I know, you’re worried about getting scammed.
But…what about the people on the other end? Are they worried about it?
Scamming workers to get free work is a common problem on every platform.
Filipinos are especially scared of it. This is why they see test tasks as red flags. It’s unfair to spend one hour, one day, or one week on a project and not get paid for it.
This is why I advise paying people weekly for the first two months. It builds their trust in you.
When you don’t do this, you could lose out on a great Filipino VA. That’s what almost happened to Jason.
So I was messaging him (Jason’s VA) all day while I was at Disneyland with the family last Thursday. I found out that my VA that manages the team had scared him away with a bunch of requirements and then didn’t actually pay him for his first 2 weeks of work. I found out he had thought he was going to have to work for FREE and that my team had dropped the ball on getting him setup to be paid.
Lesson learned… make sure your onboarding process is solid so you don’t start off on the wrong foot and loose trust.
After chatting via WhatsApp I started finding all this stuff out and realized we had totally blown it on our end.
I have a call with him tomorrow morning and are starting off on the right foot hopefully.
Hopefully we made it through and now will be putting a better process in place so people are communicated with and understand what is expected of them.
No wonder the VA was scared off. He felt like he was being taken advantage of!
Jason ironed things out with his Filipino and fixed his onboarding system. He asked me to share his email with you so you, too, can look at your onboarding process.
If this is your first hire, don’t overcomplicate things. Just communicate with them.
– If your test task (before hiring) will take longer than 30 minutes to finish, pay for it.
– Once you’ve decided on who you want to hire, give them a job and tell them you’ll pay them every week for the first two months. After that, you’ll pay bi-weekly or monthly. Ask them what they want.
– Acknowledge that they’re scared of doing work and not getting paid and that’s why you’ll pay weekly.
– NEVER pre-pay for work.
For many Filipinos, an online job is a dream job.
They don’t disappear or take on multiple jobs without a reason.
If they see a bunch of red flags with your job post or first tasks, they’re disappearing because they’re worried they’ll be left with nothing.
Treat people well.
John