Building memories and lives as we move onward.
We cherish every moment and opportunity here.
Our employees are more to us. They are our assets, our friends, our family.
We value connecting with them!
This is to honor our commitments in providing the best and utmost service to our clients.
As we move forward, we hope to grow together more in Dignity & Diligence!
Creating more opportunities for others while developing lives in the process.
This is us. We Care. iCare.
– Dave
In Part V of the series, we discussed the onboarding process and its importance in building a beneficial working relationship between yourself and your new Filipino remote employee.
But within the onboarding process and even beyond it, communicating and setting expectations is crucial to creating a productive synergy with your new hire.
In this article, we break down the important ways you can set expectations and what they can do for you and your Filipino remote employee.
According to a 2019 survey by Jobvite, 45% of the people surveyed reported that they quit their new jobs after realizing their responsibilities at work did not match the job description they applied for.
This problem leads to a high turnover rate that can become costly for your company. Setting the right expectations at the start of the hire can solve this feeling of a gap between reality and expectations for new hires.
Filipinos are naturally shy and may feel hesitant to voice out any dissatisfaction or questions about their responsibilities to a foreign boss, so they may just choose to quit to avoid talking about it. That’s why it is important for you to take the initiative to clearly communicate the contents of their job. And make them understand that you welcome questions and feedback from them as well.
Taking an honest look at your company to determine what kind of culture and brand your company has is an important part of the building and growing process of any business. But for new hires, company culture is an especially important aspect to detail and narrow down.
This is because new hires need to know what to expect in the new company they’re joining. It helps them understand what is expected of them and how they are to communicate with other people in the company.
For example, someone who prioritizes a more relaxed work environment may find it hard to adjust to a company that is extremely results-driven, which can then lead to decreased productivity and feelings of dissatisfaction and disengagement.
Delaying the communication of your company’s culture can lead to hiring someone who is not the right fit for the company, which then can result in an early exit and a high turnover rate.
Anyone starting a new job may experience something called an “expectations gap”, where the reality of their work seems different from what they expected. The expectations gap can be a disheartening thing for any new employee to experience and can even motivate them to consider quitting.
The experience of an expectations gap can be mitigated or eliminated completely with an effective onboarding process. We discuss how to effectively onboard Filipino remote employees in a more in-depth discussion in Part 5, but it is worth repeating again because of the great importance it holds.
An onboarding process that includes a training period should reflect exactly what a regular workload would be like for your Filipino remote employee. It can be tempting to give them a lighter workload in the beginning and then increase their work over time, but that can create a feeling of confusion in your remote employee. It is far better to let them know immediately what the work will entail than to hire someone who will just quit a short while down the road.
Most people can agree that an employee who consistently does not meet the expected work standards presents a large problem for the company.
But while an employee can definitely start becoming less effective on their own, HR and the company itself can sometimes also have a hand in that decreasing effectivity. This is because an employee who is not clearly told about what is expected of their work can become lax about their work and may become comfortable with producing subpar work.
That’s why it is imperative to take the time to go over what is expected of your new employee at the very beginning of the hire. It ensures that your remote employee knows what is expected of them and it can also motivate them to stay above that set standard to avoid any kind of disciplinary action.
By setting a clear standard of work and professionalism, you not only let your remote employees know what should be accomplished but it also helps you effectively delegate work that is clogging up your own schedule without having to supervise its completion.
As we have discussed in a previous installment of this series, Filipinos are sensitive to receiving feedback and can often be hesitant to give it in turn.
But for a company to succeed and for working relationships to improve, mutual feedback is necessary. That’s why we suggest tackling the issue of feedback from the very start of the hire instead of ignoring it until it becomes necessary. That way, your Filipino employee can become comfortable with the idea and you can set up a feedback system that both of you are comfortable with.
For example, your new hire may be comfortable receiving and giving feedback in a more casual setting instead of through email or written communication. That can help you design a way to exchange ideas without possibly offending the other person and to receive the feedback you need to improve your own operations.
As we have discussed in a previous installment of this series, Filipinos are sensitive to receiving feedback and can often be hesitant to give it in turn.
But for a company to succeed and for working relationships to improve, mutual feedback is necessary. That’s why we suggest tackling the issue of feedback from the very start of the hire instead of ignoring it until it becomes necessary. That way, your Filipino employee can become comfortable with the idea and you can set up a feedback system that both of you are comfortable with.
For example, your new hire may be comfortable receiving and giving feedback in a more casual setting instead of through email or written communication. That can help you design a way to exchange ideas without possibly offending the other person and to receive the feedback you need to improve your own operations.
Setting expectations is important to any working relationship but it is especially important for remote employees who do not get the benefit of being fully integrated with the daily workings of the company for which they work.
But setting expectations duly and efficiently can also help your retention rate, the company’s productivity, and help improve your onboarding process that can then be used with your next hires.
If you have any questions about the hiring process of Filipino remote employees or if you want to know more about Filipino VAs, you can contact us here or on our LinkedIn page.
Next time on this series, we tackle the technical question of the best tools on the market to manage your Filipino remote staff.
Last time on this series, we talked in-depth about the hiring process of Filipino remote employees and how to make the process as smooth as possible.
This time around, we’re talking about what happens after you make that hire. Because though you have already technically hired your new remote employee from the Philippines, there is still work to be done as you complete onboarding. How virtual onboarding is done and how to tailor the process to Filipino remote employees are all important topics we cover in Part 5. So keep on reading!
Many people dismiss the importance of onboarding, which is a huge mistake. And that’s not just words, there’s data to prove that experience with onboarding is crucial to a company’s growth and success.
A study by The Boston Consulting Group in 2012 found that the proper and efficient onboarding of new hires led to revenue growth 2.5 times higher and profit margins 1.9 times higher than companies who did not dedicate as much energy and effort into onboarding recruits.
But beyond that, a good onboarding process can also:
And many experts agree that new hires decide whether or not they plan to stay in a company in the first few days of employment, not months down the line. That’s why it’s crucial to make a good first impression and immediately integrate a new hire.
Onboarding is a crucial part of any hire, and though many people overlook its importance, it can greatly affect any future relationship you build with your new employee. And for digital hires where you hire a new remote employee, it is even more important.
Because you can’t just organize a get-together between your new hire and your current staff to integrate them into the company, you will have to go the extra mile of making them feel welcome.
It is always a nerve-wracking experience to begin working for a new company, and that anxiety is perhaps multiplied when you begin working for someone you have only met via the phone. That’s why an efficient digital onboarding process is crucial to the hiring process of remote employees.
And because Filipinos are naturally friendly and personable, they will want something more personal from their onboarding to feel like a part of the team and the company, which can do wonders for their morale and in turn, their productivity.
But what does onboarding look like when it is done virtually?
Well, your company, your values, and the company culture will determine how you welcome a new employee. While many take the more professional and organized route to onboarding a new employee, some like to inject their company’s unique personality to make the onboarding more interesting and fun.
But no matter what route you choose, these are some essential things you will need to do no matter what kind of company you run:
1. Directly after the hire but before their first day, send a welcome email. Not only is it courteous and friendly move, but it should contain important information that your new employee will need to know before their first day.
It can contain your employee guidebook with sections specifically for remote employees, the points of contact the new employee will need to know (HR, IT, and any other departmental head they may need to contact), the necessary accounts they will need to set up, and any log-in information for platforms to which they will need access.
2. On their first day, introduce them to the team. For remote employees, there may be a feeling of disconnection from the rest of the company because of the distance. If you plan to keep your remote employee for the long-term, making them feel like they are part of the team can help ease those feelings of disconnection. Introducing them to the team via video call is a great alternative for the onboarding event of a big team lunch to get everyone introduced. It can also help your new hire get an idea of the organization and hierarchy in the company, and who directly reports to whom.
3. Give them a mentor to guide them through that first week. A mentor can serve not only as a guide to practical company matters, but they can also help your new remote employees understand what the company’s culture is like.
But while these are general steps that all companies can follow, there are some other things that can specifically help in the onboarding of Filipino remote employees.
Hiring a remote employee from the Philippines is a great business decision because of its cost-effectivity and how many benefits you get from it, both of which we’ve covered in past installments.
But getting the best work possible quality of work from your Filipino remote employee means enforcing an onboarding policy that caters to their needs and builds a great working relationship between both of you. These are the things you can do to make that onboarding process as effective as possible:
1. Have SOPs and training materials ready for your new hire to go through
Filipinos love being prepared and they will appreciate the forethought involved in having SOPs prepared for them and online training materials sent to them.
But you will have to ensure that the training materials have been read and understood. Filipinos dislike appearing stupid so they will not always approach you if they have a question about the content or if they don’t understand something. So it is important to go through the training materials with them to ensure they have a good level of understanding of the content. You will also need to assure them that asking questions is acceptable and even encouraged, as they will not normally raise questions of their own accord.
2. Go over their contract with them
Clarity is essential to getting off on the right foot together with your remote employee. Going over a new hire’s contract with them not only sets the expectations for the job, but can also give your new employee time to address any questions or concerns they may have.
A good remote employee contract should have the exact job title, job description and responsibilities and tasks they are expected to complete, as well as a description of the expected work standards and quality of output. Letting your remote employee know what kind of standards you want upheld can help them understand their own role in the company and help them refine their work.
3. Establish yourself as the clear figure of authority
Filipinos are naturally attuned to figures of authority and even seek them in the work environment, so it is important to establish authority from the very first day.
Not only will the clear hierarchy put them at ease, but it can also send a clear message that you will not be lenient or tolerate a low standard of work without verbalizing the sentiment. That is not to say that you cannot be friendly with them, but it means you will have to communicate that you are not lenient about their work.
4. Communicate that their job has security
Most people in the Philippines have to live paycheque to paycheque, and job security (or lack thereof) is a source of anxiety for many people. Remote work is often the alternative for many people, but there is still fear of the job being unstable.
To let your Filipino remote employee know that you plan on keeping them for the long-term can help put their anxieties to rest. It can also help build trust in your relationship if your Filipino remote employee knows you value their work.
5. Take advantage of the onboarding period to build a relationship
While the onboarding period is a time for the employee to learn about their job, be trained, and get used to the work, it is also a crucial period of relationship-building. Many employers expect that relationship to grow eventually, but Filipinos are personable and friendly people who appreciate the effort to get to know them and who like getting to know their superiors in turn.
That’s why you should also see the onboarding period as a crucial time to set your working relationship on the right foot. Not only will it make working much easier, but it can also raise your remote employee’s morale which can boost their productivity.
6. Set up a reporting system
The biggest problem with hiring a remote employee is setting a way for accountability. A reporting system solves this by serving as a way for the employee to have proof of the work they’ve accomplished and can also help you get a picture of the work your remote employee has finished.
A report of their accomplishments can be set daily, weekly, or after every project, depending on the kind of work you’ve assigned to them.
7. Set up an Evaluation and Feedback System
When you ask your new remote employee to send in their accomplishment reports, it should also be made clear that you will be using those accomplishment reports as basis for their evaluation, which should also be scheduled at this point.
It is important to let them know that there will be an evaluation in their future. Knowing that their work is being measured and that someone is checking on their work quality reminds them to keep the quality of their work consistent. It can also serve as a kind of motivation for them.
8. As an optional step, you can set up an incentive plan for your new hire
It is important to keep your employees motivated and excited about the work they produce. One way of doing that is to set up success metrics and offers of promotion, but as that is not as easy to do with remote employees, you can also set up an incentive plan for them.
Filipinos love the promise of an incentive like a bonus or some kind of gift to motivate their work and many employers with Filipino VAs find success in this technique. It can also help keep the quality of their work high and within your standards.
Virtual onboarding is an important part of hiring any remote employee, and there are ways to do it properly and efficiently like sending the right training materials and establishing a connection between your in-house staff and your remote employee.
And for remote employees from the Philippines, there are some extra things you can do to improve their onboarding experience and set yourselves up for a beneficial working relationship.
Onboarding has so many benefits, many of which have been proven with data, so it’s worth your time to prepare the onboarding process carefully and thoughtfully.
In the next installment of the Definitive Guide to Hiring Remote Employees from the Philippines (DGHREP, as you may want to call it), we discuss the importance of setting expectations for a working relationship between you and your Filipino remote employee.
If you want to know more about hiring remote employees from the Philippines, you can contact Remote Staff Seeker here or on our LinkedIn page.
You can also browse through old installments of the series if you’re here to learn more about Filipino remote employees.
Last time, we talked about the things you need to know when you hire a Filipino remote employee, including payment methods, holidays, and the Philippine Labor Code.
In this installment, we look into the hiring process of Filipino remote employees, how it may differ from a regular hiring process, and what can be done to make the entire process easier. We discuss the three central parts to any digital hire: screening, administering a personality test, and interviewing your applicants. What you need to do to do it right is all broken down for you in the third installment of our series on hiring Filipino remote employees.
The biggest and most obvious difference between the traditional hiring process we all know and the digital hiring process that is inherent to hiring remote employees is that when hiring a remote employee, everything is done online.
That means that the recruitment, the interviews, the screening, and the onboarding all have to be done virtually.
But in fact, many “traditional” jobs have a digital hiring process now as well as the technology becomes more advanced. This is because digital hiring is generally easier and more efficient than traditional hiring. Interviews can be conducted on the phone or on a video streaming service that saves time for both parties and allows you to interview more candidates in a short amount of time.
Background checks will also need to be done digitally. You can check up on a candidate’s credentials by following up on their references by email if it’s an employer in the Philippines and you can do more background checks on the candidate’s social media accounts and even their LinkedIn page. This can all be done from thousands of miles away but is an effective way to know more about your potential candidates.
Generally, the digital hiring process can mimic the traditional way of hiring in many ways without drawbacks. But the digital hiring process for hiring remote employees also allows space for you to add more components to the hiring process that can benefit both parties greatly.
When it comes to screening an applicant for a job you’re outsourcing, there are multiple ways to screen them and various things to check for to make sure they’re a fit for you.
Technical skills
A resume is an obvious place to start with when you want to understand an applicant’s skills. Beyond the basics like grammar and spelling, skills, and their use of language, take a proper look at their work experience. If this is your first time hiring a remote employee, you may have better results with someone who already has experience working for a foreign employer. That way, the onboarding process is easier as they know what to expect.
If you are hiring for a job that needs a consistent quality of work (for example, graphic design or content creation), ask to see a portfolio of their work. Asking questions about why they chose to include it in their portfolio as well as questions about the time it took and the revisions it needed can also tell you a lot about their technical skills and what to expect from them and their output.
Aptitude to do the job
There are many cases when a job you’re hiring for needs someone with a specific skillset and specific work experience and background. But with many jobs that are delegated to virtual remote employees, it is usually recommended that you be more open and imaginative when finding a suitable employee.
It is extremely rare for you to find an applicant with the exact qualifications for the role, so it is far better for you to think about your applicants in terms of what they can bring to the role and how quickly they can pick up the technical details of the job.
For example, an opening for a job like a Real Estate VA may need specific tasks done but there are generally no specific requirements that are needed for the job. In that case, an employer or the company’s hiring manager may have better success by looking at the general skill set of the candidate and their skills in time management, organization, and computer literacy that do not necessarily stem from a specific educational background or work experience. What is important is that they have the skills to serve as a foundation for completing specific tasks.
Connectivity & equipment
There is simply no way to overstate how important it is to screen a potential remote employee’s connectivity, which includes their personal computer, their internet connection, and their electricity connection. For a remote employee, all three are crucial to getting tasks done and communicating effectively with their employer and team.
For screening purposes, always ask for a screenshot of their personal internet connection at home. If you are hiring for a job that requires a strong internet connection, this can easily narrow down candidates but if it isn’t a crucial part of the job, you will at least want to make sure it’s strong enough to communicate easily. It’s also helpful to be aware of any internet issues they have beforehand in case they suddenly go offline or become slow to reply to emails, but it is generally recommended that they have a backup internet source.
Similarly, always ask for a screenshot of their PC’s specs before hiring. For jobs that need a fast processor or that needs a lot of data storage like graphic design or video editing, this is crucial information.
When screening candidates, always ask for a written backup plan in case the internet becomes disconnected or they experience an electricity outage, which is common in certain areas of the Philippines. Make sure you know that they can access the internet using a portable WiFi device or by going to an internet cafe or computer shop.
Social presence
While some hiring managers shy away from using the technique, screening an applicant’s online presence can sometimes be the only way to properly screen a potential hire.
There are multiple ways to go about this but the most basic way to start is with a simple Google search. A general search can sometimes uncover more information than most people expect; it can show results for social media profiles but also any things they may not have mentioned in their resume like perhaps having another job. But if an applicant has a common name as many Filipinos do, you may have to become more specific with your Google search.
Many online marketplaces for remote employees ask for an applicant’s Facebook account to supply to the employer, which can be a great help. Most Filipinos use Facebook and Instagram and a lot can be seen on their profiles that can help you make a decision.
Pay attention to the way they present themselves online and whether there is anything that could reflect badly on your company.
When hiring a remote employee, you aren’t just looking for someone with the right skill set and experience background. You also want someone that can fit in well with your company’s culture and with the personalities of your other members on staff that they would be working directly with.
That’s why using a personality test during the hiring process is so great. It effectively evaluates the personality of candidates that can tell you things about the person you would not otherwise know.
For example, if the job you’re looking to fill is one with tight deadlines and that often has unpredictable tasks that will need to be taken care of, someone who has an anxious and worried personality may not be the best fit. Or if you need someone to work with other members of your staff, someone who works better alone is not an ideal hire.
Free Personality Tests Available Online
DISC Assessment
The DISC assessment is based on William Moulton Marston’s theory of the four central components of personality: dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness.
We particularly recommend it for the hiring process of remote employees because it assesses three components that employers should know before they make the hire. It assesses skill level, things that affect their productivity, and personality. All these things are central to predicting the way an employee will work that can help you make the decision on who to hire.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
The MBTI test is a popular personality test that was developed based on a theory of personality by Carl Jung. It measures four components of a personality with two poles:
The four components with two possible results for each means there are 16 personality possibilities, each with a distinct description. It can also be done online with many websites offering the test for free. It is a popular personality test that is used by many employers, but it has often been criticized for its unreliability, lack of empirical evidence supporting the test, and for the fact that its developers were not licensed psychologists.
Cattel’s 16PF Test
The 16 personality factor test is based on Raymond Cattell’s theory of personality that was revolutionary at the time for its use of statistics and psychometrics instead of observation. He posited that there are 16 basic factors of personality.
The test has become a popular tool for many clinical and non-clinical tests of personality and the questionnaire is available online to be used by candidates. It is different in that its test relies on hypothetical scenarios and how the person taking the quiz would react to them.
Interviews can be a daunting prospect for both the employer and the potential hire. There may be a million things running through your head as to what you need to ask.
We’ve made that job easier for you. When it comes to interviewing your applicants, these are the things you absolutely need to touch on:
Their background
When it comes to hiring a remote employee, understanding their background is crucial to understanding how they will work in your company and what to expect from them in the role.
Luckily, Filipinos are generally an open kind of people. They rarely take offense to personal questions and are often comfortable talking about their personal and professional lives in detail, especially to a figure of authority. That makes learning about their background relatively easy. The key to taking advantage of this is knowing exactly what to ask.
For someone looking to hire a remote employee, it is essential that you understand how, where, and when your employee works. Ask about their home and family dynamic, who lives with them, where they plan to carry out work, and their other non-work related responsibilities that could interfere with the work you assign them.
If you’re unsure about asking directly, ask them to run you through a typical day they have – pay attention to the way their day is set up and what kind of tasks they need to do. It’s also a good way to find out if they are married, have any marital problems that could stop work for them, and if they have any young children that could distract them. Make sure to also cover any health issues they may have and whether those issues could possibly affect their output.
It can also help you understand your candidates to give them hypothetical situations for them to respond to. For example, if you’re hiring for a supervisory role, give them scenarios to respond to like uncooperative employees, conflicts at work, and other situations that could come up during work.
For hiring remote employees, it is extremely important that you ask for references and follow-up on their references. Understanding how they work and their skillset from previous employers can give you a perspective that you would not be able to gain from only interviewing the employee.
Their skills
Again, we don’t just mean the skills they have on their resume. Give each applicant a chance to explain their core skills and why they think it is something important for the job opening. It gives you a chance to hear them talk about themselves and to assess whether they know enough about the job opening.
Asking them about the work they are most proud of also gives you an opportunity to hear what they look for in their own work and to assess their self-motivation. An applicant who does not sound enthusiastic about the work they produce may become an employee that is not open to learning new skills or taking initiative in the workplace.
It is also important to be open-minded, flexible, and imaginative when hiring remote employees. For some jobs, it will be extremely difficult to find someone with the exact skill set and work experience you are looking for on online marketplaces. That’s why it’s important to read between the lines when interviewing a candidate.
Sometimes you will come across a candidate with a degree in a completely different field with irrelevant work experience. But when you look at what they’ve done and their interests and skills, their critical thinking skills and time management make them a perfect fit. Remember that intelligent people can be very easily trained in the tasks you need to be completed and it may sometimes be more important to have someone with a commitment to the job and an admirable work ethic.
Their interpersonal skills
Beyond their hard and technical skills, you may also want to know how they get along with other people. Any job position will have some kind of teamwork involved in it, whether that is just between you and your remote employee or between your remote employees.
Asking your applicants if they’ve ever collaborated on a project is a good way to start. Inquire about their role, how they felt about working with other people, and what they think can get in the way of successful collaboration can tell you more about the applicant’s work ethic.
But beyond this, the exchange of feedback is vital to a company’s overall health. It is essential that you have an open and productive discussion about work and what can be improved. Unfortunately, many Filipinos can be sensitive to receiving feedback and can likewise be hesitant to give feedback to their employers even when they’re dissatisfied with something at work. This dissatisfaction can often lead to the remote employee going AWOL and ultimately quitting. We have information and tips about how to deal with this cultural difference in the previous installment of this series.
But to ease the entire relationship, you should make sure the candidate is comfortable with that kind of two-way feedback process you will need to grow your company. That’s why you should always assess the applicant’s interpersonal skills to decide if they will fit in with your company’s culture or if you are hiring your first employee, be able to communicate with you efficiently and honestly. You will need to be patient, however, as most Filipinos are shy and easily submissive and the idea of being frank with their bosses can be terrifying.
While the reliance on digital and virtual means for hiring may seem daunting for someone hiring their first remote employee, many brick-and-mortar companies have also transitioned to digital hiring, which has helped make the process much easier and smoother.
But because it’s all done online, you will have to take additional steps to fully know your potential employee. Screening an employee online can help you understand their professional background, personality, and their ability to connect online and complete work effectively.
Giving them a personality test like the DISC assessment can also help you understand their skills and the way they work, which can help you build an environment for them to thrive in.
But before that, you will need to get as much information out of them from the interviews you conduct. Dividing the questions into background, skills, and interpersonal skills categories can help you organize the questions you need to ask.
All these things can help you hire your first remote employee from the Philippines, but you will have to use your own judgment when it comes to the final hire. Remember, you’re hopefully hiring for the long-term, so it pays to take your time with the process.
If you want to know more about hiring remote employees from the Philippines, you can read our previous articles on the subject here. If you have any questions or want to know more, you can also contact Remote Staff Seeker here or on our LinkedIn page.
In Part II of the series, we talked about how to hire your first VA from the Philippines. But before you can do that, there are things you will have to know about how it works and what to expect to create a fruitful working relationship.
And if you’re still not sure if hiring Filipino VAs is for you, you can read our 8 reasons why it’s a game-changer for your business.
So what do you need to know about hiring a VA from the Philippines? We break down the essential information.
Before you go out and hire your first VA, you will want to make sure everything is done by the book to avoid any future troubles.
First, you need to establish what kind of worker you are employing. That is, if you are hiring a full or part-time employee or if you are hiring an independent contractor. Generally, the lines are pretty vague between the two classifications, especially when hiring a remote worker, so it’s good to be clear and direct in your discussion before the hire.
Both regular employees and independent contractors are governed by the Labor Code of the Philippines, but Department Order 174 also governs and protects Filipino independent contractors.. Understanding which parts apply to the hire you are making with a remote worker in the Philippines is crucial to ensure you will not be vulnerable to any legal issues.
For hiring remote employees from the Philippines, it is generally recommended that the employer lays out a comprehensive contract to sign before work begins. It can be a regular contract if hiring a part-time or full-time employee, or an Independent Contractor Agreement if hiring a contractor.
Either way, the contract should include the following:
The Philippines has quite a large number of public non-working holidays every year. With such a diverse culture and history, there are many days to honor and Filipino often take full advantage of these days to relax and have fun with their families.
This can often be a problem for companies looking to hire remote employees from the Philippines, as Filipino REs expect to have days off on holidays that may interfere with a foreign company’s calendar.
For 2019, these are the following regular holidays and special non-working days (denoted by *) in the Philippines:
While the number of holidays in a single year can seem daunting for a prospective employer, there are ways to circumvent the possibility of losing precious work time. Before hiring a remote employee, agreements can be made regarding what days are non-working holidays and which days their work is expected. That way, they are bound by a prior agreement to complete their tasks on that day.
Of course, this would mean you would have to also agree on the appropriate compensation for working on a holiday, as the Philippines has specific laws about how much an employee should be paid for working on a holiday.
We are lucky to live in a world where money is easily transferrable across the world. And this is particularly good for people looking to outsource work to the Philippines. There are many platforms that can be used to pay your remote staff, safely and securely. These are the most popular ways of paying a remote employee:
PayPal is more popularly known as a platform for making online purchases, but it has also developed its own technology for transferring money online across countries. It’s a safe and reputable platform that has great security measures in place.
PayPal charges each transaction with a corresponding fee that depends on the source of the transfer (the country, if it was made with either a linked bank account or a card, and the amount) and the destination. The exchange rate on PayPal between currencies is also slightly higher than the real market exchange rate.
If you decide to use PayPal to transfer money, you and your employee will need to decide who shoulders the fee of transferring.
TransferWise is another platform for transferring money internationally. It has a similar formula to PayPal but has two key differences: the first is that TransferWise uses real-time exchange rates when transferring money internationally. The second is that unlike PayPal, the standard time for a transfer is at least two days. There is an express transfer option but it has an extra fee.
You will have to discuss times and who pays fees if you choose to pay your remote worker with TransferWise.
If you’re looking for a direct way to transfer money without a third party, an electronic funds transfer might be the best option for you. It is a transfer between two bank accounts so the process is safe and secure, but there can sometimes be some holdups that may delay compensation, which puts you at a vulnerable spot legally.
Though the Philippines is in many ways similar to the Western World because of its history with the United States, we can still expect some degree of difference between the cultures.
One cultural difference that usually surprises foreign bosses is how close Filipinos are with their families. And that doesn’t just mean direct family members, it includes everyone from their grandparents, aunts. uncles, cousins, second cousins, and just about everyone who is related to them. And because family is extremely important to Filipinos, you will usually hear about people taking the day off to celebrate an aunt or cousin’s birthday.
Because Filipinos may assume people from the West understand this, they can become surprised when their requests for a day off aren’t granted. That’s why it is important for both parties to go through days of the year to go over any planned absences or events, save for emergencies that cannot be foreseen. Letting your Filipino virtual employees know exactly what you expect from them can save you a whole load of trouble and can make the relationship easier and more open.
Filipinos are generally uncomfortable with feedback. Giving feedback, even constructive criticism, is usually deemed as disrespectful to the authority figure. Most Filipinos either just lie or disappear from their places of employment when they become dissatisfied with work.
It is important to let your remote employees know that you appreciate and even seek out feedback and to create a trusting environment that will help them open up.
On the other side of the coin, Filipinos do not generally appreciate any kind of feedback as they see it as criticism. If you want to give feedback to your employee, you will need to be couple it with a compliment and be clear that you are satisfied with their work. Another route you can take to give feedback is to take more of a “coaching” tone that they will not misinterpret.
If you plan on taking advantage of the great benefits that come with hiring remote employees from the Philippines, you will need to know the facts about the reality of it to avoid any disappointments or problems in the future.
Being well-versed in Philippine Law is extremely helpful in understanding where your company stands as a foreign employer and how that relates to the Filipino remote employee you want to hire. Interestingly enough, you can actually find many Filipino legal assistant remote workers online to help you unravel the complexities of the Philippine Labor Code.
There are many holidays in the Philippines, and depending on the kind of worker you hire, you may be obliged to give them the day off on those days. But it is helpful to agree to terms about working on holidays prior to the hire to get the most out of your remote worker.
There are many ways to pay your remote worker, and it will be up to both employer and employee to make the decision about a payment method.
And though there are cultural differences between Filipinos and the West, these differences can be bridged with proper understanding, empathy, and open discussion.
Next time on this series, we tackle the hiring process of Filipino remote employees, including everything you need to know about the digital hiring process!
If you want to know more about any of the information here, reach out to Remote Staff Seeker on our site or on our LinkedIn page.
If you read Part I of our series, you’ll know why hiring Filipino remote employees is a beneficial and smart decision for any business.
If you’ve decided that hiring remote employees from the Philippines is, in fact, something you want to incorporate into your business strategy, you’re probably wondering how to get started. The information out there can be overwhelming, so we want to make things simpler and easier for those looking to make their first remote employee hire.
In Part II of our new series, we tackle everything you need to know about hiring your first remote employee from the Philippines. What kind of remote employees exist and the various paths to hiring them – all broken down in this comprehensive guide!
A remote employee also commonly known as “Virtual Assistant” or VA is any worker who completes their tasks and responsibilities from a remote location away from the regular place of business of a company. They can perform any number of responsibilities and can be hired on a full-time, part-time, or contractual basis.
The term is sometimes interchanged with “remote worker” and “virtual employee”.
Remote work has become increasingly popular in the last decade with more and more people joining the online workforce. With the advent of the internet age and increasingly advanced technology to communicate and conduct business, a paradigm shift has occurred in what is considered “work” and in the understanding of a workplace. Because it has become more fluid, remote employees are now considered the same as any employee in your in-house staff.
Virtual Assistants in the Philippines are especially popular for businesses looking to hire their first employee. If you want to understand why that is, we broke down all the reasons why businesses are seeking Filipino remote employees. They can be hired in two ways: the first is direct hiring through the online job marketplaces, which are a digital database of job listings from companies looking to hire that is targeted at their experienced remote worker members. The other way is through an agency, which provides a more personalized approach to finding remote employees for companies looking to hire.
There are three types of remote employees from the Philippines that you can hire:
Freelancing has become an incredibly popular way of making money for many people. When you hire a freelancer, you are usually hiring them on a contractual basis for a specific project or a specific task. They are not regular employees and are almost always remote workers.
A full-time remote employee is the same as the regular in-house employees in hours worked and in full-time pay. In this respect, it is salaried employment that is done remotely.
Unlike freelancers, part-time employees are part of the company they work for and are not self-employed. But unlike full-time employees, part-time employees work for a smaller amount of hours and earn at least half of what full-time employees make.
They can be hired for specific roles that do not need a full-time hire.
As we talked about earlier, an online marketplace is an effective and popular (and often free) way of finding remote workers. It works by allowing companies to post job listings and allowing member remote workers to peruse and apply for jobs. They’re incredibly popular in the Philippines and there are many such marketplaces, but we will only be discussing the most popular ones.
OnlineJobs.ph is the biggest platform for online job listings in the Philippines. It caters specifically to Filipino job seekers and boasts over 250,000 members. It also has a rigorous system that ensures the legitimacy of its members to make sure you’re hiring real qualified employees. Ideal to find full-time and part-time based VAs
VirtualStaff.ph is another digital database for job listings looking for remote employees in the Philippines. Companies looking to hire can either search the database of resumes and profiles to find a fit or wait for applications to come in.
Unlike the first two marketplaces, Upwork.com is more catered for people who are looking to hire freelancers or project-based employees. It is an international platform where you can find talent from all over the world.
Agencies are another popular way of hiring a remote employee. Unlike online marketplaces, agencies selectively choose applicants that are then matched with a company looking for a specific role to fill. In this sense, the service is more personalized and may be more effective.
No two agencies are exactly the same and each has its own way of screening candidates and making a match between employer and remote employees.
While the benefits are greater in that applicants are hand-picked for the role you are seeking to fill and there are safeguards in place in case the employee doesn’t complete the work or simply disappears. One thing to keep in mind is that, agency services don’t come for free – and the fees of agencies specializing in Filipino remote employees differ greatly based on skill set of the VAs you’re looking for, agency’s service scope, process of hiring and service inclusions.
In today’s installment of our Definitive Guide to Hiring Remote Employees From the Philippines, we went over the kinds of remote employees that you can commonly hire, the two ways you can hire remote employees from the Philippines, and the benefits and downsides of both. To summarize:
| Online Marketplaces | Agencies | ||
| Pros | Cons | Pros | Cons |
| Large database of applicant | Your job listing can get lost among the thousands of other job listings on the site | Applicants are thoroughly vetted and screened | You do not have as much control over the hiring process |
| Safeguards to ensure the identity of applicants (including Government IDs) | Applicants are not pre-vetted for their skillset and education | There is a more personalized approach to finding and assigning a remote employee | There is usually a fee for an agency’s services |
| Sometimes free | You will be solely responsible for managing your remote staff | Agencies become mediators for misunderstandings and discussions even after the hire | |
In Part III of the series, we will cover everything you need to know about hiring Filipino remote employees, from labor laws to salaries to cultural differences.
For any inquiries, don’t hesitate to contact us.
More and more companies and brands are outsourcing their work to the Philippines, the so-called “outsourcing capital of the world”. Companies like Google, Amazon, FOX Sports, and AT&T all use remote Filipino employees to get their work done – all the way from small generalized tasks to specialized work like customer assistance and web development.
These companies know that the path forward toward greater growth and scaling up is to delegate tasks and outsource work. And it’s a lesson that smaller businesses and entrepreneurs can learn from. There is a large and energetic educated talent pool in the Philippines, and anyone armed with the right tools and knowledge can tap into it, too.
So why are so many companies outsourcing their work to the Philippines? Here are the 8 reasons that explain it.
The outsourcing industry first moved to the Philippines all the way back in the early 1990s, and it shows in the work they produce. Filipino workers aren’t newbies; they understand how important growth is to a business and have decades of experience working in the industry to back it up.
That’s why they’re a popular choice for companies looking to outsource. You’re less likely to run into any problems, mishaps, or miscommunication when the person on the other end of the line is experienced and knowledgeable.
If you’re worried about the language barrier issues you may run into when outsourcing your work, you won’t have to worry when you outsource your work to the Philippines.
English is one of the two official languages of the country, and most of the population grows up comfortably bilingual in schools that teach in English. This means that they have a grasp of the language unmatched by any other working population in the region.
Reliability, friendliness, hard work, and dedication. These are the values central to the Filipino ethic, and it shows in the way they treat their family and friends, and in the way they approach work.
Filipinos are naturally industrious people because of their history and culture as island-dwelling people, and this is evident in their admirable work ethic and in their personality dealing with other people. They’re friendly, polite, respectful, and hard-working in all their dealings.
When it comes to growing your company and hiring more staff, there are costs that cannot be avoided. But with outsourcing, there is a solution for effectively lowering those seemingly unavoidable costs and save money on additional office space and equipment.
The literacy rate in the Philippines is among the highest in the world and educational attainment in the country is similarly high with an increase of college graduates from 2000 to 2010 of over 130%.
This means that every year, more young and well-educated people enter the workforce eager to learn and find jobs. And with an educational system similar in quality to that of the US, you can be sure that they know what they’re doing.
Their energy, dedication, and creativity can thus be funneled towards your company and your goals when you outsource to the Philippines.
Because the standards of living are lower in the Philippines than in the US, wages are also lower for the workforce. This means that while you would pay a certain amount plus taxes and benefits to an in-house staff member, you can receive the same quality of work at more than half the cost.
This means an increase in your bottom line alongside an increase in productivity.
It may not be common knowledge, but the Philippines was once a US territory. This means that the Philippines has the same system of democracy, a similar educational system, and a culture that aligns well with the West.
You won’t have to worry about cultural differences causing problems between you and your remote employees, as they’re well-versed in the Western way of doing things and can fit perfectly in your company.
As a committed business owner, you probably spend a large amount of time working. Sending emails, performing tasks, and thinking about business logistics are all things you can outsource to a dedicated and intelligent member of your remote staff in the Philippines who can do these tasks efficiently.
This frees up time for you to focus on growing and scaling up your business and to focus on personal important things in your life.
It’s important to note that outsourcing is not a fairytale solution nor the end-all-be-all of your business strategy. Outsourcing to the Philippines has downsides such as:
Ultimately, as a business owner, you will have to run the cost-benefit analysis and weigh the pros and cons of outsourcing work to the Philippines to determine if it’s the right step for you and your business’s growth.
If you’re interested in learning more about outsourcing to the Philippines and how to do it as a small business or as a solo entrepreneur, you can contact Remote Staff Seeker.
