Genesis had already created and honed an in-house solution for managing lab and reporting processes. What it needed was a skilled, reliable workforce that could be hired, managed, and trained at a reasonable cost. Due to SoHo Dragon’s strong capabilities in recruiting specialized talent, as well as establishing and running an offshore workforce, Genesis engaged SoHo to rework its staffing solutions and manage lab/business processes offshore.

Genesis requested that SoHo establish three lab/business processes using a phased approach. The first phase provided quality control and document review services, with SoHo taking ownership of and managing the entire quality control process. SoHo’s challenge was to clone the process Genesis developed and to replicate it in an offshore setting halfway across the world. SoHo achieved this by leveraging its India-based team, hiring staff with specific skill sets, and utilizing a train-the-trainer approach to knowledge transfer of lab and business processes. In addition, SoHo set up a secure, fully electronic, cloud-based infrastructure so documents could be shared and communications conducted between Genesis and the facility in India.

Once resources were in place and successfully managing quality control (QCA) review, Genesis asked SoHo to recruit data entry (DE) technicians who would ensure the accuracy of test requisition information and handle any discrepancies. Following that, a third phase began with the hiring of quality control lab technicians (QCT) who provide another layer of QC by verifying the accuracy of patient and testing information in the electronic laboratory information management system (LIMS).

Train-the-Trainer

The knowledge transfer process is a key ingredient to the success of this engagement. To that end, the client specified a train-the-trainer approach to disseminate all information to the SoHo India team. SoHo’s trainer/project manager (PM) was given comprehensive, onsite, training and empowered with all the curriculum and reference material necessary to build and sustain the SoHo India QC Team. While not guiding the review process of the QC team, the trainer/PM provides quality control by spot checking the work of all reviewers to ensure consistency and validity, based on reviewer aptitude and seniority.

Every step of the way required a complete knowledge transfer with daily interactions with the Genesis director in charge. To summarize, the engagement included these steps:

• Digitize the entire lab specimen inventory
• Create a cloud storage environment
• Build secure remote connections
• On-site U.S. project manager embedded for a train-the-trainer program
• Deliberate scaling of workers three at a time, to train, test, and begin enhancing and replacing the onshore team
• A phased approach to handling one of three lab processes at a time - QCA, DE, and QCT
• Cross-training between teams

During this ongoing project, SoHo has used its AI-assisted talent search capabilities to hire QC quality control technicians, data entry specialists, project managers, lab technicians, and more.

The managed services engagement has been and continues to be highly successful:

• SoHo Dragon took over three complete lab/business processes from Genesis’ onshore team
• The team scaled from 3 to 47 resources in 18 months
• SoHo’s team in India consistently meets or exceeds the core metric of requisitions reviewed per hour/day/week with a satisfaction rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars

Now that three lab/business processes are handled externally by SoHo, Genesis has solid, reliable lab and business processes in place to continue and grow its business.