A day in the life of an outsourced employee

One of the most popular questions in outsourcing is: what’s in it for me? And rightly so. What are the benefits of outsourcing from an employer's perspective? Why should my business invest in an offshore team? How can I get outsourcing right? Why is the Philippines a top outsourcing destination? What are the advantages of outsourcing?

But with emerging employee engagement trends shining a spotlight on the value of employee engagement more than ever, the question we should ask is: what’s in it for the employee? How is my outsourcing investment benefiting my outsourced employees? How can I improve their employee experience to deliver better results?

In this blog, we address the benefits of outsourcing from an outsourced employee's perspective and explore what an average day in life might look like.

A day in the life of an outsourced employee

A day in the life of your outsourced employee(s) doesn’t look too different from a day in the life of your onshore employee(s). Why? Well, if you, like many businesses, were introduced to a work-from-home model in the past few years, working away from core business locations became the norm. You may even be maintaining these remote working models or introducing hybrid work into your business permanently.

Your outsourced employees eat, sleep and work just as you do. Depending on your arrangement with your outsourced provider, they may work from home or a central office location. Your employees are online ready to work when you need them and knock off to socialise as one normally would.

The key thing to remember here is a successful outsourcing venture is when there is no ‘gap’ between an outsourced employee and their onshore teams. This ‘gap’ is filled with seamless communication, reliable infrastructure and technology, efficient training and regular feedback to help your outsourced teams feel valued and part of something greater.

Examples of outsourced employees experiences

Here are some real quotes from offshore employees describing the benefits they experience working with outsourcing providers for businesses around the world.

Benefits of working as an outsourced employee

Depending on where you choose to outsource, there can be major benefits for your outsourced employees. From higher compensation, increased job stability, a better work-life balance and even learning or career development opportunities. You can relax knowing that, with the right outsourcing provider, you are improving someone else's way of life.

Career development and learning opportunities

For career development, outsourcing provides employees from different countries the opportunities to showcase their ‘go-getter’ attitudes and really let their entrepreneurial spirit shine through. Say you outsource to the Philippines, Filipinos are known to be very honest and hardworking and if given the chance and guidance, will happily work towards their goals with a certain drive and commitment. They understand the opportunity being presented to them and respect the investment businesses that outsource make.

Their loyalty is then translated into a drive to do more and take on more with the proper training. Hence why the Philippines is a top outsourcing location. Businesses get higher employee retention rates the more learning opportunities they present. And these outsourced employees gain access to opportunities that may not come up in their local working environment.

Job stability

You need only take a look at the forecasted growth of the outsourcing industry to understand how being an outsourced employee can offer significant job stability in our everchanging job market. The global business process outsourcing (BPO) market is expected to reach AU $762 billion by 2030, registering a compound annual growth rate of 9.1% from 2022 to 2030. In addition to this, as a top global outsourcing destination, the Philippine economy is one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia with a GDP growth of 5.1% in 2021 and is anticipated to grow by 6% in 2022.

When businesses engage in outsourcing, they are consciously making the decision to send specific tasks to an outsourced employee. These tasks are carefully curated and communicated with their outsourcing partner. This means that every task and job assigned to an outsourced employee has a purpose. Outsourced employees aren’t twiddling their thumbs looking for something to do.

Supportive work-life balance

Depending on the agreed working hours of your outsourced team, outsourced employees can find better work-life balance by communicating their needs with their outsourced providers. For example, you need an employee to run after-hours technical support for your business from 7 pm to 5 am? Your outsourcing provider may have an employee who, because of personal commitments, can’t work the traditional 9 am to 5 pm job and is looking for work between the hours of 6 pm to 6 am. In this case, your job would suit them perfectly - granted their skills are on par and they fit your business culture. This is why the interview phase and creating accurate job descriptions are crucial to outsourcing success.

Higher compensation

If you choose to outsource to a low-cost economy like the Philippines, there is a chance your remuneration package is substantially higher than the average local salary. Depending on your agreement with your outsourcing provider, often Filipino outsourced employees are rewarded with higher compensation rates than compared locally due to their hardworking nature.

How can you improve employee engagement?

“A happy employee is a productive employee” said Erin Davis at the American Library Association Conference in 2010. To expand on her point, if your employees don’t feel motivated, valued or engaged they are unlikely to be productive. This can be said for both your onshore and offshore employees. Businesses should always strive to improve their employee engagement initiatives to generate better employee experience results.