Outsource Work to the Philippines

Outsource Teams to the Philippines

The Philippines is a perfect destination for US companies looking for an alternative to India or China for outsourcing. There is a growing population of highly educated and affordable knowledge based workers in the country that have a much better understanding of English and Western culture than other prominent off shore locations companies hire in. It is relatively easy to find fully capable Filipino contractors and employees that can do critical support tasks from basic personal assistant type activities to graphic design and web programming and much more.

The Philippines provides US businesses several advantages versus outsourcing with teams located in other countries including: closer time difference, better cultural understanding "Big Plus for Consumer Focused Companies", good English skills, and in generally very honest about individual capabilities and defining expectations and deadlines. I have over the last couple of years transitioned almost all of my outsourcing for personal projects and recommendations for client projects to the Philippines due to several unfortunate experiences when working with firms from India and China. These unfortunate situations repeated with several different companies over the years and I have found much more success using teams from the Philippines and hope you can too.

Some of the most important advantages I have recognized with working with teams in the Philippines versus other countries.

1. Time Difference - A huge benefit to working with a team in the Philippines is being able to communicate at an earlier hour versus working with people in India. At 5 PM on the west coast it is already 9 AM in Manila, where as it would be 6 AM in Bangalore. This allows you to discuss with your team earlier in the afternoon evening to instruct them about there tasks for the day. If there is a problem when they get started it is still early enough to not be a huge hindrance if they call or send a Skype message versus a problem happening mid day in India can sometimes wait a whole day before an answer can be provided and work continue.
2. English Filipino's speak very good English and younger people tend to already know a lot of casual American slang and analogies making a conversation easier. Due to the wide number of OFW's (Overseas Filipino Workers) most people have interactions with individuals living in several cultures making them perfect candidates for supporting businesses that are looking at supporting a global audience. Filipino's can be excellent call support team members and make basic sales lead generation phone calls with basic script training.
3. Cultural Understanding If your business is a consumer focused company in the US it is wise to hire Filipinos if you're looking for graphic talent or blogging or other social media support people. There is a lot of american influences with popular culture in the US from music to fashion and the younger talent can quickly execute works that fit well with popular design, look, and feel of what American consumers are looking for.
4. Integrity While there are good people and bad people everywhere, the culture in the Philippines results in an overall better commitment and honest answer from potential employees during interviews than other experiences. When dealing with Filipinos I have been told, "No Sir, I can't Do that" more than from anywhere else. I got tired of paying for outsourced employees that were learning on the job and providing sub par work that was delayed. The level of communication overall has been much more fluid and proactive with the Filipino teams I have hired.
5. Affordable - Teams in the Philippines are affordable and depending on the task you can expect to spend anywhere from $1 per hour for basic data entry to up around $8 - 10 for graphic design and programming work. Rates in many countries that used to be very affordable have become more expensive making the talent in the Philippines even more attractive.

Overall, experiences working with teams in the Philippines have been very good and hope it would be good for you as well if you consider to hire a Filipino the next time you are hiring someone for a business or personal project.

Do More with Less on oDesk one of the premier platforms for assisting businesses connect with overseas workers has put together the following statistics.

The Philippines was the second country in the most number of hours worked. The types of jobs leading the top 5 jobs for Filipino workers on oDesk was: Data Entry, SEO, Blog & Article Writing, Personal Assistant, Web Research. I would agree it takes a little longer to find a programmer or web designer from the Philippines when posting new job requirements versus someone from India, however the results have been much better in my experience by waiting for a Filipino to apply.