It is a well-known fact that Colombia is a country with a strong economy and is considered to be one of the safest investments within Latin America. The nation gets more international fame among both local and international entrepreneurs because of its increasing economic growth, attractive business climate and range of commercial opportunities. Additionally, commercial activity and trade levels in Colombia have considerably increased thanks to a vast network of free trade agreements and its strategic geographic location, with access to both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The overall economy of Colombia today benefits from various natural and agricultural resources, ranging from cattle and coffee to oil and emeralds, as well as an exploding tourism industry, which continues to grow year-on-year. These features make Colombia a great and thriving destination for international expansion and investment.

However, many business owners face challenges while trying to navigate the local labour laws of Colombia. One of the most challenging jobs is engaging and hiring local staff lawfully, which can be a huge headache for those without a comprehensive knowledge of the Colombia labour market and/or employment law. Working with a PEO provider in Colombia is a great method of expansion for companies who are new to market and have a limited understanding of employment law and regulationin Colombia. It is always important to consider the different methods that companies can engage and hire staff in a foreign country such as Colombia.

A Professional Employer Organization (PEO), also known as a ‘employer of record’ is a company that brings the required tools to support companies with their market entry. It allows companies tofind, engage andhire local employees with having a local company. Companies work with PEO service providers to engage in commercial activity without the hassle of forming and maintaining a local legal entity, which can often be expensive, time consuming and complicated.

Reasons to work with PEO Service Provider

The reasons to work with a PEO service provider will vary from one employer to another. PEOs can handle the various administrative and HR headaches of employing local staff. The PEO provider will ensure full legal compliance. Today, many SMEs are choosing to work with a local PEO provider given the range of benefits that come with this type of commercial relationship. Some PEO services include, but are not limited to the following:

• PEO solutionsfree up your valuable time and resources, allowing you toconcentrate on other important business tasks.
• Once a contract is successfully signed between a PEO and your business, it will distribute a segment of the legal responsibilities to the PEO, freeing you from unnecessary legal burden.
• The PEO has the responsibility of handling tax filing, payroll administration, provision of advantages,in addition to offering solutions relating to other HR functions.
• The only responsibility of your company is to continue with your daily business operations and to manage and direct the employees properly.

Things to know about staff selection

The labour market in Colombia is fully regulated, has a large and skilled worker pool and is dedicated to protecting the rights of employees. If you are an employer, you need to meet various legislative requirements according to Colombia law.In fact, compliance with the Colombian employment and lab our regulations is both time-consuming and costly, all the more reason to work with a qualified PEO provider in Colombia.

• Employment Contracts

The employment contracts in Colombia are classified into 4 types including short-term, fixed term, undefined length, and for a particular task. The duration and type of employment contract will vary from one employee to the next, affording you flexibility to best meet your needs.

• Foreign Workers

These individuals are subject to the same rules and regulations as Colombian workers. They must come with an official written employment contract from their employer and also have to have the appropriate working visa.

• Working Hours

By law, the maximum number of hours an employee can work in Colombia is forty-eight hours (48) per week. This can be spread out between Monday to Friday or Monday to Saturday. Working hours can be flexible, but must be between 06:00 and 22:00 local time.

• Vacation Time

All local employees have the right to 15 days of paid holiday per year, half of which can be exchanged for pay with permission from the Ministry of Social Protection and Health.

• Minimum Wage

The minimum wage is negotiated yearly between the government and local trade unions. In 2018, the minimum monthly wage was COP $781,242 (approximately USD $260).

• Pensions and social security

The contribution is 15% of the monthly salary. Employers contribute three quarters of the payments and the employee covers the remaining quarter.

• Maternity and Paternity leave

All women are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave, which can be started 2 weeks before the birth of the child. The cost is covered by the Social Security System and can also be used in the case of adoption (for a child younger than seven years old). This also applies for a single father who adopts a child. It should be noted that it is illegal to fire a woman due to a pregnancy in Colombia.Fathers are afforded 4 days of paid leave if he is contributing to the Social Security System. If both parents are contributing to Social Security, then the father is entitled to 8 days of paid leave. In either case, the father must have contributed more than 100 weeks to Social Security System.

• Healthcare

Employers are required to pay 12.5% of their staff’s salaries to a healthcare security fund.

For companies expanding to Colombia or looking to hire Colombian employees, working with a qualified PEO provider can be a great option. It helps mitigate much of the legal burden associated with employing foreign employees, and supports a more efficient route to market for a growing global company. It also frees up much of your valuable time allowing you to focus on what is important to you and your business.

When you are working in the construction industry, you will like to take all the necessary steps to keep your expenses down as much as you can. One way to do this is by hiring the scaffold rather than purchasing it. Know about some of the top things that you should consider during a mobile scaffold hire below:

Nature of the Company

First, you should check whether or not the mobile scaffold hire company will be able to offer you an appropriate type of scaffolding. As scaffolding is available in many varied styles, you should ensure that the company can offer you one that is appropriate for your type of project. A lot of rental agencies claim to be able to offer an entire range of scaffolding options. But it is in your best interests to choose a company that is actually able to do so. It is wise to ask various questions regarding the scaffolding styles that are available and be completely sure that you are being provided with the best for your needs.

Speed of Delivery

You should also check how fast the company is able to deliver the type of scaffolding of your choice to your job site. As you probably know already, time is money, and you will not like to wait for days for your scaffolding to be delivered at your place. With a good mobile scaffold hire agency, you can get information about the exact date when the scaffolding will be sent at your project site. You can also get a promise of the money back guarantee or a similar financial compensation from the company in the event that your chosen option is not delivered right on time.

Assistance

In case your construction squad already has a team consisting of scaffolding experts, you may possibly install the scaffolding on your own. However, it makes sense that you check whether the agency can actually provide you with assistance in building the scaffolding. Mobile scaffold hires companies to have experts who know about the type of materials and equipment to use for installation and can do a faster job than your in-house team. Try to choose a company that offers scaffolding construction and installation assistance, so that you can save a lot of time and hassles in the process.

Type of Scaffolding

You need to have a proper idea about the various types of scaffolding in existence, in order to choose the right one for your needs from the options offered by your mobile scaffold hire company.

• Supported scaffolds – Here, one or multiple platforms get support from frames, outriggers, poles, legs or some other load bearing substance.
• Suspended scaffolds – Ropes or similar non-rigid substances are used to suspend the platform(s) set up for scaffolding.
• Mobile scaffolds – These are portable caster scaffolds that are mounted on wheels, whether powered or unpowered. As compared to standard scaffolds that are made out of rigid and heavy substances, these new scaffolds are made with lightweight materials to keep them low in bulk and easily movable.
• Climbing scaffolds – These are the newest inventions in the scaffolding technology. This is a self-climbing system that is regulated by the computer. These assist in building different shapes, such as curves, corner, and balcony, at various heights. The scaffolds are also affordable when it comes to cost or time. Such kinds of scaffolds are reusable and offer the best safety. Overloading warning system, electric chain block, steel-made multi-purpose scaffolding system, computerized control system and anti-tiling and fall arrest system are some of the primary components of these types of scaffolds.

When you take these factors into consideration, you can be assured that you can get the best mobile scaffold hire company for your needs.

A good company satisfies its customer, but one at the top of the ladder delights its customer with the offered products and services. A customer feels happy when you understand him but is overjoyed when his emotions and beliefs are understood.

Hence, providing an exceptional product or service is not enough. But offering your customers the timely assistance, instant solutions and easy services are things what they expect from you in addition.

If you have a call centre, chances are that you might have to deal with a lot of unhappy, irate and unsatisfied customers. There can be numerous reasons for the same such as-

Poor customer service

Incorrect resolution

Late resolution

Customers finding it difficult to reach the customer service department, etc.

Therefore, you must change the way you operate your call centre and should incorporate some innovative tactics to improve its operation.

5 top call centre improvement tactics

Enlisted below are the tactics that are found to be used by top call centre outsourcing companies. Let’s see what they are-

Identify your target audience and create buyer personas

If you don’t know who your target audience is, how would you resolve your customers’ query? So it’s pivotal to first identify the target audience and gather some useful insights about them. This will help you create your buyer personas and understand why customers prefer you over your competitors. You must know the kind of customers you are serving and what you are doing to make their life easier.

The best way to understand your audience would be to put yourself in their place. You would be able to perceive everything from customers’ point of view.

Conduct a call centre root cause analysis

In order to identify the real cause behind the problem that call centre faces, it’s important to conduct a root-cause analysis. If the root cause of the problem is identified, then the recurring issues can be eradicated permanently. Basically, root cause analysis is associated with three elementary questions:

What is the problem?

Why did it occur?

What steps could be taken to prevent it from recurring?

Therefore, call centres must perform root cause analysis to provide splendid customer services to the patrons.

Find out additional expectations of customers

As I mentioned above, excellent product and services aren’t the only things that customers look for. But they want something extra that can give them a wow experience. Such things could be 24 hours customer support, first-call resolution, simple and easy service etc. There are customers who don’t want to contact agents to get their problems resolved, instead they want to solve their problems on their own. For such customers, the finest call centre outsourcing companies provide their customers with self-help options so that the latter can resolve their problem on their own.

Use Artificial Intelligence to improve the quality of the call centre

When a call centres’ quality takes a dip, then its manager hires quality assurance experts to improve the call centre’s quality. In fact, it’s a very good strategy but do you really think hiring a large number of agents for quality assurance would be efficient? Absolutely no, if we talk of its scaling.

However, leveraging the power of artificial intelligence could be helpful in improving the quality of the call centre.

If we believe the reports of Narrative science, 80% of executives agree that AI improves employee’s performance and create jobs.

Artificial intelligence can be used to store, collect and link deep customer intelligence that will help quality assurance teams to perform at a higher level of efficiency.

Ask your customers for feedback

Well, this is one of the most important aspects that are helpful in making customers happy and in improving the call centre’s efficiency. When agents ask feedback, the customers feel delighted because the latter think that their opinion holds some importance to the business. However, for businesses, a customer feedback can be helpful in improving the quality of offered products or services.

Takeaway

The above-mentioned tactics are basics and must be employed by every call centres if they want better productivity with both quality and efficiency.