By now you’ve probably heard or experienced working from home due to the pandemic. Experiences may vary depending on the industry and how well different companies organized the move. Some businesses saw the remote working environment as a success and some even tried outsourcing, specifically remote staffing. As these companies saw success a whole new world was opened to them in terms of people solutions, specifically for backend or supporting positions.
The Start Of Working From Home
We’re no strangers to love…I mean the pandemic at this point. In early 2020 the pandemic was causing all sorts of lockdowns around the globe. Depending on where you were, the severity of the lockdown was different, some places didn’t allow people to go out of their homes, other places had strict regulations such as facemasks, and in some countries, they even had to wear face shields. Most businesses had to act fast as the lockdown happened so suddenly, but some got a heads up and were able to plan. Those businesses who had to act fast, had their employees take home company computers and work from home. Those who had time to plan were able to do things smoothly. PCs were set up properly and everything was rolled out in an organized manner, so company property was tagged and inventory was taken. But in the end, many companies were forced to adapt to these lockdowns.
A Rough Start
As you experienced or could imagine, those without plans ran into problems they’d never faced before. For everyone new to working from home, technical problems stopped all productivity. Those who were technically inclined could troubleshoot their way through some problems, but any sort of network-based issues had IT departments scrambling to solve problems. It took a while for solutions to be found, but in a domino effect sort of way, once the “code” had been cracked for one company, solutions followed elsewhere.
Productivity was also affected in the beginning. People were just not working without oversight. In some cases, people were called back due to the drastic drop in productivity. People were found to be less productive at the beginning of the change. As everything was new for most people, the lack of coordination and experience caused a sort of chaos that many weren’t used to.
Adapting
With many team chat applications such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and many more, companies began to adapt to the new style of work. Communication became important and these applications along with online management tools, helped teams stay on top of their work even without physically being in the same room. It was also during this time that small businesses tried outsourcing.
The type of outsourcing that become popular was offshore remote staffing. This is essentially having someone work from a remote location, that was outside of your country. Smaller businesses were able to hire teams they normally wouldn’t have been able to due to financial constraints, all because of the cost-effective nature of these types of services. While still having the same high-level professionals available to them, these businesses just needed to adapt to the culture of the professionals they hired. In these cases, full-service business process outsourcing companies (BPOs) helped business owners by providing oversight, support, and occasionally consulting sessions in order to make sure everything is going according to plan.
Lasting Impact
Even with the threat of the pandemic tapering off, the surge of businesses flocking to BPOs has not. Businesses from all industries are still contacting BPOs trying to find a company they mesh well enough with to succeed. With no minimum number of employees required at these types of BPOs, many people start off with hiring just one professional such as a developer, a graphic designer, an accountant, etc. Within a couple of years the team will grow, especially their staff is mostly call center type, meaning they taking or call customers for tech support, customer service, or even sales.
The Wrap Up
Althought working from home was rough at the start. Technologies and a proper roll out has made it so that working from home is a more viable option now. With the ability to stay on top of your team and projects all with applications, productivity has gone up. With this shift, businesses opted to try out remote staffing options that existed outside their countries, with smaller companies being able to afford to build departments they previously were not able to. The sky is the limit with these remote staff as long as the job can be done from a computer. If you have questions as to what kind of staff you can hire, just reach out to your BPO of choice and the’ll be sure to fill you in.