We thought it was one of our best-kept secrets to the high level of quality and talent that we at OutPLEX pride ourselves on. Word got out nonetheless, and nearshore Colombia is booming in technology and talent for global corporations worldwide.
Web development, BPO, and messaging have experienced tremendous growth. Even during the pandemic, the industry continued to grow. OutPLEX Colombia doubled in size in the past year despite the uncertainty around the world.
So why is Colombia such a hot spot for technology and talent these days? Let’s explore some of the finer details of this nearshore treasure:
Cost Savings
The drive to save costs is what brings many companies exploring opportunities abroad. The exchange rate of the Colombian peso benefits our clients with a higher value from reduced associated costs. Colombia continues to prove itself over and above competitors in other countries. Clients don’t have to compromise quality to enjoy that reduced cost when doing business in nearshore Colombia.
Infrastructure Integrity
A Silicon Valley contender is developing in Latin America, and that contender is Colombia. Colombia’s technical infrastructure in the larger cities is modernized to handle the increased demand and capacity of global business. This directly benefits the volume of business we do at OutPLEX.
There are no hurricanes or major power outages that you’ll find in other nearshore locations. Colombia, in general, is a very low-risk location when it comes to natural disasters. This is critical in a 24/7 operation. They are also a source of redundancy to our Dominican Republic operations to ensure business continuity. The third level of redundancy comes with our hybrid business model, which enables employees to work from home if the office becomes inaccessible.
Finally, there’s the benefit of accessibility. Our OutPLEX Colombia location is easy to visit with several daily flights from the US, Canada, and Europe. The city infrastructure is modernized, making for easy commutes and a great location to live and work.
Government Support
The Colombian government saw great opportunities in technology and BPO and works with local businesses to ensure their prosperity and success.
The subsidized universities have specialized courses of study dedicated to BPO operations. The local businesses help support the universities by paying toward those subsidies to develop the talents vital to their success. The government rewards them by subsidizing a portion of salary for young new graduates starting their careers.
The government support in building these skills results in a large talent pool for technology in Colombia. These young adults come into the workforce with a heightened level of excellence in technology and contact center skills. We found that they adapt to the concept of automation technology extremely well with this core of knowledge. The large population combined with the efforts to develop new professionals in what businesses need is another way that Colombia is a hot spot for technology and talent.
Culture of Excellence
Colombians are known to hold themselves to a higher standard, and that is demonstrated daily at OutPLEX. They are self-driven to succeed and highly competitive. Every day, they challenge themselves and each other to bring their best. We witnessed that quality directly as we saw our employee population double at OutPLEX in nearshore Colombia. Their energy feeds on one another.
Quality in Several Languages
Language is one of the most significant factors that makes Colombia a hot spot for talent. Multilingual abilities are widespread in Colombia, making it attractive to any organization with a global presence.
First, the Spanish in Colombia is known to be the cleanest Spanish in the world. Colombians speak slowly and clearly, which attracts the Spanish-speaking campaigns. The clarity also extends with high-quality conversation designs in automation and digital messaging.
English is offered at all levels in the schools and is spoken frequently in many circles. Because of this, bilingual abilities are expected. If a public school doesn’t offer English directly, the government offers a subsidized program to expand the opportunity.
Many Colombians are driven to even more, so multilingual skills are highly prevalent in nearshore Colombia and another feature that makes it a hot spot for talent in the global marketplace. Italian, French, and Portuguese are the most popular third languages, but Mandarin is gaining popularity as an opportunity with the newer talent rising.
How Does OutPLEX Stand Out?
With Colombia proving itself to be a top contender of talent, other BPOs took notice quickly. Our challenge is two-fold. We must stand out against our local competitors to those global opportunities. We must also stand out to the talented professionals in Colombia as a preferred workplace.
Professional Development at OutPLEX
Search online for ‘soft skills in the workplace,’ and you’ll find pages and pages of options to choose from. These skills are taught first in the university, and with the caliber of talent we have in Colombia coming out of the universities, the basics are exceptional.
Empathy
A significant challenge we identified with the bilingual and multilingual working with customers is the ability to demonstrate empathy outside of their native language and maintain a high level of professionalism. This is where many multilingual BPOs fall short.
OutPLEX works with employees to incorporate empathy in any language. This practice goes beyond a simple course. We found that with our team’s ongoing development, the quality extends beyond the voice agents right into automation and digital messaging.
Advancement Opportunities
We have learned that our best digital messaging and automation experts began in the contact center, both as voice and digital messaging agents. Spending time immersed in a client campaign taught them the language, culture, common issues, solutions, and nuances of that campaign. With mastery of the campaign, they are ready to be recruited to learn automation.
We found it’s easier to train on the technology of conversational design and bot tuning than try to train on what’s unique and specific to any one client. Applying real experience to a client campaign makes the conversational design so natural that many customers have no idea that their conversations are automated.
They WANT to Come to OutPLEX
While there is no shortage of talent in Colombia, there is still competition between BPOs to capture the best and brightest talent. Benefits are one way we excel for our employees, but our next challenge, especially after the pandemic shutdown, was to make people want to come into the office.
During the pandemic, the Colombia team has more than doubled in size. We have grown so much that we have acquired office space much more expansive than originally planned, for when our employees return to onsite work. This will come with fresh design and aesthetics, creating an inviting environment that our employees will love to come to and spend their days. This, combined with our geographically desirable location, makes OutPLEX a top company to work for in the bustling metropolitan city of Bogotá.
Grow With Us
Our growth is more than a run of good luck. Tremendous research goes into our expansion efforts, and our investment in Colombia has been fruitful. We have a treasure of talent that provides exceptional service for our clients and their customers. Satisfied customers add to increased business and growth. We would love to engage with new prospects and discuss your CX operations to determine if agents based in nearshore Colombia could benefit your brand as they do for so many of our current clients.
Contact us now to improve your CX!