Would you prefer to pay your star app developer an annual salary of $100,000 or $25,000? Provided the quality of their work is equal, sounds like a no-brainer.

The demand for offshoring is booming, already a $100 billion industry, this figure is projected to continue growing as companies realise the benefits of cost-reduction and higher work output. What about the old adage “pay peanuts and you get monkeys”? The $75,000 saving of the above example could in fact result in little to no savings IF you don’t approach offshoring with a proper understanding of what’s required.The concept of offshoring can be intimidating when first viewed. There are a lot of factors and responsibilities involved to take into consideration in order to be successful. Without proper forethought and knowledge, issues can arise which eventually overshadow any benefits to your business. In these cases, it becomes easier to discredit offshoring if you’ve had a negative experience because of your chosen offshoring provider. Concerns such as these have resulted in a lot of myths surrounding offshoring in recent years and I’m here today to address some of those.

Offshoring takes away local jobs

This is probably the number one myth surrounding offshoring. At it’s core, offshoring is about outsourcing functions to a remote provider. It’s about working alongside a team in another location. Yes, offshoring means sending processes elsewhere and often overseas. Rather than taking away jobs however, the effect of this on your local team allows them to prioritise and focus on other valuable tasks. Offshoring doesn’t take anything away but rather creates new opportunities and working scenarios.

Offshoring is just for minor functions

Most often than not, the first roles associated with offshoring in people’s minds are outbound call centers or inbound call support roles. Many companies do rely on offshore service providers for cheaper workers and this has given offshoring a rather poor reputation for favoring quantity of less expensive workers over quality of work.

If you can look past this, you will see that there are many offshoring service providers who look at other countries as pools of potential talented team members, not cheap workers. With thousands of employees holding specialized degrees and excellent English communication skills, offshoring is now focused on filling more high-quality jobs.

Offshoring is too time-consuming

Offshoring is not something which can be effectively implemented instantly. To successfully incorporate offshored processes into your business, companies need to invest time and planning. When presented with this scenario, companies can believe that they don’t have the time or are looking for immediate results.

Ensuring that your offshoring experience is seamless can be a daunting process and this is why it is critical that you partner with a provider who is experienced in managing the process. A good offshoring provider values your business objectives and knows how to find the right people for your company. They offer ongoing support to facilitate a successful working relationship between both your local and offshored team.

Offshoring is not appropriate for my business

Historically, offshoring was exclusively for top tier companies. This reputation has made smaller businesses wary of considering offshoring as a viable strategy for growth. Believing their current circumstances will not benefit from offshoring, smaller companies may overlook offshoring and the advantages it affords.

Whether you’re a medium, large or listed company, offshoring allows you to expand without a massive overhead. Your offshored team will help your business invest in new projects once out of reach due to budget restraints and help your business to operate on a competitive level in your industry.

Offshored teams are difficult to monitor

Honestly, there have been horror stories relating to offshored teams. The distance between a local office and an offshore team is seen as one of the biggest hurdles to establishing effective communication and therefore trust. Many companies believe that constantly supervising a team overseas is a difficult task. With the right offshoring provider this is simply not true. If you partner with a company you know you can trust you will be paired with reliable offshored team members, setting your mind at ease and allowing you to work seamlessly with both your local and offshored teams.