Outsourcing is one of the best ways to increase efficiency and lower operating costs. However, there are many common outsourcing misconceptions. When you think about outsourcing business operations, large companies with call centers in Asia come to mind. The small to medium sized business down the street is not the ‘ideal’ type of company to outsource their positions. If you are a business owner, the thought of increasing operations while keeping payroll under control is an appealing factor of outsourcing.
As a result of Covid-19 business owners are beginning to look at how outsourcing can benefit their business; however, there are still some common misconceptions about business process outsourcing (BPO). Today, we are going to address five common outsourcing misconceptions.
1) You need to be a big company to benefit from outsourcing
A common misconception is that you need to be a big company to benefit from outsourcing. In reality, many small to medium sized businesses are the ones with the largest need for an outsourcing solution. These businesses can save money on HR expenses, salary, workmen’s compensation and more by outsourcing positions that they require for their expansion. It does not matter whether you are a single individual looking to hire your first employee or a 20 year old company, every business can benefit from outsourcing.
2) The quality of customer service will suffer
Businesses are always concerned with the quality of their customer service team and reasonably so! Your customer service team is the first impression of your business to customers. No company wants to provide poor customer service. The myth that outsourcing leads to decreased quality comes from most peoples interactions with large call centers. Employees are not trained and monitored as consistently in these large call centers. As with any customer service agent, outsourced or in house, training and constant improvement with help from management is a large part of ensuring quality control and meeting expectations.
With BBL Outsourcing, we help you train and supervise your employees so that you are set up for success. Finding a good partner for your outsourcing needs helps to ensure that you do not need to worry about poor quality results.
3) Outsourcing contributes to unemployment
This misconception is driven by the fact that jobs are filled by individuals in a different country. The myth that a job is lost when filled by an offshored employee is not true. Most jobs that are being outsourced are for positions that are hard to hire or failing to gain the interest of qualified candidates in the states.
Outsourcing allows employees to be more productive and work on higher level tasks. Companies that outsource are typically growing. This opens up new, more interesting positions and opportunities in the United States. Cutting costs with outsourcing makes expansion possible. If a company spends all of its budget on roles that require data entry or inbound calls, they may not have budget to spend on business development or sales. Outsourcing frees up cash flow by lowering overhead costs allowing a company to expanded to create more jobs.
4) Outsourcing is not a long term solution
In this modern gig economy, outsourcing is most commonly used for short term projects or tasks. These tasks typically are not value added tasks. Outsourcing as a long term solution benefits all parties. The outsourcing firm secures long term revenue and the employee has job security. The benefit for the client is the employees’ ability to understand the company and offer more than just skills on a task but knowledge on the industry and company specifics.
Boutique outsourcing aims to help clients establish long-term employee relationships and outsource positions that they plan to never bring back to being in house positions. A long-term solution increases the quality of the outsourcing and the value add to the company because the employee learns more and are is to contribute on a more in depth level over longer periods of time.
5) Outsourcing is unethical
In the United States, offshoring or outsourcing has gained a reputation as being unethical. An employers concern for the welfare of the workers as well as the conditions in which they work is justified.
At BBL, our employees start at salaries 2-3x that of El Salvador’s minimum wage. The El Salvadorian government regulates employee time, compensation, and vacation. One of the main job opportunities in El Salvador is working in offshore call centers for US corporations. With BBL, our small, family-like environment means that our employees are not just a number, They are a valued and trusted member of the team.
The outsourcing industry offers people a great environment to work in, fantastic facilities and training, and an exciting career ladder
Outsourcing Misconceptions Debunked
There are many misconceptions surrounding outsourcing. However, outsourcing has become a major player in the growth and development of companies across the country. Debunking these myths allows smaller companies to find the value in outsourcing and explore the potential options more readily.
Outsourcing comes with its advantages and disadvantages however companies that want to outsource should take advantage of the opportunities available.
