Re: Hiring Remote Employees

**cisscoza464** · 28-Jun-13, 11:36 AM

Hi guys!

I've a friend who has a call center business. They have a physical office all set to operate. However, he's still thinking up to now whether it would be more beneficial if he hires remote employees - or also known as outsourcing. I don't know if you guys are familiar with it. I have found online marketplace where clients chose on hiring remote employees and paying them per successful sale over on hiring physical agents, giving them quotas and paying them fixed. As for me, I told him that there are advantages, but also disadvantages as well. Like if you're going to hire remotely, you can never monitor your employees physically - there's no way even if you require them to set a cam whilst working. However, on the other hand, considering you're a startup company, you may find this financially advantageous since you can operate without leasing a building, buying your own equipments like computers, monitors, chairs, internet, and so on..

You guys have any opinions about this? Please feel free to advise

Sorry for my bad English!

**Dave A** · 28-Jun-13, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by cisscoza464

Sorry for my bad English!

That seems to be one of the challenges of offshore outsourcing - particularly when it comes to call centres.

I was quite interested to hear an interview of an offshore call centre operation set-up based in Capetown that has been doing very well servicing English speakers in Europe. Up until now the offshore call centre business has been going to India and Phillipines, but as the SA operation head said, S.A English is far more "palatable" on the European ear. And we're essentially in the same time zone, which also has its advantages.

Two thoughts struck me listening to it-
1. Good to hear we've got a viable competitive advantage against such known low cost competitors
2. What a shrewd move setting up the call centre in Capetown (compared to any other major metro in SA).

**Wiz** · 29-Jun-13, 03:15 PM

Originally Posted by Dave A

That seems to be one of the challenges of offshore outsourcing - particularly when it comes to call centres.

I was quite interested to hear an interview of an offshore call centre operation set-up based in Capetown that has been doing very well servicing English speakers in Europe. Up until now the offshore call centre business has been going to India and Phillipines, but as the SA operation head said, S.A English is far more "palatable" on the European ear. And we're essentially in the same time zone, which also has its advantages.

Two thoughts struck me listening to it-
1. Good to hear we've got a viable competitive advantage against such known low cost competitors
2. What a shrewd move setting up the call center in Capetown (compared to any other major metro in SA).

Dave do you have any contact details of that company or website address which provides call center services in Capetown.
Really desperate to get the things going for my company. Tried to google but seems there are hosted cloud solutions and nothing much.

**Dave A** · 29-Jun-13, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by Wiz

Dave do you have any contact details of that company or website address which provides call center services in Capetown.

It was a TV interview and I regret I missed the name of the company. But based on the fact they were on because of a recognition award, and combining that with the services offered, I believe the company is 1Stream. Based on this page, I'm not sure that they're actually running the call centres though. It looks like they're dealing with the local SaaS side of things.

**cisscoza464** · 01-Jul-13, 12:23 PM

Offshore outsourcing is becoming a real trend nowadays. It's not surprising if someone's personal shopper is physically located from other side of the world. I've seen several job marketplace on the net and it's a growing industry. My friend will pursue though on hiring physical employees.

**New Perspective studio** · 07-Aug-20, 09:46 AM

Yeah Ive been stuck with this in my own business, I don't really want inhouse employees due to all the admin and higher cost that it involves, not to mention that people steal ideas (website design and marketing).
You can bind them with trade restriction contracts but i've seen people get out of those with ease after leaving a company. However advantage is you have control over the employees work can take a hands on approach.

I had an employee once and it was a nightmare, I thought it would lighten my work but do you know how much management goes into having a "staff member" even with procedures in place. To be fair this person was pretty good and I came to realize that maybe i lack management skills ( another point to consider )

This is not really why I commented on this, played around with outsourcing and my biggest problem in not getting work done on time because we set incentives its quality that's the main issue. Remember you are hiring these guys cheap so they are probably employed by a bunch of other people and thus they churn and burn work.

I was advised by a mentor that it doesn't really matter who or how you hire somebody they are not going to look after your business the way you do. So what we do now is give out simpler less important projects to those guys ones that I can afford to lose. The important jobs or jobs with potential for ongoing growth stay with us.