South Africa is fast becoming a destination of choice for outsourcing remote services for companies around the world.
Remote working has become the norm for businesses around the world. Digital technology and the shift to home working post-pandemic have seen companies become increasingly comfortable working with people in many different locations. It’s been enormously beneficial, opening up new opportunities and making it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to source the talent they need. No longer are businesses constrained by the talent available in their local town or region. Now they can branch out across the world to seek out remote services to supplement their existing teams.
Outsourcing remote services
The idea of outsourcing remote services is nothing new. Businesses have been contracting out certain functions such as back office administration, HR, payroll, or customer services for years. It’s a chance to reduce operational overheads and the time spent on non-profitable administrative duties, while leveraging the dedicated expertise of the outsourced provider.
For those companies looking to save money, meanwhile, outsourcing remote services to a third country can also be a way to capitalise on lower labour costs. However, that comes with concerns about quality, security, and poor communication. While outsourcing remote services can help the bottom line, it can often leave companies exposed to complaints from customers and security risks.
These concerns have prompted a growing number of companies to look at outsourcing remote services to South Africa. The country offers an unusual combination of lower labour costs, state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, best-in-class governance, and high levels of security. The government has invested heavily in digital infrastructure in recent years, with superfast broadband being the norm across the country.
It has also put in place strong governance and regulatory frameworks to ensure security and reliability for all hiring companies. South Africa’s main data protection law, the Protection of Personal Information Act (2013), is similar to other leading global regulations such a GDPR. As with GDPR, there is clear accountability for the responsible parties to ensure transparency in all data management.
Data subjects must be fully aware of what data a company holds about them, and companies should put reasonable technological safeguards in place to minimize the risks of a data breach. In the event of any breach, companies should also have clear safeguards in place and promptly inform any data subjects about any data that has been compromised.
Strong governance infrastructure provides a high level of reassurance for any hiring companies that South African-based partners will provide high levels of compliance when managing all data. Even so, if you are setting up remote services in South Africa, there are
many key considerations you’ll have to bear in mind.
Data security
The first is the issue of data protection and security. Remember, under international data protection laws, responsibility for the data processed remains with you as a business even if control of the data has passed to a third party. Remote services from other countries with less robust data protection measures can put companies at risk of data breaches that could expose them to regulatory and reputational risks.
Failure to properly secure customer data or take prompt actions in response can leave companies exposed to considerable fines. When choosing a partner, therefore, you should ensure its security and compliance measures are at least as strong as yours. Work with the partner to understand what data will be held by them, how it will be managed, and what security measures are in place.
When moving data to and from a third country, you’ll also have to account for all data protection regulations that might apply. If data moves between different jurisdictions, such as the EU to the UK and into Africa, you’ll have to make sure that all the requirements of the different regulations are satisfied. Most of all, you’ll need to have clear visibility of all data across the estate to ensure it can easily be retrieved or amended if necessary.
Recruitment and collaboration
A common disadvantage of remote teams is that they can be difficult to work with. A conventional outsourcing approach using business process outsourcing companies (BPO) will often provide access to existing employees who will be assigned to your company. This is the model that powered the major BPO operations across India. However, increasingly, this one-dimensional approach lacks the flexibility and sophistication that companies need. Staff are only partially trained on the hiring company’s business or services, which means they can’t offer the highly personalised service that companies need.
Employing people directly gives you more control over talent selection, but without local knowledge, it can be difficult to know where to find people with the talent you need. One way to do that is by working with an intermediary that can help you with talent sourcing and acquisition. Some intermediaries can provide full support throughout the recruitment service and also serve as the legal employer. Employer of Record (EOR) companies offer a fast and affordable way to engage with employees in South Africa. The EOR is the legal employer, which frees you from having to manage the legal and admin side of the employment relationship and protects you from any legal responsibility. There’s no need to manage taxes or provide employee benefits. Instead, you pay a fee to the EOR based on the number of employees hired, and it will handle everything else.
Once the team is set up, you’ll need to work out how to collaborate with your remote team. Cloud computing, video conferencing, and instant messaging can facilitate real-time communication, making remote employees feel almost as if they are part of the team. Before
building your team, it’s important to set up clear infrastructure with a secure data pipeline enabling you to share documentation and collaborate with your remote teams as easily as possible.
If the remote team operates in customer service roles, you’ll need to establish clear communication options for your customers, whether that’s via phone, text, instant chat, or email. Everyone has their contact preferences, so it’s important to establish a range of options to suit all needs.
South Africa provides a combination of good technological infrastructure and high levels of governance to ensure remote teams can provide a high-quality and seamless service back to customers. It breaks down the communication barriers and integrates remote teams into domestic operations. Whether you’re looking to supplement existing services, reduce costs, or improve choice for customers, outsourcing remote teams to South Africa provides an attractive combination of choice, affordability, and quality.
