In a world where economic conditions shift like the tides, the CEO of BruntWork, a global talent outsourcing firm, is not reveling in the misfortunes of others but rather preparing lifeboats. “When companies start slashing jobs by the thousands, they often treat the symptom rather than the disease,” Ong states plainly. He likens traditional cost-cutting strategies to taking aspirin for a broken leg—providing temporary relief without addressing the underlying issues.
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The Great Corporate Exodus of 2025
April 2025 has proven to be exceptionally harsh for the job market. Numerous major corporations have announced drastic workforce reductions across various sectors, driven by ever-present economic uncertainties and significant trade disruptions. Unfortunately, this pattern is all too familiar: when the economy falters, payroll often serves as the first target for cuts.
However, this time the scale and speed of layoffs are unprecedented. According to BruntWork’s research, more than 115,000 jobs were lost in just the first four months of the year—a staggering 32% increase from the previous year. The human toll of this upheaval cannot be overstated, as families are torn apart, careers are left in tatters, and invaluable institutional knowledge disappears overnight.
Yet Ong perceives this critical moment differently: “Mass layoffs are frequently a failure of imagination,” he asserts. “Companies become ensnared in a binary mindset, thinking they can either keep everyone or fire everyone. There exists a vast middle ground that allows them to preserve operational capacity while simultaneously reducing costs.”
Strategic Workforce Redistribution
So, what does this middle ground look like? According to Ong, it involves reimagining how and where work gets done. BruntWork’s innovative model allows companies to maintain essential operational functions by tapping into global talent pools, all while incurring significantly lower costs than domestic hiring.
“When a CFO demands a 20% reduction in operating expenses, the instinctive reaction is often to reduce headcount,” Ong explains. “But what if you could keep your core team intact by redistributing specific functions to specialized professionals overseas? You’d maintain your operational capacity while making dramatic cost reductions.”
The financial benefits are compelling. For example, a customer service representative in the U.S. typically costs a company $55,000 to $65,000 annually, including benefits and overhead. By contrast, the same position outsourced through companies like BruntWork could cost between $18,000 and $25,000, with qualifications that are often equivalent or even superior.
This approach offers a viable third option for companies grappling with the possibility of layoffs. It is not about indiscriminately replacing workers; rather, it is about strategically reallocating resources to enhance efficiency and sustainability.
Beyond Cold Numbers
Skeptics may dismiss outsourcing as merely exporting jobs, but Ong contends that such perspectives are shortsighted. “I’ve heard that sentiment before, but it misses the point,” he states. “What we should focus on is crafting sustainable business models that prevent total collapse.”
To illustrate, Ong shares the experience of a mid-sized software company that contemplated eliminating its 45-member customer support team. Instead of proceeding with layoffs, they chose to partner with BruntWork. This collaboration allowed them to retain team leaders and specialized support roles in-house while concurrently building an overseas team dedicated to tier-one support.
“They managed to preserve 15 domestic positions that would have otherwise been eliminated, all while enhancing their support hours by leveraging time zone differences,” Ong points out. “Customer satisfaction scores improved by an impressive 22% within just six months.”
This approach demonstrates that not every function needs to be performed in high-cost locations. Companies that opt to outsource tasks like cold calling can sustain their sales pipelines while minimizing overhead, thereby protecting jobs in other areas that might otherwise face cuts.
A Cautionary Tale
Of course, not all outsourcing endeavors end happily. The industry must confront cautionary tales such as the ongoing lawsuit involving content moderators in Kenya employed by Meta through its outsourcing provider, Samasource Kenya. Approximately 190 moderators have filed claims alleging that exposure to disturbing content has led to severe mental health challenges, including PTSD.
Ong directly acknowledges these challenges. “Content moderation represents one of the digital economy’s most psychologically taxing work environments. Any company operating in this space has a moral obligation to ensure proper support systems, rotation schedules, and mental health resources,” he insists.
He explains that BruntWork has implemented robust protocols for clients engaged in the content moderation sector, including mandatory counseling services, strict limits on exposure duration to harmful content, and comprehensive training programs for employees.
“The Meta case highlights the perils of prioritizing cost-cutting over all else,” Ong remarks. “Sustainable outsourcing must strike a delicate balance between economic benefits and human welfare.”
Building Resilient Organizations
Ong believes the current wave of layoffs reflects a deeper vulnerability in corporate planning. Companies reliant on single-geography workforces inherently expose themselves to risks in a global economy susceptible to regional disruptions.
“The pandemic should have taught us this lesson,” he argues. “Organizations with geographically distributed workforces were able to maintain operations when entire regions were forced into lockdown.”
BruntWork’s client data reveals that businesses employing distributed workforce models were 37% less likely to implement layoffs during economic downturns compared to those operating on a single-geography basis. Furthermore, they demonstrated recovery times that were, on average, 42% faster than their centralized counterparts.
The Future of Work Is Distributed
As layoff announcements continue to flood news headlines, Ong perceives a pivotal shift in organizational structures. The conventional model—housing all functions under one roof in high-cost locales—is transitioning to more flexible and distributed frameworks.
“We are moving toward an operational model where companies retain core strategic functions in-house while collaborating with specialists for execution,” he predicts. “This is not simply outsourcing as we’ve known it; rather, we’re building integrated ecosystems that harness the best talent, regardless of location.”
This transformation creates opportunities for both employees and employers. Workers from emerging economies gain access to global career prospects without the need for relocation, while companies maintain their competitive edge, avoiding the erratic cycles of hiring and layoffs.
A New Social Contract
As the dust settles from the latest corporate downsizing, Ong believes we are entering the nascent stages of a new social contract between companies and their workforce. The era of guaranteed lifetime employment at a single organization is long over, but what comes next remains to be seen.
“What we’re proposing is a model where companies commit to operational continuity rather than specific headcounts,” he suggests. “This implies being transparent about which functions may be relocated globally and which will stay local.”
For employees, this signals a shift toward honing skills that necessitate proximity, creativity, and cultural understanding—areas where outsourcing may offer limited advantages. For organizations, it entails more strategic workforce planning rather than knee-jerk cuts.
As layoff notifications continue to infiltrate inboxes across America this spring, Ong’s insights offer a fresh perspective. Perhaps the choice is not merely between maintaining everyone or letting everyone go. Perhaps there exists a third path—one that preserves both business viability and human dignity.
“When the only tool you have is a layoff, every business challenge appears to be a headcount problem,” Ong concludes. “We are simply advocating for companies to expand their toolkit before they resort to drastic measures.”
Edited By Ali Musa
Axadle Times International – Monitoring.
