Kick-Start Your ESG Aspirations In 2023 - with yoummday

ESG - The New Frontier in Business Strategy

Why has Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG) become so important in recent years? ESG used to be treated more like a function of marketing — it was nice for a company to focus on social projects, but they would only get any attention after a clear focus on the bottom line. Today, a robust ESG strategy directly impacts your bottom line.

The Covid pandemic was a clear line in the sand. When the world changed overnight, it became clear which companies were looking after their employees and customers. Customers started paying attention to this, along with employees and investors too. Finally, a bright spotlight was lit directly above the usually shady world of corporate governance.

Now the importance of ESG is evident. Investors will not give your business cash if you don’t have a clear ESG strategy. Employees — especially Gen Z — will not look to you as an employer of choice if you don’t take a position on ESG. Perhaps most importantly, customers are now making purchasing decisions with ESG as an essential variable — if you care about ESG issues, that can directly drive more sales.

A Journey from Compliance to Culture

However, ESG is a big subject. Even just looking at the three letters in the acronym, it is clear that your business needs to focus on the environment and sustainability, social governance and being a good corporate citizen, and internal corporate governance — how are employees managed and cared for? Every single area can be a significant challenge for a business that is still relatively new to this journey.

Last May, the consulting firm Neo Group surveyed some of the leading IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies globally to see how they adopted ESG standards and strategies. The findings were interesting. Some of the most prominent BPO players globally didn’t even bother responding, indicating that they don’t have much of a story to tell. Others pointed to a bullet-point list of ESG achievements, but there was a clear message that no cultural change had occurred — the management felt they had to do this rather than really believing in it.

This is why partnering with Yoummday could be such an important and strategic choice because a genuine appreciation of ESG is already in our DNA. The culture of our business embraces many of the changes your business needs. If you partner with us on a customer experience programme, you are already taking a significant step towards kickstarting your own business ESG journey.

Yoummday's Transformative Approach in BPO

Why is Yoummday so different to the traditional BPO companies that talk the talk but fail to walk the walk on ESG? There are some clear and distinct differences because of our business model:

Environment

• Fewer carbon emissions: The CX talent in our marketplace don’t commute to an office; they all work from home.
• Lower resource consumption: Our technology solution removes the need for bricks and mortar contact centres, the environmental cost of more buildings, and the energy to keep the lights on.
• Less waste: There is no need for office infrastructure, photocopiers, security, paper use, and all the systems you need just to keep an office running.

Social

• Better remuneration for CX talent: By replacing the traditional call centre operation, freelance talent on the yoummday platform earn more than their agent counterparts.
• Genuine flexibility: Yoummday talents choose their working schedule and can easily balance family responsibilities (child care, elderly care etc.) with working hours, rather than being stuck in an office on someone else’s timetable.
• Inclusivity: The ability to work from home and from anywhere means that yoummday offers immediate inclusivity; our positions are disability-friendly, family-friendly, and rural-friendly.
• Global Diversity: With a “work and live anywhere” approach, yoummday creates a strong sense of diversity within its recruitment. It’s not just an aspiration; it happens naturally by opening your recruiting to CX talent globally.

Governance

• There is a strong focus on creating a fair distribution of rights and responsibilities across the entire company.
• There is never any undermining of social standards or regulations, such as minimum wage.
• The business focuses on creating value by encouraging global participation.

Amplify Your ESG Goals

The yoummday model automatically gives you a business partner with all these ESG attributes. Beyond looking to Yoummday for a great team focused on customer service processes, you can think ahead to your ESG status. Bringing in a partner with strong ESG credentials can be like adding rocket fuel to your own ESG aspirations.

The alternative is to consider a traditional BPO. Remember what the Neo Group research said about the conventional BPO business model? The choice is clear. Think clearly about innovation in your customer experience design, and you can also start delivering on ESG simultaneously.