There’s nothing quite like finding the perfect candidate after recruiting for (what can feel like) forever. Knowing you have the right team in place and your business is going to grow and prosper – and so is your team.
However, this feeling is becoming less and less common.
As the cost-of-living soars and the job market swings from dizzying highs to subterranean lows without warning, finding and keeping the right staff at the right price is an ongoing battle for organisations of any size or tenure.
When the need is there but the funds and/or applicants are not, what other recruitment options exist – and which ones are right for your business?
Big or small, talent challenges impact us all
One challenge nearly all businesses share is the retention and affordability of staff. However, the root of these challenges is likely to differ between smaller, newer businesses and those that are larger and/or more established.
Take start-ups, for example. After the initial stages, they often need to grow their team and bring in more specialist roles to reach the next stage of business growth. However, few have the capital in which to immediately fill every role.
They need quality, skilled talent. However, the cost of sourcing and retaining multiple (or even just one) specialist roles onshore can be out of reach of tightly constrained start-up budgets. Their main challenge is not sourcing the talent; it’s the difficulty of affording the range of talent they need.
Meanwhile, larger organisations are more likely to struggle with retaining talent due to the ongoing affordability of salaries, which only ever go up. Some go up incrementally each year, but some key roles have exploded as demand has grown.
Ten or fifteen years ago, the cost of a cyber security expert in Australia might have been around $80,000 per year. Today, it’s more likely to be around $200,000.
The current cost of living pressures have only compounded these issues, as employees are constantly looking for better-paying roles – which makes keeping good people hard. Businesses are constantly forced to find more money for talent.
Remote talent options are full of potential
Businesses have long fought this battle between talent and profitability. While the market ebbs and flows, it always exists in some form across established nations where wages are higher.
Businesses have to balance the talent they need with what they can afford to pay. When there is a gap between these two factors, they need to consider other options to fill it. One such option is outsourcing work to offshore agencies and BPOs.
Popular offshore locations (like the Philippines) have some key factors that make them attractive options for businesses struggling to find or acquire the talent required to maintain operations.
Large populations
Many nations offering BPO services have a smaller footprint but a larger population. This means a bigger talent pool to choose from. There are only so many opportunities in the local market, so many workers are looking for opportunities to work with offshore businesses.
Skilled workers
These populations also often have a high percentage of skilled workers who have a tertiary education, multiple qualifications, and significant experience in their fields. This is on top of strong language skills, which means few (if any) hurdles to integrating into your business.
Lower wages
Lower national minimum wages can enable businesses to attract and retain workers with similar skills and experience levels to local candidates for a significantly lower annual or hourly cost while still meeting legal requirements.
The availability of skilled talent at a lower cost makes outsourcing roles to offshore resources an incredibly attractive and affordable option for businesses struggling to afford onshore talent.
So, why isn’t everyone doing it?
Affordability & quality: Can BPOs really offer both?
When the goal is to get staff at a lower rate, outsourcing to offshore resources makes sense. However, quality and retention are not always synonymous with outsourcing to offshore BPO. Attrition rates are notoriously high, and most contracts are built around cost per seat—not quality of deliverables.
This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find an offshore resource to carry out the job. The benefit of large numbers of skilled workers is that there is always someone to come in and take over the role. However, it does mean continuous investment in training and onboarding and a good chance the people in the role/s will always be at the same level of skill and knowledge. High attrition rates mean you’ll only ever receive the minimum viable product.
This is important to recognise because, in the conversation of affordability, it’s not just about the singular cost of salary or cost per head. It’s the value you are getting for your investment over time.
If you are not guaranteed a like-for-like replacement for onshore talent, then is offshoring really a worthy option? Yes, 100%. Like any recruitment situation, it’s all about negotiating and finding the right fit. So, here’s how to do it.
Top tips for talent retention, quality and long-term value
Omada One‘s team has been providing offshore talent to organisations for 20 years. There are certain things we look for in employees and that we include in our contracts with clients to achieve the best outcomes. The same things can be adopted by businesses looking to successfully employ skilled, committed and affordable offshore talent:
1. Be specific about the talent required
When hiring, we are very specific about the role we want to fill and look not just for candidates with the right job title but also who have highly specific skills and abilities. This narrows down the field of thousands to a few that can do the job really well.
2. Ensure KPIs align with business objectives
Contracts usually say BPOs need to deliver on a minimum set of KPIs. As long as they can continue to meet that, they can continue to replace staff easily. When setting up a contract, ensure the KPIs align with business objectives and the important deliveries for that role.
3. Look at attrition rates
Most BPOs have attrition rates of around 40%. At Omada One, our attrition rate is under 5%, thanks to the effort we put into nurturing our staff. The lower the attrition rate, the longer staff are staying. And the longer they stay with you, the more you can get out of them. Staff who have been with you for two years should be delivering more than those who have been with you for two months.
4. Think long term
We focus not just on immediate roles and goals, but the future career aspirations of our staff – and then help them on their journey. We’ve found often this is more important to them than a little extra money being offered by a competitor. If you think about not just the role you need to fill but how someone in that role can develop over time and add value to your business, it becomes more valuable to the staff and to your business.
It’s important to look at resourcing as more than just filling a gap. It’s about gaining value, growing your business and looking after your triple bottom line.
With the right approach, the right objective and goals, and the right outsourcing partner, you can absolutely achieve the quality, outcomes and retention you’d expect from an onshore resource at a fraction of the price.
Omada One is supporting a growing number of businesses across the world fill both temporary and permanent roles and achieve incredible business success with highly skilled and highly affordable offshore resources. For support in overcoming your biggest talent challenges and to explore how offshoring resources could support your business objectives, get in touch with the Omada One team.
