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There is no industry that has not been adversely affected by the global economic downturn.  Companies large and small are struggling to cut costs across the board, not least in human resources. 
 However, the challenges in this economy for HR are arguably more pronounced than for other areas.  As anyone in the field knows, recruitment of a new full-time employee comes with a host of accompanying obligations, running the whole gamut from benefits to Social Security to overhead, etc.  It’s no wonder that in these uncertain times many companies are loath to hire at all.
The risk, of course, is that of cutting off the nose to spite the face: companies are looking to save money on payroll, but the work still needs to be done, and done well.
 
The Rise of Business Process Outsourcing

In these lean times companies are faced with a conundrum: How to maintain and even increase productivity while cutting costs? 
That’s why many firms are turning to an innovative solution to effectively address staffing needs while keeping costs surprisingly low.
That solution is Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).
These days more and more HR executives, recruiters and small businesses are looking toward BPO as a means of increasing efficiency and at the same time achieving dramatic savings to the bottom line.   Traditionally associated with simple tasks such as call center staffing or customer service, BPO is moving into a whole host of other areas.  These days full-time BPO staffers can take and make calls, provide technical support, conduct research, produce and edit documents, etc.  The list is almost endless – truly, any work that’s done over the phone, on a computer or via the internet can be done via BPO, if you choose a strong BPO provider.
 
The Philippines Emerges
India often comes to mind when people think of ‘outsourcing,’ and the country has been associated with a lot of lower-level work, such as call center staffing and customer service.  However, the Philippines is quickly emerging as a preferred destination.  It is arguably the most US-oriented country in Asia, with very close historical, cultural, and critically, language ties with the US, and with a very strong work ethic.
 
Chris Johns, 31, an American, is President and CEO of SupportSave Solutions Inc., a leading BPO services provider headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with most of its operations in Cebu City, Philippines.  Any business can hire full-time remote or off-site staff through SupportSave for only around $800 per month, total.  Chris points out that Philippines-based BPO providers such as SupportSave have a number of advantages over their counterparts in India: “With Indian BPO providers one encounters customer complaints about accents that simply can’t be understood on the other end of the line.  Philippine accents are minimal and hardly noticed by American callers.  Callers on customer service queries to SupportSave’s Cebu facility often think they’ve reached an American, and with the sound quality of our telephone connections, for all they know, our SupportSave staff is in the same city!”
 
He continues, “SupportSave has been very successful in moving up the food chain in terms of the types of services our full-time, dedicated personnel can perform for our clients.  While our team members are quite adept in basics such as call center and customer service, we can also perform more advanced services such as legal-related support, bookkeeping, ‘virtual’ filing, appointment reminders and research.  Any such services are available via a full-time, dedicated employee for just $897 a month, with no long-term commitment and none of the many costs and commitments usually associated with staffing.”
 
Enhancing Profitability

BPO services present a tremendous opportunity for a firm to enhance its profitability in both good times and bad.  The right BPO provider can present a company, whether large or small, with an arbitrage opportunity: the company uses a BPO provider’s services, charges its client the full rate for the work, and pockets the difference. 
Chris Johns adds, “Spending just $897 per month for a full-time, skilled worker presents a truly irresistible opportunity for enhancing profits for companies large and small.  HR and staffing managers should seriously consider it as a method of not only thriving through the downturn but as a way of increasing the bottom line and getting a leg up on the competition.”
  
For more information on Business Process Outsourcing and to find out if it’s a good fit for your organization’s needs, contact Chris Johns, president and CEO of SupportSave Solutions directly at chris@supportsave.com or 248-230-4101.