Offshore recruitment has become an increasingly popular strategy due to globalization and technological advancements. It allows companies to access a wide pool of talent, reduce costs, and enhance operational efficiencies.
But what does this approach mean for companies?
Offshore recruitment involves hiring talents outside the employer’s home country. The primary goal of offshore recruitment is to:
- broaden the talent pool
- optimize resource allocation, and
- reduce costs by tapping into talent pools in regions with lower labor costs or specialized skills.
This comprehensive guide explores the ins and outs of offshore recruitment, how your business can benefit from this strategy, and how to find the right partner for your recruitment needs.
Chapter 1: Understanding offshore recruitment
According to McKinsey & Company’s study, 67% of executives cite access to talent as their top reason for offshoring.
In another study by Harvard Business Review, companies that offshore have 30% increase in productivity.
Despite these statistics, there are still misconceptions that surround offshore recruitment.
For instance, offshore recruitment only works for large companies across different industries. A Clutch study debunks this misconception, where it reveals that over one in three small businesses offshore at least one business process.
Although this strategy reduces the cost of hiring, it is not limited to this aspect.
Plenty of businesses have used offshore recruitment to expand their business overseas. Some would even utilize this approach to extend their operational hours – allowing them to serve more clients.
Aside from cutting costs, offshore recruitment also provides benefits such as:
- Operational flexibility and scalability
Offshore recruitment allows businesses to quickly scale up or down in response to business demands, project requirements, and market conditions.
Flexibility is useful when managing workloads during peak periods or scaling back on slower periods.
Scalability is more than just adding numbers. It’s about adding the right talent at the right time, ensuring that businesses can meet their goals without sacrificing quality.
- Enhanced market understanding
Employing people from various geographical locations can help businesses gain valuable insights into local markets, such as consumer preferences, regulatory environments, and business practices.
This is especially useful for businesses looking to expand into new countries, as having local knowledge can speed up market entry and increase competitiveness.
- Cultural diversity
Innovation is the lifeblood of competitive advantage. Diverse teams bring unique perspectives, ideas, and problem-solving approaches. The multitude of viewpoints allows for a thorough examination of possible outcomes and risks, resulting in decisions that are more likely to succeed.
- Focus on core business activities
Delegating time-consuming tasks of sourcing, screening, and interviewing candidates allows businesses to devote more resources and attention to innovation, customer service, and market expansion.
The result is an overall increase in organizational efficiency and productivity, as teams can concentrate on tasks that directly contribute to business growth and profitability.
Chapter 2: Offshore Recruitment Strategy
Crafting an effective offshore recruitment strategy requires meticulous planning, beginning with identifying the appropriate job roles to offshore and selecting the best offshoring partner.
Offshoring certain job roles should start with distinguishing core and non-core functions.
Core functions are those that add value proposition to your business.
Non-core functions, although important, do not directly contribute to your competitive edge.
Distinguishing core functions from the non-core ones gives you a better view of which roles should be kept in-house and those that you can offshore through a trusted offshore service provider.
Prioritizing roles to offshore depends on business structure.
Organizations that need to fill highly specialized roles but are difficult to recruit due to talent scarcity are ideal for offshoring.
For small businesses, the roles that are ideal to offshore are those that are repetitive like data entry roles.
Offshoring roles isn’t limited to having a full-time staff in another country. In some cases, there are roles that need to be scaled up or down based on project or seasonal demands.
These in mind, selecting the right offshoring partner is critical to your offshore recruitment strategy. Here are ways to ensure you are partnering with a trusted offshore recruitment provider:
- Define your requirements
Clearly outline your requirements for the roles you intend to offshore. This includes the skills and experience required, expectation for communication, timelines, and results.
This clarity allows potential offshoring partner to assess their capacity to meet your requirements.
- Research potential partners
Conduct extensive research to find offshoring partners with expertise in your industry and the specific job roles you’re looking for. Look for reviews, case studies, and testimonials to determine their reputation and effectiveness.
- Assessment of expertise and track record
Evaluate their expertise in your industry and track record of similar offshoring projects. Consider their hiring practices, technologies, and approach to candidate sourcing and screening.
- Discuss compliance and data security
Ensure that your offshoring partner understands and follows the legal and regulatory requirements specific to your industry and the countries involved. Protecting sensitive information and intellectual property requires a focus on data security measures. Discuss how your partner secures data such as:
- encryption
- access controls
- data breach response strategies
Understanding their approach to data security will help reduce the risks associated with privacy violations and information theft, ensuring that your company’s and customers’ data is secure.
- Review scalability and flexibility
As the market changes rapidly, businesses must be able to scale operations up or down quickly to keep up with the market demand. This is why it’s crucial that your offshoring partner can meet your changing needs.
This capability ensures that your partner can adjust the volume of their services to match your organization’s changing demands, allowing for a more efficient and cost-effective approach to workforce management.
Chapter 3: The Selection Process
Although offshore recruitment service providers normally present a list of potential candidates based on your requirements, selecting who to hire requires a meticulous decision-making on your end.
This means, you still need to evaluate candidates through a series of interviews and skills-testing.
Conducting interviews and skills testing
When partnering with an offshoring provider, make sure that you are involved in the selection process. Meaning, you will have the opportunity to interview potential candidates yourself.
Having a standardized set of questions ensures consistency across candidates you’ll be interviewing. This also gives you a guide on how to properly assess their expertise in their field.
Depending on your requirements, you may need to have your own technical tests to measure a candidate’s capabilities. This is usually common – but not limited – among web developers, graphic designers, etc.
Key considerations when selecting candidates
Selecting the right offshore staff is more than just assessing their skills and experience. These key considerations give you a holistic approach to the selection process.
- Communication skills
In offshore settings, comprehension is just as important as the ability to communicate. Candidates must be able to articulate their thoughts and have excellent comprehension. This is especially important in written communications like emails and chat messages, where lack of nonverbal cues can lead to miscommunication.
- Technical expertise
Technical expertise means knowing how to use and being good at using software, tools, and platforms that make daily tasks easier. This includes everything from basic office productivity software to more specialized tools that are useful in certain industries.
For instance, collaboration tools like Slack, MS Teams, and Zoom are the lifelines that keep the communication and workflow continuity. Proficiency in these tools lets teams share information, manage documents, and keep everyone updated on their progress.
- Ability to solve complex problems
The ability to think critically, solve problems creatively, and adapt to changing situations is extremely valuable when working across time zones and with little direct supervision.
However, solving problems isn’t limited to reacting to issues but also anticipating potential challenges that may arise.
Candidates with strong analytical skills can break down complex problems, determine between relevant and irrelevant information, and predict the consequences of various courses of action.
- Attention to detail
The challenges of remote supervision and cultural differences make assessing a candidate’s attention to detail more crucial. Aside from technical tests and interviews, you can gauge this ability through their past work achievements and character references.
Candidates who meticulously review their work are more likely to notice and correct errors before they become larger issues. This preventive measure is especially useful in high-risk environments where mistakes can have serious consequences, such as financial reporting, legal documentation, or software development.
- Cultural fit and aligned core values
The alignment of core values and cultural fit go beyond matching of skill set and experience evaluation. It is a cornerstone of long-term engagement of the candidate in the organization.
The beliefs and actions of all the people in an organization make up its culture. Hiring people who live by and support the company’s values naturally makes this culture stronger and lasts longer.
Chapter 4: Choosing the Right Offshore Recruitment Partner
Global businesses are now looking to offshore recruitment to access global talent pools and improve operational efficiency. Choosing a good offshore recruitment partner is crucial for the success of this strategic decision.
Finding the perfect match involves more than just grasping your company’s requirements; it also requires having these necessary skills and resources to fulfill them efficiently:
- Industry Expertise
Proven experience in your industry ensures that the offshoring partner knows the specific challenges and requirements you encounter. This allows them to assess where and how they can source candidates who meet your criteria.
Client testimonials, especially those with similar needs to your own, provide valuable insights into what the offshoring recruitment partner can bring on the table.
- Quality of Talent Pool
A broad network provides access to a diverse pool of candidates, increasing your chances of finding the right match. This diversity extends to skills, experiences, and ideas which can enhance the capabilities and innovation of your team.
The ability to source candidates from a larger talent pool can also accelerate the recruitment process, ensuring that vacancies are filled quickly and minimizing disruptions to your operations.
- Recruitment Technology
Your partner should use innovative recruitment technologies such as AI-powered candidate sourcing, Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), and advanced screening tools. These technologies can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the recruitment process.
- Compliance and Ethical Standards
A competent offshore recruitment partner must be familiar with the legal frameworks of both the client’s and their own jurisdiction. Compliance ensures that recruitment practices are both effective and legal, which prevents potential fines, legal disputes, or reputation damage.
Legal compliance includes aligning employment contracts with local labor laws, covering the terms of employment, compensation, termination conditions, and confidentiality agreements.
In terms of ethical standards, the recruitment process of the offshoring partner must be grounded in:
- Transparency
- Fairness and equality
- Respect for candidate rights
- Scalability and Flexibility
Due to the changing demands of the market, it is natural for businesses to experience fluctuation in their recruitment needs. For instance, the market condition may push a business to consider a project-based offshore staff rather than a hiring a full-time one.
An adaptable recruitment partner can quickly scale their services up to meet peak demand or down during quieter periods, ensuring that you remain agile and cost effective.
Adaptability also means being versatile in sourcing talent from various roles, levels, and industries. As your business grows, you may need different skill sets or expand into new areas. A partner with a broad and adaptable talent sourcing strategy can help you navigate these changes, delivering the right talent at the right time.
Why businesses choose MVP as their offshore recruitment partner
Our processes help businesses offshore quality talents from the Philippines in the most efficient way. Reach out to our team to know more about how the MVP Method works for your offshoring needs.
