Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is significantly contributing to the social and economic growth in Africa and India helping to spearhead poverty, increase education programs and provide greater career and business opportunities like never before.

 As companies in the US look for new ways to overcome industry challenges such as staff shortages, increasing costs and efficiency pressures, they are now commonly working with a BPO in Africa or India to scale business growth and advance processes.

 

BPOs in Africa and India are vastly different in their workplace culture, employee performance and their language. If you are looking to outsource business services offshore such as back-office services, customer engagement or IT support, it’s vital to ensure that the BPO you’re working with is transparent on agent performance, provides ongoing high-quality service, and most importantly is ethical in business processes.

 

Here are three key factors to consider when making the big decision to outsource your services and which country has the best BPO opportunities for your company: 

Workplace Culture

Selecting the right BPO comes with many considerations, particularly the workplace culture for employees. It’s crucial to consider how your workplace will interact and communicate with the outsourced team as well as their internal workplace culture to ensure it is aligned with your company’s values and goals.

 

Contact centers in Africa have an open, welcoming culture where agents are adaptable and eager to help customers. BPOs in locations such as Ghana (sub-Saharan Africa) are well-known to have engaging and motivated teams that are highly focused on providing top-tier customer service. 

 

However, a contact center in India is very different to one in Africa with the main drivers being work hours, the environment and work-life balance. In India, a majority of BPOs support US companies which means often employees are required to work overnight shifts. As the evenings in India are the peak working hours in the US, employees consequently have less time available to spend with family and friends.

 

Moreover, locations like Ghana in Africa have a four-hour time zone difference from the US EST, compared to India being nine hours later. As a result, the time zone and workplace culture are important factors to consider when hiring a BPO as they can either enhance or hinder your business opportunities.

Employee Performance

BPOs in Africa are profound for having teams eager to learn new skills and embrace every opportunity as they want to increase their technical skills and job prospects. Whereas BPOs in India are more focused on working hard, dedication and persistence. Both countries offer services that support and streamline processes, however, even with positive workplace behaviors, employee performance can vary depending on technologies available, employee skills as well as knowledge of current industry impacts and customer service expectations.

 

With the US market being very volatile in the last few years, your BPO team must be willing to adapt, upskill and cater to industry trends and best practices. Teams in Africa are constantly learning and have a strong talent pool that is highly performative and empowers companies to drive better customer and business outcomes. BPOs in Ghana particularly seek to work cross-boarders, are aspirational and motivated to achieve KPIs and enhance performance results. Similarly, BPOs in India aim to deliver superior customer service, however, often they can lack transparency on performance, are less aspirational and have a slightly weaker framework for continued growth compared to BPOs in Africa. 

Language Barrier

When working with an outsourced company, you must consider the language barrier and the impact that it can have on your customers. Ghana’s official language is English as opposed to India which has Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Telugu with English as a second language. 

 

Often language barriers can prevent new processes from being implemented throughout the company, affect the goals, and can decrease team and project effectiveness. As a result, it’s critical to outsource your services to a single reliable BPO that is well established and offers years of experience in helping exceed customer expectations and delivers new opportunities.

 

There are many small language barrier issues that can become headaches if not addressed properly and therefore by considering the language barrier before you hire a BPO, you can broaden your capabilities and opportunities. 

 

BPOs in Africa provide an ethical, engaging, motivating workplace culture, are transparent on employee performance, focus on adopting industry trends and are an English-speaking country. In contrast, BPOs in India have a limited work-life balance due to the time zone, are focused on being persistent rather than upskilling and learning industry trends and are often less fluent in English.

 

BPOs in Africa and India offer different benefits that elevate processes, streamline operations, and provide specialized skill sets. Overall, it’s clear that BPOs in Africa are paving the way for US companies to leverage greater opportunities as they are more scalable, hard-working, consistent, and transparent on performance. 

 

If you would like to learn more about outsourcing to Ghana or other locations such as Mexico and the Philippines, contact our friendly team today.