Why South Africa is the ideal offshoring destination

South Africa has established itself as a popular global BPO / offshoring destination. In fact, South Africa was named “Offshoring Destination of the Year” twice in the last five years (in 2016 and 2018.) And in 2021, South Africa was voted Most Favoured Global Offshore Customer Experience Delivery Location after three consecutive years in 2nd place.

Many businesses are choosing South Africa as their preferred BPO / offshoring location because of the great benefits the country and its people have to offer. There are many factors at play, including the country’s reputation for highly educated, highly skilled workers and cost-effectiveness.

In this article, we explain the benefits of South Africa as an offshoring destination over alternative offshoring destinations.

Cost saving

By offshoring to South Africa, you can access a highly qualified workforce for significantly cheaper. Generally, you can expect savings of around 50% by offshoring in South Africa compared to the UK, whilst still being able to hire exceptional talent.

The reason for this huge difference in costs of labour is due to the lower cost of living in South Africa. Compared to London, Durban has a 67% lower cost of living.

Time zone advantage

South Africa’s time zone (GMT+2) overlaps with multiple time zones, particularly the UK – there is only one hour time difference. This makes South Africa the perfect offshoring destination as your UK and offshore team can work at the same time.

Fluency in English

Almost 50% of the population in South Africa speak English as their first language; in fact, English is the language of instruction in public schools. Even where offshore staff speak excellent English, communication with your UK team can be difficult where English is a second language for the offshore team, but there is no such a problem in South Africa.

Cultural alignment is strong between South Africa and UK

South Africa is a country that embraces many different cultures which means it generally respects other cultures, especially western cultures like that of the UK. Pop culture in South Africa is heavily influenced by British entertainment, films and music. The lack of incompatibility with English colloquialisms means working with South Africans an engaging and smooth process.

Your offshore staff with be of the highest calibre

The South African workforce is very well-educated. The labour market, with over 200,000 university graduates each year, however, the unemployment rate is incredibly high (32.6% as of the first quarter of 2021).

This all offers companies a wide pool of potential employees that are eager to work and hold down a stable job.

Fantastic infrastructure

South Africa’s infrastructure is very similar to that of Western Europe, from road and power through to education, healthcare and entertainment.

You can rest easy knowing that your team will have access to the most advanced technology, physical infrastructure, and overall working conditions.

We’ve used offshoring in our accountancy business for the last 20 years and it has helped us grow consecutively year on year. We can help you do the same. Plus, you don’t need to go through all the challenges we had when we first started.

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