In my newsletter, I post regular updates on typhoons and earthquakes in the Philippines. Some of you might be worried if outsourcing to the Philippines is worth it, given that they go through 30-something typhoons, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes every year.
Yes! It’s definitely worth it.
Once you find the right Online Filipino Specialist (OFS), it’s going to change your life and your business.
How can you improve your situation in case of a disaster?
1. Insist on workers having laptops and/or portable hard drives. A laptop is easier to carry and save than a desktop in an emergency. But if your OFS uses a desktop (most developers and designers would probably use a desktop for work), then insist that they have portable hard drives where they can back up their work regularly.
A portable hard drive is cheap (about $40 for a 1TB capacity); it’s something you can provide for them. It’s super easy to grab and carry in case of emergency.
2. Invest in cloud storage. Another way to ensure that none of your OFS’ work gets lost in natural disasters is to invest in cloud storage. This makes it easier for them to return to work or pass them on to someone else if needed. In our case, we save our work in Google Drive. Actually, we do most of our work on Google Drive. Writing happens there, spreadsheets happen there, and files get stored there.
3. Get their emergency contacts to ensure continued communication. Ask your OFS for emergency contacts that you can call if they’ve been affected by a natural disaster. Ideally, this should be a relative or friend that doesn’t live in the same place but has the resources to find or contact them. Get phone number and email.
4. Set up a small emergency fund. If your OFS pays their SSS (they should), they can take out a calamity loan to help recover. But that can take time, especially if everybody in their area is also getting a loan. You can help your OFS by setting up a small emergency fund they can borrow from to help them get back on their feet faster. The size of this fund depends on your means. A couple hundred dollars is usually sufficient. We’ve done this dozens of times for people and have never had a problem getting paid back.
If you haven’t hired an OFS yet (check out my hiring process at OneVAAway.com).
You can consider hiring from places in the Philippines that are less affected by natural disasters. Western Visayas and Mindanao are the places least affected by typhoons.
The province of Palawan in MIMAROPA, Cavite in Region 4, Isabela in Region 2, Cebu in Region 6, and Bohol in Region 7 don’t have any active fault lines, making them less likely to experience earthquakes.
To know where these places are, check out my newsletter on the basics of Philippine geography.
A last word of advice. I say to hire from specific regions as an option. I’ve never done it. It’s not that simple (we don’t have a geography filter at OnlineJobs.ph). More important is to hire the right person, wherever they’re from, and start working together. A natural disaster may only affect them once every 5 years. And…Filipinos are really good at recovering.
John
PS. Where I live, the only likely natural disaster is an earthquake. We expect a really big one at some point. We have a lot of food stored for this emergency.
