7 Reasons Companies Say No to Offshore Talent and the Questions Behind Them

The case for offshore talent can look very compelling. Access to a larger talent pool. The ability to find skills that may be difficult to hire onshore. Significant cost savings. For many companies, the numbers alone are enough to get the conversation started.

And then somebody says, “Yeah, but…” That's usually where conversations start to get interesting.

Because business leaders have legitimate concerns about hiring offshore. If you're responsible for the performance of a team, the security of your company's data or the quality of the work your customers receive, you should have concerns. And that means you should have questions.

Asking hard questions before changing the way you build your workforce is simply good business. Naturally, we’ve heard plenty of those questions during our decades of building dedicated offshore teams in the Philippines for our clients. Here are seven of the big ones…

1. “Will the talent be as good?”

Let's start with the elephant in the boardroom. Companies can save considerably by hiring offshore talent, but nobody wants to save 60% on someone who does 60% of the job.

So, will the talent be as good?

“Absolutely, it can be,” says ECLARO Co-Founder Tom Sheridan. “But the word offshore doesn't tell you anything about whether someone is talented, experienced or right for the job. Their résumé, skills, experience and ability to perform the work, that’s where you find that answer.

“The Philippines, for example, has a deep pool of highly educated professionals working across technology, accounting, finance, customer operations and other business functions. Many have years of experience working with U.S. companies and understand the expectations that come with supporting American businesses. That doesn't mean every candidate is terrific.

“But the same is true of candidates in New York, Chicago or San Francisco. It’s our job to deliver the top candidates to our clients, and the top talent in the Philippines is absolutely as good as the top talent anywhere.”

And that's really the point. You shouldn't be choosing between “onshore quality” and “offshore quality.” You should be choosing between qualified and unqualified candidates.

What matters is how people are sourced, recruited, evaluated and matched to the work you actually need done. So if you're considering offshore talent, don't lower the bar. Keep it exactly where it is. The Right People will rise to meet it no matter where they are.

2. “How am I supposed to manage someone on the other side of the world?”

Fair question. But here's another one. How often are you physically sitting next to the people you manage now?

For many companies, remote and hybrid work changed that equation years ago. Managers already lead people across offices, states and sometimes countries.

“Whether you’re 12 feet away or 12 hours, good management still depends on many of the same things,” says ECLARO Co-Founder Paul Sheridan. “Clear expectations matter. Regular communication matters. People need to understand what they're responsible for and how their performance will be measured.

“There is another consideration, too, when you’re asking about managing a remote team. Find out what support exists on the offshore side. At ECLARO, our dedicated offshore talent becomes an extension of the client's team, while our team in the Philippines provides the appropriate level of local support around the engagement. It has to be designed for success from the start, no matter where you are and where your team is located.”

3. “What about our data?”

This one deserves more than a reassuring answer and a nice PowerPoint slide. If offshore employees will be accessing your systems, customer information, financial records or intellectual property, ask exactly how those things will be protected.

What security standards does the offshore provider follow? What certifications do they hold? How is access controlled? What happens when an employee leaves? Where will the work actually be performed? Get specific.

ECLARO is ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified, with security practices built around protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of client information. That’s a standard we’ve set for ourselves in order to deliver for our clients.

Whatever offshore partner you consider, expect them to be comfortable answering detailed security questions. If you're trusting someone with your data, “Trust us” isn't enough.

4. “Aren't the time zones going to be a nightmare?”

They certainly can be if nobody talks about them beforehand. The Philippines, for example, is roughly half a day ahead of the United States, depending on where you are. That can sound like a sizeable gap until you answer a more useful question:

When do you actually need your offshore team working?

At ECLARO, dedicated offshore talent works the shifts our clients need. In many cases, that means working alongside the U.S. team during its normal business day. In other situations, companies “follow the sun,” intentionally using the time difference to extend coverage beyond their onshore working hours so productivity never stops.

“The key is that the team is there when you need them, all the time,” Tom Sheridan says. “When you have a dedicated offshore team that’s been hired just for you, part of building that team is establishing the work hours and workflow up front, so the time zones are absolutely irrelevant.”

The clock isn't necessarily the problem when it comes to offshoring. You just need a plan for how you want to use that clock, and a partner who can ensure that your team is working your hours, all the time.

5. “Will they really understand our business?”

Becoming part of a company takes time. Think about your last onshore hire. Did that person understand your customers, internal shorthand, the work styles of other team members or the peculiar way your organization does certain things on Monday morning? Probably not on Day One.

People learn a business by being brought into it. That's why we believe the word dedicated matters so much in offshoring.

“ECLARO's offshore professionals are recruited and hired specifically for each and every client,” Paul Sheridan says. “They aren't sitting on a bench waiting to be assigned wherever they're needed next. Our clients interview them and select them. They work for that client and become part of that client's team, exclusively.

“That exclusivity means that the employees become immersed in that company’s culture, processes and practices, and they retain and grow that experience and knowledge over time.”

Additionally, the locale of where an organization finds its offshore talent matters when it comes to understanding and compatibility. Is the culture of that country aligned with the culture of the U.S.? In the Philippines, for example, where English is an official language and where every Western cultural touchstone from music and movies to work ethic is the norm, we’ve seen not just outstanding communication but the power of true comprehension elevate teams at every level.

“When teams are culturally in sync, discussions flow naturally, misunderstandings fade and collaboration becomes intuitive,” Paul adds. “We’ve seen the impact for clients as they are first building their teams, when the cultural connection helps teams hit the ground running, but it’s also a driving force for long-term success, where the shared cultural understanding helps make that team bond stronger and that communication even more seamless over time.”

6. “I don't want to give up control.”

We wouldn't either. This objection often comes from the way people think about traditional outsourcing. You hand a function to another company, they manage it, and you receive an outcome.

That's one model. But it isn’t the ECLARO model.

With dedicated offshore talent, the client can remain closely involved in how the team operates. You determine what people work on. You establish priorities. You decide how the offshore employees interact with your onshore organization.

ECLARO recruits and hires people specifically for the client and provides the offshore infrastructure and support around them. For a business leader who wants to build a team rather than merely hand over a function, that's an important distinction.

Before saying no to offshoring because you don't want to lose control, ask the provider a very simple question: Exactly what would we be giving up control of?

The answer may surprise you.

7. “We tried it before. It didn't work.”

If you've already had a bad offshore experience, nobody should expect you to forget it because the next provider has a better presentation.

So talk about what happened. Was the talent disappointing? Was turnover the problem? Did communication break down? Were expectations never clearly established? Did the provider disappear once the contract was signed?

Understanding why an offshore engagement failed can tell you quite a bit about what you'd need to see before trying again. It can also help you determine whether offshoring itself was the problem.

Sometimes it was. Sometimes the engagement model was wrong for the company. And sometimes the partner simply wasn't very good.

Maybe “Yeah, but…” Is Exactly Where You Should Start

Offshoring isn't the right answer for every company, every position or every situation. But legitimate concerns automatically end the conversation. Actually, they should make the conversation better.

If you're considering offshore talent, bring your skepticism with you. Ask about quality. Ask about security. Ask how the people will be managed and how they'll become part of your organization. If you've had a bad experience before, put that on the table, too.

Then listen carefully to the answers. A good offshore partner shouldn't need you to stop asking difficult questions. They should be ready for them.

LEARN MORE: KEY QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK BEFORE BUILDING AN OFFSHORE TEAM