Mitigating risk with a smart-shoring strategy

When selecting a partner it is important to consider whether they have capability onshore and offshore to support your changing business needs – at TSA we call this smart shoring. The idea behind smart-shoring is that by splitting its workload across two or more territories an organisation can reduce risk, be it operationally or financially focused. The reason for this is that each location provides a level of cover for the others should there be any country-specific staff attraction and turnover challenges. For example, if something like The Great Resignation does hit Australia, a business with human resources capability in another country is able to transfer work there, even temporarily, to reduce the disruption.

We saw this at the start of the pandemic when several of our clients, including a major telco, brought contact centre positions back to Australia as many of their offshore contact centres were unable to continue operating due to lockdowns. During our own lockdowns, and now with Australia’s current tight labour market, work can be moved back to offshore.

Our Australian operations are backed up by our contact centres and remote workers based in the Philippines. In the Philippines supporting an Australian campaign is a day shift and therefore an attractive role to potential candidates which results in a reduced attrition when compared to the industry standard.

While there are considerable challenges to smart-shoring – the additional complexity of operating in multiple countries, and the need to travel to monitor operations – the benefits can be well worth it. And not just in terms of business continuity.

A hybrid onshore and offshore solution can give an organisation the right blend of speed to market, costs, and capability. For example, it’s possible to manage simplex non-customer facing work from offshore and complex customer facing work locally to reduce the overall cost to serve without compromising the customer experience. Similarly, many organisations deploy offshore resources for shared services such as QA, WFM, accounts payable, and reporting where offshore may have a larger talent pool of skilled resources at lower cost than onshore.

A smart-shoring strategy can ensure business continuity against disruption in any one labour market, provide access to a wider talent pool and enable you to better manage the cost of customer support or engagement. TSA believes that selecting the right partner, one who can support your business locally and from overseas, is the most critical part of a successful outsourcing strategy.

TSA are Australia’s market leading specialists in CX consultancy and services. We are passionate about revolutionising the way brands connect with Australians. How? By combining our local expertise with the most sophisticated customer experience technology on earth, and delivering with an expert team of customer service consultants who know exactly how to help brands care for their customers.