Nowadays, more and more companies all over the USA are turning towards offshoring. One of the main reasons may be lower costs, higher security, and better online infrastructure.
However, let us take a deep dive.
Offshoring is quite popular in many industries – but some more than others. For instance, the IT industry is known for offshoring. India, Ukraine, Romania, and Serbia are very popular for offshoring US IT companies.
The main reason for this is the fact that they get the chance to hire excellent software engineers for a much smaller fee than in the US. Moreover, the gambling industry is also opting for offshoring for many benefits. One of the greatest perks of offshore casinos is the accessibility, i.e. people from various countries, including the US states where gambling may be restricted or heavily regulated. There are also regulatory advantages to offshore gambling, as well as a variety of payment options.
On top of that, call centers and all sorts of customer support offshore a lot to similar countries as the IT industry does, mainly to reduce their operational costs.
As we already mentioned, one of the most popular reasons for offshoring is the cost of labor. There are many countries with a much lower cost of living than many US states. Logically, these countries also have much lower average salaries. If one conducts solid research, it would be possible to obtain professionals in their fields from other countries and give them salaries that are above average for their own countries, but at the same time, much lower than the average of the US state you are in. This is a great way to save money and not lose on the quality of the workforce.
Some countries have amazing education and yet the average salary is much lower than any US state’s. These countries are great candidates for offshoring. Another area where offshoring saves money is office space and supplies. By engaging in offshoring, one instantly needs not to worry about any of the work equipment like computers and regular maintenance. There is no need to buy or rent office space, so this is a huge money saver.
Aside from a cheaper workforce, sometimes reaching the desired number of skilled workers can be a challenge. Sometimes, there simply are not enough people in the same niche who are educated and fit to work at a position in your company. This is why the annual number of employable people in a country, as well as the literacy rate, are also important factors when choosing the country for offshoring. Depending on your industry and the offer and demand in your country for experts in the field, it is vital to do your research and choose the country to offshore.
Great support in online infrastructure is another reason people opt for offshoring. Amazing things are happening in India and the Philippines regarding the support for fast internet. With the arrival of 5G and fast installments of optical fiber internet, there has been another technological revolution in some parts of the world. Since before mentioned countries made huge advancements in the speed and quality of their internet, and the US government provides good support for offshoring, nothing is stopping the industry from taking advantage of the situation.
It may sound unusual at first, but one more reason for offshoring is high English fluency rates in certain countries. As we said, this definitely sounds like a strange factory given that the offshoring is happened by a US company, however, there is a reason for this. For example, there is a very high percentage of fluent English speakers in the Philippines, which makes them excellent candidates for offshoring a customer support service or call centers. Strangely enough, why not just use the workforce in the US when everyone there is fluent in English? The answer might surprise you – even though native English speakers have a much more natural fluency than any foreign English speaker, it is usually easier for other non-natives to understand non-natives than native speakers. This is an important factor for companies with global customer support, for example. Their goal is to cover many countries, most of them being non-English natives which is why it makes sense to offshore to countries with high English fluency rates, however, not native English.
Cultural similarities perspective is another aspect particularly important in certain industries. The USA, UK, India, and the Philippines all share many cultural traits. India was a British colony for almost a hundred years, so it is not unusual that they assimilated in many ways. On the other hand, the Philipines were a US colony for almost fifty years which had a similar effect. During the occupation, the Western lifestyle was imposed on the people. Things like movies, food, and music definitely influenced the people and the culture. Apart from the cultural similarities, high English fluency and literacy in these countries make them excellent candidates for offshoring. Moreover, many legal and administrative procedures happen in English so signing papers and making agreements between countries has been made much easier having been written in the same language from the beginning.
Hiring all over the world gets you great coverage when it comes to working hours. For instance, certain customer service centers have 24/7 support. This is great for customers, but imagine the poor people who have to be at their desks instead of in their own beds at night. This is why offshoring can get you 24/7 coverage without endangering anyone’s health or sleep schedule. It is definitely a win-win as you would be saving your employees’ health while also retaining the money you would spend on paying extra for night shifts. Of course, one needs to do extensive research and market analysis to determine which countries are viable and how many people from which countries you actually need. Once this is finished, you just need to figure out the optimal work schedule for all and be happy with the results.
