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With this perspective in mind, it’s no wonder that Americans and Western Europeans have outsourced work for decades. What organization isn’t in the business to save a few bucks? As for those with impossible job requisitions, the tenaciousness of Indian salespeople is often an attractive quality. Their recruiters are willing to take on any task, regardless of its complications, and promise the best results. Eager for your business, they’ll do what it takes to land the opportunity at any cost.
If India or other recruiters overseas take on the toughest jobs for less pay, anyone would be a fool to turn them down… right?
Slow down, partner. Not so fast.
Before signing over any work to a foreign nation, a firm must look at cultural and business climates from the client’s perspective. If you were the client, would you want to work with an outsourced recruiter?
Let’s consider this more closely and address some significant hurdles of outsourcing foreign.
1. Language barriers
Imagine the last time you called customer service for like, your Dell computer, and couldn’t understand the person on the other line. They tried their best to speak the language, you tried your best to be patient, but the comprehension just wasn’t there. It’s not their fault, and it’s not your fault—just a tough situation. Now imagine that your clients and candidates get a call from this same person. How long would they stay on the line before their patience ran thin?
2. Lack of recruiter education
Just as some training and education could cure American recruiters’ subpar habits, overseas recruiters could use the same transformation. The difference is that many foreign-based recruiters possess even less access to these programs. This inadvertently encourages those bad recruiting habits that we already see in the American recruiter industry, like tactless contact methods, daft pitches, and intrusiveness.
3. Cultural barriers
Recruiters have to appeal to their candidates long enough to sell the position. This requires understanding the person’s goals, drivers, likes, and dislikes, as well as their past experiences. While it’s not impossible for cross-national selling to be successful, cultural barriers inhibit the process. Like, a lot. The drivers of a foreign IT representative, for example, might vary significantly from that of an American IT representative due to hierarchy, cultural values, family values, political climate, economic climate, and a host of other factors. Communication can help overcome these barriers; however, as discussed, communication is often a problem in itself.
4. Poor reputation with candidates
Whether deserved or not, many third-party recruiters from India and other like regions have a reputation for being far too aggressive. Candidates and clients already have this idea before contact is even made, immediately souring the relationship. If the recruiter is, in fact, intrusive in his/her methods, it only affirms the stereotype and further disintegrates the exchange.
5. Time zone
Communicating with both clients and candidates from across the world can become an unforeseen hardship. Phone calls can come in at 2 a.m., a highly disruptive event in the hiring process; so disruptive that candidates might drop out of the running because of it. Only a committed recruiter will stay awake to talk to your candidates at reasonable hours, but the conversations might not be as productive as a daytime chat.
While benefits to foreign outsourcing certainly exist, mainly in the form of costs and tenaciousness, the drawbacks should cause any strategic firm to pause and reconsider its next steps. Are the low prices worth the risks? Are they worth the hassle and headache?
At Qualigence International, we made our decision. We’ll never risk quality to save ourselves a dollar.
