South African transcribers are highly sought-after for home-based or office-based employment.
Way With Words Transcription Services, based in London and Cape Town, used to outsource work to several countries but was so impressed by the high standard of work coming from South Africa that it has focussed its entire recruitment drive on South or Africa for worldwide operations. As a result, more resources have been devoted to their South Africa operations, especially in expanding local home-based or office-based employment.
Says London-based Managing Director Patrick Gubbins: "We were looking for a
country with a high level of spoken English and a modern business culture. South
Africa wasn't the cheapest option, but of all the territories we tried it
came out a clear winner. The similarity of UK and South African time zones
was a bonus."
Way With Words first established itself in South Africa in 2002 as a joint
venture with local entrepreneurs Pointbreak Private Equity. Transcription
outsourcing was in its infancy at the time, and in getting the operation on
its feet Pointbreak learned many lessons the hard way. CEO Rein van Veen:
"There were many obstacles to surmount: linguistic, communicational,
cultural, technological. It was real cutting-edge entrepreneurship, because
virtually no one in the world was doing what we were trying to do - there
was no model to follow. But in the end we proved that South Africa could
rise to the challenge."
Nowadays Way With Words SA is one of the most technologically advanced
transcription companies in the world, and even has its own Internet-based
workflow software, written and hosted locally.
With growing interest in the company's services and its excellent
international reputation, Way With Words also recently appointed a Business
Development Consultant, Adam Kossowski, to assist with recruitment. Adam says: "My terms of reference required that the sourcing of quality transcribers in South
Africa who reached the exacting performance standards set out by Way With
Words. Our approach has yielded very pleasing results, with employment
increasing on a monthly basis. It has exceeded our assumed targets, and this clearly reflects the talent that exists in South
Africa".
Amongst the challenges faced, Yvette Heymans, General Manager at the
Welgemoed office, says: "We're constantly on the lookout for typing talent,
either office-based or working from home. Our clients expect us to have
wide vocabularies, because they might spring anything on us: nature
documentaries, political speeches, police interviews, market research
groups - the variety is endless."
The company has an ongoing recruitment drive throughout 2007 and
applications can be made via www.waywithwords.co.za
As for the future, Way With Words SA is upbeat. "We're excited by our
success in South Africa", says Patrick Gubbins. "Provided we can
find more transcribers to meet the demand, we'll be here for a long time to
come."
