Impact sourcing, also known as socially responsible outsourcing, refers to an arm of the Global Business Services Sector (GBS), also referred to as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), that employs socio-economically disadvantaged individuals as principal workers in business process outsourcing centers to provide high-quality, information-based services to domestic and international clients.

SSDA, like our BPO sister companies, has a focused impact sourcing strategy of employing disadvantaged and disabled South African youth. It’s a socio-economic imperative in a country where youth unemployment sits at a shocking 55% according to the International Labour Organisation.

By having impact sourcing as a strategic imperative across the entire Alefbet group, of which SSDA is one of the group companies, strong synergies are created between the various businesses which provides employees with a diverse range of job roles and opportunities to pursue in their career advancement.  

Our impact sourcing strategy – developed in partnership with the Impact Sourcing Institute of South Africa – works to ensure that our recruits gain professional skills and transferable credentials that are applicable in many areas such as business development, administration, management, human resources, operations, IT support, training and development and so on.  Today’s collections agent could be tomorrow’s team leader, HR professional, trainer or payroll manager.

Most of our disadvantaged and disabled recruits have not had the benefit of career guidance or the privilege of being able to cherry pick tertiary education paths in pursuit of a specific career due to severe financial constraints. A global business services environment like ours opens their eyes to the many diverse roles and opportunities within our businesses, with an employer that is willing to invest in their potential. With focused learnerships and training interventions that sees them attaining a recognised qualification, they are well on their way to building fulfilling careers with great growth potential.

Most of all, there is the real satisfaction that impact sourcing provides in being able to do well as a business, by doing good in the community, for the people who need the door opened the most.