For many years, the traditional destinations for outsourcing have been India and the Philippines, largely due to the low costs for relying on a large workforce. However today, South Africa has become a popular outsourcing place and a truly competitive market for offshore solutions. More and more companies are discovering the unique opportunities and values that this country provides.
Here are reasons to hire staff in South Africa:
- A large talent pool of potential outsourced staff
- Large population of native-level English speakers
- Cultural alignment
- High-quality staff
- Productive and well-performing employees
- Competitive costs of hiring
- Affordable cost of living
- South Africa’s convenient time zone
As a matter of fact, our company Support Adventure has provided dozens of remote IT technicians based in South Africa for our Western clients. As a remote MSP Staffing Company, we realized the staffing potential of this country early on, especially for the IT industry where we specialize in fulfilling staffing needs for MSPs. In this article, we want to share with you our top reasons for why your business should consider outsourcing in South Africa too.
Outsource and offshore in South Africa
South Africa was named “Offshoring Destination of the Year” in 2016 and 2018. Additionally, the country has shown a 22% annual growth rate in the outsourcing sector over the last four years, almost three times more than India or the Philippines.
South Africa was also voted the second most attractive business process outsourcing (BPO) location in the world for three years in a row. This comes down to the country’s reputation for reliability, cost-effectiveness and high-quality staff. You can efficiently hire people in South Africa for any role, including the popular remote positions of:
- customer support
- technical support
- back-office services
- app development
All the benefits of hiring staff in South Africa
There are a number of benefits a company will get when hiring outsourced staff from South Africa.
Some of the major advantages of hiring staff from South Africa are:
- complete English fluency
- highly skilled talent
- cultural similarities
- cost-effectiveness
- time zone alignment
The large talent pool of potential outsourced staff
When hiring in South Africa, you won’t have problems finding the right candidate. The labor market is huge with over 22 million in the first quarter of 2021. Additionally, the unemployment rate is very high (32.6% as of the first quarter of 2021).
This all offers companies a wide pool of potential employees that are also eager to work and hold down a stable job. Moreover, South Africa shows a yearly growth of 60,000 new potential employees.
Amazon has already discovered opportunities for this destination and announced plans on hiring 3,000 people in South Africa for customer support in North America and Europe.
English speaking talent
In addition to the large selection of workers, a large benefit of hiring South Africans is that many speak native-level English speakers. English is one of the official language of the country. This is by far our favorite benefit of recruiting here.
The ubiquity of English makes international outsourcing an easy task. For a fraction of the cost, you will get talented and reliable English-speaking support staff.
A South African workforce already tends to work for other English-speaking markets including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. Companies from these countries are key drivers for the local economy since they tend to hire the largest percentage of outsourcing staff.
Cultural alignment
In comparison to other outsourcing destinations, such as India or the Philippines, South African staff don’t have many cultural differences with the western world. You will be delighted working with South Africans as you won’t have constant misunderstandings and misinterpretations due to a lack of cultural compatibility with English colloquialisms.
People in South Africa consume a lot of American and British television shows, movies and pop culture. This impact of western culture is very beneficial for companies looking to outsource, as they will barely see a difference between a typical American or Brit from a South African employee.
South Africans also tend to be quite good at understanding American and British speech and the nuances of those cultural norms. This all helps to flawlessly match outsourced South African staff and your company’s culture.
These cultural similarities greatly influence native English-speaking markets, allowing them to mesh very well with outsourcing to South Africa.
High-quality staff
Due to the high unemployment rates and overall lack of opportunities, the South African labor force is well educated and motivated to work. The country produces 200,000 university graduates every year, but so many of them are left jobless and with their futures in question.
For that reason, South African talent are thankful to find financial refuge in the foreign companies that hire them.
South Africans also make great staff as many of them are entrepreneurial-minded individuals whose problem solving abilities are wasted in a country where there’s not enough jobs. This makes them a great match for businesses looking for young, resourceful and hard-working people.
You can find talented South African employees for all types of skills in the IT industry related to the following:
- cloud servers
- big data analytics
- cybersecurity
- programming
- artificial intelligence… and much more!
This high availability of qualitative staff has been a key reason for companies to outsource to South Africa.
Productive and well-performing employees
In addition to education and talent, studies have shown that South African workers have better results in productivity and performance than staff in traditional outsourcing destinations like India and the Philippines. Productivity KPIs are higher in South Africa for the following:
- average handling time
- average response time
- average communication time
- average speed to answer
With South Africa, you will not only get a well-qualified employee, but you’ll also get a very engaged and committed team member.
Competitive costs of hiring
By far, the biggest reason we recommend outsourcing staff from South Africa is of course the financial benefits. A company will pay a fraction of the price for a qualified South African candidate compared to what they would for an American or British citizen with the same qualifications.
And let’s not forget that the main reasons for outsourcing are financial gain and reduction of expenses. Studies have shown that European companies tend to save up to 50% on staff by hiring in this beautiful land. South African staff will satisfy all your needs and compliment your budget.
Affordable cost of living
The reason for the lower wages in South Africa is due to lower cost of living. Expenses are much lower than in most western countries. For example, the estimated cost of living in Johannesburg is 56% lower than in London. Cape Town and Durban are respectively 62% and 67% lower than London. This also makes the exchange rate very favorable for global currencies.
In general, the cost of living in Cape Town is:
- 57% cheaper than New York
- 67% cheaper than London
- 46% cheaper than Paris
- 50% cheaper than Tokyo
- 50% cheaper than Los Angeles
South Africa’s time zone
Lastly, an additional perk of South Africa is its time zone, which is especially beneficial to European markets. The local time is two hours ahead of GMT and just one hour ahead of Paris.
Therefore, if your business or your clients are located in Europe, outsourcing to South Africa is 100% the best choice. For North American companies, calls can be scheduled in the late afternoon, while Australia will have an early morning slot.
Hiring ‘round-the-clock support in South Africa makes sense to all parts of the world and is on the rise among businesses from Australia and the US. They especially benefit from utilizing South African employees to provide service during a company’s night time hours.
Where to hire South African staff?
We here at Support Adventure provide outsourced staff to hire for IT companies, especially for MSPs. While looking for the best candidates, we have gained experience in hiring dozens of IT technicians based in South Africa.
If you understand the value of staff and hiring in this country, we advise you not to wait any further and to request highly talented candidates from us today!
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