In Wake of ‘Great Resignation,’ Ailing Employers Turn To Outsourcing

• The workplace is currently undergoing significant and rapid demographic changes. Wishup Founder Neelesh Rangwani explains the competitive advantages of outsourcing and diversity in today’s business environment.

A record total of 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September of 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation.(1) While the chief reasons given for resigning were lack of adequate childcare and health concerns about COVID, workplace experts believe that many leave their positions in search of better work opportunities, self-employment, or higher pay.(2) “Whatever the reasons for it, this exodus from the workplace comes at a time of rapid business growth and a heightened emphasis on workforce diversity,” says Neelesh Rangwani, founder of Delhi-based virtual assistant provider Wishup, “In many cases, outsourcing of selected business functions can help employers address all these concerns at once.”

Workforce diversity, says Rangwani, helps companies meet the needs and expectations of an increasingly diverse marketplace. Recent research shows that a team with a member who shares a client’s ethnicity is 152% likelier than another team to understand that client.(3) What applies to selling, Rangwani adds, also applies to hiring. According to a recent survey from Glassdoor, 76% of employees and applicants said that a diverse workforce was an important factor in their evaluation of companies and job offers.(4)

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Furthermore, he notes, both the Great Resignation and an increased emphasis on diversity come at a time of very rapid economic expansion(5) when many companies find themselves in need of assistance for essential but non-core services such as purchasing, telemarketing, or data entry. By taking responsibility for an entire area of operation, says Rangwani, an outsource company can offer effective management of these functions without the need to revamp the management structure of the client company—thus saving time and money, and allowing management to focus on outlook and strategy.(6)

In many cases says Rangwani, an outsourcing solution, particularly an offshore solution, can allow growing companies to keep up with businesses while significantly increasing the diversity of the firm’s overall workforce. He also notes statistics show significant benefits in the combination of diversity and outsourcing, including improved performance, minimized risk, and increased innovation.

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3 Benefits of a Diversified and Outsourced Staff

1.    It’s cost-effective—Outsourcing reduces payroll costs. There are two main advantages: first, the contracting firm does not have to pay employee benefits, since the outsourcing company pays those. And second, for the same contracting firm’s payroll amount, they can get more people—more talent—from the outsourcing firm.
2.    Its efficient—By outsourcing from an international company—particularly from India—the contracting firm gets an efficient, result-oriented, disciplined and highly adaptable employee—again, for less money.
3.    It’s recession-proof—An outsourced staff is more resilient in economic down times. Whatever may ail American economics at a specific point in time does not translate to an outsourced staff.

The Great Resignation springs from a variety of sources, says Rangwani, some of which will not be resolved quickly. In the meantime, however, U.S. companies have an urgent need for qualified, educated, English-speaking help. India, which has the second-largest English-speaking population in the world(7) and nearly a hundred million college graduates(8), is and should be, he notes, a primary source of such assistance.

“Outsourcing,” Rangwani says, “should be a key tool in every corporate manager’s toolbox. Properly managed, it is the fastest, most effective, and most economical way for a company to build and diversify staff, boost performance, and increase internal stability.”

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