At Valenta we recently opened an outsourced service center in Trinidad and Tobago. When we were looking for locations to open a service center to serve our North American clients we were not expecting to locate to Trinidad. However, for many reasons, Trinidad made a lot of sense for us and for our clients. Trinidad is focusing on fintech enablement, and there are many qualified workers on the island in this area. However, we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let us discuss some of the reasons for outsourcing first. Then we can cover why outsourcing, nearshoring, and staff augmentation in Trinidad is an excellent option.
Reasons for Outsourcing
One of the biggest reasons that businesses pursue outsourcing is that they cannot find local workers to fill open jobs. We have provided staff augmentation to countless clients who are not able to find people to fill their open roles. This problem is particularly acute in the areas of accounting, bookkeeping, and financial services. Presently, unemployment in the USA is at record lows. Because of this there are not many available workers to fill open jobs. Another of the reasons that people look to outsource is that they cannot find people to fill the roles at the budget that they have for specific jobs. This is one more way that outsourcing can really benefit. Outsourcing and nearshoring virtual staff can often be accomplished for 70% less than of salaries of onshore workers. This cost saving is dramatic and allows resources to be devoted to higher paying jobs onshore that are more customer centric with higher value work. Nearshoring to Trinidad provides tremendous advantages because workers on the island are in the same time zone as the East Coast of the US most of the year. Staff augmentation provided in Trinidad can work seamlessly with onshore staff and management. Businesses we serve also pursue outsourcing because of its flexible contract based nature. Businesses can ramp up and ramp down based on requirements. When they are in growth mode, they can hire rapidly and inexpensively, and when business contracts it is quite easy to scale down.
Reasons to Outsource and Nearshore to Trinidad
There are many excellent reasons to outsource and nearshore to Trinidad. One of the first big advantages is that English is the primary language in Trinidad and Tobago. English may frequently be spoken with a Caribbean accent or twang. But this accent is easy to understand, easy to process, and often reminds people of nice vacations! Another big advantage of Trinidad and Tobago is that it has a stable parliamentary democracy. That government is also 100% behind establishing the island as a regional services center especially in the area of finance., but more on that later.
As mentioned earlier, Trinidad and Tobago run on East Coast US time most of the year. They do not practice daylight savings time because of their proximity to the equator. So, for a portion of the year, they do run 1 hour ahead. During this period workers can shift the times that they work. However, with the US planning to dispense with daylight savings time (finally!) this will no longer be a consideration in 2023. Although the population is a modest 1.3 million, it is still a large enough pool of labor to draw upon. Another huge benefit is that the T&T workforce is well educated. This is demonstrated by the adult literacy rate of 98.6%. There are also large pools of potential staff which are trained in accounting and finance.
The proximity to the US is convenient not just for the time zone, but also for travel. Flights to Trinidad from Miami take less than four hours, and from New York they are around five hours. Flights from Houston are about five hours and from Toronto, Canada they are about five and a half. All of this makes T&T quite accessible for in person visits, meetings and training if required. Another plus is that Trinidad & Tobago ranks first in Latin America and the Caribbean region for its high quality yet low cost infrastructure regarding power and broadband. There are also many attractive business parks and infrastructure facilities available for rent or lease so that staff can work in professional environments.
The government of Trinidad is backing and promoting a Fintech and financial services roadmap strategy. Previously the island was dependent on the energy business in Venezuela but as that economy has imploded the island is now diversifying itself. The Fintech and financial services roadmap strategy is leading to wider adoption of outsourcing, nearshoring, and staff augmentation in Trinidad and Tobago. Government agencies plan to make Trinidad and Tobago a Fintech enabled financial services hub. Trinidad and Tobago is a member of the Caribbean single market economy, which allows free movement of regional talent throughout the region. One final benefit to businesses who are working with companies who outsource and run service centers in Trinidad is the low overhead related to labor costs in addition to salaries for outsourcing companies. Compared to other regional economies like Jamaica and Costa Rica (which also engage in outsourcing) Trinidad has lower mandatory benefits, and these savings are passed on to business clients.
Want to Learn More?
Valenta is a leading provider of outsourced personnel. We provide a variety of back office staff, including accountants, bookkeepers, financial staff, medical billing specialists, medical assistants, software administrators, IT staff, digital marketers, and much more. We also provide a wide range of software developers, big data specialists, data scientists, RPA developers, plus automation and digital transformation specialists. We operate service centers in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, plus Trinidad. We are planning new service centers within the next 12 to 18 months in Eastern Europe and Latin America. We are available to discuss your business’s staffing requirements any time. We can support BPO needs, and we can also support your software development requirements. Please reach out to your local Valenta managing partner to discuss available services. Please Contact Us to schedule a free consultation.