This post is part of a series on outsourcing from a Filipino perspective.
R. [name omitted] has worked for me for about 6 years.
He’ll tell you that when I hired him HE KNEW NOTHING!
Of course…I knew nothing about hiring Filipinos at the time either!
The biggest thing I’ve learned from R. is that consistency in a worker is REALLY important.
- He’s not the smartest guy ever.
- His english isn’t the best ever.
- He’s not a designer (although he’s taken it on himself to learn)
- He’s not a programmer (although…he did learn some PHP so he could be a better employee)
- BUT…HE’S ALWAYS THERE!
He’s consistent. He’ll try anything. Fail or succeed, he’ll try it.
He always replies to my emails.
He always sends me daily reports.
He always shows up to work (ok…not ALWAYS…but pretty close).
I love him for what he’s taught me (not to mention what he’s done for my business).
Problems With Outsourcing And How To Deal With Them
I have read many comments about the problems encountered in outsourcing to the Philippines. In this article, I will talk about the major problems and give suggestions and possible solution to them. I want to share my opinion as one of the Filipino workers who have worked in the online industry for 6 years.
Problem 1: Employees suddenly disappeared
This is a very common problem that employers want to deal with. You hire an employee and after a week or so that employee never communicates and suddenly disappeared without warning. This is very frustrating on the employer’s side.
Causes
One thing that may cause this problem is the lack of communication in both employer and employee. This may result to an unclear instructions, lack of training materials, or lack of understanding of training materials on the part of the employee. Most employers would chose employees with good English without any experience in SEO or online task. And if an employer would only send an email and tell that employee to build backlinks to a certain site without explaining what backlinks are and why they are important, that employee will surely be stuck on work. And when that happened, that employee will just leave because of lack of understanding. The most difficult task to do is the task that we don’t even understand how to do it. Some of us are afraid to ask because of the expectations the employers set. Most of us are afraid to tell you that WE DON’T KNOW how to do a certain task. That is why some employees just leave and disappear.
Another thing that can cause this problem is the employee doesn’t want to do a certain task.
I have a co-employee that we want to work on a different task aside from writing. After a few weeks of trying, she never sent us any updates and when I asked her why, she said she wants to resign. The reason is that she does not want the assigned task. She is not good at it. So I convinced her to stay and we will give her the task she wants and that is writing articles. She stayed working with us because she is happy with what she is doing. This is only one example of this kind of situation.
Solution:
If you hire an employee, try to talk to them often. They need you. Try to chat with them (not just email). Talk to them so that you will know their weakness and strength. Don’t just rely on training materials. Training materials are very good references, but you need reach out to your employees and let them feel that they are not left behind.
By trying to talk to them, you will determine what task would be appropriate for their skills. And because you know their strength, you can give them the task they wanted to do. Don’t give a linkbuilding task to a web designer. Know your employees well and set up a good relationship with them.
Coming Soon (his guest post was so long I had to split it up):
- Problem 1: Employees suddenly disappeared
- Problem 2: Dishonest Employees
- Problem 3: Demotivated Employees
- Problem 4: Really Bad Employees (this is my favorite, wait until you read his “Causes”)
really good insights. Have been using some Filipino workers for a few months and can't wait to learn more in the future posts. Thanks.
This comment is just my personal opinion. Filipinos are great employees, I think Filipinos deserve a minimum wage of $400/mo preferably, to be fair. One of the reasons why they disappear or why they are not completely honest with online employers is because they are not getting enough pay as compared to the bulk of work they are doing for their clients. They tend to find other part time jobs to have additional income. Reality check, they work for money, to survive. They have families to support, pay for electric & internet bills which are expensive. It is OK to have demanding clients as long as the price is fair. Money motivates. Just a thought…
I totally agree! At $250 a month, "You'll get what you've paid for".
R, Many thanks for your enlightenment. Your post help me understand that I should not be hands with VA's but more hands (words) on. After reading your post do you think that talking to a VA at least once a day if not twice a day would be too much?
Thank you for this as I would have thought that would be way too much and acting more to smother rather than help or direct.
And John, this was a GREAT idea to have one of your VA's do this series of articles. Thank you to you as well.
very challenging and doesn't matter which country you outsourse too you need to brief and manage properly. Another issue is that you are often outsourcing things you may not fully understand – a good example is backlinks already mentioned. how do you get enough knowledge to brief/train etc or are there some common jobs training materials available
@Jojo, dude I totally agree with you that $250 shouldn't be the minimum wage. But please man, at least try to be more kind to your words.
Just read what you posted, no wonder you get yourself employees who fool you. $250 is a miserable amount.
We, Filipinos deserve better than that. You offer a good salary and you get a good Filipino employee. Filipino's are the hardest working people, when given a task we perform very well! We strive for the best and give power performance but being paid a measly amount of $250 – what do you expect? maybe someone who hasn't even gone to High School! You get what you pay for…
Wow, these Filipinos sound like creative, sensitive temperaments. So basically, they don't really work well for just money alone…
But I've just realized: actually NOONE DOES. When you're sutting alone in your house you're not going to work for long on boring, unclear tasks for long.
Interesting.
Jojo, I'm sorry, but you're wrong.
What you say ONLY applies to Manila.
I currently have 2 people working for me at $250/month and have had them for 1-2 years.
They haven't disappeared.
They do great work.
They DON'T live in Manila.
I understand that $250/month isn't a ton, but it's a start. It's $150 more than one of them was ASKING for when I hired them.
They're both great workers.
I feel so much happier now I unedrstand all this. Thanks!
I regard something really special in this website .