People and businesses adapted and evolved to new protocols during the pandemic. Compared to the challenges of last year, 2022 has been more positive in several aspects. In that time, we saw how offshoring helps businesses through their approaches.
Indeed, many businesses especially see this year as a period of recovery and rebound for them. Like the BPO industry, some managed to stay strong and continue to grow despite the global pandemic. They managed to keep themselves afloat while also helping other growing businesses maintain their momentum. Other companies that want to experience the same development are now looking at how strategies like offshoring can help them recover and evolve.
What Offshoring Can Do For Businesses
Let’s look at offshoring as a whole. Offshoring has made no secret of what it brings to the table for many fast-growing businesses. With the right provider, they get access to skilled labour at a lower cost. This allows them to also save on space costing by reducing in-house staffing and lesser office space locally. Countries like the Philippines also back the offshoring industry through economic incentives that help attract foreign investments.
The BPO industry provides continuous business operations and offshoring is no different. Working with an established offshoring provider that operates around the clock can help off-set issues with time zone differences. This leads to better operations, extended support coverage to customers leading to an enhanced customer experience.
Perhaps the biggest difference offshoring has in its approach is how much control clients have on their teams. Typically, an outsourcing strategy limits control on the functions that you want. The provider takes care of everything for a client by lessening their involvement in how their team is composed. On the other hand, offshoring helps businesses by letting clients build and develop a team from the ground up. They are involved in everything from handpicking who the members are, their roles and how they want to train them. They have the final say in how to complete core tasks to allow for more flexibility.
With all of this factored in, offshoring helps clients of all sizes, including fast-growing businesses, reach wider markets. Working with a team internationally also shows how they can expand their services to a global level. Overall, it allows them to become globally competitive with quality output at a lowered cost.
How Offshoring in the Philippines Evolved and Adapted
Throughout the pandemic, small businesses felt the biggest impact of the economic fallout. Larger companies stayed afloat, but smaller ones faced bigger challenges. To address this, some turned to the cost-effective strategies offshoring brought to the table. Businesses that needed a jump-start saw how offshoring was particularly helpful in helping handle their operations. With the right provider, offshoring helps businesses by bringing in quality individuals to help in their recovery plans. As a result, they stayed competitive and continued to provide their services well within their resources.
We mentioned previously how the BPO industry managed to grow in the last 12 months. This is due to several factors. In the Philippines, most significantly, the BPO industry is seen as “essential” and was supported by the government. That means they are granted some special privileges due in part to the industry’s contribution to the national GDP. As of this writing, BPO workers in the Philippines are part of the priority group for vaccinations, which will allow them to transition back to office operations. To that end, offshoring providers also recognize some of the changes that need to be made. The shift from work from home for instance helped address safety and health concerns.
As a whole, offshoring has always been about working remotely. Experienced providers know this is not just expanding their responsibility in keeping their teams safe. It also extended to caring about their mental health, holding virtual get-togethers and remaining engaged despite remotely working. While there are some bumps on the initial road, offshoring eventually found its groove continued to thrive.
Learning From Our Experiences
Many would say that 2020 was a year of learning and restarting. In its early months, business disruptions caused by the pandemic led to an uncertain economic future. Since then, we learned to thrive and adapt despite the circumstances. The BPO industry, for its part, is doing what it can to help other sectors recover by providing quality services to clients of all sizes. An offshoring approach is just one of many that fit particular business needs.
More than that, the year that was also gave businesses a chance to rethink some of their own core strategies moving forward. In the years after the global pandemic, workplace norms and culture will have changed. Being able to adapt to these new responsibilities will be the key to having a stronger workforce. There is still a ways to go, but things are now more stable and optimistic in the business world.
