In this section we focus on addressing a range of questions that may address any concerns you may have. Maybe even ask some you have not thought about. It’s important that you be aware of both the benefits as well as the possible challenges when using offshore staff. Many of the concerns you might have we hope will be addressed and eliminated as you read on.
Click on a question below to view the answer :
- Is the quality of work done by offshore Creative staff good enough?
- The work quality in creative job roles like web designers, drafts people, architects, illustrators and finished artists is a very high level even compared to western standard. However, we find the general labour talent pool in the Philippines for graphic designers is of a lower standard. This doesn’t mean that good quality graphic designers cannot be found, they can, it is just that they are more difficult to come by and is sometimes not up to the high level of western graphic design standards.
- Can offshore IT staff match the level of technical competence of local staff?
- The level available can range from junior to advanced depending on requirement. We find in many cases you can access more specialised and more experienced talented web developers with HTML, asp.net, PhP, MySql and MsSql, and some offshore staff could very well be more advanced than some of your local staff. We have found some of our clients with in-house IT staff at $80k are not as advanced as the offshore staff working remotely for $17,000 per year. This has happened on a number of occasions.
- How does the quality of Philippine Telemarketing staff compare?
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Telemarketing is not a preferred career choice for most people in western markets. Often when you place job ads online, you get few enquires. In some local areas the only applicants available to employers are often students and travellers who are willing to do this line of work.
The Philippines is emerging to be the global choice with Telemarketing because many people in the Philippines treat outbound and inbound telemarketing roles as a career move and are committed in doing whatever it takes to get the job done right. We find many inbound and outbound call centre professionals in the market place who have years of experience handling telemarketing campaigns for the American and Australian market.
With their well spoken English, their friendly attitude and neutral accents you will find good results using call centre staff from the Philippines. Many people in the market place are eager to respond to email or phone enquiries, provide technical and/or customer support, up-sell, cross-sell other products, transfer phone calls to appropriate departments after qualifying the call, take care of account and billing enquiries, market a product or a service, sell a product or a service over the phone, appointment setting and market research. - Is their English good enough?
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Because of the large number of job seekers available within the Philippines we have the ability of having easy access to staff that have fully functional spoken and written English. More often than not, conversing with Filipinos in English is easier than conversing with many people of other non-Indigenous English speaking countries. This is due to the fact that Filipinos have formally learnt English in schools from a very early age as it is the country’s co-official language. School books are written in English and Hollywood movies etc. are never translated nor subtitled in their local language.
Because of the English fluency, any language issues are only to do with the American / Hispanic accent rather than English speaking abilities. It is important to note that all resumes include a voice recording and depending on the job role and your requirements, we will seek out those who can speak with a neutral accent. - Can I really trust offshore staff?
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Yes you can. Using the Remote Staff system all clients have access to a sophisticated management platform to help build trust. One of the ways is through invoicing, clients pay one month in advance (say beginning of the month) and the offshore staff gets paid at the end of the month and only after they have satisfied the job requirements. Trust is also formed with communications; offshore staff is required to be in contact with us at all times. We also have a 3 minute Skype chat rule, any time you use instant Skype chat messenger services, offshore staff have to respond to your online communications within 3 minutes. We found as long as communication is instant, trust is built. For those staff that you require having phone access, they can also be contacted by phone. A compliance officer tracks that staff are on time, online and working, if staff do not show up to work for some reason, we must be informed about it. We have a staff Client relationship Manager who ensures that the relationship between staff and client is running smoothly.
But it’s the offshore staff system that really helps you build trust with the use of the screen snapshot every 3 minutes. This will help you monitor their daily workflow activities as well as help manage them. In addition to that, you will be able to see their online time sheets including when they start, finish and take lunch. Every 20-30 minute there is also the quick report pop up where staff log what they are working on at the time of the pop up. - Will I be able to manage and work with a remote team like I could work with my local staff?
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Whenever staff start in a new position there is an induction period where the need to be introduced into the business and are provided with any other information relevant to working within the organisation. It is no different with offshore staff but because they are offshore we do recommend that you allocate up to a two week period where you micromanage the new staff. Certainly while this period will vary depending on the type of job and staff, the effort you put in at this induction process will pay greater dividends much earlier. One thing that managers need to be aware of, because your offshore staff is not in your office a lack regular of communication can create disassociation in their first few weeks, so treat them like a part of your local team.
Offshore staff are very good at following directions. It is important when working with offshore staff to provide instructions clearly. This will enable your offshore staff to get the job done accurately. We recommend you use verbal, written and remote screen share to show and demonstrate the job and work requirements you want done. It’s important to make your offshore staff feel as if they are part of your local team. If possible having them part of meetings, using collaboration technology will increase their sense of being part of your team. We find commitment, morale and quality of work is higher when this occurs.
Thanks to technology, working with offshore staff is like having them just down the hall in your office. With screen share technology you can show your offshore staff what you have on your computer screen, making it easy to communicate when showing or explaining tasks. With soft phones, you can have a local phone number to call your offshore staff at a local call cost. With offshore staff tools such as Google docs, sharing documents and keeping in touch with workflows and TO DO list is easy. Instant messenger services with Skype help keep communication constant and live. In addition, you have access to a log where screen captures of your staff members PC is taken every 3 minutes are stored waiting for your review. Apart from being an audit tool it makes it easy to see the flow of work as it happens. - Will offshore staff working from home do less work and take longer to get a job done compared with staff working in an office?
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In 90% of cases we find offshore staff keep their productivity levels high when working from home. Offshore staff working from home is a preferred choice for many applicants because they get to spend more time at home and can avoid the heavy pollution and massive traffic jams. Because they work from home they start their workday fresh and we find that by the end of the day staff are not as tired which increases their productivity levels when compared to staff working from one of the offices.
In some cases you will find work from home production can drop by 40% simply because some offshore staff are just not able to adjust with the idea of working from home as they are distracted by family, friends and other things. We know that this can happen so it is not a concern as either you or our HR Manager will pick up this problem within the first week or so. Once identified we will replace the staff immediately. Our experience suggests this happens only 10% of the time.
By default staff are placed working from home, however, If you don’t want staff working from home we have 250 office seats available to lease out at $300 per month. Often having staff working from an office has its benefits when you have a team of 20+ staff. One key benefits in using offshore staff to work from an office is reliable power and internet connection. Occasionally staff working from home are subject to power blackouts or simple internet drop outs which do occur once every few weeks or so.
All staff working from home have up to date PC’s and broadband ADSL internet connection a standard. - Will I get the flexibility and commitment from the offshore staff?
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Yes, offshore staffs are eager and driven to learn and work with western companies because they find it more prestigious and see it as a good career move. Working with western employers also gives them a variety of experiences and a more challenging working and learning experience, which is very much valued. They will also be very keen to work the extra hours and put in where required.
If you want to pay bonuses we will arrange this for you. Staff do react favourably to bonuses (you may find even more so than your local staff), however, it is important to discuss with us what the bonuses are for and how much you would like to offer. Having the right bonus level in place is important. You will fail to achieve your desired result paying too little or too much. We will provide you with the guidance required. - Will the job get done to the standards I need?
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It’s difficult to generalize but we found that it depends on the person you have chosen from the endorsed candidates presented. Using Remote Staff’s custom recruitment process, the success rate in finding the right person first time, who will be turn out to be a real asset to your business, is at 85%. Which is excellent considering that we are working with people. One of the keys to success is the time you spend inducting the person within the first couple of weeks and that clear expectations are set. But it is important to note that while an 85% strike rate is enjoyed there are still 15% of placements that are not right for the job. Satisfying your staff requirements is the primary objective that is why there is a Four Month Staff Replacement Guarantee. This means that even if we thought the candidate was great and you interviewed them and also though they were perfect for the job, if it turns out that they are not the right person, at your direction they will be replaced.
While the hourly rate is low, not having the right person in place is a waste of time and money. Our commitment is getting you the right person, the hourly rate is the bonus, and staff will be replaced as many time as necessary within the first four months. Achieving a successful outcome rewards you, the staff and us. Everyone has an interest in getting it right. - Will they be effective, efficient and functional for my business?
- Yes they can be just like a local staff member if you are prepared to train and work with your offshore staff in the initial stages of employment and the results will speak for themselves in no time. Please note, using offshore staff to work remotely for you will never be a perfect, risk free, secure unconditional satisfaction guaranteed type of experience. It just isn’t. However, once you have the offshore staff working the way you want them to you will be pleasantly surprised at just how much extra leverage you and your team can get with the use of offshore staff working for your business remotely.
- Is the quality of work done by offshore Marketing staff good enough?
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We have had great success with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) staff. Although there can be a shortage of skilled SEO’s because of demand, staff that have been placed with clients have shown to be experienced and talented and able to do quality work. However, finding experienced Search Engine Marketing (SEM) staff can be more challenging. This is because the socio-economic restraints in the Philippines restrict people from placing advertisements on Google AdWords. This restricts the quantity of offshore SEM staff available with this type of experience.
Importantly we have no difficulty in finding link builders, bloggers, directory and article submissions, online bookmarking and other offshore staff who know how to market using social networking skills online. There is also a great depth of good standard English writers; we have no difficulty finding article and product writers, press release or website review writers, writers to do transcriptions and online research, journalists and so forth. - Will they be able to work well independently?
- Yes, ongoing micro managing is neither needed nor encouraged, just like any local staff member supervision during the first 2 weeks or so will be necessary. You need to give them a week or two to adjust to the nature of your business or industry and give as much product information as you can to help them get started with you. The more that staff understands about your business, the more they will be able to have some foresight and be able to see the full depth of the job. Also, as they begin to become part of your business, you will begin to become aware of the other qualities and skills that they have to offer.
- Are they trustworthy individuals we can rely on?
- Trust is on the top list of the values we adhere to. We assess and guide all the staff we hire to share these values. We have legal representation in the Philippines and a fund set aside to enforce our legally binding contractual agreements that all offshore staff agree and sign before commencement of work. We value trust and we demonstrate this by legally protecting your proprietary confidentiality and intellectual property.
- Will using offshore staff be a negative reflection of my business; is there customer acceptance?
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At first glance it’s easy to see outsourcing as taking jobs away from people local to you, but outsourcing and using offshore staff isn’t about that. Offshore staff is about adding new productivity and capabilities for businesses that may not have been able to achieve such capacities by employing just locally or could afford to pay locally. It’s about strengthening and making local businesses competitive in the global market place. Offshore staff often helps businesses become stronger and in turn establishes new employment opportunities locally.
We speak with lots of businesses about using offshore staff and find many companies have been outsourcing and using offshore staff in some way for some time now. It’s not just large corporations using offshore staff as a competitive advantage, solo entrepreneurs and consultants are now using this new global trend.
You most likely have some form of contact with offshore staff in your everyday life, and it’s becoming more and more culturally acceptable to get a call from someone offshore about phone bills, internet connections, or credit cards. All of these large companies use offshore staff located in the Philippines to increase their competitive advantages. They have set a pattern that helps create acceptability.
