As another year begins, many outsourcing businesses are excited for continued growth in 2022. But what’s in store for this year? Will the outsourcing industry be able to continue its forward momentum over the next 12 months?

1. Increased remote working efforts

Moving on to 2022, the business process outsourcing industry now has nearly two years of experience with widespread remote work that began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, outsourcers have overcome the initial challenges of moving to remote operations and are beginning to fine-tune the infrastructure needed to remain effective while staff work from home. 

According to a survey from Flexjobs, 58% of respondents report wanting to work on a full-time remote basis, while 39% said they prefer a hybrid work environment. These statistics reveal that the majority of BPO call centre employees are more likely to prefer a flexible work environment. In this case, BPO call centre companies would be expected to notice and make necessary adjustments during 2022. With this understanding, BPO call centres would have to plan, prepare and anticipate what it means to have their team working fully remotely. Most importantly, companies would require innovative remote team management applications to find the best cloud-based tool to help them optimise their operations, and maintain the best service to their clients. 

On the other hand, looking at the positive, shifting to either a fully remote or hybrid work setup can significantly benefit the company as well. Providing employees with their preferred work setup will help lessen turnover rates. At the same time, it can also lessen business operational expenses such as office rent and electricity bills to help maintain or improve the overall bottom line of the business.

1. Omnichannel and Automation Have Become the Standard

As outsourcing companies need to be adept with technology, they will need to facilitate and develop tools and resources to build a seamless omnichannel experience. Therefore, omnichannel and automation are on the fast track to become outsourcing mainstays by 2022. Robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics are essential differentiators for outsourcers looking to gain a competitive advantage. Cloud computing, RPA, and other forms of automation are likely to go beyond the fringes of in-house business processes and become core business features of outsourcing contracts in industries like healthcare, travel and IT services.

If you're eager to learn more or considering implementing automation in your business, ATI offers technology solutions such as RPA, queues processing, and bespoke application development, especially for the travel industry. You can find it on our website.

2. Outsourcing Expansion Across The Globe

In the past, when you thought of the BPO industry, you might automatically think of Asian countries like China, the Philippines, or India. This is why the majority of the BPO market is in Asia. But, over the past few years, the development trend has begun to change and develop, the outsourcing industry continues to expand all over the world. For instance, countries in Latin America have gained ground and positioned themselves as great places to outsource. One of the reasons for the rapidly growing interest in the BPO industry in Latin America today is due to their internal domestic growth. As most would have known, Latin America has relatively affordable labour costs, cultural compatibility,  good English language skills, proximity to and time zone compatibility with the US

As for other countries, Fiji is looking to create 100,000 BPO jobs in the next decade as is Indonesia, whilst Africa is currently working to develop their own roadmap for outsourcing.