Guide On How To Outsource Content Moderation
Let us pick out a few headline items constituting user generated content (UGC):
- 500 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube
- 347222 stories are posted by Instagram users
- 147000 photos are uploaded on Facebook
- 41,666,667 messages are shared by WhatsApp users
- 69444 jobs are applied by LinkedIn users
What is Content Moderation?
Civil society has rules and regulations and, beyond that, some generally accepted guidelines of behavior and social norms. We also know that it takes all sorts to make the world. With over 4 billion Internet users, more than half the global population, who can say what nature of content might be posted by one of them. This is what creates the need for content moderation and content moderation solutions. While a debate has been going on regarding ownership of content on these platforms, and whose responsibility it is, platforms have stepped in and created processes and systems through which content moderation is carried out. Rough estimates put the number of human content moderators around the world at over 100,000, apart from the tools and AI engines deployed for the purpose. The human moderators review text, read comments, eyeball images, view videos in an effort to make the web a wholesome place. The increasingly diverse nature of applications available on the internet and the variety of content being created is making content moderation an increasingly challenging activity. Apart from the psychological scars it leaves on people who need to go through raw content for moderating it. At an individual business and website level too, the intent is to create wholesome content that will attract the right audience who will create content appropriate for that space. Hence, not just the large public platforms, but individual websites also make an effort to moderate the content that gets created on their website or even on their pages on the popular social sites.Should you outsource content moderation?
For the moment the debate is pretty much settled, with outsourcing being the preferred option for many websites and platforms that need it though there are dissenting voices advocating for platform owners to do it themselves. There are many reasons for it:- You don’t have the expertise of the resources. Content moderation is nothing like your business; whether you sell Credit Cards, or run an eCommerce store. It requires specialised skills.
- While you may have guidelines for moderation of your online presence, the overarching guidelines are those of civil society and acceptable behavior which is common to all businesses. Hence, you are able to dive into a deeper pool of talent that provides content moderation solutions.
- It keeps your employees focussed on your business, where their expertise lies. Really no point in taking them away from a job they can do well and put them onto a job they know nothing about.
- As it does not require advanced educational qualifications and extensive experience of work, outsourced resources are available for a fraction of the cost you might be paying to your employees.
Choosing a Provider for Content Moderation Solutions
Let us look at how you should go about the task of identifying a suitable provider when you outsource content moderation, and the parameters you should include in the evaluation exercise. Listed against each parameter are a set of capabilities, in bullet form, that you should enquire about and an interested vendor should be able to demonstrate to enhance their credentials for being selected for content moderation services that you seek.Familiarity with work and demonstration of quality
- Familiarity with type or work needed by showcasing similar work done for other clients; this also demonstrates how well they have understood your requirement.
- If not familiar, offers compensating benefits, like lower pricing.
- Willing to connect you to existing clients who will support vendor’s capability claims.
Attrition and People Management practices
- Follows contemporary People Management practices that are fair and transparent.
- Incorporation of work from home related practices.
- Presents data on attrition which should be lower than other comparable vendors, else there should be logical reasons.
- Permits unsupervised interaction with a set of frontline workers.
Preparedness for virtual workforce
- People Management policies and work contracts permit employees to work from home when required.
- Hiring can be done remotely.
- Virtual onboarding and training capability.
- Technology deployed enables a distributed workforce to seamlessly login and operate and communicate.
- Supervisors trained on handling a virtual workforce.
- Quality team has tools through which monitoring and coaching can be carried out.
Workforce Planning and Management
- Has a team that keeps track of requirement of resources for each project at any point of time and actual availability.
- This team also has the ability to normalise available headcount to reach target numbers, especially when there is a shortfall.
- Can demonstrate examples of mobilising and removing resources quickly to meet resource requirements.
- Distributed workforce is able to log onto a common platform for tracking and visibility as well as communication.
Internal Quality process
- Has an Internal Quality team that is independent of the delivery unit.
- The team can access transactions and agents in a virtual (work from home) setting as well as in a physical workspace and interact with them for monitoring and coaching.
- Performance scorecards of this team are also linked to business performance but independent of the delivery unit.
- Ability to demonstrate interaction between the Internal Quality team and senior management and examples of actions taken based on their recommendations
Pricing
- Price offered is competitive.
- All aspects of content moderation services required have been covered in the commercial proposal.
- If the price offered is lower than benchmark, explanation of reasons as well as comfort that it is sustainable.
- If the price offered is higher than benchmark, explanation of the additional value they offer.
Support for Multilingual delivery
- Experience with the languages that are our immediate requirement for content moderation services.
- Experience with languages that might be our next set of requirements.
- Overall languages covered.
- Ability to add a language outside the list, if required.
Technology
- Tools and technologies used for the work on offer.
- Ability to access and learn other tools that may be required.
- Ability to secure the data that they will be working on, including storage and transmission.
- Physical access control and monitoring of facilities.
Scalability and access to human resources
- Level of scalability offered for hiring resources.
- Access to a pool of short-term workers.
- Ability and capacity to train at short notice.
Financial health
- Financials of the company for the last three years demonstrating stability and profitability.
- Projections for the next three years, if available.