How to choose a provider to outsource video moderation
What is a video?
Intuitively, we perhaps understand what a video is.
If we want to get a little more technical, we could use the definition provided by Wikipedia, which is “Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media.”
What about moderation?
According to dictionary.com moderation is “the quality of being moderate; restraint; avoidance of extremes or excesses; temperance.”
That can also be understood in the language sense of the term.
But what is video moderation?
Based on the above, we could perhaps say that video moderation is the practicing of ensuring that videos are moderate and restrained and avoid extremes or excesses.
But why is it needed?
It is needed because we live in an open world, where each one of us is a consumer as well as publisher of information, the most common formats being text, image, audio and video. Video, being the richest format, as it can contain all of the other three formats, carries in itself the maximum potential for benefit or damage.
So what?
Do you know that every minute, 500 hours of video content is being uploaded on Youtube every minute? Minute after minute. It means 30000 hours every hour, 720,000 hours every day, and so on. Incessantly. Day after day. Month after month. With the trajectory of upload rising as time goes by.
It takes all kinds to make the world. While most of this user-generated content (UGC) is safe, with people uploading videos of childrens’ pranks, their holidays, special events, and so on, some parts might not be, either inadvertently or deliberately. There could be nudity and violence that might be undesirable for young minds, there could be disrespect for symbols held in high esteem by some sections, there could be religious and racial slurs. In short, anything.
Some of the video content has the potential of damaging the sheer fabric that holds our society together and causing schisms that could lead to conflict.
This is why video moderation is needed; to moderate the content that is being uploaded this very minute and either remove it or prevent it from being published.
It is a bit like a film certification body or a Censor Board whose job it is to certify, or reject, a movie before it is released to the public. A Censor Board generally is a statutory body or a public institution. Video moderation, on the other hand, is an activity that platform owners need to take upon themselves.
Who Needs Video Moderation
If you have a web presence that permits open participation in the form of UGC, where anyone who accesses your website can leave content in the form of video, you need video moderation.
You could be a social media platform like Facebook or Instagram or YouTube where astronomical volumes of video content is being created, or you could be a business trying to connect with customers and prospects in an open and transparent manner in order to gain trust and confidence and enabling the good word about your business to get around.
To Outsource or Not To Outsource Video Moderation
It is a bit like the ‘buy or build’ fork that you reach once in a while in a business. Whether to build inhouse or whether to buy an established product offered by a supplier with expertise in that particular area.
The most basic questions to ask when you are at such a fork would be:
- Is it a core part of your business?
- Does your business, and its staff, have the expertise to do it effectively?
If the answer to at least one of them is a ‘yes,’ further deliberation may be required to find the right answer.
If the answer to both is a ‘no’ the ‘buy’ choice might be the best choice.
In the case of business services, which is what video moderation services would be counted as, a ‘buy’ choice will translate into an ‘outsource’ choice instead of a ‘do it inhouse’ one.
Choosing a Suitable Video Moderation Solutions Provider
Outsourcing video moderation is unlike a lot of regular BPO outsourcing work. It interfaces directly with inputs coming in from users and not through its client. The stakes could be quite high; image of the brand and potential legal tangles. And in some cases, it is real-time work and needs to be done right away.
Due care needs to be exercised while selecting a partner to outsource video moderation work to. Detailed below are suggestions on what you should look for.
Automated solutions to augment humans
While automated solutions do not possess the intelligence of humans and are not yet able to produce the same level of accuracy, in many cases, especially where speed to publish is of the essence, automated tools become necessary when you outsource video moderation.
We are all impatient creatures and becoming more and more so. If we share a video on a platform, it should show up even before we press the ‘submit’ button seems to be the expectation. It is impossible for a human, even if the team works 24×7, to provide this kind of a turnaround for most transactions. Automated and Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven tools become necessary.
The oWorkers Advantage
Combining the human element with state-of-the-art technology, we offer video outsourcing that can cater to most requirements, including a variety of video file types. Our partnerships with leading technology providers enables us to access the latest in technology which we deploy for the benefit of our clients.
Data Security
With data being shared digitally and across electronic networks, the need for ensuring security of client data is paramount for video moderation services.
The oWorkers Advantage
We create a logical separation of networks on which data for different clients is transmitted. Our employees sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) committing to keep the data secure. We are also able to physically isolate the work area when working from a physical workplace. Our ISO certifications (27001 :2013 & 9001:2015) testify to our security protocols.
Speed of response
The partner should possess the ability to respond to UGC in the form of a video at a speed that is in line with expectations the business has set for visitors which, in turn, should be in line with expectations for content of this nature. If competitors respond within one hour, it may not go down well if one particular business takes a day for the video to be visible.
Remember that a video could be uploaded at any point during a 24 hour and 365 day cycle. The vendor needs to provide assurance that the expected timelines can be delivered regardless of when a video is uploaded.
The oWorkers Advantage
With facilities in three geographies that operate 24×7, our video moderation solutions can cater to all turnaround time requirements.
Trial Run
The proof of the pudding is, eventually, in the eating. After all the talk and discussion have happened, does the partner have a setup where they can show how the real process will work if you outsource video moderation to them, with a real video or videos being uploaded, and taking it through the paces of moderation as would happen once the contract is signed. Of course, this will be a limited trial, and it could even be a paid trial, if that be the policy of the vendor. But it certainly helps in gaining a much better understanding of what will really happen.
The oWorkers Advantage
A trial run is always an option that can be negotiated. Typically, we offer a Trial Run as part of a Project Plan that defines success criteria that, if met, automatically graduates the engagement from trial to a regular one.
Attrition and People Management Practices
In the end, it is about people. When you outsource video moderation to a BPO, even more so. Even in processes where technology can be implemented, many decisions will still come to a human being. The ability to manage people can be a key differentiator. Setting the right expectations at the time of hiring and following them through while they work for the company should be the expectation, as should be following best practices in people management, ensuring timely payments, adequate time off and channels for voicing complaints.
The oWorkers Advantage
Compared to many BPOs which rely on freelancers and contractors to do the work they take on from clients, oWorkers has chosen to work with employed resources. Our workers are our staff. While it gives us greater responsibility in terms of managing them, it also provides us greater flexibility as well as satisfaction in helping them make a career for themselves. Remember that the work you outsource to us helps us bring more people into the ambit of formal employment and enable them to participate in the digital revolution sweeping through the world.
We provide flexibility to our staff to work from home when the need arises and where permitted by the project.
Our attrition numbers are among the best in class.
Hiring and Scaling
Related to people management is the ability of the partner to hire on a regular basis and scale up or down in significant numbers if required by a client for video moderation solutions.
One of the fallouts of attrition is that it creates the need for hiring fresh resources to fill the headcount gaps created. And since hiring is a time-consuming exercise, it needs to be done as a plan so that the company always has a few people ready and waiting to replace people who leave, because leavers can often leave suddenly, without completing notice period formalities.
The greater the effort the partner has to make to attract and hire resources, the greater will be the financial impact, and vice versa.
At the same time, some of the client processes could have seasonal or other variations in volume. If the vendor can provide headcount for those spikes in volume without retaining idel staff for the rest of the period, it can be a huge financial benefit for the client and a huge positive in favor of that vendor.
The oWorkers Advantage
Being closely involved with the communities we work with gives us an advantage in hiring. We are a preferred employer for many in the community, hence we always have a lot of candidates interested in a job, making our cost of attracting candidates very low. This is a perennial flow, throughout the year at all our locations.
This also affords us the flexibility of hiring some resources for a short-term spike, though, where possible, we end up absorbing most of them in one process or another. This being our history, we rarely face a challenge in hiring for even short-term spikes. We can commit to scaling up by 100 resources in 48 hours.
Training
In a BPO, training is an essential function that keeps humming all the time, mostly supporting new hires make the transition to being billable resources on a client project. Sometimes the training function is called upon to reskill existing employees either for redeployment or for refreshing the skills in case performance is slipping.
Since video moderation services directly interface with the external world and are subject to developments taking place, there is a need to keep the staff au fait with those developments so that the same may be integrated into the work SOPs. Whether done by the training team or the delivery team is immaterial, as long as there is a process to take care of this need.
The oWorkers Advantage
With independent facilities in each of our three global locations, training is a key enabling function for oWorkers, working to sharpen the skills of new hires and retraining tenured staff. For video moderation solutions, which, at times, can cause psychological impact on the humans moderating raw video content, in consultation with the delivery teams, the training teams also make arrangements for psychological counselling of staff engaged in the activity.
Business Continuity
Being a perennial activity, it is essential that once you outsource video moderation, it keeps on happening, minute after minute, hour after hour and day after day, because someone, somewhere, could be uploading a video at any time.
Though businesses provide for many back-up plans and contingencies, there are times when events make it impossible to operate from and out of a particular geographical location. It could be on account of a natural catastrophe or it could be on account of a general strife or conflict of some sort. Governments have even started restricting internet services at such times. How does, then, a continuous activity like video moderation get carried out? It is important for a vendor to demonstrate the ability to provide business continuity as otherwise the only option that would remain for your business is for it to be done inhouse, which is not what you wanted hence outsourced it.
The oWorkers Advantage
With three global locations in different geographies, oWorkers is positioned to provide business continuity support to clients, where needed. If it works better, we can also offer multi-site delivery for projects where this is required, so that the outage, if it happens, is not 100%, a certain part of the service stays afloat, with possibly some degradation of service levels.
Pricing
Of course, no commercial contract can be complete without a pricing element. Though an integral element, care should be taken to ensure that this does not outweigh other parameters in the evaluation exercise, and you don’t end up choosing the lowest price, in total disregard of all the other advantages you may get with other vendors. Hence, treat is as just one more parameter and not the only one.
The oWorkers Advantage
You get the benefit of options in pricing when you outsource video moderation to oWorkers. Pricing can be offered based on length of video moderated or on the resource committed to the task. Even for committed resources, we are happy to commit to SLAs and TATs, making it a win-win for the client.
Quality of Work
Of course, eventually it is about the capability of the vendor to deliver video moderation services of a quality desired by us. If they can demonstrate their experience of having done similar work for others, it is good. If they can provide client testimonials in support of the great work they have done, even better.
While good quality work of a similar nature will be in favor of the bidder, absence of experience with similar work should not be a reason for rejection. Often what may happen is that the vendor, for building a new line of work, might give other benefits to the client to induce them to become the first client for that service.
The oWorkers Advantage
With a track record of consistently providing over 98% accuracy across a variety of engagements, quality is one of our biggest strengths. Being the choice of some of the global unicorn marketplaces, and growth in engagements, can only be the result of good quality. Many of our clients are referenceable.
In Conclusion
Wait! There is more.
We are a pure data services BPO excelling in our chosen area of work. We are one of the three best data entry BPOs in the world.
Operating out of the Eurozone, GDPR compliance is not a choice for us, it is a requirement.
We offer services in over 20 common languages.
Our clients claim savings of up to 80% as compared to their inhouse operations.
