Countries around the world have their own global economic strategies — not only to align the conditions of other countries to their market needs but also to stay economically competitive.
The United States, as a prime example, relies heavily on outsourcing. It has helped US companies remain globally competitive, and other countries experience similar benefits by employing this business strategy.
One of the biggest sectors of the outsourcing industry is call center services. Business process outsourcing creates opportunities for both outsourcing countries like the US and the countries they offshore to.
Learn more about call center outsourcing and how it can help a country’s labor market.
Labor shortages in the US
After the pandemic hit and as early as April 2020, the US market had lost 21 million jobs. Many changes in business models caused by the global turmoil led to an increase in unemployment.
With this huge unemployment rate, the US labor market would need time to recover and gain back its edge.
There are many factors why labor shortages exist. These could be wage demand, work flexibility problems, health and safety concerns during the pandemic, and a lot of other issues.
The labor shortage in the US spans various occupations, from skilled labor to professional and white-collar jobs. No industry was immune.
In response to this, the US government allotted a $5.2 trillion stimulus for coronavirus relief. But even with this expense, improvements over the last two years came slowly.
On the other hand, businesses and investors had to do their own measures, and one of the top business strategies to survive the pandemic was by outsourcing labor.
Outsourcing is one of the biggest economic drivers, allowing not only companies but also countries to regain their global market edge.
How can outsourcing help a country’s labor market?
Call center outsourcing, a subsector of business process outsourcing or BPO, is a business strategy where a company hires another company, usually from another country, to perform its job functions.
Job functions for call center outsourcing includes customer service, technical back office support, information technology, human resource, payroll, and other business processes.
Call center outsourcing, given its scale and ability to turn over, has become a go-to business practice for many companies, whatever the size.
In the case of labor shortages, outsourcing can be one of the most fitting solutions. Here are the reasons why:
It provides low-cost and affordable labor
The low cost is on top of the reasons why companies outsource their functions and resources. This is only practical especially when your company just went through a major crisis such as a pandemic.
If you want to hire workers for your call center outsourcing needs, salaries in developing countries are more affordable due to the lower cost of living.
But apart from hiring, part of call center outsourcing includes training employees. This is to equip them for handling all duties and responsibilities needed to perform call center services.
The entire process of hiring and training new employees doesn’t come cheap, especially in call centers where head-hunting and onboarding happen in big counts. Outsourcing your call center operations will let you acquire these labor functions at a much more affordable price.
It increases employment in developing countries
Needless to say, call center outsourcing will increase employment rates in developing countries. By hiring good English speakers with great technical and communication skills, outsourcing vendors can provide jobs for many.
It also encourages foreign investments to enter the country, boosting its rate of economic growth.
Outsourcing in the Philippines, for example, is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. It’s a game-changer in terms of employment, better wages, and access to the latest technology.
If a country can provide better wages for its workers, it can boost the economy to provide a decent standard of living for its citizens.
It creates wide access to the latest technology
Call center outsourcing wouldn’t be complete without the use of cutting-edge technology utilized to perform call center services. In many cases, vendors provide both call center and IT outsourcing.
Outsourcing companies provide wide access to a lot of IT resources such as cloud, data analytics, and other software solutions. With this, organizations can leverage their resources to attain automation and perform jobs faster and more accurately.
Apart from solutions, IT outsourcing offers businesses a team of software engineers who are experts in their field and qualified to perform high-quality tasks.
Outsourcing as a modern alternative
As mentioned earlier, there are various factors in the US labor shortage. But no matter what industry you’re coming from, plenty of organizations have already made victories possible through outsourcing.
With all these well-documented benefits of call center outsourcing, it’s high time for countries to take this path in addressing their problem of unemployment and labor shortage.
Outsourcing is not just here to address the labor shortage caused by the pandemic. It is a global solution that is here to stay for years to come.
