Some of the most successful companies today are no stranger to the advantages of outsourcing. As a constantly evolving business strategy, modern outsourcing has become a favored approach for companies of all sizes. With businesses becoming more global and interconnected, outsourcing has helped them stay competitive amidst a constantly shifting landscape.
Of course, acceptance of outsourcing cannot happen overnight. New, bold business methods will always have some level of pushback from those comfortable with traditional approaches. Even the most effective strategies developed may be seen as unfavorable when they are not implemented properly.
Today, modern outsourcing is more hands-on. Rather than working for companies, outsourced teams collaborate with them, acting as an extension of your local team. This means freeing local resources and cost savings, making way for more value adding opportunities opening up locally.
An Outdated Method
When looking back at the outsourcing controversy from the Royal Bank of Canada in 2013, many experts admit that avoidable mistakes were certainly made by RBC. While outsourcing does mean sending functions overseas, its purpose could have been communicated much better. By gaining a better understanding to outsourcing, its real impact could have been analyzed and anticipated better. By RBC’s own admission, they acknowledged their lack of sensitivity and worked to offer job opportunities to those affected.
As a silver lining, RBC’s actions also led many employers to reevaluate their use of an outsourced workforce and understand what it meant to use them.
Where Outsourcing is Today
Plenty has changed with outsourcing since then, with the development of better technologies and communication tools. This also means a change in how outsourcing is viewed and managed by companies today. Gone is the traditional definition of assigning mid to low level functions to a team based overseas. In its place, there is a growing need for a more qualified, cost effective workforce that can handle different functions across many industries.
Graphic artists and web developers are some of the unique roles found in modern outsourced teams.
Canada is certainly no stranger to the challenges outsourcing brings, but it has also reaped much more from the benefits it has brought. Through its constant evolution, outsourcing methods have become more effective and more specialized, showing the importance of flexibility and better management. By taking advantage of the new, modern outsourcing approach, businesses can get a leg up and compete with others on a global scale.
The Benefits of Modern Outsourcing
When businesses adopt a modern outsourcing approach, it means that they get to work on a smarter level. Additionally, it will help them focus on better strategies that prioritize cost, growth and efficiency. Canada has seen an increasing number of enquiries from companies searching for these diverse and productive workforces, as they have become aware that outsourcing is not what it used to be.
Some businesses still view outsourcing as it was 5-10 years ago. The traditional approach of recruiting a provider to manage low-level functions with minimal input has certainly proven itself to be a good cost-cutting strategy. IT outsourcing in Canada, for instance, continues to be a reliable approach for some.
However, times have changed and so has the way we do business. Thanks to our interconnectivity and advances in technology, it is much easier to collaborate with teams that can provide quality work at reduced cost.
Specialized talents like draftsmen make up plenty of modern outsourced teams today.
To stay competitive, businesses need specialized workforces that can handle more major roles. This means tapping into the potential of a highly skilled talent pool that can take on these functions and operate on the highest level, all at a reduced cost.
This modern approach to outsourcing also means being more hands-on and managing your team member’s roles, responsibilities, even career trajectory. In effect, they become an extension of your local team, aiding in your business growth and expanding your own global presence.
No Longer a “Set and Forget” Process
One of the biggest pitfalls traditional outsourcing had was that companies gave nearly free reign for their providers to manage their teams. It sometimes meant shifting priorities on the fly and immediately recruiting and replacing team members just to meet their objectives.
To get the most out of modern outsourcing, it starts with effective management of those you will recruit to your team. Proper training, constant engagement, and your own local input can make all the difference for you to find success. While it does entail more time and responsibilities than traditional outsourcing would, your business will stand to benefit greatly in the long run.
Looking to the Philippines
It’s no secret that Canadian businesses have found success with traditional outsourcing. By changing their view and adapting a more modern approach, we can definitely see more businesses of every size find the same level of success as their predecessors did. Much of this is predicated on finding the right offshore provider to work with.
The Philippines has emerged as one of the major players in modern outsourcing. This should come as no surprise as outsourcing and the BPO industry is the second biggest contributor to the country’s GDP. The Filipino talent pool is incredibly deep as a result of this, boasts a 94% English literacy rate. Many global companies have called the Philippines a second home for their business, largely in part to their use of the modern outsourcing model.
The Filipino workforce brings a wide range of talents to many industries at a lowered cost.
The quality of work provided by the Filipino workforce is second to none. What’s more, collaborating with a modern outsourcing team in the Philippines means even better cost savings. This provides Canada with many opportunities to outsource different functions beyond the usual healthcare and IT industries we often outsource to. Finance, retail, fast food and construction are just some of the industries today that recognize the need for a modern outsourcing strategy.
Partnering With The Right Provider
In recent years, we’ve seen an emergence of more modern outsourcing providers that can help businesses realize their objectives. These providers live and breathe the modern outsourcing trend and have rooted themselves in countries like the Philippines to fully tap into their potential. Modern outsourcing requires a deeper commitment than traditional outsourcing, but the right provider will ensure businesses have a seamless transition into adopting it. Although it’s possible for trends to change over time, partnering with the right provider will guarantee you are ready to take on and adapt to any challenge that comes your way.
By properly considering the different factors that go into partnering with a modern outsourcing provider, companies of different sizes will be able to leverage themselves into global competitors. For Canadian businesses, there hasn’t been a better time to adapt this more modern approach than now.
