By Lee Shaddock, founder of Shore360
Outsourcing is something that many of us would be familiar with, whether we have booked a graphic designer on Fiverr, had a website created on UpWork, or hired a Virtual Assistant.
It is a great way to maximise your output as a freelancer, or your workforce if you are running a company, however, it can also come with its issues.
I have been working in the outsourcing space for 20 years. A decade ago, I found a niche in the Philippines where I decided to set up a business to make outsourcing easier for businesses worldwide. We employ over 1500 talented individuals who specialise in many areas. We have people working on skyscrapers in New York, we have pharmacists and doctors consulting online, web developers, designers, and road developers. You name it, we have the talent.
Here are some of the benefits of outsourcing, as well as the traps to avoid.
It can be hard to find the right talent locally
Post-COVID-19, we have had an influx of businesses coming to us because they simply could not find the talent they were after. In Australia, so many expats went back home during the lockdowns and it took the borders a long time to let people back in once they lifted. This led to a lot of available jobs and not many available workers. Pair that with the cost of living crisis, and a lot of the salary requests were out of reach for many businesses.
When you employ outsourced talent, you can employ them ongoing as you would any other staff member. You can also employ them on a project basis. They will work as an extension of your team where they are briefed by you, report to you, and work for you. Where an agency like Shore360 would come in is that we ensure they have a good environment to work in with the tools they need such as fast internet and cyber security. We also take care of payroll for any staff that you employ through the agency and ensure that your government regulations are met which i will explain later in this article.
Another thing that may surprise many people, is that the Philippines has some of the most highly educated people. The school and university systems here are exceptional and it is a very Westernized country as it was run by the US for a long time. There is some exceptional talent over here.
You can operate 24-hours a day
Another reason why many businesses outsource talent is because they can operate their business 24/7. E-commerce sites that sell internationally for example want to have someone who can answer enquiries in real time in a range of industries from accounting to town planners.
More workers can mean more income, which can help you also employ more people locally
As the saying goes “many hands make light work” and by getting more tasks covered by others, you have the opportunity to operate more efficiently and likely make more money too. This will give you more opportunities to employ others if you wish to.
Fair pair and assurance that your local government regulations are followed
There is an assumption that outsourcing work means that you can pay people peanuts. While this may be the case on some freelancing websites, that is not how we operate and it also can be illegal in some countries. For example, bigger businesses in Australia and America need to abide by certain guidelines, and these rules extend to anyone they are contracting, no matter where they are based. Shore360 is across the legislation in every country and ensures employees are not only paid fairly by Philippines standards but legally by yours.
Some of the traps…
Not knowing if the person you are working with has the skill
While many freelancing websites do have a helpful reviewing system, there is no guarantee that the reviews are honest and that the person you are hiring for a task has the skill set required to do a task. By going through an agency instead, the agency will head hunt the right candidates for you to interview and will ensure they have the skill set to get the job done.
Not knowing if they have the tools they need to get the job done
A big issue is that when you employ someone in a third-world country, they won’t necessarily have a working computer, fast internet, and the tools they need to get the job done. An agency should provide them with the tools they need as well as an office space.
Unfair pay
Sometimes the talent will have their payment clipped by the websites they are working through or a bigger group who are outsourcing their work through those websites. The talent then ends up getting paid unfairly. A good agency won’t clip their talents’ pay. They will charge the business they are working with a service fee, but they won’t take money from their talent. Additionally, not meeting the payment standards in your own country is illegal.
So there you have it. There are so many benefits of outsourcing work. It can help you reach talent you may not have been able to find locally. It can have your business operating for longer hours and can grow your bottom line faster if you utilise it well. However, there are some pitfalls to consider.
By Lee Shaddock, founder of Shore360
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