5 Reasons Why Partnering With a Call Center in the Philippines is the Best Strategy As Odds of US Recession Looms

Despite reports showing a surprisingly stable economy, over half (58%) of National Association for Business Economics (NABE) economists predict a recession sometime this year. New government data on inflation supports this, with a 6.4% year-over-year increase in January’s consumer price index. 

Economists may disagree on when and how hard the recession will hit, but all signs point to one thing: The economy will worsen before it gets better.

As the bleak outlook threatens to wreak havoc on companies’ growth plans, resilient business leaders are shifting strategies from growth-at-all-costs to survival mode.

Can businesses get the best of both worlds – thriving in a recessionary business climate without suffering losses? They sure can with the help of a call center philippines. The Philippine business process outsourcing industry can help businesses achieve lower costs while increasing productivity.

The bottom line is everything.

During times of recession when revenues take a hit, businesses need to find ways to cut corners so they can still operate without suffering huge losses. 

Let’s take a page from the 2008 recession playbook. 

When businesses caught wind of recessionary signs in 2007, forward-looking and resilient executives hunkered down by cutting operating costs — as a result, they maintained their lead as other businesses lagged behind due to the downturn. 

One effective tool they leveraged is outsourcing. Cost efficiency is one of the significant drivers of outsourcing.

As the pandemic shut down the economy in 2020, up to 70% of companies that outsourced did so to cut costs. 

Firms that partner with offshoring BPOs can take advantage of more economical operating and overhead costs and competitive labor costs. The significant cost reduction allows them to channel funds to more critical business areas and cushions the blow against recessionary and inflationary pressures.

As stock prices typically plummet during economic downturns, turbulent markets will experience wild swings.  

With no way to predict when businesses will retrench and when they will bounce back, talent acquisition is also in limbo, relying on the volatile market to dictate lay-offs and hiring periods.  

During the last recession in 2008, for instance, the U.S. GDP dropped 5.1%, causing a staggering 8.7 million job losses in just 18 months.  

Outsourcing can help businesses navigate these unpredictable trends by seamlessly scaling their workforce. Leveraging flexibility, BPOs can quickly increase and decrease staff volume without the need for mass layoffs and costly recruitment cycles.  

Firms can maximize their financial resources by outsourcing functions to meet high demands during peak seasons and scaling back once orders drop.  

With BPO partners balancing the cost of recruitment and hiring, scalability is another advantage businesses can leverage amid the recession.

In a cutthroat market fueled further by recession, businesses need to focus as much energy as they can on improving core competencies. Doing so also allows companies to develop more products and services, tap into emerging markets, and stay competitive. 

A business’s core competency is its most critical revenue stream. Even the most strategic business model will only succeed if a company can focus on continuously evolving its competencies to meet the dynamic market landscape.

Nearly half of businesses (49%) consider concentrating on their core competencies as one of the leading factors for outsourcing.

BPOs don’t just free up a business’ limited resources from non-core tasks. As experts in streamlining, they can also boost your productivity and efficiency by optimizing your business processes. Additionally, they can improve the quality of your customer care and turnaround time, ensuring maximum client satisfaction and more significant revenues.

In the face of global labor shortages, employee burnout concerns continue to grow.

A recent Deloitte study revealed that an overwhelming majority of employees (77%) experience burnout. Meanwhile, 91% report that stress levels impact their work performance, and 83% believe that burnout even affects their relationships.

Burnout is already at critical levels, but the layoffs driven by the looming recession will only worsen this staffing challenge.

While this could be a short-term strategy for businesses seeking to cut costs, it will lead to higher error risks, burnout, and attrition rates as remaining employees shoulder heavier workloads and stress.

A great way to navigate this staffing challenge is through outsourcing. By leveraging global talent pools, leading outsourcing companies can guarantee that businesses can operate at maximum efficiency without compromising their staff’s well-being.

As recession looms, accelerating digitalization is the best strategy to get the most value out of your investments.

Technology will create opportunities that will reshape competition in far-reaching ways.

Digital advancements will likewise help businesses gain a much-needed edge over their competitors regarding their capability and performance — a gap that is expected to grow further as the recession hits.

Businesses that invest in technology through outsourcing can deliver a seamless customer experience, absorb economic hits, and avoid costly upgrades during a volatile period.

Meanwhile, tech laggards may be forced to retrench to cope with economic conditions worsening.

The call center Philippines began as early as the 1990s.

The industry has shown tremendous growth and success since, expanding to other parts of the country outside its commercial hub, Metro Manila. As other sectors slowed down due to the pandemic, the call center industry continued its upward trajectory, raking in $32.5 billion in revenues and increasing staffing by 1.57 million (8.4%) in 2022 alone.

Owing to a globally competitive education system and Western cultural influences, the Philippines is known for its people’s fluency in the English language. It ranked second in proficiency across all East and Southeast Asian countries. Its capital, Manila, also ranked 26th out of 109 cities with an impressive index score of 567, equating to “high proficiency.”

Since the language is so widely spoken, many Filipinos can speak English with a neutral accent.

The lower cost of living in the Philippines is another reason why the country remains a top-rated destination for offshoring.

Businesses that expand their operations to the country can earn significantly more savings with lower overhead, operational, and labor costs.

With the Philippine time zone at GMT+8, businesses can benefit from round-the-clock call center services without overextending their in-house teams.

Unlike what happened in the U.S., where the pandemic severely impacted the job market, the health crisis actually helped the Philippines’ BPO sector.

Millions of skilled, educated, and highly-trained graduates from top universities continue to fuel the country’s rich workforce.

Recognizing the call center industry’s massive contribution to the economy, the Philippine government supports foreign investors by establishing fair regulations and incentives to stabilize the market.

With Philippine call center outsourcing companies strictly following local and international data privacy guidelines, businesses worldwide can rest assured that their data is protected from theft and breaches.

The industry has created millions of BPO jobs for Filipino agents and paved the way for progress in the country.

As a former colony of both the U.S. and Spain, Western culture is deeply entrenched in the Philippine lifestyle, which is why Filipino workers are highly sought after in healthcare, hospitality and other industries.

With the country dubbed the “Call Center Capital of the World,” the contact center sector is a growth driver contributing hugely to the country’s GDP.

While the Philippines is known for its thriving call center industry, it also offers other services that businesses across all sectors can use.

What are the top industries facing staffing challenges according to the latest Upwork Future Workforce Report and, how can outsourcing help amid the talent crunch? Let’s find out.

The country is home to top universities that produce highly trained and qualified accounting professionals who can bridge the talent gap in the U.S. accounting sector.

In the face of an IT talent crunch, BPO services can help businesses expand their tech capabilities without costly and unnecessary infrastructure investments.

The Philippine BPO industry offers customer support and technical support services that can help businesses keep pace with the changing demands of consumers.

Ironically, staffing issues are also challenging for the people in charge of recruiting people. A recent survey revealed that one in four HR leaders find it challenging to hire for their own team due to the tight labor market.

Fortunately, established outsourcing suppliers can fill vacancies in your in-house recruitment team.

With a high demand for admin support, many call center companies offer back office services designed to drive all departments toward optimum efficiency while reducing in-house employees’ workload and stress.

Despite layoffs in tech giants such as Twitter and Amazon, it’s a different story for most tech recruiters who are desperate to hire amid talent shortages. 

One tool they can leverage: software development outsourcing. This allows firms to tap into a pool of skilled programmers and developers from across the globe without going through a time-consuming recruitment and hiring process.

As more businesses discover the advantages of using data in their decision-making and planning, the demand for data science rises. 

Outsourcing can help alleviate the talent shortage by providing access to its pool of data scientists and analysts who can transform raw data into actionable business insights.

Businesses that struggle to find skilled writers for their digital marketing campaigns can rely on content writing outsourcing for content guaranteed to build their online presence and capture the attention of their target audience.

As we move from the shadow of the pandemic, companies worldwide need to rethink strategies that can future-proof their business from global disruptions. 

The path forward is through outsourcing. 

SuperStaff, a growing outsourcing firm with locations in key cities in the U.S. and the Philippines, strategizes and implements innovative outsourcing solutions to help you stay competitive and resilient in this tough business landscape. 

We streamline operations, advance digitization, and build talent pipelines, allowing you to work like a well-oiled machine in the face of economic adversities.

Start planning a recession-proof outsourcing strategy guaranteed to drive success with SuperStaff.