Navigating Cultural Differences in Offshoring and Outsourcing Business Relationships

Cultural differences in the workplace

Misunderstandings, false impressions, mistakes, and entrenched views; such can be the impact of culture differences between onshore and offshore staff. If not addressed carefully by the outsourcing company, cultural differences in the workplace can have a deleterious effect on the business. However, the company that builds a diverse business culture by managing culture differences can benefit on many levels, such as production and efficiency. When diversity is properly managed and people have the opportunity to interact with colleagues who can offer diverse skills and opinions, they not only feel valued and important regardless of cultural variations but also appreciate that staff are valued and important for different reasons. 

Managing cultural differences with offshore staff when outsourcing

Let’s look at the different methods that can be employed when managing culture differences while business outsourcing. We’ll use Australia and the Philippines to illustrate some of the characteristics which might need sensitive handling:



• While Australians can be fiercely independent when it comes to solving problems and often proceed without the input of a line manager, Filipino offshore staff are more likely to ask for guidance from a supervisor.
• Australians are often upfront and ready for confrontation. However, the empathetic nature of the Filipinos leads them to pay more attention to the other person’s feelings and perhaps tiptoe around the issue.
• Key performance indicators are generally not popular with Australian workers. In contrast, offshore staff in the Philippines who work for an outsourcing company embrace such evaluations readily and are happy with targets and improvement goals.
• Australians are a proud bunch and can take criticism to heart if one of their projects comes off badly. The view is the polar opposite in the Philippines: An outsourcing company that hires remote staff in the Philippines will encounter a workforce that thrives on feedback of all kinds and views it with positivity.
• For Australians, business is business but if friendship should happen along, they are happy to engage with it. Things are different in the Philippines, where friendships between colleagues develop freely outside the outsourcing company and are much more common.
• If Australians find themselves in the middle of a task, they might skip lunch so they can see it through. In the Philippines, structured breaks are the norm for the offshore staff as they fit into the framework of working to the targets and KPIs of the outsourcing company.
  

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is cultural difference?

According to research resource Springer Nature Switzerland AG, cultural difference involves the integrated and maintained system of socially acquired values, beliefs, and rules of conduct which impact the range of accepted behaviours distinguishable from one societal group to another.

Cultural differences contribute to one’s relationship with the external environment. The result of these groupings can be characterised by distinct behavioural and personality differences. For example, the culture which dictates that individuals dominate their environment contrasts with the culture that promotes living in harmony. Worldviews may also reflect cultural differences at an outsourcing company.

Among the advantages of culture differences are letting culturally diverse workers get together to thrash out ideas that could broaden the number of solutions for a company that has chosen business outsourcing to consider. When people from different backgrounds and cultures come together they become accustomed to perspectives and viewpoints that they previously weren’t aware of, which can stimulate their own different opinions and ideas.

For those using a business outsourcing company — such as Intogreat Solutions Philippines — cultural diversity can have a significant impact on areas like communication. Being able to communicate effectively across the globe can deliver a commercial advantage for a business which employs offshore staff; as does understanding cultural distinctions and the differences in doing business in other countries.

A culturally diverse workforce is a key business asset. Organisations need to be able to communicate effectively with clients and fully understand their needs, regardless of their language or culture. Clients are also attracted to organisations that hire people with familiar characteristics, which makes the recruitment and professional management of diverse people when business outsourcing the fount of a big advantage worldwide.

Diversity can certainly bring a competitive edge to an organisation, but only if the process is skillfully managed by an outsourcing company which is familiar with managing culture differences. If not, an organisation can be negatively affected by having a work environment which rather being united by culture differences is adversely affected by the impact of culture differences.

As far as disadvantages go, when communication goes wrong it can damage business outsourcing companies with culture differences which have trouble resolving them. Particularly in situations where clarity is essential, language barriers can get in the way of effectiveness and cause vital input to fall through the cracks. It is therefore essential that such linguistic problems are addressed immediately.

Factors which companies who choose business outsourcing with Intogreat Solutions can be relaxed about are time-zone differences, the distance between onshore and offshore staff, language barriers, and diverse customs and behaviours. Why? Because Intogreat is the business outsourcing company which is committed to a seamless business outsourcing process which is easy, successful, rewarding, and empowering.

How does Intogreat manage client expectations over cultural differences?

One of the worries that potential clients express about business outsourcing and offshore staff is the language barrier. However, from primary school in the Philippines, students are taught English as their second language after Filipino. They are trained to understand and speak English extensively, so graduates are fluent in English. At Intogreat, most of our offshore staff are university graduates which means they are proficient in English literacy and possess cognitive and communication skills. We also measure this through our rigorous recruitment process.

Intogreat Solutions establishes strong connections between people, processes, administration, communications, and the client. This holistic approach ensures a smooth offshoring process for our clients. Offshoring requires more than just recruiting resources and setting up a team overseas. Our offshoring service provides end-to-end project management to seamlessly migrate your processes offshore, and dedicated leaders who are experts in their fields to oversee your offshore operations, ensuring that your offshore staff performs to, or even above, your expectations. Successful offshoring is about creating strong and collaborative connections between the head office (onshore) and your offshore teams. And managing culture differences plays a key role.

If you would like to learn more about business outsourcing with Intogreat Solutions, please contact an Intogreat outsourcing and offshoring expert for a consultation.