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Business process outsourcing, or BPO, has arguably been one of the biggest benefits of our globalized, interconnected world. It is the process of letting another company handle specific aspects of your business. Doing so has helped many Australian businesses keep their operations lean, efficient, and highly profitable.
Many businesses seek BPO services overseas, in countries where a motivated and skilled workforce is available at a significantly lower cost than back home. Since the practice started in the second half of the twentieth century, a handful of countries have emerged as industry leaders. One of them is the Philippines.
BPO contributes significantly to the Philippines’ economy and the country’s government is very supportive of the industry, investing in training programs for the population and offering incentives for foreign businesses to choose them for outsourcing services.
This is all undoubtedly good for foreign businesses, but outsourcing is not risk-free and it does mean having less control over some operations. This guide is here to offer some tips which will help you decide if BPO is right for your business and best practices to ensure a smooth outsourcing experience.
Why choose the Philippines for outsourcing?
Undeniably, the Philippines is one of the world’s premier BPO destinations. There are several reasons that it has been able to achieve this position. These include:
Cost-effectiveness
This is probably the main reason why so many foreign companies choose the Philippines. Salaries can be as little as a quarter of what they are in Western countries, resulting in significant business savings.
Work ethic
Advantageous traits like hard work, discipline, attention to detail, and teamwork are highly valued in Filipino culture. This means that their workforce is highly motivated to deliver satisfactory results. They are also quick learners, often successfully running outsourced business operations with minimal training and a few standard operating procedures to fall back on.
They can also get to grips quickly with a wide range of different industries. Of the companies that choose to outsource financial and lending firms, technology companies, healthcare providers, and online retail are common.
English proficiency
Compared to other locations in Southeast Asia, English proficiency in the Philippines is excellent and the accent is not strong. Children begin learning the language from a very young age, often before they even start school.
Data safeguarding
In some industries, such as healthcare and finance, this is a major concern when it comes to outsourcing. The Filipino government has enacted legislation which ensures that privileged information stays private and is legally protected.
How to Find A Great Outsourcing Partner
The Filipino BPO industry is vast. It employs more than a million people and is still growing. This means that there are many firms to choose from. While you can broadly expect to receive the benefits above, the quality of different BPO services does vary and it is obviously better to choose well at the start.
Here are some top tips to help you find a great Filipino partner to outsource your chosen operations to.
Seek specialisation and expertise
The first thing you will want to think about is what operations you are planning to outsource, because you can then look specifically for a service with expertise or who specialises in that area.
Some commonly outsourced business functions include customer service operations, market research, lead generation, graphic design, IT services, and financial services such as accounting and bookkeeping.
Make sure your values align
As a minimum, your outsourcing partner needs to take your measures of success seriously. Your targets and goals should be important to them, and this is something that you should check in advance of working with them by asking about how they plan to meet them.
Ideally, the service you choose should have values aligned with yours. For example, if your company values criticism and straight-talking, make sure the BPO firms you work with do too. Filipino culture is largely non-confrontational, which means that by default the workers there may bury bad news or agree to do things which they know are impossible.
Another difference in values which you might face is that, while Filipinos are very motivated and hard-working, family comes first. This includes extended family, and so there may be situations which they consider perfectly reasonable excuses for taking time off work but people in Western cultures would not.
Ask about hiring practices and qualifications
An outsourcing firm is only as good as the people who actually end up doing the work. When you are speaking to vendors, you will want to find out how they choose who to hire and what kind of qualifications their employees have. Ask yourself whether their employees sound like the kind of people you would hire back home to do it.
Conclusion
Outsourcing firms in the Philippines have delivered results for companies all around the world. Easy communication, skilled workers, and expertise in a number of business functions should make it a strong contender if your company is considering outsourcing abroad, and these tips above will help you find the right service.
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