TOP 7 Problems in Offshoring and How You Can Fix Them

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For businesses aiming to save costs, obtain specialized skills, and gain a competitive edge, offshoring is proving to be a popular business strategy. However, offshoring, like any business undertaking, is filled with so many difficulties and issues. In this post, we will look at the top seven issues that are typically faced in offshoring talents and the most effective methods to solve them.

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There are many good points in hiring offshore staff. We all know that you can cut costs and get competent workers through this business solution. But of course, companies still need to be very aware that there are issues to address and face. A proactive outlook to resolving problems in offshoring is the best route to take to reap the benefits of this strategy.

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Let us look into the TOP 7 Problems in Offshoring and How You Can Fix The

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1. Language and Communication Barriers

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Working with offshore staff members means that you will be dealing with people who may speak a different type of English than you do. Their grammar, pronunciation, enunciation, diction, and tone of voice affect how you communicate with them. Some English words may mean differently to them than they do to you. The rate of your speech can cause your message to be lost or misunderstood.

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With language and communication becoming a barrier for a good offshoring partnership, you may need to choose offshore staff that is on the same page as you are in English. You would need team members who can speak with you and understand you clearly.

Communication will be the carrier of all instructions and tasks and thus it is important to be understood well by your worker. Hire people who come from good staffing companies to avoid miscommunication and language barriers.

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2. Having Cultural Barriers and Differences

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Culture and traditions are a big part of the people whom you will work with. These two-shape people’s behavior and ethics. What may be acceptable to you may not be acceptable to them and vice versa. For example, working on a Sunday is ok for you but it may not be ok for your staff.

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Aside from national culture, work culture can also be different. You can be very direct to the point and blunt but that may not be acceptable to people from other countries. Or you may be very polite and soft-spoken but to them being blunt is better. This can cause issues with how smooth your workflows are.

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To deal with this matter, get to know your workers first before you hire them. Make it clear to them what your workstyle is going to be to set the expectation and ensure a smooth workflow in your company.

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3. Quality Assurance and Control

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Ensuring that your outcomes are at par and always at the standard can sometimes be an issue when you hire employees from abroad. They may be lax in doing their tasks or they may be unable to replicate the quality set by on-shore staff.

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But it does not mean that if you hire offshore staff, the quality of their output will be lower than those of their local counterparts. You will be surprised that your offshore team members can sometimes surpass the efficiency of your employees on shore.

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Many offshore workers work very hard because they understand the expectations that their companies and employers have of them. They can be dedicated and efficient at work too.

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If you are in doubt about the quality of your offshore staff, there are always quality assurance tools that you can use to check on your team. You can use time-tracking software or quality assurance meters to check on their output and diligence.

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4. Data Security

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The transmission of data and intellectual property from your company to your offshore staff end can pose issues with Data Security and Privacy. Your Intellectual Rights may be compromised since you are not sure how they handle such.

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To ensure that your data is secure, you can put security parameters on your staff’s computers as well as have them sign a non-disclosure clause to guarantee the safety of your data and intellectual property.

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5. Mandatory Compliance with Other Country’s Laws and Regulations

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In hiring staff from offshore, businesses must juggle numerous legal and regulatory rules, which may be difficult and time-consuming. Adherence with the overseas labor and tax laws, and data privacy and privacy acts, can be difficult and tedious.

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To navigate your way around this issue, you need to hire either hire a freelancer whom you will engage his services as an independent contractor or hire someone through a staffing firm If you hire someone a freelancer and an independent contractor, he or she will not be liable with paying for his or her taxes. He will also be the one to take care of other duties that he may need to operate as a contractor in his country. On the other hand, if you hire someone from a staffing company, they will take care of all the legalities of hiring someone from that overseas location.

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6. Unforeseen Events and External Factors

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Since your offshore staff will reside in a different country, his or her circumstances will be different from yours. The worker may face events such as emergencies like storms, earthquakes, and many more. He can also have issues with technology and infrastructure such as internet connectivity and electricity. Politics, economics, trade, inflation, and even his family and community can affect his or her work. This may be hard to control for you since you live so far away from your staff’s location.

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To mitigate this issue, you can ask your staff to have backups in place in cases of internet loss or power outages before the two of you work together. But in other cases, you need to be more humane and understanding in his or her case.

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7. Loss of On Shore Knowledge

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When businesses offshore activities or functions, they may encounter a lot of challenges due to the loss of local experience, skillset, and knowledge. When specific jobs or processes are outsourced from an on-shore pool of workers to an offshore team, significant insights, cultural understanding, and homegrown knowledge of the local market may be lost. Your on-shore staff will always have the upper hand when it comes to knowing what is happening to your economic situation in your own country.

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However, with proper training and onboarding, you can get your offshore team on the same page regarding your local market’s movement and phasing. You can teach them what your company has faced for the past few years and let them know what you are into.

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So those are the TOP 7 Problems in Offshoring and How You Can Fix Them. This article aims to help you know what are the problems you may encounter in offshoring. And although you will face many issues, there are always solutions to them.

If you want to learn more about managing and hiring offshore staff,