Impact sourcing

Impact sourcing, also known as socially responsible outsourcing, refers to an arm of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry that employs people at the base of the pyramid or socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals as principal workers in business process outsourcing centers to provide high-quality, information-based services to domestic and international clients.[1] The traditional BPO sector is typically associated with high-end, high-contact functions like call centers, which require significant levels of education and language literacy. The impact sourcing sector focuses on utilizing workers from poor and vulnerable communities to perform functions with lower and moderate skill requirements such as scanning documents, data entry work, data verification and cleaning, video tagging, and microwork.

The BPO sector

Business process outsourcing (BPO) refers to the outsourcing of certain business processes (i.e. informational and transaction services) to third-party service providers. This business has grown over the past two decades to a hundred billion-dollar sector that directly impacts both international trade and the global economy. Growth in the BPO sector has been driven by five mega-trends:[2]

  • Global macroeconomic liberalization
  • The digitization of business processes
  • Technological innovations and the adoption of technology
  • Growing worldwide capabilities
  • Global business culture

Growth is likely to continue because the majority of these drivers are unlikely to reverse.[2] The global estimate for the BPO sector as high as $574 billion by 2015.[3] Developing countries have particularly benefited from the growth of the BPO sector, generating exports and millions of jobs. Leading centers for BPO include India, the Philippines, China, Costa Rica, and South Africa.

Origins

Impact sourcing first evolved as a new sub-sector of the BPO industry in India as rising costs in urban centers forced many BPO companies to focus on higher end services such as voice. New BPO companies sprang up in rural India where they enjoyed both lower costs and attrition rates. Those BPOs, such as RuralShores, employed high school graduates and university students from agrarian, low-income families. Another example is Vindhya Info based out of Bangalore and Hyderabad in India, whose work force is 85% PWD (People with disabilities). In 2008, the South African government launched the Monyetla Work Readiness Program in which over 1,000 unemployed youth, mostly high school graduates, were trained for work in the country's BPO sector; over 77% of the trainees found employment.[4]

Support

In 2010, The Rockefeller Foundation launched an initiative focused on poverty reduction through employment to further its core activities related to supporting "sustainable livelihoods" among poor and vulnerable populations. The Monitor Group and Rockefeller Foundation, borrowing from impact investing terminology, formally coined the term "impact sourcing" in a 2011 report that focused on the beneficial job creation aspect of the BPO industry.[5]

In 2016, the Rockefeller Foundation in partnership with BSR launched the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition to encourage adoption and support the BPO industry to train and hire impact workers.

In 2018, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) launch the Global Impact Sourcing Awards to recognize BPO buyers, providers, and influencers who have championed the impact sourcing strategy.

Impact sourcing service providers (ISSPs)

Impact sourcing service providers (ISSPs) are a group of organizations within the BPO sector that operate with a set of refer to BPO organizations with the specific social objectives. Many of these firms have, as an explicit part of their often defined in their mission, an objective to generate employment for and upgrade the skills of hire workers from poor and vulnerable communities to perform BPO work.

Value proposition

Impact sourcing is viewed as an effective market-based solution to poverty alleviation and shows the potential to create millions of jobs for the young and those living in poverty.[6] While long-term studies have yet to take place, impact sourcing has begun to demonstrate positive impacts on multiple aspects of well-being for workers and their families. Studies indicate that impact sourcing employees benefit with income increases of anywhere from 40 percent to 200 percent.[5] Employment in Impact Sourcing also serves as initial entry point into the formal economy, which leads to valuable job experience that can help workers pay their way through school, receive higher education and move towards better careers.

Impact sourcing also has the potential to benefit traditional BPO service providers, who are actively seeking alternate lower-cost destinations (i.e. smaller cities and/or rural towns) and pools of new and more affordable qualified workers.

While the potential benefits of impact sourcing are compelling, the sector faces challenges that have prevented it from reaching its full potential. These obstacles include the ability of ISSPs to secure new work and clients, as well as the ability for ISSPs to partner with and sub-contract for larger, more traditional BPO service providers.

Market size

Impact sourcing is considered to be in its early stage of development. In 2011 the current market size was estimated at $4.5 billion, which represented about 4% of the $119 billion BPO industry.[7] Impact Sourcing directly employs approximately 144,000 people across all segments.[5] Some analysts estimate that Impact Sourcing has the potential to grow to $20 billion by 2015, employing 780,000 socioeconomically disadvantaged people globally.[5] Avasant estimated that the market had the ability to grow to represent 23% of the total BPO industry by 2020.[8]

References
  1. Monitor Inclusive Markets, Job Creation Through Build the Field of Impact Sourcing, June 2011 http://www.monitor.com/Portals/0/MonitorContent/imported/MonitorUnitedStates/Articles/PDFs/Monitor_Job_Creation_Through_Building_the_Field_of_Impact_Sourcing_6_16_11.pdf
  2. Kennedy, Robert. The Services Shift: Seizing the Ultimate Offshore Opportunity, FT Press, 2009. https://www.amazon.com/Services-Shift-Ultimate-Offshore-Opportunity/dp/0137133502
  3. Accenture. Exploring the Value Proposition for Impact for Impact Sourcing, October 2012. http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-exploring-value-proposition-impact-sourcing.aspx
  4. Offshoring South Africa on the Monyetla Work Readiness Program, "Stepping Stone to Employment", March 2011. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-09-14. Retrieved 2011-08-18.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Monitor Inclusive Markets. Job Creation Through Build the Field of Impact Sourcing, June 2011. http://www.monitor.com/Portals/0/MonitorContent/imported/MonitorUnitedStates/Articles/PDFs/Monitor_Job_Creation_Through_Building_the_Field_of_Impact_Sourcing_6_16_11.pdf
  6. Monitor Inclusive Markets. Promise and Progress: Market-Based Solutions to Poverty in Africa, May 2011. http://www.monitor.com/Expertise/BusinessIssues/EconomicDevelopmentandSecurity/tabid/69/ctl/ArticleDetail/mid/705/CID/2011230515191415/CTID/1/L/en-US/Default.aspx
  7. Bornstein, David. Workers of the World, Employed, New York Times, November 3rd, 2011.http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/workers-of-the-world-employed/
  8. Avasant, Incentives & Opportunities for Scaling the 'Impact Sourcing' Sector, September 2012
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