Should You Keep Your Processes Onshore?

August 22, 2022

COVID has made working from home the norm in many different business sectors. The argument of keeping your staff onshore versus offshore is becoming bleaker and bleaker as many different offices are allowing their traditionally in-office employees to work from the safety of their homes.

Hiring offshore employees or remote staff is a setup that isn’t too different from allowing your employees to work from home. Deciding which option is suitable for your business is ultimately up to you; however, you should be aware of what both options mean.

The Onshore Workforce

Working in an office is a working arrangement that everyone should be used to. It is considered the default working method, at least before COVID. Now it’s a toss-up whether a company offers work-from-home or some hybrid options. No matter the industry, jobs with WFH options tend to attract more candidates, and jobs can be filled faster if the job allows for remote working options.

Pros Of Keeping Processes Onshore

As stated before, this is the traditional setup for work. Managers and supervisors will be more familiar with this setup as it has been the norm for years. Being able to manage staff the “old-fashioned” way is one less thing to think about for managerial staff. In conjunction with this idea is the social aspect of working in an office. Humans are social creatures, and most of us won’t thrive well in prolonged isolation. The social aspect of traditional working spaces gives employees a sense of community within a company, but this does come with its drawbacks.

Cons Of Keeping Processes Onshore

In some cases, there can be too much of a good thing. With workplace socialization, too much can cause problems such as late submissions and lower productivity. With COVID seemingly out of the picture, it isn’t as big of a problem to go back to the office, but for those more cautious than others, it still is a problem. With more and more offices offering some form of work-from-home, being the office that doesn’t offer it severely hinders your recruitment efforts and may even increase your attrition rates. Cost is the biggest argument against keeping all processes in the same country as your main office. There is a reason full-service BPOs offer their services as cost-effective, with savings as high as 60% per employee.

The Offshore Workforce

Offshoring or offshore outsourcing is the process of hiring an overseas third-party service provider to perform and complete a process or a set of processes. . While call centers or manufacturing plants are the most commonly known outsourcing centers, others, such as a full-service business process outsourcing center (BPO), cater to businesses with more customized professional needs. These BPOs are a cost-effective solution for any role that can be done from a computer.

Pros Of Moving Processes Offshore

As stated previously, partnering with a BPO is a much more cost-effective solution when compared to hiring onshore. In some cases, outsourced jobs are 60% cheaper than their onshore counterparts. Depending on the job, these savings can go up or down, but they will always be lower than hiring locally. Coupled with the reduced cost, the quality of the staff will remain high. An example of this can be seen in developers, you can find offshore professionals with the same level of expertise in similar technology stacks as the ones local to you.

Aside from the financial benefits of hiring offshore, moving your processes offshore saves a more critical aspect: time. The amount of time you save during the whole process of outsourcing can be used to do much more essential tasks. The BPO partner of your choice will handle all backend aspects of your staff, this includes recruitment, HR, IT, and payroll. What this means is that you can focus solely on improving your team’s productivity.

Cons Of Moving Processes Offshore

The biggest and most apparent drawback of moving processes to a foreign country would be the difference in culture. Akin to how visiting or moving to a new country comes with culture shock, the same thing can be said in the workplace. Properly managing your team may take getting used to. If you’re having problems adjusting, most BPOs can help you get adjusted after a couple of meetings. These meetings will consist of breaking down what the culture is like and best practices in specific scenarios.

Managing the culture is one thing, but those with no experience managing a remote team may experience a rough start. You can disregard this section if you’ve had to manage a team during the height of the pandemic while a large portion of the workforce was working from home. For those who haven’t experienced working with a remote team, every BPO offers some sort of training or consulting to help smooth out the transition.

Another problem you might run into is finding people with accents. Although English proficiency in countries like the Philippines is high, an accent may still be present. For customer or business-facing roles requiring an American accent, finding one is not too difficult but must be specified before recruitment is kicked off. The latter part of the previous statement is the drawback to going with foreign solutions. For jobs involving voice, such as sales, customer service, or technical support, recruiters will instinctively look for people with accents native to the host country or neutral accents.

The Wrap Up

Keeping work processes domestic has benefits, especially for the core functions of a business. On the other hand, taking non-essential, but still crucial processes and bringing them offshore allows your business to save money while maintaining a sustainable trajectory for your future growth. While there are drawbacks to both, they are easily remedied, especially the offshore options, as the BPO you select will assist you with any difficulties you may encounter. Feel free to inquire with any BPO companies, the initial discovery call may give you all the information you need to make a choice.

Iohan Chan

Iohan loves short walks in his room and the joys of the great indoors. He joined the marketing world in 2021 as a content writer, making the transition from a recruiting position which gives him a unique perspective on topics regarding job positions. As a content writer for a remote staffing company, AKA a full-service BPO, AKA an outsourcing company that does more than just call center work, he's usually hunkered down on his laptop researching new topics or interviewing professionals for their views and opinions. He favors a more archaic and down-to-earth style of writing because he firmly believes that if you have to look up every other word in a piece of writing you're reading, chances are you're going to close out of it and go read something else. When he's not working, he's either skating or doing martial arts, and when he's injured from the previous activities, you can find him in his room playing games.