How Ethical offshoring and outsourcing can Help us Confront our Biases. 

By the Enzo Team 

Introduction 

When offshore hiring or outsourcing is done correctly, it can create a win-win situation for both parties. The company is able to save money on high-quality work, and the contractor is able to make a competitive wage and develop skills. These reasons are the most commonly accepted for offshoring and outsourcing. However, there are other benefits talked about less that are still extremely important. One of them is that offshoring and outsourcing can help individuals and businesses overcome their biases. 

When considering biases in the workplace, it is important to understand there can be many different types of biases. Most employers and workers would not consider themselves biased against anyone, but that does not mean they are not. This is due to something called Unconcious Bias- also known as Implicit Bias. 

Defining Bias 

Bias in its simplest form is defined as, "any thought or action that discriminates or disproportionately favors one person or group of people over another based on superficial or inaccurate perceptions of the person or group". However, most of the bias we see in business is a more subtle type of bias, one that is unconscious.

Unconscious bias is a stereotype or prejudice someone has against a group that they are consciously aware of having. In other words, unconscious bias is bias we have, but don't realize we have.

A lot of the time when we hear of someone having bias or prejudice we assume that they are not a very good person. But when it comes to implicit bias that is simply not true. Everyone has some kind of unconscious bias. Everyone. This is because everyone is raised in biased systems, in a biased society. The reason these biases are unconscious is because they were never explicitly taught, but they are still there. 

Outsourcing and Offshoring 

But what does all of this have to do with offshore hiring and outsourcing? Well if you want to be successful when offshoring and outsourcing then understanding bias in the work environment is vital. If you don’t then the chances of you underutilizing and undervaluing offshore talent increase. 

Our biases could lead to us not promoting, listening to, or trusting people who are different from us, and again, this would not be happening on purpose, but unconsciously. And while this is true for offshoring, it is also just true in general. Unconscious bias and prejudice can be found in all workplaces. It is up to us to confront and challenge our own biases and stereotypes for the good of ourselves and the good of the company. 

How it works 

One of the only ways to get rid of our bias is through interacting with people who are different then we are. When you are confronted with someone you have unconsciously stereotyped, and they do not fit into the bias you created you can both subconsciously and consciously begin to undo that stereotype. 

But what happens if you meet someone who confirms the stereotype you made in your head? This is a plausible experience because stereotypes are often rooted in some truth. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once said, “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story”. 

This means even when someone confirms part of a story in your head, your bias is still being unraveled. Because you are interacting with a complex, nuanced person. Understaning that a stereotype is only one small part of a bigger story can help us see someone as an individual with their unique thoughts and opinions, instead of minimizing them to a stereotype. Meeting people you may have consciously or unconsciously generalized allows you to see a larger picture of that group. Which in turn starts unraveling the stereotypes, biases, and generalizations you have.  

Why it matters 

Becoming the kind of person or cultivating the kind of business that can recognize and dismantle bias is important for many reasons. On one hand, it makes us better as individuals, both in a work environment and a personal one. Bias, especially implicit bias is something everyone struggles with. Having the skills to work on it, or even at the very least the ability to recognize it is a step to becoming the most successful person you can be. 

It also allows businesses to fully utilize their employee's skills. If you have an unconscious bias towards an employee or a group of employees, you are less likely to hear out their ideas, give them challenging or high-profile assignments, forgive errors you would normally, etc. Which is not an effective strategy for employee retention or business. 

It is also better for business as a whole. Many studies show that having a more diverse workspace and a more diverse team leads to more business success and they tend to outperform their competitors financially. In an article, Forbes said, “ Diversity can help your team become more agile and be better equipped to pivot and adapt as necessary to remain competitive. As data from McKinsey reveals, the top quartile of companies for ethnic diversity are 36% more likely to financially outperform their less diverse peers". The reason this is true is because the more diverse thinkers you have, the easier it is to solve problems and come up with new ideas. 

Takeaways 

Hiring offshore or outsourcing can help us tackle our biases, in the workplace and our personal lives. However, it is the job of the company hiring, the employer, and the onshore employees to work on their biases. While meeting new people and learning new ideas can help us confront our biases, it is not their job to educate us. It is our job to better ourselves. This is why unconscious bias training and work training in diversity are so important to the work environment. 

While confronting biases can lead to a better economic outcome for companies and individual employees, there is a bigger principle at play here. Which is simply to be a good person. 

 Enzo is a value-based business, and we believe that creating workspaces that promote equality and respect for all is essential to the success of any company. Not just because of economic value but because it creates a fairer, better world for us all. Confronting out biases both implicit and explicit is a difficult thing to do, but it is how we make our business and the world we live in the best they can be. Offshoring and outsourcing can play a part in that. But there are many ways to learn and grow outside of that. We encourage all businesses, ones that offshore and outsource and ones that do not, to take on the responsibility of creating a workplace that is equal and fair for everyone.