Filipinos don’t want to steal data.
In my opinion, you’re more likely to have your data stolen by someone who’s working with you in your office.
I know it’s a pretty bold claim. I have no empirical data to support this, just anecdotal, so you can take everything I’ve said here with a grain of salt.
But in the 17-plus years I’ve worked with my Filipino team, I have never had my information stolen by them.
The worlds outsourcing has moved to the Philippines. If Filipinos want to steal your data, how come many big businesses set up call centers in the Philippines? These call centers have access to information from billions of people, and there are Filipinos who have been working with that information for years.
If big businesses can trust their thousands of Filipino workers, why can’t you trust the OFS you hired yourself?
Big businesses trust their Filipino employees because they know that the Philippines is pretty high in Hofstede’s Power distance Index.
I think this is where the deep-seated mistrust comes in. If you didn’t hire the worker yourself, you can’t trust them because you don’t know them. You can’t give sensitive information to someone you don’t know because who knows what they’ll do with it.
But if you hired your OFS yourself and you took the time to know who they are, it’ll be easier to trust them. If you took the time to find someone trustworthy, it’s easier to give them your trust.
That’s one of the things I considered when I was developing OneVAAway.com. I knew it was important to find someone trustworthy early in the recruitment process.
I’m not saying that Filipinos will never steal your data. There are going to be some bad apples out there. In case that happens, you can report them to their Department of Justice, and they can launch an investigation. Give them their OFS information, and the Philippine government will likely do something about it. They take theft seriously. Digital theft punishments are double that of normal theft in the Philippines.
I talk about this a lot. The reason is because I see too many people who don’t hire someone because they’re scared. They’re scared they can’t trust the person they hire. They’re scared something will go wrong. They’re scared the worker is just in it to steal from them.
And…I understand. I was scared the first time too.
But the only way to verify what I’ve said is to do it yourself and see if it works for you.
…Or you could read from hundreds of others.
John