Michael Hanly, Manging Director of New Leaf Technologies, unpacks how outsourcing content development and content design to South Africa can radically change an organisation’s ability to enhance its skills profile.

Global economic growth has been described as sluggish. It is predicted to expand at around 1.6% in 2023 according to JP Morgan, but ongoing complexities such as geopolitical conflicts, the rise in COVID-19 infections, inflation, supply chain demand issues and the energy crisis in Europe are knocking economic growth and triggering a global recession. These recession conditions, driven by rising inflation and interest rates and a decline in global growth, are also ignited by supply shock, market uncertainty and extreme weather events. This cost-of-living crisis and the encroaching recession are, according to Euromonitor, set to negatively impact on organisations as they juggle increased operating costs and employee expectations.  Add to this the International Monetary Fund’s gloomy prediction that this is the weakest growth since 2001, and it’s easy to see why companies are struggling. 

To add to the complexity, companies and employees need to invest in content-heavy Learner Management Systems (LMS) that enhance skills development to ensure that the landscape, as fraught as it is economically, isn’t going to leave their people and business behind when it comes to innovation and transformation. Employees, especially high-end talent, are quick to leave if a company doesn’t invest into their growth, and companies need rich talent to ensure they are not left on the wrong side of the growing skills gap. However, creating platforms that leverages great courseware content design to broaden skills growth can be expensive.

Fortunately, it’s an expense that can be mitigated by outsourcing content design to trusted organisations outside of the UK. It is a shift that’s already taking place. YouGov found that seven out of ten companies in the UK already outsource services to third-party service providers and that the driving forces behind this shift are cost, accessibility, and performance. Around 30% of companies said that the reason they outsourced was better results while 28% say it’s more efficient. As the recession continues to bite, it makes sense for companies to turn to service providers that cannot just cut the costs but deliver the goods.

South African companies have a long history of providing cost-effective and reliable services to organisations within the United Kingdom and delivering high-end support at a price point that companies can afford. According to Deloitte, South Africa has established itself as destination for a number of services, particularly in the business process outsourcing (BPO) market and has the potential to continue this growth with value-driven services. Today, companies like Deloitte, British Gas, Thames Water, and Amazon, use South Africa’s talented workforce and service providers because of their training, accessibility, and skillsets.

South Africa brings numerous benefits to the table, but some of the most invaluable include the use of English as a workplace language, time-zone similarities, cultural affinity, and first-world infrastructure. With a different cost of living and a well-trained workforce, South African training companies offer high-level training and skills development platforms at a very competitive price point.

However, if an organisation does turn to South Africa for its content design and development, it’s essential that there’s due diligence. The service provider must offer a wide range of course development services that are aligned to enterprise training needs and that help companies to create memorable, media-based digital learning services that can be accessed online and at any time. This fits in with the growing hybrid and remote work landscape and allows for companies to curate training that suits their specific expectations. The services offered should include a variety of different educational approaches such as instructional design, multimedia production, narration, and immersive virtual content creation. This allows for in-house training development that’s relevant and targeted without compromising on quality and relevance.

It’s also important to assess the experience levels of the service providers own team. The content team should have high levels of experience and exceptional quality content provision alongside a diversity of skills to ensure that content creation leverages the latest models and training techniques. This can include anything from game-based learning through to high-end animated content, virtual reality learning experiences, and anything in-between.

Finally, if a company is considering taking its content design and development to another country, look at their portfolio. It’s important that they have a solid track record with a customer list that can be verified. And ensure that the services they offer are cost-effective for the value they deliver so you can balance your budget expectations against clear deliverables. Using a South Africa-based service provider can offer UK companies these cost savings as well as access to a diverse and experienced talent pool without any compromise on quality or reliability.

About New Leaf Technologies:

New Leaf Technologies provides “best of breed” learning software and services to corporations, training companies and educational institutions throughout Africa and the Middle East. Its products include aNewSpring, a cloud-based Learner Experience Platform (LXP); New Leaf LMS, an enterprise-grade Learner Management System; and Wisenet, a sleek student management system. The company also offers over 20 000 off-the-shelf courses and tailor-made course content, shareable through these platforms, as well as a turnkey design and production service, to create holistic e-learning experiences.