Tech support outsourcing Philippines – The smart choice

(c) bmmagazine.co.uk

The Philippines is one of the biggest and still growing business process outsourcing hubs in the world. Currently, the Philippines is home to 107 million people with 90% of that population being under the age of 55. This means that the Philippines contains an abundance of labourers in its workforce. This workforce also currently boasts a 5.3% unemployment rate which means this island nation is ready to work.

Over the past 20 years the Filipino people have built up and borderline perfected a robust business process outsourcing industry. The large workforce is full of educated driven individuals who are looking for high paying jobs. While the pay is not high by western standards in the Philippines call centre and BPO workers are paid quite nicely relatively speaking. For companies who are looking to outsource their business processes in a manner that is friendly to the bottom line but is not sacrificing quality, the Philippines is the best option.

Expanding Australian BPOs seek to understand Duterte talk: envoy

(c) http://news.abs-cbn.com

MANILA – Australian companies are increasing their outsourcing operations in the Philippines, even as they try to understand President Rodrigo Duterte’s foreign policy shift, Canberra’s envoy to Manila said Tuesday.

Australia maintains a “very positive” outlook on the Philippines due its strong fundamentals and a “very capable” team of economic ministers implementing Duterte’s 10-point agenda, said Ambassador Amanda Gorely.

“They are expanding, virtually every week there’s news of a new Australian company coming here, setting up its business process outsourcing operations here,” Gorely told ANC’s “Market Edge with Cathy Yang.”

“It’s definitely an area of growth and it includes not just the very large Australian companies, but also medium and small companies who see the economies of scale of doing certain aspects of their business here in the Philippines,” she added.

Avaya sees growth in BPO, hospitality, banking markets

(c) business.inquirer.net

International business communications technology firm Avaya remains bullish on the Philippine growth story, especially on three sectors where companies are required to interact closely with their customers—a key strength of the US-based firm whose most visible products are office telephone systems.

In an interview, Avaya Philippines country director Edgardo Doctolero said his team was particularly optimistic about the continued growth of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, one of the biggest sources of dollar revenues for the Philippines.

“The obvious number one is the BPO and contact center industry,” he said. “That is where our strength lies and we continue to grow in that space.”

Doctolero added that Avaya was also growing rapidly in the hospitality industry where more hotels were adopting the company’s telecommunications system to improve their customer experience.

These include hotels that use touchscreen Avaya phones to raise hotel revenues by making it easier for guests to use hotel services or order in-room meals, for example.

“The third growth we’re seeing is in the financial services industry,” Doctolero said. “We have 60-percent market share in this area and what we’re seeing is that financial firms are innovating for growth. They’re looking for ways to improve customer experience, so they have to digitally transform.”

The Avaya country head said the prospects for the country’s business environment remained bright, especially with the current government promising to focus on improving the Philippines’ antiquated infrastructure—a policy that could spur investment and private consumption.

Recently, Avaya hosted current and potential clients in a forum to showcase its latest innovations. At this event, the firm’s vice president for hospitality and digital transformation Frederick Sabty urged Philippine companies to “take the initiative in transforming their customer engagement strategies or risk being left behind in today disruptive digital landscape.”

Discover the global BPO market in public sector that is set to grow at a CAGR of 6.0% from 2014 to 2019

BPO is a segment of outsourcing, which consists of subcontracting certain business processes of an organization to a third-party vendor that has expertise in the required domain. The Public sector refers to government services such as the military, police, public education, public transit, healthcare services as well as employees working for government organizations.

Global BPO Market in Public sector is set to grow at a CAGR of 6.0% over the period 2014-2019. The Report “Global BPO Market in Public sector” has been prepared on the basis of an in-depth Global BPO Market in Public sector analysis with inputs from team of industry experts.

It Includes Global BPO Market in Public sector growth prospects along with market landscape in upcoming years. The report also covers discussion on the key vendors operating in the Global BPO Market in Public sector Space.

Global BPO Market in Public sector 2015 Global Trends, Market Size, Share, Price, Segmentation, Research Report and Forecast 2015-2020.

http://www.marketresearchstore.com/checkout/reportId/7241/reportType/0/q/r

The BPO services in Public sector support governments to perform various functions such as e-governance initiatives, taxation, asset registration, pensions, and welfare programs, including financial assistance for the unemployed, and in a cost-effective manner.

The report Global BPO Market in Public sector Industry provides a comprehensive analysis of the Global BPO Market in Public sector.This report also includes detailed segmentation of the Global BPO Market in Public sector. The leading sector, emerging sectors, along with their growth statistics have been mentioned in the report.

After a deep overview of the Global BPO Market in Public sector, the report analyzes the market dynamics. This report also include the top drivers supporting market growth as well as the key restraints hampering market growth.

Enquiry @ http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/global-bpo-market-in-the-public-sector-2015-2019-7241#reportPriceDetails

Additionally, the report also states the threats ass well as opportunities that companies in the market need to look out for. The most influential trends that will shape the market during the forecasting horizon are also covered in this report.

Current market development trends like a partnerships, collaborations, M&As., have also been discussed in detail in the report.

Players in the Global BPO Market in Public sector are aiming to expand their operations to emerging regions. An in-depth supply chain analysis in the report will give readers a better understanding of the Global BPO Market in Public sector.

Access Full Report @ http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/global-bpo-market-in-the-public-sector-2015-2019-7241

How job and skill shortages affect the UK

A record number of people in the UK are in employment, and immigration from the EU is also at a record level.
Business surveys suggest employers value international migrants because local candidates lack skills.

Whether young people have the skills, attitudes and aptitudes valued by employers, and the impact this has on migration levels and productivity are among the most challenging questions facing policymakers in the UK.

Is there a shortage of jobs or a shortage of people to do them?
The UK population grew by almost 8% between 2004 and 2014, and most annual population growth has been due to international migration.
However, there is little evidence to suggest that there is currently a shortage of jobs. Population growth can mean more people to:
buy goods
use services
start up businesses and employ staff

The latest Labour Market Statistics published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK employment rate (the proportion of people aged 16-64 who are in work) has increased to the highest on record, to 73.5% compared with 72.8% a year ago, demonstrating that demand for labour is more than keeping up with population growth.

Unemployment, at a rate of 5.5%, is well below that experienced during the recession and subsequent period of uncertain recovery. There were 740,000 job vacancies, close to the highest on record and an 8.5% increase on the previous year.
But if there is a record rate of people in employment and employers are posting record numbers of vacancies, why are people still unemployed and why are recruiters reporting such large numbers of candidates for each position advertised?

At the same time, the UK continues to lag behind countries such as Germany, the US and France in terms of productivity (the amount of output produced for every unit of labour).
Part of the answer comes down to the fact that there may be mismatches between the skills available in the UK labour force and the needs and expectations of employers.

What are skills ‘mismatches’?

The problem facing the UK is not just a shortage of skills, but a mismatch between the skills people have and the requirements of the jobs they currently occupy. This is symptomatic of long-running difficulties businesses have experienced in workforce planning, exacerbated by the rapid pace of technological change and shifting consumer preferences.
The Employer Skills Survey (ESS) interviews more than 90,000 employers and reports every two years, with the latest data referring to 2013.
In that year, total vacancies had increased by 12% on 2011 and were back to pre-recession levels, but the proportion remaining unfilled because of a lack of candidates with the right skills, experience or qualifications had also increased from 16% to 22%. This is equivalent to 146,000 skills shortage vacancies.
The ESS also provides insight into skills mismatches, identifying members of employers’ existing workforces who were not “fully proficient” in their current jobs. In 2013, some 15% of employers reported that they had employees with skill gaps, equivalent to 1.4 million staff or 5% of the workforce.
It is important to emphasise that only a minority of employers report skills gaps. Most workplaces report that they have a fully proficient workforce with no skills gaps.
It is also important to note that the ESS identifies a large proportion of employers who feel they underutilise their workers’ skills, with 4.3 million people (16% of the workforce) over-skilled or over-qualified for their current roles.

Which sectors are most affected?

The ESS indicates that manufacturing employers were most likely to encounter skills shortages when recruiting (accounting for 30% of hard-to-fill manufacturing vacancies) and that job roles in the skilled trades (plumbers, electricians, technicians et cetera) were particularly likely to be affected.
There were also skills shortages in recruiting professionals and associate professionals and for staff in caring occupations. Recent vacancies data from the ONS indicates the health and social work sector currently accounts for a large number of vacancies, a number that has grown by almost 20% over the past year.

What is the impact of skills shortages and mismatches?

According to the ESS, employers invested £42.9bn in training in 2013. Wider costs are harder to quantify.
For employers, skills issues can reduce their ability to respond to customer needs and stay ahead of competitors, to adopt new technologies or to fully utilise existing equipment or ways of doing things. Skills have long been identified as one of the key reasons for the UK’s “productivity gap” with other major Western economies.
Unfilled vacancies are likely to lead to increased workload and stress for other employees. Where individuals are poorly matched to the skill requirements of their job, this can have significant impacts on job security, self-confidence and career progression.
Evidence from a range of sources suggests that this may be a vicious cycle, with more highly skilled workers more likely to receive training and those affected by skills gaps at risk of being passed over for personal development opportunities.

Is education in the UK to blame?

Education is frequently blamed for failing to equip young people with the relevant work skills. However, it is not this clear cut. When asked specifically about the young people they themselves have recruited, employers tend to be highly positive.
Of employers in the ESS who had recruited a young person directly from school, college or university, the vast majority found them to be well prepared for work. Of those who had recruited a graduate directly from university, 84% stated that they found the individual well or very well prepared for their job.
The key issue is the long-term nature of the challenge. An individual starts to make choices in education that will affect the skills needed in their career as much as a decade before they will enter the workplace, by which time technology and consumer preferences will have changed radically.
Education policy, workforce planning and careers guidance are all affected by the time lag between implementing policy and those changes impacting on the workforce.
In a system where learner choice plays an increasingly important role, it is ever more important for young people to access good information, advice and guidance on the likely skills needed by employers in the future.

(c) Chris Lawton
Nottingham Business School

HP intends to cut 30,000 jobs through automation and offshoring

Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman has announced that HP intends cut a further 25,000-30,000 jobs in the near future, as part of HP’s restructuring into two separate companies and in reaction to rapid changes in the technology market.

“As new technologies come in, we’ve got to restructure [our] labour force to low-cost locations, to much more automation than we have today,” she commented in an interview with CNBC.

HP expects to ultimately save roughly $2.7 billion a year as a result of the planned changes. The company also expects its share of workers employed outside of the United States to grow from 42 per cent today to 60 per cent by 2018.

(c) sourcingfocus.com

Mitsubishi Corporation to Develop Office Building in the Philippines_ Targets BPO Industry

Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) is pleased to announce the launch of a new office development project (34 stories; GFA: approximately 60,000 m2) in Makati City in the Philippines. Makati is home to one of the biggest business districts in Metro Manila, the national capital region of the Philippines. The project is based on a tie-up with Century Properties Group Inc. (CPG), with MC acquiring 40% of shares in a special purpose company owned by CPG.

Combining CPG’s rich and extensive local expertise with the know-how MC has gained from real estate developments in Japan and overseas, the project aims to add significant value to the real estate market by developing high quality office spaces for rental. In terms of financing, Bank of the Philippine Islands, a major local bank owned by Ayala Corporation, one of the oldest and largest business groups in the Philippines, will finance a part of the development cost for the project in order to improve capital efficiency.

The Philippines has recorded remarkably high economic growth for the past three years with GDP growth rates above 6%. Buoyed by the continuing “demographic dividend” that has resulted from an increasing younger labor force and a stable government, the Philippines is said to have the highest growth potential among South East Asian nations. The Philippines is also one of the top BPO(1) destinations in the world. Due to high literacy rates among the Filipino workforce and with English as one of country’s official languages, the industry has not only seen robust growth but has also become one of the main drivers of the nation’s economic growth. In 2015, the number of persons employed in the BPO sector exceeded 1 million, and revenues from the industry now account for approximately 6% of GDP. Increasing demand for BPO services in the Philippines has led to a shortage of office space in some of the main business districts across the country, creating greater demand for development that can satisfy the high market standards required by BPO firms. This project will therefore be introducing new office space in order to help meet that demand.

(1) BPO refers to Business Process Outsourcing, a kind of outsourcing that involves contracting out the operations and responsibilities of a specific business process to a third-party service provider, such as a call center or a software engineering firm.

About Mitsubishi Corporation

Mitsubishi Corporation (MC; TSE: 8058) is a global integrated business enterprise that develops and operates businesses across virtually every industry including industrial finance, energy, metals, machinery, chemicals, foods, and environmental business. MC’s current activities are expanding far beyond its traditional trading operations as its diverse business ranges from natural resources development to investment in retail business, infrastructure, financial products and manufacturing of industrial goods. With over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide and a network of over 500 group companies, MC employs a multinational workforce of nearly 60,000 people.

(c) en.acnnewswire.com

Outsourcing HR – Big Savings for Small Business

Since its founding in 2010, vegetarian food producer Beyond Meat has grown into a company with 50 employees in three states. Their product is available in every Whole Foods in America and Western Canada, with a conventional grocer roll out already underway.

In the past few years, the outsourced HR industry has grown to an estimated $165 billion annually.
Brent Taylor, Beyond Meat’s VP of Corporate Development believes the firm’s ability to focus on its core competencies has enabled it to grow rapidly without getting bogged down in such necessary time sucks as payroll, benefits and vacation time.

Translation: it outsourced its human resources department, and the move paid off big.
Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating in the late 1990s, “Outsourcing HR” (and other services like IT) grew increasingly popular for big companies. They realized the cost savings benefits of a reduced staff, more efficient payroll processing and legal compliance, and streamlined recruitment.

In the early going many external HR companies failed miserably, but in the last few years, the outsourced HR industry has grown to an estimated $165 billion annually, as nearly 85 percent of firms now outsource at least some of their HR functions.

Smaller businesses have started to get in on the trend with startups, like Beyond Meat, creating fully functional HR departments externally. The motivation is two-fold. Share the liability of legal compliance, and offer a range of employee benefits small employers could never otherwise afford.

There are also hundreds of corporate cost-cutting areas to consider, labor costs account for one of the largest operating expenses in a business. Beyond payroll and tax overhead, other expenses are related to health insurance premiums, workers’ compensation insurance, recruiting fees, payroll processing, and legal costs.

Human Resources Outsourcing firms pool thousands of employees under one roof and offer small and mid-sized business, the economies-of-scale typically found within large corporations. Furthermore, by consolidating multiple vendors, companies can streamline operations and reduce overhead.

Minimize Employment Risks

Studies show that there is a direct correlation between difficult economic periods and increases in employment related lawsuits. Coupled with complex HR laws, many employers struggle to comply with the ever-changing employment legislation. HR Outsourcing firms are staffed with experts in a wide range of employment areas. Their role is to assist employers comply with both Federal and State laws, and to support them in the event of an employment lawsuit.

(c) linkedin.com/pulse/outsourcing-hr-big-savings-small-business-aaron-babcock

Outsourcing Human Resources – The Best Employment Decision You Will Ever Make

Employers are no strangers to the benefits of outsourcing. From legal, accounting and payroll services, to IT support and customer service centers, businesses of all sizes recognize the value of focusing on business development and revenue-generating activities. Why waste critical human resources on non-strategic, non-revenue generating tasks when a third-party vendor can pick up the slack?

As employment regulations and labor laws mushroomed over the past decade, employers began expanding their outsourcing-horizons to include one of the most time-consuming, complex and dangerous activities in their business operations: Human Resources administration. Rather than surfing the web to find the latest labor law, sifting through stacks of employment paperwork, or processing insurance claims, businesses are best served when management can focus on core HR functions, such as training, motivating and developing their staff.

With limited internal time and resources, tens-of-thousands of employers nationwide are turning to firms that specialize in Human Resources Outsourcing.

Human Resourcing Outsourcing firms manage the entire ‘life-cycle’ of their clients’ employees, from hire to termination. HRO firms employ and team of employment experts, providing guidance and support in a wide range of disciplines including:

Regulatory compliance
Hiring Practices
Employee relations
ACA compliance
Compliant policies and procedures
Employee Training
Employee benefit packages and administration
Payroll & Tax Administration
Workers’ compensation insurance
Safety & Risk Management
Recruiting
By outsourcing many of these human resources functions, employers enjoy multiple employment benefits

Reduce HR Overhead and Operating Costs

HRO companies support thousands of clients and employees. Through this large and stable employee base they are in the position to forge solid, long-term relationships with a range of insurance companies and service providers. These include workers’ compensation carriers, insurance brokers, 401(k) administrators, background and credit check agencies and employee perks providers. In each case, the HRO firm negotiates significant discounts in premiums and fees which are then passed through to their clients. Whereas high-volume purchasing power is usually reserved for Fortune-500 size employers, even the smallest start-up can now enjoy the economies-of-scale offered through the HRO.

Beyond rates and premiums, veteran HRO firms also offer their clients proven employment systems and turn-key HR processes. From hiring practices to termination policies, small employers without established HR systems can now significantly reduce the time and cost of researching, creating and implementing compliant employment policies.

Regulatory Compliance

Obamacare, wrongful termination, disability protections, wage and hour issues, religious and sexual discrimination, minimum wage, sick and pregnancy leave – the list of employment challenges goes on and on. For small and mid-sized employers with limited in-house HR expertise or legal support, running a business is a virtual minefield. One wrong employment decision can result in lawsuits, fines and punitive damages. As the employment landscape keeps shifting, only experienced employment experts can safely understand the impact of these laws and provide timely support and direction to their clients.

HR Outsourcing firms employ seasoned HR professionals and in-house legal counsel who are “plugged into” the new laws and have the time and know-how to track and stay abreast of the changes. This information is then passed directly to their clients. Ultimately, clients who outsource their human resource functions to an HRO firm can confidently make employment decisions knowing their business is in compliance.

Attract and Retain Top Performers

At the end of the day, it is the employees themselves who will determine the success or failure of any business venture. By attracting the best talent, and developing and motivating these employees to reach their potential, employers will be well-positioned to maintain a profitable business. Numerous studies show that employers who invest in their employees and provide a rich benefits offering, such as major medical, dental, vision and other voluntary benefits, experience low turn-over and produce a more productive and motivated staff.

However, “investing in employees” goes beyond insurance products. Employers need to understand the value of creating a positive work-environment, and to recognize and reward the employees who excel at their work. HRO firms do not only provide their clients a robust and rich benefits offering; they incorporate incentive and recognition programs, help clients establish flex-time or tele-commuting policies, organize company events, assist in conducting employee reviews, create work/life balance incentives, and provide training and continuing education opportunities.

Through all these programs, HRO firms help their clients create a positive workplace buzz, attract top-talent, and ultimately help motivate their employees to excel.

Summary

Human resources outsourcing firms provide multiple benefits for small and mid-sized employers. The CFO will applaud the decision to join an HRO as they watch their insurance premiums and HR administration soft-costs drop. Management will feel confident in their daily employment decisions knowing there is an HRO team watching their back. Employees will give the business 110% as they see their employer investing in their well-being and best interests. And the Executive Team will remember what it was that drove them to open their business in the first place.

(c) Ari Rosenstein – business2community.com

Recruitment Process Outsourcing Market Growth Steady at 13 Percent in 2014 New Everest Group Report

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) continued its momentum and grew at 13 percent in 2014 to cross the US$2 billion mark in annualized spend. This relatively modest overall growth rate reflects a sluggish 6 percent growth in North America, the largest RPO market segment, buoyed by the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) markets, which grew at 21 percent and 31 percent respectively.

“As the RPO market matures, it is becoming more broad-based,” said Rajesh Ranjan, partner at Everest Group. “We are seeing significant deal activity in emerging RPO markets of Continental Europe and Asia-Pacific beyond traditional markets of U.S. and UK. Also, we’re seeing greater RPO adoption in some of the non-traditional industries, such as travel and hospitality.”

The competitive landscape for RPO service providers remains intense, with 70 percent of total active deals expected to witness end of term in the next three years. Competitors are predominantly segmented by geography. While service providers are making significant advancements in multi-country capabilities, there are still very few “truly global” players. Fierce competition is compelling market evolution: advanced pricing constructs and value-added services, including analytics, are coming into play, and service providers are expanding their capabilities across all types of hires to increase their market share.

These results and other findings are explored in a recently published Everest Group report: Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Annual Report 2015 – Broader adoption, Deeper execution, Greater innovation.

This report provides comprehensive coverage of the RPO market across dimensions such as market overview, key business drivers, buyer adoption trends, solution and transaction trends, recruitment technology trends, and service provider landscape.

Other key findings in the report:

There is a steady increase in the offshore play in RPO. With increasing maturity, global sourcing in RPO will move towards an “ideal” model that balances cost with quality of service
With growing maturity of the RPO market, numerous add-on / peripheral recruitment tools (especially analytics solutions) are being introduced in the market that enhance the recruitment value chain
In addition to that, value-added recruitments services, such as employer branding and talent communities, are increasingly becoming table stakes and play an especially important role during renewals
The market is also evolving in terms of more advanced and outcome-oriented pricing constructs and SLAs, wherein the buyers exercise greater control and the providers’ interests align with those of the buyers
The competitive landscape continues to remain intense, forcing the service providers to continually bring in greater innovation in their solution elements so as to remain relevant.

(c) everestgrp.com

Skilled migrants should be welcomed to plug skills gaps, recruiters agree

In the same week Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to limit EU migration to the UK were scuppered by the European Court of Justice, business leaders and recruiters have called on authorities to welcome migrants to plug skills gaps.
The Financial Times reported yesterday the court largely upheld Britain and Germany’s efforts to clamp down on benefit tourism, including restrictions on some benefits given to unemployed EU migrants.

But it warned it would be illegal for governments to expel legitimate jobseekers. Cameron had wanted to restrict the amount of time an EU jobseeker could stay in the UK, regardless of whether they had a legitimate chance of finding work, to six months.

Recruiters, it seems, agree with the business leaders that it should be made easier for businesses to offer jobs to skilled migrants.

Charlie Walker, founder and managing director of global recruiter Vivid Resourcing, told Recruiter the government should look to the practices of the Netherlands and Belgium and not “leave the door wide open” for non-EU migrants “but those who have skills where there is a labour shortage should be admitted with less delays and red tape”. On EU migrants, he said the UK benefitted from the free movement of labour, pointing out that Britons also work abroad.

He added the government had a moral obligation to help refugees by ensuring “an efficient route to paid work”.

However, Gemma Saunders, associate director HR services at Gleeson Recruitment Group, told Recruiter if EU migrants were in the UK to plug a particular skills gap, they should be able to find work within six months.

“If not, it would sound like their skills are not in high demand or in deficit among the current UK workforce.”

She added recruiters needed to work with government to identify skills gaps before it hits a crisis point like the NHS is currently facing.

In the Financial Times report, Guy Hands, who heads private equity group Terra Firma, said businesses accepting refugees and other migrants with in-demand skills would be of huge economic benefit to the UK.

Peter Reichwald, director of the board practice and founder of inclusion network Engage at Harvey Nash Executive Search, agreed: “The granting of visas should be made easier subject to there being demonstrable evidence that that skill set has not been found within the UK or we will be hindering businesses growth because of their ability to find a skilled workforce.”

(c) recruiter.co.uk

Top 5 Outsourcing Myths that Need to Die

WHEN I FIRST started looking at outsourcing my business I was faced with a lot of opposition due to a lack of understanding about how offshoring worked and what the real implications were for my company. So, when I started this blog, I set out to accomplish two things: one, share information and insights about outsourcing, and two, debunk some of the false assumptions about it that close minds and opportunities.

Following are some of the most common outsourcing and offshoring myths that need to be put to rest:

Myth #1: Outsourcing is only for big businesses.

A lot of Australian small business owners have this idea that only big players can outsource or offshore. In reality, small business owners have the most to gain from outsourcing. When you’re just starting out, it’s easy to do everything in-house because your focus is dedicated to growing your client base and getting your business off the ground, but as your business starts to grow, so does the pressure and demand on your operations. To cope with additional compliance, accounting, and administrative tasks that come with expanding, owners end up working longer hours and/or hiring more employees. Both options have their downsides – the former gets you working in your business and losing sight of the big picture, whilst the latter leads to a host of additional costs and management time. A better way to cope with and sustain this growth is to outsource back-office tasks to an offshore site with cheaper labour so your onshore team can focus on the income-generating tasks and you can get on with working ON your business.

Myth #2: Cheaper labour equals lower quality.

Because the salary for employees in developing countries is much lower compared to that in Australia, it’s easy to assume that the quality of work will also be lower, but this is far from the truth. In the Philippines, there a lot of skilled and highly-qualified college graduates in the workforce, however, with several foreign companies looking to outsource in the country, there is stiff competition in acquiring the best talent. The key lies in carefully selecting a service provider that employs a suitable recruitment process that makes it possible to find (and keep) these highly talented staff that are currently out of reach for an Australian small business paying Australian wages.

Myth #3: The language and cultural barriers make doing business difficult.

True, the differences in language and culture present one of the biggest challenges in outsourcing, however, this challenge isn’t so great as to be insurmountable. A good service provider will have staff that have substantial experience working with foreign businesses and are already attuned to the business culture (especially in the Philippines with its close cultural affinity with the West). Naturally, there will be cultural nuances that would affect the way business is conducted, but these concerns are not enough to entirely impede operations if you are willing to understand the culture and work co-operatively with your offshore team.

Myth #4: The time difference is a problem because they work as you sleep.

To this I say, ‘what time difference?’ The time in Sydney is only 2 or 3 hours ahead of Philippine time (depending on day light savings) and Filipino employees are able to report for work two or three hours earlier than usual to synchronise work hours. Filipinos love working for Australian companies because the alternative is usually having to work the graveyard shift to meet the working hours of US companies. Time difference problem solved.

Myth #5: Outsourcing is guaranteed to instantly solve all your problems.

I often talk about how outsourcing transformed my tall ships business and led to astonishing growth. This is true, but all this did not happen overnight and it certainly wasn’t easy.When I was just starting out, I wasn’t familiar with the outsourcing industry and I didn’t have anyone to guide me through the process. What I know now about outsourcing and offshoring, I learned from a lot of hiccups and stumbles along the way. The point is, the benefits of outsourcing are up to how you set yourself up in the first place. I’m probably sounding like a broken record but I’ll say this again – outsourcing can unlock massive potential in your business, only if it’s done right.

When making an important decision for your business, such as deciding whether to outsource or not, it’s crucial that you learn as much information as you can beforehand. Still, we should be very discerning in processing the information we receive because there are bound to be some myths thrown into the mix. As always, my advice is this: see with your own eyes, ask questions, learn about the culture, and make up your own mind.

(c) David Warne

Xenophon pushes skilled migration program

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has brought his push for a new skilled migration program to boost economically challenged areas to his home state, saying it would lift South Australia out of its economic “doldrums”.

“We need a targeted, sensible, business investment migration program for low population states and regions that would turbocharge the economies of those areas,” he told AAP.

Senator Xenophon met businesses leaders and members of the state government and opposition on Thursday to outline his plans to introduce legislation to federal parliament for a revised migration program that will attract skilled foreign workers to meet the labour shortage and stimulate growth.

“We need to do this. We need to do it really urgently,” he said.

“If we can boost business migrants in the thousands, if we can have billions of dollars coming into the state … I reckon that would be unambiguously good for South Australia.”

Senator Xenophon said independent Tasmanian senator Jackie Lambie would co-sponsor the bill.

“It’s about Tasmania as well. Tasmania and South Australia are lagging behind all other states with population growth,” he said.

© AAP 2015