Ethical Offshoring

An Ethical Approach to Offshoring Is Good Business - and the Right Thing to Do

Michael Yablonowitz President and CEO

There's a longstanding stigma attached to offshoring services.

The people work endless hours in poor conditions and make next to nothing. They're viewed as expendable by American companies. It doesn't matter who actually does the work as long as someone shoes up and answers the phone.""

In a nutshell, these workers are not valued and, in many cases, they're exploited.

That's not how we view our overseas team. That's not how we operate. That's not who we are as an organization. Not by a long shot.

We have three offices in the Philippines and one in India. The people who work from these locations represent 90 percent of the snapscale team. They make it possible for us to provide cost-efficient services to our clients.

As a result, clients can deliver better service to their customers and focus on core business functions that generate revenue. Our clients also don't have to worry about hiring and retaining staff and all the costs and resources that come with it.

Given the tremendous value our overseas team delivers each day to BBC and our clients, why would we not treat them with anything but the utmost respect? Why would we not do everything possible to help them live a happy, fulfilling life?

It's not just good business. It's the right thing to do.

First and foremost, we pay people a living wage and provide health insurance. During the pandemic, we actively sought and provided vaccines for our team and we were one of the first companies to offer a hybrid work environment.

We also offer interest-free loans to our staff. For example, it's not uncommon in some parts of the world for a person to pay interest rates on loans that dwarf credit card rates in the U.S. We've provided interest-free loans to assist with housing, medical bills, and other important expenses. We even offer free financial literacy courses to help them learn how to save money and get out of debt.

One employee recently received free management training to advance her professional development. We were happy to offer this training with no agreement that required her to stay with us for a certain period of time. This was just one more example of investing in good people who make us a better company.

More than anything else, we treat people the way we want to be treated. Someone working in one of our overseas offices recently lost her mother. Our first concern was for that individual, not whether someone would be there to take their place. We sent flowers and gave them bereavement time.

Isn't that what any good and decent company would do?

Other companies that operate large call centers and offer virtual services in these areas of the world for similar purposes have told us we do too much.

Are our profit margins a little tighter? Yes. We also rarely if ever run into problems.

For some offshore operations, high turnover is an acceptable tradeoff for lower costs. Our goal is to build long-term relationships with our team and avoid the costly process of hiring and training staff. We invest in the people who are here, not their replacements.

We have people who have been with us for {insert number} years. We recently ran a report that showed an attendance rate of more than 99 percent. Low turnover and high attendance translate to consistency and quality for our clients - and more revenue for us.

People who work for us overseas know they're part of a community and a culture in which they're valued. The more we invest in them, the more invested they are in our company and the work our clients trust them to do. Everybody can win when you value people and treat them humanely and respectfully, regardless of where they are.

If you want to partner with an ethical outsourcing company that values every individual on their team, whether they're across the office or on the other side of the world, contact snapscale today.