{"id":827924,"date":"2025-06-16T09:52:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T07:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=827924"},"modified":"2025-06-16T09:52:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T07:52:00","slug":"international-companies-on-the-hunt-for-south-african-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/827924\/international-companies-on-the-hunt-for-south-african-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"International companies on the hunt for South African workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Global employers are increasingly hiring workers based in South Africa, with many drawn to the highly skilled and cheap workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Employer of record and recruitment specialist, the Legends Agency, said that global employers are increasingly turning to South Africa&#8217;s workforce to meet their operational needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With an unemployment rate of over 30%, world-class universities, and a favourable time zone, South Africa has presented itself as a place for global businesses to access skilled professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Legends Agency has seen this trend first-hand as it connects global businesses with local talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the last year, the company has seen <strong>over 150 British and US companies hire South African employees<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company said that the rapid expansion reflects the global trends towards offshoring, as business increasingly look beyond traditional markets to boost their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With global businesses facing higher employer taxes and wage increases, the group said that recruiting South African teams has become attractive as it cuts costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some companies reported cutting as much as 50% of their costs this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Global companies initially approach us for the cost savings, but they stay for the outstanding talent and performance of their South African teams, who consistently exceed expectations,&#8221; said Anthony Kettle, SA CEO of The Legends Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>South Africa showing its value<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/The-Netherlands.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/The-Netherlands-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-810138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/The-Netherlands-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/The-Netherlands-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/The-Netherlands-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/The-Netherlands.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Netherlands has seen a large influx of South Africans<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Recruitment agency Robert Walters recently highlighted the increase in offshoring in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A recent survey from the recruitment service showed that 60% of business leaders ranked South Africa as the most attractive country for offshoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/823221\/international-companies-flocking-to-south-africa\/\">South Africa<\/a> thus surpassed popular offshoring sites of India (10%), the Philippines (10%), and Eastern Europe (19%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The main reasons for offshoring in South Africa were the access to skilled talent (41%) and retained earnings of 39%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of the strong English proficiency, South Africa is also growing a reputation for business and tech services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Robert Walters said several industries have shown notable growth in offshoring activities to South Africa, most notably Tech and IT, which account for 53% of new roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is followed by demand in customer service and support (18%), finance and accounting (20%) and HR and recruitment (9%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a strong pipeline of international businesses establishing operations in South Africa \u2013 particularly in tech and support functions,\u201d said Robert Walters Africa Samantha-Jane Gravett.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSouth Africa offers an agile, highly capable workforce that aligns well with global business hours and standards.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like many organisations looking to build resilience, agility, and efficiency in their operating models, Gravett said South Africa is stepping up as a go-to solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Offshoring increasingly influences job markets globally, with most business leaders agreeing that it encourages upskilling in home markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs digital transformation accelerates and companies reassess the future of work, the trend towards offshoring and nearshoring is expected to grow,\u201d said Robert Walters<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSouth Africa stands out for its combination of skilled talent, strong infrastructure, and alignment with international business practices, making it a strategic location for building global capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although offshoring to South Africa is becoming increasingly common, there still remains several countries that are looking to bring South African workers to their countries directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Netherlands is one such country, with the Western European nation looking to South Africa to fill its healthcare and engineering professional shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Managing director of <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/820141\/the-netherlands-is-looking-for-south-africans-with-these-skills\/\">Beaver Recruitment SA, Nicholas Avramis<\/a>, said that the demand for South Africans is growing, especially for healthcare professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The number of South Africans living in the Netherlands has grown from a massive 21,878 in 2018 to an estimated 41,300 living there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other countries looking to South Africans to fill labour requirements include Ireland, Canada, the UAE and Germany.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International companies are increasingly offshoring in South Africa due to the countries major skills advantages. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":827969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22242,12214,22850],"class_list":["post-827924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-beaver-recruitment-sa","tag-robert-walters","tag-the-legends-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827924"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828061,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827924\/revisions\/828061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}