Operating in a global economy means most businesses these days are looking to find efficiencies and savings which allow them to compete on a level playing field.
But the fact is, the playing field is anything but level with some organisations benefitting from their access to highly qualified, educated workers who can remove the burden of time-consuming administrative tasks from their staff employed to do other roles.
The secret? Well, it’s not a secret, just outsourcing to the Philippines.
We take a quick look at the top five reasons Australian businesses – of all sizes – should think about outsourcing.
- Realising opportunities for growth
We have found that establishing offshore operations in the Philippines often proves to be a significant catalyst for growth for Australian businesses.
Having Filipino staff on-hand opens up opportunities for expanding and streamlining your services to giving you the extra motivation to move your office to a more Cloud based system.
In a global marketplace, it is impossible to overestimate the value of having staff available to manage customer inquiries 24 hours a day or in having more scope, thanks to the extra support overseas, to hire local experts to get out there and concentrate on business development opportunities.
And with reduce costs to employ Filipino staff (see point 5); Australian businesses often find avenues to increase their staff presence and consequently their ability to reach clients and make sales through offshore outsourcing.
- Liberate your Australian team
One of the biggest appeals of outsourcing some functions of your business to the Philippines is the practical ways in which your local staff are freed up to do what you employed them to do.
Let’s be honest, you did not employ most of your staff for their strong administrative skills. Your sales staff were employed to sell, your design staff to design, your IT team to manage IT. However, all of your staff inevitably end up spending a large number of their working hours consumed with administrative tasks.
With the right systems in place, staff in the Philippines are able to manage many of these administrative functions allowing your Australian staff to concentrate on their own skill-sets, delivering value for their time and money to their agency.
Companies which benefit the most from outsourcing understand the value of having a highly trained team in the Philippines taking some of the administrative pressure off their Australian staff. It creates a win-win scenario for your staff here and in the Philippines.
- Increase morale
The very fact you are removing the burden of repetitive and mundane tasks from your Australian staff is a very efficient way of increasing morale.
If you staff can focus on what they do best, they will be happier, and likely more productive and profitable as a team member.
- Costs
A significant allure of establishing outsourcing operations in the Philippines is the obvious cost savings.
The reality is, staff in the Philippines are significantly less expensive to employ than staff in Australia. Wages are lower while the skill and experience of Filipino staff is very often comparable to that which can be found in the Australian employment market.
This does not mean you should cut your Australian staff loose; quite the opposite in fact.
While the term work-life balance is bandied about a lot these days, we think more in terms of Australian-Filipino balance.
- Finding efficiencies through processes
Finding ways to work more efficiently is often a happy by-product of establishing outsourcing operations in the Philippines.
When first looking at developing an offshore presence, many companies end up doing an inadvertent audit of their procedures and, in the process, often find efficiencies they had no idea where hiding in plain sight.
The fact is, when you are used to working in a particular way, you are not likely to look at how you are doing things and can sometimes end up using systems which are outdated and inefficient.
The mere process of explaining how you work to staff in the Philippines allows you to view your processes the way an outsider would. Is there a better way of working? Very often, the answer is a definitive yes. And outsourcing can help you identify what they are.
The question is, are you lagging behind your competitors by loading your staff up with admin work they shouldn’t need to do, or are you ready to embrace outsourcing to the Philippines?
About Aimee Engelmann
Aimee Engelmann is the Founder and CEO of Beepo and Outsource Heroes. A successful entrepreneur, Aimee has a passion for helping Australian businesses build more profitable and sustainable operations. You can find Aimee on LinkedIn, About Me and Google+
