I got this email from Virgine, which is another question I get asked a lot about hiring an Online Filipino Specialist.

We seem to be getting a lot of great potential VA – they all say the right things on the interview but then we train them for 2 weeks and they leave- or flat out caught them lying when they forgot to mute themselves on zoom- it’s been such a disappointing process and wondering if you can send us some candidates that are reliable? As it takes up so much of our time to train them and we are needing help asap- we realize that we might need to slow down on the training process and giving tasks but they seem to want it as they are quick – please help.  We had a VA last year and she helped us organize the training material. She had to leave as she could not provide FT. 

Here’s my response:

1. this is relevant:
https://johnjonas.com/my-filipino-worker-just-disappeared/

2. It’s not easy for a Filipino to get a job.  If they get a job, they want to keep that job.  It’s a big deal to them.

3. If you’re having a recurring problem where they resign quickly, I’d say there’s a high likelihood that there’s a problem in either the onboarding or in the work you’re asking them to do.
Filipinos generally don’t want to resign. They’re very likely not bad people.  There’s something that’s causing them to resign.

– They don’t like the work,
– It’s not clear what they need to do,
– They don’t trust you,
– They feel like expectations aren’t realistic,
– They feel the work-to-pay ratio isn’t right…

I don’t know what it is, but something likely isn’t right.

If I were you, I’d go back to the people who have resigned and ask them why.  Acknowledge that you’ve realized something was probably wrong on your end and that it’s your fault that they resigned.  You did something wrong.  Then ask them what was the reason.

They might tell you, they might not.

But…based on everything I’ve seen over the years, I’d give a 90% chance that something is wrong rather than that you’re not finding good people.

Ask those who left. You might find something out about your process.

John