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Last week after an amazing day of skiing, my 8yr old had a rough last run down the mountain: He wasn't even going very fast. He just got tangled up and fell flat on his face with his legs spread as wide as they could be. He couldn't get himself up. I had to scoot over and help him. Frustrated and helpless. Then, I felt the same way yesterday with my OFS. Last year I started a podcast: The Secret Sauce of Outsourcing Podcast where I talk about outsourcing to the Philippines and OFS and culture and lifestyle and...It's really just a parallel to this newsletter. Then, a few weeks ago I decided to start recording podcast episodes as video episodes. It requires almost no extra work from me and my team publishes the podcast and also publishes the content to YouTube! Extra distribution for no extra work from me. Except...as they published episode 54 (which was like the 20th video episode) they told me it was completed and sent me the YouTube link. I looked at it. I was horrified. The video started mid sentence. It referenced how I reacted to a feeling I hadn't described. It was a terrible edit of the video I had recorded which was meant for something else but got published as a video episode of my podcast. I immediately sent the message: DO NOT PUBLISH THIS! and asked why it got published, why it wasn't checked, what would make you publish something that makes me look so dumb... I was frustrated. About 3 hours later the video was down and a new, correct video was published. I thanked them. We're now having 2 people (that are not me!) look at everything before it gets published. I told them I want them to look at everything and say "Is this right? Does this make us/John look good? Or is there a problem here?" We'll see if it works. John PS. I send this so you know outsourcing isn't all roses for me. It takes work. I have my frustrations. But overall it allows me to do so many things there's no way I'd do otherwise. In fact, all of this newsletter, my entire YouTube account, and the podcast would never happen if not for them. All 3 of these take me like 2 hours/week. |
I understand why many business owners prefer to have their OFS work in their timezone. It's just more convenient. You don't have to worry about things like scheduling meetings and whatnot. There's also the added benefit of monitoring your OFS work hours. The first time I hired someone the agency said "Do you want them to work on your hours?" I didn't know that's an option. Yeah, let's do it! A few weeks in he came to me and said: "Sir, working at night is really hard. It's affecting my family. I'm not sleeping well which is also affecting my work. Can I work during the day my time?" The problem with having an OFS work in your timezone (if they're not used to working nights) is that it affects their health and productivity. Usually it ends up affecting the quality of their work. There is a way to use this time difference to your advantage. Here's the current (daylight savings) time difference between the Philippines and the timezones we have here in the US. EDT - 13 hours behind - USA Monday: 9pm - Philippines Tuesday: 10am CDT - 14 hours behind - USA Monday: 9pm - Philippines Tuesday: 11am MDT - 15 hours behind - USA Monday: 9pm - Philippines Tuesday: 12 noon PDT - 16 hours behind - USA Monday: 9pm - Philippines Tuesday: 1pm And for those in the UK GMT - 8 hours behind - UK Monday: 9pm - Philippines Tuesday: 5am Depending on where you live, most of your OFS work hours would happen while you're sleeping. So what I do during the day is: Respond to their daily reports if needed Give feedback on the projects they're already working on Give them new/additional tasks Give instructions Give training What I don't do is touch the things they're supposed to be doing. It took me a long time to realize that if something didn't get done while they were working, I DIDN'T NEED TO DO IT MYSELF! I work on other important tasks. I work on improving systems. I work on giving better training and feedback. What's great about the time difference is there's nobody there to distract me from getting actual work done. Now...if you find that you need to talk with them, figure out when your work schedule overlaps with theirs. You'll find that some of your work schedule overlaps with some of theirs in almost every case because they rarely work 9-5 Philippines time. Want someone to work on your time? ; https://youtu.be/xOnJpydKGyU John |
I'm not a big holiday person. Halloween...my least favorite day of the year. Valentines day? Thursday. St Patricks day? Huh? I'm just not a big celebration kind of guy. I just can't get into it. For me, the only reason I even know Chinese New Year is happening is because of my team in the Philippines. It's a big deal for a lot of them. Chinese New Year falls on February 1, a Tuesday this year. It's a "special holiday" in the Philippines, so people will still work. Some might take it off...but most won't. If you have workers who are Filipino Chinese or of Chinese descent, you can wish them a Happy New Year. This year it’s the Year of the Water Tiger. The weird thing about Chinese Horoscopes is your sign is considered your unlucky year. Like, if you’re born in the Year of the Tiger (1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998 or 2010), 2022 will be a tough year for you. But for everybody, this could be their best year ever. Again...something I really can't get into... Plus...what about everyone else in 2020? That wasn't everyones birth year and wasn't it the worst year in history...for almost everybody? The best way to have a good year, regardless of when you’re born, is to do what you can to make it possible. Like making a change in your business. If you’re tired that your business isn’t growing, stop working in your business and start running it. If you’re tired of doing everything, get help and hire an OFS. If you've never done it before, spend 4 minutes and read this: https://OFSGuide.com If you've done it and you're procrastinating hiring the next person, please respond and tell me why. John |
People ask me regularly who writes this email. 2 people: - Julia, my OFS: - and Me (my wife gets me a formal picture every year when we take family photos): The next question is What did you look for when hiring her? Simple. English skills. That's it. Although, when I hired her I wasn't hiring her to write my newsletter. I hired her like 12 years ago to write other things. Over the years she has written countless pieces for me including my personal blog, my personal social media, articles we've published... So how do you find someone to write for you? Obviously English skills. That’s a given. Here are a few questions I think would be great to ask when you’re interviewing an OFS for a writing position. 1. Do you like reading for fun? If yes, what do you like to read? If they don’t like to read, that could be a problem. Because to write, you have to read, A LOT. That’s where the ideas come from. If they don’t like reading, how will they keep writing? If they like to read, ask them what they want to read. What they read for fun is going to influence how they write. Most Filipinos are exposed to American culture. If your potential writer reads a lot of American literature, that’s good. It means their writing would be close to a native English speaker. 2. Do you write every day? Do you journal, or do you have a blog? Writing is a skill. The more you practice, the easier it is to write on cue. A ‘writer’ who doesn’t write every day will struggle if you ask them to write something quickly. 3. Do you know how to create an outline? Writing every day requires a lot of creativity AND organization. When doing research, you need to know how to organize the information you’ve gathered. This makes the writing process faster and more efficient. That doesn’t mean that disorganized writers aren’t good. But if you need your writer to create newsletters, articles, and blog posts regularly, having a system helps. 4. Go read these 4 articles I wrote, then write an intro paragraph about X in my voice. This let's them hear my voice (reading what I've written) and then write something short to see how well they pick up on my voice. Finding a great writer isn't exactly a science...but it's not that far from it. Follow my steps at www.OneVAAway.com. I'll give you like 50 more questions I ask people. I guarantee you'll find someone great. John |
Well...I was going to talk about background checks, but then I read what my OFS wrote for this email: "No background check beats doing the work yourself." I laughed. Out loud. My OFS gets it! We’re so used to background checks here in the US it’s impossible to think that there are places in the world that don’t do it. We go through background checks to get a job, rent an apartment, do business, volunteer, establish credit. It’s so ingrained in our culture that we think nothing of it and expect it from everybody else. So it surprises people when I tell them that there’s no way to do a background check on a Filipino VA. At least, not in the way that we’re used to. When Filipinos look for jobs, a typical job requirement is the NBI clearance. It’s a document that states whether or not they have a police record. It’s the closest thing they have to a background check and something you could ask for. It could be a deterrent, but it won’t make much sense because you could get a record in the Philippines for littering or jaywalking. The Philippines has started rolling out a National ID System similar to our Social Security. But it’s going to be years we can use it due to COVID delays. I understand why background checks are important for many people. It gives them a sense of security. But I think the best way to really know the person you’re hiring is really to do the recruiting yourself and exercise some common sense. That’s why in OneVAAway.com, I emphasize the importance of doing multiple email interviews. Really get to know the person you’re talking to. Ask for references and check them. Aside from the NBI Clearance (or the Barangay Clearance I talked about recently), the Background Data Check at OnlineJobs.ph is the closest thing you'll get. We have all kinds of data on people. We noticed patterns for people who are problems. In the end, Julia is correct: No background check beats doing the work yourself. JUST HIRE SOMEONE! Get someone else doing the work. Stop procrastinating because you're worried about their background. John |
OFS = Online Filipino Specialist. I invented it because I don't like the term VA. People think a VA is a secretary. Someone who can only do mundane tasks. Someone who doesn't really have skills. Someone who can do data entry. Someone who can only follow step by step instruction and nothing else. ...that's not who you're hiring. ...that's not who I hire. You want someone who is an independent thinker. Someone who will read between the lines of your instructions and solve problems when you leave something out. That's an OFS. You want someone who is skilled at Ecommerce, writing, programming, social media management, CAD, design, eBay, or whatever it is you're going to have them do for you. That person exists. Highly skilled. Talented. Knowledgeable. That's an OFS You want someone who is honest, loyal, hard working, not entrepreneurial, and who is a good stable employee. That's an...well..that could be anyone from the Philippines. It's just part of their culture. This is Avery. He's a UI/UX designer. He works on OnlineJobs.ph. He's not a graphic designer. He's not a web designer. He's not a logo designer. (I've tried to have him do all those things and he wasn't very good at it). He's a user interface and user experience designer. He shows up every day. He speaks his mind. He solves problems. He proposes solutions. He's an OFS. Online. Filipino. Specialist. That's who you want to hire to help your business. John PS. Today is Chinese New Years. Recognize your OFS might not be as productive today. |
It seems like there’s news about another hack or data breach every other week. Big companies have their security breached, and information from millions of users or employees is leaked online. I used to worry about it with my team. But then I realized that worry was making me less money because I was less good at pushing the business forward while I was worrying about something out of my control. Today, I’ve worked with much of my team for years. I’ve never had a problem with them. But, my business isn't your business and you probably have legitimate things to worry about. What can your small business do? You can do some common sense things to protect your data when working with an OFS. Things like: Hire an OFS who have their own computers and internet access as much as possible. If your OFS has to share their computer with other people, there’s a possibility that strangers can log in to their profile. Emphasize and enforce data security and awareness with your OFS. Most data breaches are due to negligence, not malice. Remind your OFS that data security and protection help keep the business running. Without your business, they won’t get paid. Use apps like LastPass so you can give your OFS access to your accounts without access to your passwords. Have them sign a contract. Contracts carry a lot of weight in the Philippines. Last but not least, don’t give your OFS access to your accounts right away! Make sure there’s trust on both sides before you share anything. Nothing beats common sense when it comes to protecting yourself. John PS. I spent the weekend in St George, Utah riding bikes with my kids. Some stuff there is otherworldly. |
In 2004 I figured something out I hoped the rest of the world would never figure out. I had quit my job (the only job I ever had, I worked there for 8 months right out of college) and was working from home. I worked my butt off. My wife was also at home with our little child and she started inviting me to go on walks with them in the middle of the day. Like, 10am. It was amazing. I could get a little exercise in right in the middle of the workday and still get my work done before and after. Over the years this turned into more and more, longer and longer daytime activities. Hiking, biking, skiing... The best part, nobody else knew so wherever we went we were almost all alone. Then 2020 happened. People worked from home and discovered my secret world. Then people started resigning from their jobs because they had this new freedom. The Great Resignation isn’t just happening here in the US. It’s happening in the Philippines too. Filipino workers are resigning from their office jobs and companies are having a hard time keeping their employees. Lately, we’ve noticed a weird silver lining to it. In the past 2 years, we’ve noticed a significant spike in jobseeker profiles at Onlinejobs.ph. Our database has been growing steadily over the years. But what made the recent spike interesting was the greater number of highly experienced workers signing up. These are workers who have years of practical work experience. Some of them even have advanced degrees. Some even have management experience. These are people who normally wouldn’t work online or have never considered working from home until the pandemic happened. So what does this mean for you? If you’re looking for an OFS with specific technical skills, now’s the best time to find them in our database. If you’re scaling up your business and you’re looking for an OFS with corporate experience, now’s the best time to look for them. If you're short on time, use my OneVAAway.com system. It shortens the process for finding a great OFS you can trust. John I always do my work at home and then go play. Here's the one time I took my laptop out with me. I was post surgery but my family still wanted to play. I sat and worked while they skied. It was beautiful. |
My OFS Julia writes: ----------------------- In the Philippines, there’s this custom called “Bayanihan” (pronounced as buy-uh-nee-hun), where people come together to lend a helping hand. It’s more than just people helping each other out. It’s about working together as a community. Bayanihan is what makes the Philippines a resilient country despite natural disasters. I was reminded of this because of an email from one of my team mate OFS “Good day! Hope all is well with you guys. I would like to ask permission to go on a 1 day leave this coming January 21, 2022, due to the fact that I was tapped to be one of the leaders of the 2nd wave of relief operations for the Typhoon Odette victims in Surigao City. I will be leading our team in terms of the preparation, distribution, and security of the said relief packs up until we are done distributing to an estimated 420 families. I apologize for the short notice, rest assured all my tasks for the following date, Jan. 21, 2022, will be properly endorsed and properly coordinated with our team. Looking forward to your understanding. “ To get to Surigao City, he and the other volunteers must travel for 8 hours straight by land. It will take them the entire day to provide aid to those affected. Then he’d have to travel back home for another 8 hours. It would have been easier for my teammate to keep working and let someone else do it. Instead, he made sure he finished his work to go and help. The work these volunteers are doing may seem like a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. But efforts like these help places affected by Typhoon Odette recover faster. --------------------- You'll notice your OFS wants to help. They want to help you. They want to help those around them. John |
On Facebook, I (and by "I" I mean my OFS) get occasional comments from business owners who say they’ve tried outsourcing who insist that there aren’t any talented workers in the Philippines. “I’ve been outsourcing for years. Workers in the Philippines are crap! They’re only good for data entry jobs.” At the same time, I see many people who say they’ve found lawyers, accountants, nurses, programmers, designers... at Onlinejobs.ph. In fact, I'm contacted every single day by people saying they love their OFS. So what is it really? Are there good, talented workers in the Philippines or not? There are! The fact that I and hundreds of thousands of others like me have found these people is proof enough that Filipinos are a great workforce. But why is it that some people can’t seem to find good workers? The problem primarily lies in the recruitment process. I see it all the time. When complainers tell me what they did to find someone I can almost always see the mistakes they made. You will attract the right people when you have a good recruitment process. That’s what I teach at OneVAAway.com. It’s a process I’ve worked to perfect over the years. I and many others grew our businesses this way. I know it works because I’ve taught it to friends, family, and thousands of other business owners, and it’s worked for them too! The problem also lies with the person doing the hiring. You’ll never find the best person if you're not doing the hiring yourself. You’re the one who knows your business best. If you delegate this task to an agency, they don’t have the insight into your business and your personality to make the right hire so they’re not going to take the time to find the best person. They’ll take the first person who’s just “good enough” (barely qualified). This is why some people will never find good workers in the Philippines. Finding a great OFS starts with posting a job. Get the ball rolling. John |
In a previous email, I mentioned that the Philippines is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, that’s why they have a lot of active volcanoes there. One of those active volcanoes, Taal, has been showing increased activity in the past week and a half. They’ve had 31 earthquakes and 9 small phreatomagmatic (both magmatic gases and steam from groundwater are expelled) eruptions in total. They’ve issued a ban on any aircraft flying close to the volcano, as well as boating and hiking on the island. Hopefully, that’s the worst of it. But Philvolcs (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology) and the news outlets there are keeping a close eye on it because the volcanic activity is increasing. Also, Taal has a history of being really destructive despite its small size. Back in January 2020, it caused an ashfall that affected most of Metro Manila and nearby provinces. There were several casualties and damaged powerlines due to limited visibility and the amount of ash that fell on the area. It was bad and affected quite a few people on my team, as well as thousands of other OFS. I got a lot of emails from people saying they couldn't work because they couldn't breathe. It hasn't happened again...but I'm just warning you that it could. John |
The first time I hired a designer I was actually hiring a programmer. This was 2007 and I didn't really know what I was doing. I just knew that I had found a really good programmer, and he also said he was a designer! I thought I had just struck gold! ("Nino", the Programmer/Designer I hired in 2007...he still works for me today) And, he was actually a reasonable webpage designer. Not great, but reasonable. Which, is almost impossible to find in the same person. Programming and design are generally driven by opposite sides of the brain. A graphic designer is one of those workers that nearly every business needs, but not everybody knows how to recruit. It’s easy if you’re a designer or are creative yourself. But if you’re not, it can be difficult. So I asked my graphic designer, Elijah, what people need to know about hiring a Filipino graphic designer. I also asked him about people's misconceptions about hiring graphic designers that prevent them from finding a great one. “The number one misconception for the designer or video editor, is that every design has to look BEAUTIFUL, every video has to have FANCY Text and motion graphics. Each design has to be aesthetic or "Pinterest" worthy. NO! Designers and video-editors (media people) need to understand that they are here to create for the brand, the client, and of course the medium. Some brands and clients seek simplicity and minimalism (John is the best example). Some mediums also are geared toward minimal editing like TikTok. In other words, when hiring, employers should not just look for creativity, but versatility. Can this person adapt to my brand? Or is this person stuck with one style of editing and creating. If possible, look at their portfolio to see how they change their styles with different clients. If the style is consistent, the artist is not able to adapt to different brands and mediums Creativity is very hard to judge – one of the easiest ways to judge an artist is through their skill of adapting and changing their style to suit their client. For graphic design, you have to know what you are after. Some artists can pull off everything, which isn't that rare. But there are some artists who specialize in logo making, character/cartoon design, typography, and content layout. Knowing what you want will help you refine your job post and expectations.” Graphic designers are not magicians. They can’t pull rabbits and ideas out of thin air. It’s your business; the direction has to come from you. You've got to have an idea of what you want so they know what to give you. Also, recognize that a logo designer is not a graphic designer and a graphic designer is not a webpage designer. These are all different skill sets. John |
My wife came home from the gym the other day: "I got there at 9:15 and there were a bunch of parking spots. Just 3 weeks ago I couldn't even park on the street because so many people were there! Oh, how quickly people give up on their New Years resolutions." New Years Resolutions are a sorry thing. I stopped doing them years ago. If I want to make a change in my life, why would I procrastinate making that change until some magical January 1 comes. How is January 1 different than February 18? If you already gave up on your New Years Resolutions, let's take another look and restart. Make your change a SMART change This last week I've been working with my teenage daughters on setting goals. What's your goal this year? "To be the fastest" Ok...but that's not very SMART. If your resolution was "to lose weight" it's not very smart. If it was to "work less and spend more time with family" it's not very smart. If it was to "improve and grow my business" it's not very smart. Go back and make your goal - Specific - Measurable - Attainable - Relevant - Time Bound (search "SMART goals" if you need more help) It changes your ability to stick with that goal past the first time you fail. My daughter changed her goals to be - Win the region championships so I wear a Leaders jersey at State Championships. - Win a State Championship Then we set smaller SMART goals which will get her there (blacked out) My two other kids have pretty big goals that still need to be worked on... My advice for you (this isn't going to work for everyone...) Set a SMART goal that involves a specific number of hours/week you'll cut your workload down. Then define what you're going to delegate to someone else in order to cut it down. Be specific. Drill down with the goals. Then IMMEDIATELY start working towards it. Here's a 13 minute process you can do right now to get the ball rolling: 1. Read OFSGuide.com - 4 minutes that will answer most of your questions 2. Post a job on OnlineJobs.ph - 8 minutes that will start the ball rolling Just starting the ball rolling is the hardest part of this process...and it's not actually that hard. 3. Respond to this and let me know that you posted your job. If you have questions before posting, read OFSGuide.com. If you still have questions, respond and let me know. John |
I love getting useful tips from other employers. I just got one from Vin Carrano when he responded to my email about using LastPass with my OFS. It turns out he was using LastPass too. This led to an email exchange about a problem some of you wrote to me about: giving your OFS access to your credit card when paying for subscriptions or services. He shared how you can give your OFS access to your credit card to make payments without giving them access to your card. Here's what Vin did. He uses the Capital One Spark card which allows him to create virtual card numbers that only work on one URL He created a virtual card for Jane (his OFS) and assigned it to the vendor URL he has to pay invoices on. He shared access to this card through LastPass. He created a video to teach Jane how to pay invoices. Jane takes over paying the invoices for that site. Vin said it saves him hours of time every week. It's just brilliant. He's secure because the card is only used on one site. His OFS can't spend it anywhere else. If he needs to pay on other sites, he can easily create another card and share access to his OFS. He's secure because he can set a spend limit on the virtual cards. There's no chance his OFS would overspend. (This would have been super helpful back when my OFS overspent on FB ads.) He's secure because he can deactivate the card at any time. He gets hours back because Jane has taken over that job. He recommends using the Capital One Spark card. There's also Privacy.com and Wise.com being advertised in a lot of places. So yeah, virtual cards are amazing. Thank you so much Vin for the tip! If you guys have other tips for me, I'd love to hear them. Let's share the wisdom and help make our businesses and lives better! John |
My son came home from college this past weekend. He's having the time of his life. He skied 4 times the past week. I had to ask him "Are you going to class???" He says he has all A's in his classes...we'll see. Should you hire an OFS who’s still going to school? It depends. The minimum age required to create an Onlinejobs.ph jobseeker account is 18. Someone who is 18 is college-age in the Philippines. We have profiles in our database who are still in college or went back to college during the pandemic, so you may encounter students while recruiting. School is a huge commitment in the Philippines. One college unit there is equivalent to 3 hours of school work per week (1-2 hours in-class + 1 hour recommended study time). Most Filipino college students are required to enroll in at least 12 units per semester to graduate on time. That's 36 hours of school work per week. This is equivalent to (or more than) most universities in the USA. Whether they could work full-time while going to school is a legitimate concern. If that OFS is going to school full-time (12 units or more), I would caution against hiring that person because: They won’t be able to focus on the work because their education is going to come first (which it should) or They wouldn’t be able to focus on their education because of work. It might cause them to drop out or fail in their classes. If that OFS is going to school part-time, (night school or weekend college allow their students to take fewer credits but it takes them longer to finish their education), I’d consider hiring them if: They don’t have any other jobs, AND They can do their schoolwork outside of work hours. I've learned that having a college degree in the Philippines is a big deal. Like, family members will look down on you of you don't have a college degree. A lot of people think you're only qualified to be a nanny if you don't have a college degree. Let them finish their schooling. It will affect them for the rest of their lives.. John |
Over the past 2 years it has become more and more apparent to me that I need help. For a long time I ran OnlineJobs.ph. I managed the developers. I thought through features. I thought through solutions. I pushed projects forward. I reminded people of their pending tasks. I kept track of things. And...I still run OnlineJobs.ph... ...but it's time for me to have some help managing all those things. So I promoted from within. Meet Joven, the new Operations Manager at OnlineJobs.ph Joven is a VA turned OFS. You've already met him. He was the first person I ever hired in the Philippines. He has worked for me since 2005. When I first hired him he knew NOTHING! Since 2005 he has had countless roles for me. - article writer - SEO - webmaster - trainer - admin verification - VA - checker on other OFS - team lead - running PPC campaigns - other things I don't remember... Today he's an OFS. There are 2 takeaways: 1. Filipinos are super loyal. They want to stick with you and your company. If you're willing to invest in them, it pays big dividends down the road. 2. Filipinos want to contribute. Recently Joven emailed me and said "Sir, I'm ready for more responsibilities. Right now I'm not being utilized enough. I want a change and to do more for the company." This tells you Joven's attitude, which is not unique to him. Lots of OFS want to do more for you...it just requires you letting them. They want to make a difference. They want to contribute. They want to do meaningful work. They don't want a dead-end job. Try asking your OFS "How happy are you in your current role? What else could you see yourself doing for the company? What other skills do you have?" The things they tell you might not align with your vision, but it might just give you a different perspective on your OFS. John PS. This email may be a little premature. He's just starting in this new role. I don't know if it will work yet. It may not be natural to him. But we're going to try to make it work because it will help me so much! |
I've said before that I'm not a holiday/celebration kind of guy. Halloween is my least favorite day of the year. Valentines day is up there with it. I know not everyone feels this way...but for me... Yuck! But this email is more about relationships than it is about Valentines day and I found it quite interesting... Julia (my content OFS) writes: ------------------ Valentine’s Day is one of those celebrations we’ve learned from the US. Because of that, we celebrate it pretty much the same way, with flowers, hearts, and cupids. Couples would go out on dates and love songs playing everywhere. The jaded part of my brain thinks Valentine’s is just a marketing campaign designed to sell more flowers and chocolate. But the romantic in me appreciates the love and courtship traditions that come out in full force on this day. Here are some of those traditions. 1. Harana. It’s the serenade tradition where young men sing to single women as a form of courtship. Traditionally, it’s done at night outside the girl’s home. Sometimes accompanied by his friends, the man would sing ballads while playing the guitar. Nowadays, it’s not safe or practical to do that. The modern Haranawould have the man serenading the girl on their break in school or at work. If you can’t sing or play the guitar, you can hire a Harana service where professionals can sing for you. 2. Umakyat ng Ligaw. It means to court someone romantically. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. When a man woos a woman directly, this is traditionally considered disrespectful. Direct courtship implies that your intentions are not honorable. The proper way to do it is to court a woman AND her family. You visit the girl at her home (usually at night or on the weekends, when everybody is at home) and bring gifts for everyone. You have to try to win the girl’s affections while winning her family’s approval. Yes, it’s as uncomfortable as it sounds. There’s nothing more romantic than being interrogated by the parents of the person you want to date. That’s why we find the “Meet the Parents” movies so amusing. We can relate, but we’re also relieved that we’re done with that meeting early. Now, most Filipinos date. But a modern adaptation of this is still practiced by some. The guy goes to the girl’s house (and vice versa), is introduced to the family, and announces their intentions to date. You can still date even if you’re not introduced to the family. But it’s polite to do the introductions first before you start dating. I like this adaptation as a parent. I can’t stop my daughter from dating when she comes of age. I would want to know who my child is dating. 3. Level of in-laws. That’s the name I made up for the unspoken rule of what to call the parents of your partner at different stages of the relationship. I included this on the list because many people change their relationship status after Valentine’s Day. You’re never supposed to call the parents of your partner by their first name. It’s considered rude. Instead, you use honorifics depending on where you are in the relationship. Casual dating: Use the formal Mr. and Mrs. Last Name or the more informal Aling[Mom’s First Name] and Manong/Mang[Dad’s First Name] depending on their preference. Serious relationship: You call them Tito(Uncle) and Tita(Aunt). Why use Titoand Tita? It signals the level of closeness. You’re not really family, but you’re always welcome in their home. Married: You call your in-laws Mom and Dad or Mama and Papa, depending on their preference. They’d be in the same level of importance or closeness as your parents. What happens if the relationship ends? Etiquette states that you can keep using the last honorific. Suppose the relationship was serious, but you broke up before getting married. In that case, you may continue calling your ex’s parents “Tito” and “Tita” when you see them socially. --------------- I call my in-laws mom and dad. At first it was uncomfortable...but they're so good that it didn't take long to become easy. |
Did you know that the Philippines actually has two official languages: Filipino and English? I didn't really realize this until I went there in 2009 (my first...and only time there). I was so surprised that I took pictures while in Manila: Filipinos start learning English from pre-school until college. It’s a required subject for all schools. It’s used in government and business. Filipinos have to learn English, one way or another, to get by. My second day in the Philippines I was in the hotel lobby and I heard an argument. I looked over to the front desk to see the hotel clerk and a guest, both Filipino, arguing in English! So why did the Philippines include English as an official language? Why not just use Filipino? The weird thing about Filipino is it’s not a language that developed organically; the Philippine government created it. The base language of Filipino is Tagalog, with words from other dialects mixed in. Even though Tagalog is the most used language in the Philippines, only 31% of Filipinos speak it. There are 120+ languages spoken in the Philippines. Non-native Tagalog speakers have to learn Tagalog to learn Filipino. Some non-native Tagalog speakers have a hard time learning Filipino because their language is entirely different from Tagalog. It’s hard to practice Tagalog if your family or community doesn’t use it. It’s often easier to learn English because even though they don’t use it at home, they use it in school or work. They’re also constantly exposed to English through TV, movies, and books. Here’s what my OFS, Julia, told me about how this weird language barrier affects their life. I’m not a native Tagalog speaker, so I’m not that fluent in Filipino. I’m a Cebuano speaker. My husband, Jam, is a native Tagalog speaker and is fluent in Filipino. Jam’s parents are native Ilokano speakers who are also fluent in Filipino because they live amongst native Tagalog speakers. If you forced us to only speak in our native language, we wouldn’t understand each other. I don’t understand Ilokano. My in-laws don’t understand Cebuano. So when we get together, we use Filipino AND English to understand each other, but I lean more towards English because my Tagalog isn’t that good. People often ask me if they can find someone who speaks good English in the Philippines. YES! It's completely reasonable to find someone with perfect English. When recruiting, see if you can find someone who uses English slang. If they do, you know English is deeply entrenched in their life. John |
I got this question through my Facebook page: “Do you experience high turnover among Filipino Remote workers? We have gone through at least 30 of them in the last 3 years despite providing 13th-month bonus, health insurance, and higher wage than if they were to work through a staff agency company. We also do daily huddles, so communication shouldn't be a problem. It seems like they always have personal issues.. It's really giving us an operational headache and I'm starting to think it's not working out outsourcing in the Philippines. It's kinda sad because they are usually smart but also often have 2 full time jobs..” This sounds more like a position issue or a management issue than a salary issue. We almost never have someone leave. I've probably had 12 people leave (or us let them go) over the past 15 years TOTAL. We have 38 full-time OFS right now. Filipinos are super loyal culturally. Maybe you should ask your current team why they think people are leaving. Tell them to be honest with you and that you're prepared to hear some hard things. What are these hard things? Here are a few examples 1. They’re bored. The work isn’t challenging enough. There’s no need to focus or do better. There’s no professional fulfillment, so they’re looking for it elsewhere. 2. They don’t feel heard. Yes, you can have daily meetings with your team, but are they comfortable enough to really tell you what they think? 3. Are they worried they might lose their job if they contradict you or make mistakes? 4. Do you always shoot down their ideas or ignore their suggestions? It takes time to learn how to listen. It’s something I still struggle with. Some OFS still don’t feel comfortable talking to me directly about their concerns. We keep encouraging them to speak up so we know what we can do to improve their work environment. They sometimes course it through a teammate. We also allow them to send us their concerns anonymously. 5. Your workers see themselves as freelancers. At OneVAAway.com, we have this list of questions for applicants to know more about their personalities. We want people who look for stability and long-term work. There are a lot of Filipinos out there who want this. They’re the ones who make the best employees. But there are Filipino workers out there who live to hustle. The freelancers. That’s the culture that sites like Upwork and Freelancer promote. You’re rewarded when you’re always chasing that next job. You’re a rockstar when you have a long list of clients. This is why I don’t promote the review system at Onlinejobs.ph. It’s good that it tells you what workers to avoid. But it also worries me when I see a worker get good reviews from many employers. Why can't this worker stick with one employer? Look, I feel for this employer having all this turnover. It can get frustrating when you spend time recruiting and giving your employees "benefits" and not getting the work you expect. That’s why a good recruitment process is so important. It took me years to develop OneVAAway because I went through all those mistakes and kept improving my process. I designed it so you don’t have to make the same mistakes as I did. John |
I realized recently that I'm sarcastic with my kids. Too often I joke with them by being hard on them or making fun of them. It's not good. I had to take a step back and change my approach. Just be nice. I'm working on it...I fear it's a long road. One of the things people call me out on is that I’m too nice to my Filipino team. How can I give my employees benefits and all that time off? I keep someone on for too long when their performance declines! Most importantly, how do I protect myself from being taken advantage of? Have you found yourself in this situation? "I have done everything to be very accommodating and understanding to my Filipino worker. He has been with me over the years and we have had a good working relationship. But what I noticed recently is that it's always one excuse or another. From family members dying which I am sympathetic about and understanding to disappearing for 2 days in a row. They reappears apologizing and I always understand and forgive him. It's like because he knows I am an understanding boss. He takes advantage of my kindness and takes it for WEAKNESS . I know you promote being understanding and kind to the Filipino workers but at what point does one draw the line from being abused and taken for granted to where their actions affect our business performance. His disappearance has yet again affected our targeted web design project completion dates. This has happened time and time again and he acknowledges it but he is still doing it at what point does one say enough is enough and fire?" First, I think it’s fantastic that Desi O. is going out of her way to help out her worker. I agree it seems like she’s being taken advantage of. So, how do you prevent this from happening? What do you do when this happens to you. I can afford to be nice because I set expectations early on. I tell my OFS team that I expect a daily report. I want to see the things they have done during the workday. I also set deadlines for critical things. My team knows that they need to focus on important work. I call them out when I notice things are not moving fast enough. In fact, just today I sent an email to one of my web people and said "Hey, it has been 5 days since I've had an update about X project. Why? You do good work, but I need better updates from you." Most importantly, I give feedback. I call them out when I see they’re making mistakes or taking advantage of the situation. I have called out a few employees about their lack of productivity or when they’re not paying attention. I talked about it when my OFS uploaded the wrong video. My OFS team knows that I’ll go out of my way to be the best boss that I can be if they go out of their way to be great employees. If that doesn’t work, it is your right to let them go if you've given them multiple chances. Also, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is why a good recruitment process is essential. Listening to your gut is important. The one I laid out in OneVAAway.com can help prevent most of this from happening. As far as I can remember, I only have two people who were always out because they were sick. One eventually resigned because she was really sick. We didn’t want to let her go and offered to keep helping. But she chose to leave because her health problems were getting in the way. The other one came back to work and took on more responsibilities than she did when she first started working for us. John |
Another Philippines holiday? Already? If I look at my calendar it feels like we (in the USA) have about one holiday per month. It feels like the Philippines has about 1 per week! They don't. But sometimes it feels that way. Tomorrow, Feb 25 is one of those days. The EDSA Revolution Anniversary commemorates the series of peaceful demonstrations back in 1986 that led to the ousting of Ferdinand Marcos (then president of the Philippines). It used to be a regular holiday until 2019, when the Philippine government changed it into a special non-working holiday to reduce the number of regular holidays. Maybe they were planning for the future when so many Filipinos would be working as OFS! For the most part, this holiday shouldn’t affect your operations. Your OFS will probably work. They probably don't commute. But the thing about this holiday is that some people (mostly political groups) commemorate it by staging rallies along the EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue). EDSA is a major road; it connects the different cities of Metro Manila. So whenever there’s a disruption along EDSA, it causes a traffic jam that affects most of Manila. If your OFS has to commute along EDSA to get to work, it might affect your business. This happens to call centers and VA agencies whose employees work from an office. If your Filipino team works from home, you’ll be fine. This is just another perk of hiring your OFS directly instead of going through an agency. Although...it is still a "special non-working" holiday, so there may be some OFS who take it off. If you don't get a daily report from your OFS tomorrow, don't be shocked. John PS. If you want more info about holidays and how to handle them: https://www.OnlineJobs.ph/holidays |
A while back I sent a newsletter about how my OFS had published a video that was horribly edited. The video started mid-sentence, had no context, and was just a bad edit. Yet, someone else (who didn’t do the edit) still published it. Why? A subscriber (thanks! Dennis Yu) replied with: The “mindless” activity is one of the biggest challenges we have with VAs. Dennis runs a social media agency and told me how one of his OFS was posting immigration Law posts (intended for one of his clients) onto his agency social media accounts. How does that make sense? Why would the agency audience care about immigration law??? I’m sure Dennis and I aren’t the only 2 to have this happen to them, so I decided to press my team about why work sometimes gets done mindlessly. Here’s what I found out. 1. Fear is a large driver of Filipino behavior 2. The Power-Distance of the Philippine culture is strongly at play. 3. Often for VAs, quantity gets emphasized over quality because it’s visible 4. Sometimes they just get lazy. “I just want to complete my tasks” 5. Lack of company culture - Filipinos are very family-oriented. If they feel disconnected in the business, they just don’t care. Fear Fear of being embarrassed came up over and over again in people’s responses. When a Filipino fears embarrassment, their reaction is to keep it as simple as possible. Try really hard not to do anything wrong by not doing anything different. “Just do what I’ve been told, even if I think it’s not right.” In the Philippines, fear often has the opposite effect as what you might expect. If you fear failure you’re likely to make more effort, do more, try harder. In the Philippines, it’s often the opposite. Fear says to them to do as little as they can get by so they don’t make a mistake when doing extra. This is a big driving factor in mindless/poor work. When I asked my team "What causes someone to do mindless work? Or, to not care if there's an obvious mistake in a final product?" fear came up over and over again in their responses. Here are quotes from a number of people on my team. - “Being afraid of making mistakes. This is something I've experienced when I started working for you. I was absolutely terrified that I'd lose my job. I know this is something a lot of us still feel. Don't rock the boat. Being mediocre is better than making a mistake.” - “We’re scared of retribution or any attack (verbal or physical even) from someone who's on top of them or even on their level.” - “Fear of getting fired for expressing his/her own opinion or challenging someone's idea to the point that even sometimes getting personal.” - “Getting shouted at or receiving an email that sounds like it.” - “Failing to impress or get challenged/questioned of the small achievements they were able to get in their life.” - “Some are also hesitant to talk because their opinion might not be accepted. They are afraid that their ideas will be rejected.” - “Americans are very opinionated that some even get to the point of being pushy or bossy, Filipinos are the exact opposite, we were trained to be submissive(religiously) and just do whatever someone asks of them.” - “Another thing is, Filipinos won't even engage or stand up for what he/she thinks the best nor strike up a conversation or argue the topic, there's even a Filipino saying that goes with it, it's called "sumunod sa agos" or "just go where the (river) flow" in English...which develops this passive attitude.” - “They can't relate much and choose the right word to express what is on their mind, even to some extent, working with a fellow Filipino. Much worse if they have to talk in English.” Maybe the most telling quote comes next in the Power-Distance section. Power-Distance Index If you’ve never heard about Hofstede’s Power distance Index, it’s worth looking up. You’ll understand the mindlessness a lot better. The Philippines has a very high power-distance index. They respect authority. If they don’t have a clear picture of who is in authority, they’ll often assume others are in authority and they’re below other people. This makes them less likely to question things they see wrong. Less likely to fix mistakes. Less likely to try hard when someone in authority has already worked on it or is going to work on it. Here are quotes from my team: - “What was on my mind at those times was... "you are my boss; why would I question or correct you?"” - This was one of the more telling quotes --> “We trust "professionals" and are afraid to point out the mistakes of these professionals (graphic designer, writer, editor, ect) because we are afraid that maybe we are the ones who made a mistake. And we don't want to "embarrass" ourselves. - It takes me around 4 drafts just to show [team member] a mistake. Should I start with "Sorry to correct you?" or "Hi [name], I might be wrong but", or "This might be because you didn't see this, but..." - “As children, we are taught “huwag sumagot sa nakaka tanda” which more or less means we cannot defend ourselves or argue against elders. This ingrains the Filipino habit of never talking back to authority, even if we know they’re wrong.” What this comes down to is if you (or someone else they see as being in authority) asks them to do something, they’re unlikely to correct a mistake you make, even if it’s obvious to them that you’re wrong or left something out. Go back and read through the Fear section above. You’ll see evidence of the power-distance built-in to their fear. Quantity over Quality Often, quantity is more visible than quality. An OFS knows that you’re going to see how many support tickets they responded to but you’re unlikely to see how well they responded. You're going to see how many images they edited, but not how well done every one of them is. You're going to see how many articles were written, but not read every sentence of every article. Quantity is emphasized by YOU over the quality. Plus, often it’s easier to do a mediocre job of a lot of things than it is to do a great job with a few things. This appears more in online work too. Employers look at “How many X did you do today?” Employers use time trackers to see how many hours someone worked. Employers create metrics to track productivity. All of this leads to quantity rather than quality being emphasized. Plus, when you combine this with the power-distance at play, you get someone who feels like it’s the boss's job to make sure the work is high quality. It’s the VAs job just to get it done quickly. Here are quotes from my team: - “The quantity issue, I feel that too. I feel a bit of pressure to deliver more because I'm getting paid more. But it's not just the quantity; it's the turn-around time. Like, we all have regular tasks that fill up most of our workday. But when a special project comes in, there's this pressure to get it done as soon as possible, on top of the regular work.” - “But maybe some factors causing it is the thinking that "I need to accomplish more". "I need to respond fast." "I need to impress my boss that I have done a lot of things." Sometimes the daily report encourages this. "What did you do today?" "How many things did you get done today?" They know you're going to see the report and going to look at how much. You might not see the actual work... Let your OFS slow down. Laziness Sometimes, people just get lazy. Sometimes, this just happens. Some say the rising generation is lazy. Sometimes the work lends itself to laziness. Sometimes it happens as an OFS gets more comfortable with the work. For a lot, they think the only online jobs are data entry jobs. Data entry jobs are mindless by nature. This is changing with the push to remote work with Covid. Quotes from my team: - “For some Filipinos, Mediocre/Mindless work is the standard. Yes, there are many out there who still want to do their best, but there are also so many who are just exhausting. “ - “Sometimes people just performed what exactly told them to do, especially those already employed long enough. As long the particular tasks are done, they think it's already OK. They no longer care or think more about the possible problem that it may cause.” - “Sometimes, it's not mindless work. Sometimes, it's just a work shlump. They care very much, they just need a little push to get them out of it.” To me, this is often the employers' fault. Often we’ve given mindless work. We’ve trained them to be mindless. We’ve made sure they always run everything by us before pushing it to a client. This curates laziness. Sometimes the OFS just needs a little push. "I need you to do better quality work, this quality of product just isn't working for me. How can I help you?" Sometimes they may have taken on another job and their laziness is due to exhaustion, both mental and physical. Ask. "Hey, I noticed the quality has declined recently. What's causing this? Are you overworked?" Family Culture Surprisingly, I had quite a few different people talk about family with regards to mindless work. Like, when they don’t feel like they’re part of a family, they don’t care about the work. This translates to the culture of the company and how much they’re cared for. Quotes from my team: - “Some never felt that they are part of the "family" organization...thus, they would never care. “ - “Lack of respect from peers, colleagues at work or even at the personal level.” - “When we were still starting, it really felt like a family, and once you were introduced to one person, we wanted to talk to each other a lot when we had problems. I loved every one! We would also reach out to each other when there were problems. However, the team has grown so much, the industry has changed, and the work from home environment is also very different now.” - “Most Filipinos today no longer look at their online work as a family, as we have. They just see work, with the same weight and value as they see any 8-5 job.” Filipinos are caring. Loving. Very service oriented. When they don't feel this being reciprocated, it's very off-putting to them. If they don't feel cared for, they return the lack of care. They don't care about the work. They don't care about the quality. They don't care about the outcome. I'm not saying you need to send birthday cards to your OFS, I'm just saying things you do to show you care about them matter. Solutions A bunch of my team members also offered solutions. A lot of it has to do with decreasing the power-distance or with dealing with the power-distance. Decreasing their fear is baked into their solutions. These both also create more of a family feeling. - Acknowledgment for their great work to level up their self-worth/pride but not overdoing it. A simple gift matters, it could be anything, food or coffee mugs will also mean a lot. Sometimes, when I worked in an office I'd put 500 pesos discreetly on their desk telling them (only if they asked) Santa had come early to those who put on a wonderful job - I think you already did this before, but maybe giving rewards to people who contributed more than their expected role/responsibilities? Either cash or non-cash (experiential rewards) - Sometimes work may get boring, but if people see dynamics on their job, maybe that will motivate them to think/work better? - My main point is that incentives in the workplace help employees feel that their extra contribution is valued. - Filipinos need more understanding of their job roles, what's the scope, oversight, and responsibilities. - Most Filipinos love to talk, chat, and even gossip about a lot of things not related to work, which keeps most of us happy and have fun while working on a task. It also helps lose the edge and stress. Usually in the vernacular but sometimes it also works in English, It's important to have a sense of humor and remain respected. - Getting a little bit personal, but not going to the extent that we tell them what they'll need to do and how to go on with their lives. Empathy is greatly appreciated. - Talk about food, experiences, and dreams. If they open up about their love lives, just go with it and don't judge, just give them support and suggestions to resolve things. - Quality assurance is important, but what makes QA work is there are designated people in charge to call out mistakes. When we know we are allowed to call out mistakes or know specific people are allowed to, it's fine. We respect the "law". For some reason, I always understood that [team member] checks my work. She makes me fix my edits. I never took that personally. I just thought that's how it was. I don't know how you trained her, but she's straightforward. She's the best example of how it's not cultural. She's not afraid to correct me. There's a lot going on here. It's unlikely that any one of these is going to solve all situations. My Solutions A few solutions I’ve tried that have worked include giving people a title, job security, giving responsibility and having people take ownership, and adding a quality assurance process. - In the Philippines, titles are important. More important than in the USA. So over the past couple of years, I’ve been giving titles to people. “Content Manager”. “Operations Manager”. In giving these titles I also give responsibilities and authority. The authority tends to mean they’re in charge of making sure things are done correctly in that area. - I try to assure my people that they're not going to get fired for making a mistake. Their job is secure. Even if they do something wrong, they're still going to have a job. I try to make this clear. - I’ve found that giving people responsibilities and including “making sure it’s well done” has helped. I’ve also told people that I want them to take ownership of the final product. Like, think through “Does this make us look good? Does this embarrass John? Does this embarrass the business? Should this get published?” If any of those things are wrong, your responsibility is either to fix it or to say something to the person in charge. Basically, I’ve given them authority to question the final output. - Recently I added a person to double-check work. That person's job is to make sure the quality is where we expect. In software, this means that the feature performs as people expect it should. They check for bugs. They look for anything that feels odd. In content, they make sure everything reads perfectly. They make edits. They make sure the final product makes sense. They make suggestions if they see a way to improve a process. For both of these QA positions, I included a large list of things they’re supposed to check and speak up about. Now they have the authority to say something is wrong so they feel confident in finding problems and speaking up about them. All of these things have made a difference for me. I'm getting better work done. I fix problems less often. My OFS tell me they're happier. For me, this is a constant learning experience. I hope you're learning too. |
I think most people who have raised teenagers will agree that it's hard. There's almost always something that you don't see eye to eye about and the teenage years is when they're willing to push back. Right now we're having this about an iPhone. My 14yr old wants an iPhone and we don't want her to have one. Phones...it's a different world than the one I grew up in. In the Philippines, phones are different too. When you’re asking for your OFS phone number, make sure you get both of them. Most Filipinos have two phone numbers. My OFS, Julia, explains why they have 2 phone numbers. There are two leading cell carriers in the Philippines: Globe Telecom and Smart Philippines. Both also happen to be the largest internet service providers in the Philippines. Both carriers are supposed to provide nationwide coverage, but there are some places where one has a stronger signal over the other. Sometimes you don’t even have to travel far to lose the signal of one carrier. Because of this, it makes more sense for us to get 2 SIM cards, one from Globe and another from Smart. Dual-SIM phones are very popular here because it makes it easier to carry both in one phone. Having the SIM of both carriers ensures that we stay connected, no matter where we are. Another advantage of having the SIMs to both networks? We’ll know which ISP is stronger or out of service. This information is so important that we have a local virtual assistants’ Facebook group where we mainly talk about which carrier or ISP is down/or slow that day. For example, if we know that Globe is down in some areas, we would take out our backup Smart internet or move to an area where we know Smart has a stronger signal. For the most part, this system works. We can keep working because there’s always a backup. You’ll only hear us complain that the internet is down when both ISPs are out. My team doesn't complain about the internet being down very much anymore. It used to be a problem...but infrastructure has gotten better over the years. Not much of a problem...maybe because they now carry backup internet with them all the time! John |
I have a lot of talented people around me. Not just in the Philippines, but at home and at church and with family. I keep telling my wife and kids that I'm consistently surprised at the talent of the people around me. There's a lot of talent I don't have...but others do. I’m not alone in this. Just a few days ago, I got this email from John Murphy: I am writing you to inform you that the best decision I ever made was to use your service and find the most talented person I have ever worked with. I wasn't surprised to get this. With almost 2 million profiles at Onlinejobs.ph, it's not real difficult to find someone super talented to work on your business. We have hundreds of stories like this from real business owners. We add to this list almost every day right now. You also don't have to spend hundreds of hours finding that "most talented person". You don’t have to go through bad hires before finding a good one. With my recruiting process at OneVAway.com, you should be able to find a talented worker in 2-3 total hours. That takes less time than doing laundry or running errands. If you’re worried that going through the course will be a waste of time, I’ll give you your money back if the process doesn’t work. That’s how confident I am that the $49 and the 3 hours you spend going through the OneVAAway recruiting process is going to be the best decision of your life...like it was for John Murphy. I've had very very few people ask for their money back. John |
I talked about this in a previous newsletter on how SMART goals help make changes happen. My daughters and I recently finished planning their race season (basically all of 2022) which includes some big SMART goals as well as some big objectives. (she blinked...but she ran off and got on her bike before I could retake the pic...) We practice what we preach here. It’s the same when you’re managing an OFS team. You want to see projects completed. You want to see work continuously improving. For that to happen, you need to have SMART expectations. Goals and expectations are two sides of the same coin. The goal of your OFS is to meet your expectations. By setting expectations that are: Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timely you’ve given your OFS a goal that they can achieve. Why is this important? Having SMART expectations ensures that you and your OFS team are on the same page. Your OFS knows exactly what you want, and you know exactly what you’re getting. Giving your OFS achievable goals also keeps them motivated even when things aren’t going their way. It’s just how the human mind works. You’re more likely to keep working towards your goal when you’re making progress, no matter how small. The best example I have for a SMART expectation is when I tell my employees that they have to send a daily email. Even when they’re having a bad day at work and nothing’s going their way, the daily report is the one thing that can’t go wrong. The daily email works on so many levels. It allows them to talk about their problems at work, so they don’t disappear. It lets us know what the problem is to start fixing it. Lastly, it keeps them motivated because they know they did one thing right for that day. Setting SMART expectations is also how we get projects done on Basecamp. I start by telling my team what I want. We talk, exchange ideas, and break down the project into achievable tasks. The tasks are assigned to the right people. Deadlines are set. Feedback is exchanged. Repeat steps 2 to 5 until the job is done. It’s a system that works. It has worked so well that I needed help with project management because we had so many things going on. I don't think you need to go through the SMART acronym with everything you give your OFS...but being clear and realistic and having deadlines and being measurable... are all really helpful for your OFS. John |
Ruben Kanya runs a successful podcast and agency doing $20,000+/month. He's super accomplished, and it shows in his work. His clients notice the quality and amount of work. They often ask how he manages to produce all that content and run an agency simultaneously. They don't realize it's his VAs doing the work. Ruben isn't new to outsourcing. He's been hiring Filipino VAs since 2014. He's happy with his team, but he needs to hire more with his growing business. But...Ruben had a problem finding VAs. At first glance, there's no reason why he shouldn't have hundreds of applications. He provides training and benefits. His Filipino team loves him and has been with him for years. But his job posts weren't working out super well. They're not attracting the attention of qualified applicants as he wanted. The One VA Away Challenge fixed it… Don't believe me? Check out this video he sent me out of the blue! https://youtu.be/1n2YEugwgvI Then he sent me another video. In this video, he explains how the One VA Away Challenge changed how he hires OFS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjmINaON2MY Ruben realized that he needed a good outreach process in his recruitment. He integrated what he learned in the One VA Away challenge, and now he's getting really good results. It just shows that even though you've been outsourcing for years and you've had great success with your current process, we can always learn more to make it better. If you haven't taken the leap yet because you're just not sure...take the One VA Away Challenge! Most people are one VA (or OFS) away from changing the way their life runs by changing the way their business runs. John |
Getting poor work back from my team has been one of the pitfalls of turning tasks 100% over to my OFS. At times it has been really frustrating. When something gets left undone and it seems so obvious to me, I get frustrated. And I wasn't sure how to fix this...until now. About a month ago I wrote about a terrible video that got published by my OFS and about how I then assigned people to do quality assurance (QA) work. It has changed my life! I put a QA person in charge of software and a QA person in charge of content. They look at everything that happens and they critique it. They catch the problems that I was previously catching...before it gets to me! They don't always catch everything, but it has been so good that I often just read through conversations my team is having and don't even have to look at the actual software or content outputs. Watch this video example of how it's working for me: http://www.quickvideolearning.com/daily/2022-02-16_10-28-10.mp4 If you're struggling with poor output from your team where it seems like simple fixes, consider hiring (or promoting, or...shifting someone) a QA person. John |
I just got this email from Brian Wallace. He runs a small-IT company based in Miami. He’s interested in hiring an OFS for his business but is having trouble finding them. “Any tips or approaches on finding more specialized experts in technical areas? In my case it’s tech support, network engineering, the cloud - AWS & Azure, etc. but I imagine others might be looking for experts for their own businesses? The schedule and cost advantages, or even lack of local talent can be just what’s needed.” I get this question from people looking for workers with specific skills. But I don't think you should have any problem at all in finding tech support/network engineering people. There are tons of people with those skills. I did a quick search on Onlinejobs.ph for the skills Brian listed here. For network engineers, I found 1,000+ profiles. For AWS, I also found over a thousand resumes. For Azure, I found around 700 people. Here are reasons you might not be finding people: - Maybe your job post wasn't attractive enough? - Maybe the salary was too low? (don't post "TBD" for salary, post a number, you'll get more applicants) - Maybe you just need to post the job post again (this almost always garners more applicants). - Try proactively contacting workers from their profiles by searching for the skills you're looking for. If I don't get enough applicants, that's what I do. I'll contact 10-30 people from their profile and then hire from those who respond. - I contact many people because even though they have a profile on Onlinejobs.ph doesn’t mean they’re available. They could already be working and just didn’t bother deactivating their profile. - When searching on OnlineJobs.ph, try putting your search terms in quotes. Like "azure developer" rather than azure developer. You'll get better search results. Which...now's probably a good time to mention that improving search results on OnlineJobs.ph is one of our top priorities. We have 3 people working full-time on it. Yes, you can find really people who are really talented with technical skills. John |
Here's what "Clean up your play mess" looks like to an 8 year old boy: He wasn't careless or mindless about it...he told me "I did clean up...I'm still playing with those!" At least he thought it through. A while back I sent a newsletter about how my OFS had published a video that was horribly edited. The video started mid-sentence, had no context, and was just a bad edit. Yet, someone else (who didn’t do the edit) still published it. It wasn't thought through by either person. Why? I talked about this with my friend Dennis Yu, who runs a social media agency and has hundreds of OFS working for him. It turns out I’m not alone in this. He replied: The “mindless” activity is one of the biggest challenges we have with VAs. Dennis told me how one of his OFS was posting immigration Law posts (intended for one of his clients) onto his agency social media accounts. How does that make sense? Why would the agency audience care about immigration law??? I’m sure Dennis and I aren’t the only 2 to have this happen to them, so I decided to press my team about why work sometimes gets done mindlessly. I wanted them to be honest with me about it. So I encouraged them to send me their answers anonymously. Here’s what I found out. 1. Fear is a large driver of Filipino behavior. 2. The Power-Distance of Philippine culture is strongly at play. 3. Often for VAs, quantity gets emphasized over quality because it’s visible 4. Sometimes they just get lazy. “I just want to complete my tasks.” 5. Lack of company culture - Filipinos are very family-oriented. If they feel disconnected in the business, they just don’t care. That’s just a summary. My team gave me detailed answers. So I figured I would talk about these answers one by one in the following emails. I’m also going to show you the solutions that my OFS team recommended, the solutions that I thought of and implemented, and how these things are going so far. I also compiled the entire series here. Fixing the mindless work of OFS -- starting next week. ; John |
This is the first email in a series of 5 about why OFS sometimes do mindless work. In the Philippines, fear often has the opposite effect as what you might expect. If you fear failure you’re likely to make more effort, do more, try harder. In the Philippines, it’s often the opposite. Fear says to them to do as little as they can to get by so they don’t make a mistake when doing extra. This is a big driving factor in mindless/poor work. When I asked my team "What causes someone to do mindless work? Or, to not care if there's an obvious mistake in a final product?" fear came up over and over again in their responses. Here are quotes from a number of people on my team. - “Being afraid of making mistakes. This is something I've experienced when I started working for you. I was absolutely terrified that I'd lose my job. I know this is something a lot of us still feel. Don't rock the boat. Being mediocre is better than making a mistake.” - “We’re scared of retribution or any attack (verbal or physical even) from someone who's on top of them or even on their level.” - “Fear of getting fired for expressing his/her own opinion or challenging someone's idea to the point that even sometimes getting personal.” - “Getting shouted at or receiving an email that sounds like it.” - “Failing to impress or get challenged/questioned of the small achievements they were able to get in their life.” - “Some are also hesitant to talk because their opinion might not be accepted. They are afraid that their ideas will be rejected.” - “Americans are very opinionated that some even get to the point of being pushy or bossy, Filipinos are the exact opposite, we were trained to be submissive(religiously) and just do whatever someone asks of them.” - “Another thing is, Filipinos won't even engage or stand up for what he/she thinks the best nor strike up a conversation or argue the topic, there's even a Filipino saying that goes with it, it's called "sumunod sa agos" or "just go where the (river) flow" in english...which develops this passive attitude.” - “They can't relate much and choose the right word to express what is on their mind, even to some extent, working with a fellow Filipino. Much worse if they have to talk in English.” The most telling quote will come tomorrow. In it, my OFS talks about being afraid of being wrong about the thing that is obviously wrong. Fear of being embarrassed is such a driving force that they'll question their own judgment when they see something is wrong. They fear that it's not wrong, and if they say something about it they'll be wrong, which will cause embarrassment. So instead, they just say nothing. A couple ways I've tried to quell the fear is by - reassuring them that their job is secure. Even when something goes wrong, I'm not going to fire them. - giving positive feedback before giving negative feedback. Not always easy. - lavishing on extra praise when something goes well. More to come tomorrow. Or read the entire series. John |
This is the 2nd email in a series of 5 about why OFS sometimes do mindless work. If you’ve never heard about Hofstede’s Power distance Index, it’s worth looking up. You’ll understand the mindlessness a lot better. The Philippines has a very high power-distance index. They respect authority. If they don’t have a clear picture of who is in authority, they’ll often assume others are in authority and they’re below other people. This makes them less likely to question things they see wrong. Less likely to fix mistakes. Less likely to try hard when someone in authority has already worked on it or is going to work on it. Here are quotes from my team: - “What was on my mind at those times was... "you are my boss; why would I question or correct you?"” - This is so telling about their behavior --> “We trust "professionals" and are afraid to point out the mistakes of these professionals (graphic designer, writer, editor, ect) because we are afraid that maybe we are the ones who made a mistake. And we don't want to "embarrass" ourselves. - It takes me around 4 drafts just to show [team member] a mistake. Should I start with "Sorry to correct you?" or "Hi [name], I might be wrong but", or "This might be because you didn't see this, but..."” - “As children, we are taught “huwag sumagot sa nakaka tanda” which more or less means we cannot defend ourselves or argue against elders. This ingrains the Filipino habit of never talking back to authority, even if we know they’re wrong.” What this comes down to is if you (or someone else they see as being in authority) asks them to do something, they’re unlikely to correct a mistake you make, even if it’s obvious to them that you’re wrong or left something out. Go back and read through the previous Fear newsletter. You’ll see evidence of the power-distance built-in to their fear. You can use this to your advantage sometimes. Give someone authority. Spell out their authority. Give them a job title and specific responsibilities. Tie those responsibilities to outcomes. Because they are now the ones with authority and power, they take the responsibilities seriously. On Thursday we'll talk about quantity over quality. Read the entire series. John |
This is the 3rd email in a series of 5 about why OFS sometimes work mindlessly. This one is often your (the employer) fault. Often, quantity is more visible than quality. An OFS knows that you’re going to see how many support tickets they responded to but you’re unlikely to see how well they responded. You're going to see how many images they edited, but not how well done every one of them is. You're going to see how many articles were written, but not read every sentence of every article. Quantity is emphasized by YOU over the quality. Plus, often it’s easier to do a mediocre job of a lot of things than it is to do a great job with a few things. This appears more in online work too. Employers look at “How many X did you do today?” Employers use time trackers to see how many hours someone worked. Employers create metrics to track productivity. All of this leads to quantity rather than quality being emphasized. Plus, when you combine this with the power-distance at play, you get someone who feels like it’s the boss’ job to make sure the work is high quality. It’s the OFS job just to get it done quickly. Here are quotes from my team: - “The quantity issue, I feel that too. I feel a bit of pressure to deliver more because I'm getting paid more. But it's not just the quantity; it's the turn-around time. Like, we all have regular tasks that fill up most of our workday. But when a special project comes in, there's this pressure to get it done as soon as possible, on top of the regular work.” - “But maybe some factors causing it is the thinking that "I need to accomplish more". "I need to respond fast." "I need to impress my boss that I have done a lot of things." Sometimes the daily report encourages this. "What did you do today?" "How many things did you get done today?" They know you're going to see the report and going to look at how much. You might not see the actual work... Let your OFS slow down. Emphasize that doing better work is more important than more work. This is tricky and every situation is different. I wish I had better advice for how to fix this... Tomorrow we'll talk about... Read the entire series. |
This is the 4th email in a series of 5 about why OFS sometimes work mindlessly. Laziness. Sometimes, people just get lazy. Sometimes, this just happens. Some say the rising generation is lazy. Sometimes the work lends itself to laziness. Sometimes it happens as an OFS gets more comfortable with the work. For a lot, they think the only online jobs are data entry jobs. Data entry jobs are mindless by nature. This is changing with the push to remote work with Covid. Quotes from my team: - “For some Filipinos, Mediocre/Mindless work is the standard. Yes there are many out there who still want to do their best, but there are also so many who are just exhausting.“ - “Sometimes people just performed what exactly told them to do, especially those already employed long enough. As long the particular tasks are done, they think it's already OK. They no longer care or think more about the possible problem that it may cause.” - “Sometimes, it's not mindless work. Sometimes, it's just a work shlump. They care very much, they just need a little push to get them out of it.” To me, this is often the employers' fault. Often we’ve given mindless work. We’ve trained them to be mindless. We’ve made sure they always run everything by us before pushing it to a client. This creates laziness. Sometimes the OFS just needs a little push. "I need you to do better quality work, this quality of product just isn't working for me. How can I help you?" Sometimes they may have taken on another job and their laziness is due to exhaustion, both mental and physical. Ask. "Hey, I noticed the quality has declined recently. What's causing this? Are you overworked?" On Monday we'll talk about family culture...and how important it is in the workplace. Read the entire series. John |
This is the 5th email of 5 about why OFS sometimes work mindlessly. Surprisingly, I had quite a few different people talk about family with regards to mindless work. Like, when they don’t feel like they’re part of a family, they don’t care about the work. This translates to the culture of the company and how much they’re cared for. Quotes from my team: - “Some never felt that they are part of the "family" organization...thus, they would never care. “ - “Lack of respect from peers, colleagues at work or even at the personal level.” - “When we were still starting, it really felt like a family, and once you were introduced to one person, we wanted to talk to each other a lot when we had problems. I loved everyone! We would also reach out to each other when there were problems. However, the team has grown so much, the industry has changed, and the work from home environment is also very different now.” - “Most Filipinos today no longer look at their online work as family, as we have. They just see work, with the same weight and value as they see any 8-5 job.” Filipinos are caring. Loving. Very service oriented. When they don't feel this being reciprocated, it's very off-putting to them. If they don't feel cared for, they return the lack of care. They don't care about the work. They don't care about the quality. They don't care about the outcome. I'm not saying you need to send birthday cards to your OFS, I'm just saying things you do to show you care about them matter. Tomorrow I'll have solutions my OFS proposed to help stop mindless work. Read the entire series. John |
My previous 5 newsletters have described cultural reasons why OFS sometimes work mindlessly. Today is about solutions. When I asked my team why this problem exists, I didn't ask for solutions, I just sought to understand the problem. A bunch of my team members also offered solutions. A lot of it has to do with decreasing the power-distance or with dealing with the power-distance. Decreasing their fear is baked into their solutions. These both also create more of a family feeling. These are direct quotes from my OFS. - Acknowledgment for their great work to level up their self-worth/pride but not overdoing it. A simple gift matters, it could be anything, food or coffee mugs will also mean a lot. Sometimes, when I worked in an office I'd put 500 pesos discreetly on their desk telling them (only if they asked) Santa had come early to those who put on a wonderful job - I think you already did this before, but maybe giving rewards to people who contributed more than their expected role/responsibilities? Either cash or non-cash (experiential rewards) - Sometimes work may get boring, but if people see dynamics on their job, maybe that will motivate them to think/work better? - My main point is that incentives in the workplace help employees feel that their extra contribution is valued. - Filipinos need more understanding on their job roles, what's the scope, oversight and responsibilities. - Most Filipinos love to talk, chat and even gossip about a lot of things not related to work, that keeps most of us happy and have fun while working on a task. It also helps lose the edge and stress. Usually in the vernacular but sometimes it also works in english, It's important to have a sense of humor and remain respected. - Getting a little bit personal, but not going to the extent that we tell them what they'll need to do and how to go on with their lives. Empathy is greatly appreciated. - Talk about food, experiences and dreams. If they open up about their love lives, just go with it and don't judge, just give them support and suggestions to resolve things. - Quality assurance is important, but what makes QA work is there are designated people in charge to call out mistakes. When we know we are allowed to call out mistakes or know specific people are allowed to, it's fine. We respect the "law". For some reason, I always understood that [team member] checks my work. She makes me fix my edits. I never took that personally. I just thought that's how it was. I don't know how you trained her, but she's straightforward. She's the best example of how it's not cultural. She's not afraid to correct me. There's a lot going on here. It's unlikely that any one of these is going to solve all situations. Before you respond to me and tell me all your problems (which...is actually fine), I don't really have all the solutions. I can just tell you what they said will work (this email) and what I've done that I've seen work (Thursdays email). Or read the entire email series. John PS. If you have thoughts about this I'd love to hear it. |
My newsletters from the past 2 weeks have taken a lot of work. They're all about why OFS sometimes work mindlessly (their thoughts) and how to prevent it (their ideas). Today is some of my personal experiences. A couple of solutions I’ve tried that have worked include giving people a title, creating job security, giving responsibility and having people take ownership, and adding a quality assurance process. - In the Philippines, titles are important. More important than in the USA. So over the past couple of years, I’ve been giving titles to people. “Content Manager”. “Operations Manager”. In giving these titles I also give responsibilities and authority. The authority tends to mean they’re in charge of making sure things are done correctly in that area. - I try to assure my people that they're not going to get fired for making a mistake. Their job is secure. Even if they do something wrong, they're still going to have a job. I try to make this clear. - I’ve found that giving people responsibilities and including “making sure it’s well done” has helped. I’ve also told people that I want them to take ownership of the final product. Like, think through “Does this make us look good? Does this embarrass John? Does this embarrass the business? Should this get published?” If any of those things are wrong, your responsibility is either to fix it or to say something to the person in charge. Basically, I’ve given them authority to question the final output. - Recently I added a person to double-check work. That person's job is to make sure the quality is where we expect. In software, this means that the feature performs as people expect it should. They check for bugs. They look for anything that feels odd. In content, they make sure everything reads perfectly. They make edits. They make sure the final product makes sense. They make suggestions if they see a way to improve a process. For both of these QA positions, I included a large list of things they’re supposed to check and speak up about. Now they have the authority to say something is wrong so they feel confident in finding problems and speaking up about them. All of these things have made a difference for me. I'm getting better work done. I fix problems less often. My OFS tell me they're happier. You'll need to experiment for yourself. John |
I recently sent out a newsletter about hiring Filipino students. In that email, I discouraged hiring full-time Filipino students because they would need to prioritize their education. A college education is a big deal in the Philippines. If they don’t get that degree, they’ll never hear the end of it from their family. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a system where a student can still be a great OFS. That’s what Brett showed me when he responded to my newsletter. Just a word of encouragement! My VA (Full time student) is EXCEPTIONAL! She works about 7 hours per week for me. She never misses a task, is kind, and is way better at the things she does than I ever was before I hired her. There are two reasons why the working relationship with her works so well, that might be helpful to others. 1) Each task has 7 days to be submitted. If something large comes up, she can move things around to accommodate other areas of her life; school personal, or anything. Certain recurring tasks are done daily, and those tasks are predictable and she is able to accomplish some of them on her mobile phone. 2) At the start of her onboarding we met weekly to establish a healthy working relationship built on honest constructive feedback. While meeting with her, I was able to understand how to best set her up for success, and she was able to understand the types of things that were important to me. By taking time personally to be about 14 days ahead of her, I can give her a heads up if a large project is coming, and she can give me feedback if she will be unable to do something so I can plan. This set up means neither of us are frustrated. It's an AMAZING win. This wont't work for everyone BUT, I think a lot can be accomplished by a part time VA, even if they are in school, if you take the time to DEVELOP them as individuals, and UNDERSTAND what will allow them to do the best work for you. My job has gotten easier, and I am accomplishing WAY more with her help. Actually, at this point, I am not sure how I would be able to run my business without someone like her. I hope this is helpful and insightful! Best, Brett This is a great tip. I love how Brett emphasizes the importance of communication and having realistic expectations. Things often work out when you find ways to work together. If you set your OFS up for success, they can do amazing things. |
Bob Shape sent me a message through Facebook a few weeks back and showed me a YouTube Video: Adventures in Employment (in the Philippines). "Hi John Your podcast reminded me of this. It is unbelievable what a person has to go through just to get a job in the Philippines. No wonder people are looking for work on onlinejobs.ph! This videos shows the process. I thought you might be interested. https://youtu.be/xSPRM7sFrz4 I was amazed at all the red tape I saw in the Philippines any time you had to do anything with the government, except for renewing a visa. Thanks for your great service!" The video is around 20 minutes long. If you don’t have the time to watch the whole thing, it shows all the red tape Filipinos have to go through to get a job in the Philippines. I asked my OFS, Julia if she encountered this when she worked for a Philippine company years ago. “Yes, I did go through the same process back when I was looking for work after college. It was just as infuriating back then. I think harder now because of the (COVID) restrictions. They don’t tell us about this in school. When we start applying for jobs, we learn about these requirements. As you can see, it can take somewhere from 2 days to a week to get all these documents. That’s what makes the process is so frustrating. ” I mentioned in a previous email that the Philippines doesn’t have a system to do background checks. I think this is how Philippine companies compensate for that. Most employers at Onlinejobs.ph don’t require these documents. So finding an online job is still easier than finding regular work in the Philippines. But in the past few years, we have required job seekers to get a valid, government-issued ID verified on the site. The job seeker would have to get the same paperwork shown in the video to get a government-issued ID. Why did we do this? Shouldn’t it be easier to get an online job? Why did we make the process harder? We did it for the following reasons: As a security measure to make sure that the people creating an Onlinejobs.ph jobseeker account are real people. To encourage job seekers to take online work seriously. The requirements tell them that they need to show online work the same level of dedication they would show to a “regular” job. Payment platforms also require these documents and government-issued IDs for verification. Having these documents ready would make it easier for jobseekers to get paid once they're hired. Should you ask your jobseekers to get the same requirements? No, you don’t need to. The verification process at Onlinejobs.ph deals with most of that. The more important question is what you should do in your recruitment process to ensure that you’re hiring a talented and trustworthy OFS. That’s the question I answer at OneVAAway.com. John PS. I skied in an unusual place the other day with my daughter (no connection to the rest of this email). We started in a neighborhood in the valley and climbed from 5500ft up to 8800ft. It was spectacular. |
My daughter who is a Junior in High School just took the ACT. Yuck. It's interesting that High School prepares you to take standardized tests. It doesn't prepare you to work a real job. And...come to think of it, neither does a college degree. Yes, it helps you. Yes, it teaches you to think. Yes, it prepares you to learn what you actually need to learn. But it doesn't give you actual work skills. The same thing is happening in the Philippines with "VA courses". You may have seen jobseekers on Onlinejobs.ph bragging about their VA training certificates. So you interview and give them a test task, thinking that they're qualified because they've gone through VA training. But once you get the results or hire them, you end up disappointed? I know some of you have experienced that. You're the ones who comment on my social media saying that Filipino workers are low-skilled and overestimate their qualifications. I understand where you're coming from. Over the years, we've seen VA training programs proliferate all over the Philippines. Some of these programs are actually good. They help their students develop valuable skills to turn them into great VAs. But a growing number are just bad. There are people out there who take advantage of Filipinos desperate for work. They sell these useless training programs that guarantee high-paying online jobs. They reinforce these 'guarantees' with promises of new houses, cars, and computers. "With this training, you can get multiple high-paying, easy online jobs! No experience is needed! You don't even need a laptop! " This is the thumbnail for a popular YouTube video in the Philippines promising easy jobs: Ads like this are widespread in the Philippines. They sell dirt cheap training to hundreds of thousands of desperate people. As a result, these people make jobseeker profiles thinking they're qualified. They believe they can do the job they "trained" for and that the work is so easy they can juggle multiple clients simultaneously. It's only when they get rejected and reprimanded by employers like you they realize that maybe this job wasn't as easy as they thought. I'm not defending their actions. What these job seekers are doing is wrong. But I also understand the kind of desperation that tempts people to fall for these schemes. This is why I always say in my emails that you never assume that a VA is "trained." Be clear about your expectations and know exactly what you want before outsourcing. Unless there's concrete evidence that they're qualified (like a portfolio), you should always give training and onboarding. I'm close to rolling out actual training that you can give to an OFS once you hire them. This is the correct way for training to happen. In the real world. Under employer supervision. With actual work happening after the training happens. Stay tuned for more... John |
Everyone says VAs can't meet with clients. "They'll mess things up." "Clients won't like it." "Clients will see the insides of your business, and they won't want to work with you." None of this is true. Ruben sent me this video recently and talked about the misconception that VAs can only do back-end work...they can't meet with clients. https://youtu.be/UTWsfsCvzO8 Your clients know the difference between you and your employees. They know that your VA is working for your business. If you train and manage your Filipino VAs well, your clients might even like interacting with your VA more than they like interacting with you! They might learn that the person in the Philippines gets things done! Filipinos value their jobs. They know that making a client happy is how they can keep their job. If you give them the tools they need to do the job well, isn’t that a win-win for everyone? Don’t believe me (or Ruben)? Check out these case studies I did with Ethan Kap and Jill Sessa. So how do you get an OFS who can meet with clients? You provide them training. When you provide training to an OFS, they recognize you care about them. They become more loyal to you. They recognize the potential for growth in their current job. They really want to do a good job for you. Training an OFS makes them a rockstar. Next week I'm going to make years of trainings available to you for your OFS. Trainings that are done for you. Trainings that will make your OFS more productive. Guaranteed. John |
About a month ago I made Joven the manager of OnlineJobs.ph. He's managing and coordinating our design/dev/QA/marketing teams. Was he always capable of this? Heck no!!! I hired Joven in 2005. In 2007 he told me "Sir, when I started working for you I knew nothing! I was so scared you were going to get mad at me and fire me..." So what changed? Well...me for one. I realized he (and so many others) were capable of running teams like this. But...he did too. He went from knowing nothing (and I can confirm...he knew almost nothing relevant to my business) to - building websites - doing SEO - creating and running PPC campaigns - doing all kinds of online marketing - Helping create the verification system OnlineJobs.ph uses to verify millions of Filipino workers - Managing a team of people - Managing multiple teams of people Here's what did it. Training. In that 2007 conversation he continued "I was so scared you were going to get mad at me and fire me...but then you started to give me training. You taught me how to do things. I realized you cared about my success. That training gave me confidence so I could try new things. It gave me confidence to learn new things on my own." The rest is history. I kept giving him training. He kept learning. Kept trying new things. Kept getting better and better. Today I have 10 other OFS similar to him. Training. But what if you don't know how to train someone? What if you don't have the time? What if you don't want to create this training? Is there a shortcut? There is...starting Monday. On Monday I'll show you the training I've created over the years to train OFS like Joven. It's one of my secrets...and it becomes available Monday. John |
Here's some Philippines culture we don't often talk about. Training a new employee in the Philippines is such an ingrained part of the culture that they have an acronym for it and government backing for it: OJT On-the-Job Training It's so prevalent in the Philippines that I've had applicants ask me "Is there OJT for this position?" "How long is the on-the-job training for this position?" "Will there be training provided for this position?" If you don't provide training to a new OFS, you alienate them right away. It's part of their culture. Plus, to them, training them shows you care about their success with your company. But creating training is hard... So we've created the training for you. Introducing VAs Made Easy Done-for-you trainings you hand off to your OFS. I've spent the past couple years creating trainings that are built specifically for the employer-OFS relationship. They separate the CEO role from the OFS role. They give your OFS skills. They give your OFS confidence. They let your OFS know you care. They set quality of work expectations. The done-for-you training library covers 29 different topics. All you have to do is read (or watch) the short employer instructions and then hand the full training over to your OFS. They'll learn new skills. They'll come to you with specific questions you need to answer. They'll implement processes in your business. VAs Made Easy Plus it comes with free access to OnlineJobs.ph for 6 months. Bonus. John |
Yesterday I talked about how training is so important for your OFS. - It shows you care about them - It shows you care about their success - It shows you care about your own business success - It sets expectations - It sets the stage for future work deliverables - It creates rock star OFS If you don’t want to create training for your OFS, or you don’t know how to create the training, we’ve done it for you. Done-For-You Standard Operating Procedures Training Library We spent months on every one of these. We spent thousands of dollars on every one of these. There are currently 29 different training courses you’ll get to hand off to your OFS (Please don’t hand off all 29 at once…give them one at a time) Here’s how it works. 1. You buy the training library 2. You decide which training is best for your OFS right now. 3. You download the training and hand it off to your OFS. 4. Your OFS learns you care about them and their success. 5. Your OFS learns. They get trained. They begin to implement the process in your business. 6. You guide the process with them. 7. Tasks get done This is training that comes straight from you to your OFS. It’s training we created, but when you hand it off to your OFS it doesn’t come from us. It comes from you. That builds your OFS trust in you. We tried to make this as easy as possible. If you don’t need this right now (maybe because you haven’t hired someone yet, or because you just now created a full training library yourself), no pressure. This isn’t going away. There’s no pressure to buy. No false scarcity. I want you to buy and use my training if it makes sense for you. If it saves you time. If it makes your OFS more productive. If it will improve your business. If none of that is the case right now, at least you know it’s there in the future when it does make sense for you. I’m just trying to make the process of growing and scaling your business easier, whether that happens right now or in the future. Giving your OFS any of these trainings WILL make them more productive. I guarantee it. John PS. In May I’m taking my family (wife and 5 kids) cycle around Europe. I’ve been buying this gear over the years in preparation for something like this. Now it’s happening! Sometimes, when you prepare, good things happen. |
There are four (4) Philippine holidays this April. I know, it’s a lot. That’s why I’m sending out this email early, so you guys can get ready for what’s ahead. The first one would be Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) which falls on April 9 (Saturday). It’s a regular holiday (day off work, with pay if you're on salary). Holy Week is in April this year. Maundy Thursday (April 14) and Good Friday (April 15) are regular holidays. Black Saturday (April 16) is a special holiday. With the Philippines easing up on COVID restrictions, your OFS may ask for a week-long break for this one so they can go home to visit their families in the provinces. Yeah, a lot of people in the Philippines haven't seen their families in a couple years because of Covid. They haven't had the chance to travel home. If they ask...let them go. I’ll update you on the Philippine holidays coming up through the newsletter. But to make sure that you’re updated and get these notifications in advance, you can get our Philippine Holiday Calendar. John PS. In winter, all I want to do is ski. My body has a weird connection with snow. I crave it. We skied where a forest fire denuded the trees recently. It was eerie and amazing at the same time. |
My newsletter regularly gets read by 20,000+ people. I get good, kind, insightful responses from people every day. But this one was nasty. Lisa responded to my email last week with: So, as a teacher, I completely disagree with your assessment of school. It absolutely does not just prepare you to take tests and gives you no real skills. Reading is a real skill. Speaking in front of groups is a real skill. Writing is a real skill. Math is a real skill. But wait, there's more! (she continued to list other real life skills education provides) Thank you Lisa! Thanks for helping me see a more clear picture of what education does for us and our society. But here's the line from her email that really got me: School exists to empower people with the skills they need to become what they want! YES! THAT'S THE POINT! You educate your OFS to empower them. Yes, providing them with education and training helps grow your business. Yes, it makes your life easier. Yes, it makes things run more efficiently. But... It does the same for them! It gives them understanding about how business works. It gives them skills that can be used in your business. It gives them ideas to help grow your business...so that they deserve a raise! It helps them contribute. It helps them progress in their career. It empowers them with greater understanding, confidence, and a desire to do better. And...if that training and education is provided by you... - it shows them you care about their career - it shows them your company is a good place to work - it makes them loyal to you All of this is why I advocate for training the OFS you hire. Even if you hire an expert. Provide them training. It carries like a 100x ROI with it. This is why we created VAs Made Easy. Done-for-you education. You give the training to your OFS. They progress. Your business progresses. Win-Win. https://www.VAsMadeEasy.com John |
I've written about how expensive it is to ship to the Philippines. But I understand how important it is to send something to your OFS to make them feel like they're part of the family. That's exactly what Danny had in mind when he sent me this email. Hi John, When we bring on staff or contractors in the U.S., we often give them a company baseball hat, a couple of stickers or other promotional products with our logo on them. I think it helps them to feel like they are part of our business family. Shipping to The Philippines can be expensive and complicated. But I want my people over there to know that I value them and consider them to be important to us. But this brings up questions. I hope you'll (ask your own OFS to) consider responding. 1) If we send a gift to our staff, does it put them in an awkward position? Do they feel they would need to reciprocate? (That's NOT what I'd want them to feel or do.) 2) Besides company stuff, are there universally desired -- and lightweight -- items from the U.S. that we should consider sending? 3) Are there any definite no-nos, things we should not consider sending? BTW, I found this page on the USPS website. Best thing in it: If the value of what you're sending exceeds 3000 PHP (about U.S. $58), the Philippines government tacks on a U.S. $30 fee. Thanks for considering my question. - Danny Filipinos who live in the U.S. know this well. They want to send gifts to the family back home but sending gifts can be expensive. There's also a big chance things could get lost or stolen. One solution they came up with is to ship in bulk using a corrugated cardboard box they call "Balikbayan Box." Balikbayan boxes usually come in several sizes. The smallest ones are 24in x 24in x 12in, and the largest ones are 24in x 24in x 45in. These boxes are seen as care packages by the Philippine government. They don't tax it as much as items imported for sale or sent as gifts. So people would cram these boxes with as much stuff as possible, which helps with the shipping cost. If you have a lot of employees in the Philippines and you want to send them gifts, this can be a good option. If you're going to send something, it's best to ship items that don't have to go through a customs inspection or don't require a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance. Items like are: Children's toys Small perfume bottles Assorted cosmetics Household products like cleaners or deodorizers Vitamins and supplements Processed food (canned goods, jerky, etc) Shampoo, lotion, and soap Liquor, wine, and other spirits Clothing and accessories (shoes, bags, etc) Stationery (pens, notebooks, etc) Customs will inspect the box if they suspect you're sending contraband or trying to smuggle something into the country. You don't want to give Philippine customs a reason to open the box because they're notoriously corrupt. So avoid sending electronics and jewelry. You'll also want to avoid sending the following items: Seeds and plants, Anything perishable Batteries Cash Lottery and sweepstakes tickets Guns, ammunition, and other related items (gunpowder, shell casings, etc) Anything related to gambling like loaded dice, marked playing cards, etc Anything flammable (lighters, lighter fluid, etc) Cigarettes, cigars, vape pens Drugs and narcotics, including items infused with hemp or cannabis. Another thing to remember is to avoid sending one item in bulk. For example, don't fill an entire box with just shampoo. Customs will think you're trying to sell stuff to the Philippines. Using balikbayan boxes to import items for sale is illegal because it looks like they're avoiding import/customs taxes. When filling a balikbayan box, a good rule of thumb is that it should have enough variety of items that a family can use. LBC and FedEx are the safest and most reliable options if you're shipping from the U.S. They're also familiar with the balikbayan box system, so they can give you answers if you have more questions. That's why my OFS, Julia, recommended that if Danny sends his team a gift, to send them candies and chocolates. It won't attract the attention of customs. Also, sweets are traditionally given as gifts in the Philippines. His team will appreciate it. |
I’ve mentioned before that buying electronics and computers in the Philippines can be more expensive than buying them here in the US. But just how expensive is it? Let me give you a scenario. One of my OFS, Jam, likes Apple products. He’s been thinking about getting a new iPhone, and the one that caught his eye is the iPhone SE 3. It’s set to retail here in the US at $429. That’s P22,409 Jam then checked Apple Philippines to check how much it would cost him to buy the SE 3 locally. The price is P28,990, which is equivalent to $555. That’s a difference of $126. When you look at the price difference, it doesn’t make sense. These iPhones come from China and they’re shipped directly to the Philippines. If they were shipped from the US, the iPhone would be more expensive but not by much. Not only that, these phones are shipped in bulk. That should have reduced the shipping cost then and there. Even if you account for the overhead cost the stores put on top, that’s just too much to put on just one device. So what possible explanation could there be for this? One possible explanation would be with how Philippine customs computes for import taxes. That’s a lot, but at least you know where some of it is going. You might look at this and think shipping to the Philippines might be cheaper after all, given all the taxes. But the problem with shipping electronics and computers is that they could be damaged or lost during shipping or customs. Customs is notoriously corrupt in the Philippines. For Filipinos, buying their electronics from the store is still a better option because they can have them replaced if there’s damage, and they can have it covered by warranty. One more reason to take good care of the people you hire. John |
I’m happy when I get thank you emails from business owners. But it warms my heart when I get emails from people who make it their life’s work to make the world a better place. “I do my podcast in the day "my time." He edits it and uploads it in the day "his time”, and it is ready to go in the morning I want it posted. It works great. Thank you so much for your program and letting me find my Filipino VA. I have been to the Philippines 5-6 times on missions trips and loved the people and culture. I just didn't know how to find what I needed, and your program was perfect.“ That email was from David Baker, a non-profit ministry pastor, and chaplain of a county jail. He also runs a men’s home to help people who got out of jail put their lives back together. On top of that, David’s a prolific author and the vice president of an online Bible college. He does all that while being an active father and grandfather. As you can imagine, David is busy. He works non-stop, not to enrich himself but to help his community. Yes, most ministries have volunteers. To get everything done, volunteers aren’t enough. Non-profits need workers too! David needs full-time help so he can serve his flock every day. But you can’t afford to waste money when running a non-profit. You want most of that money going to work that would help people in need. So what did David do? He found full-time help by hiring Filipino workers. He figured out how to do it through OneVAAway.com and Onlinejobs.ph. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbYzcs8njm4 The fact that he’s doing all that work and managed to find an amazing OFS tells you that OneVAAway.com makes finding an OFS faster and easier for anyone. He loves that his OFS works while he sleeps. He can focus on his ministry and recording his podcast in his time. At night, his OFS edits and uploads it. It’s one less thing David has to worry about. I often talk about how having an OFS helps both the business owner and the Filipino worker. What David has done here is making a positive change for the world. John |
I grew up near the beach in California. I grew up wearing flip flops. But it wasn't a cultural thing like it is in the Philippines. Filipinos really love their flip-flops. My OFS, Julia, explains why. ----- Like other Asian countries, we take off our shoes here in the Philippines before going inside the house. Once we’re inside, we use slippers, aka tsinelas. And we love, love, LOVE our tsinelas. This is the tsinelas. They’re also called sandals, flip-flops, or thongs in other countries. Most Filipinos have at least two pairs of tsinelas, one for indoor use and another for outdoors. But it’s not unusual to see Filipinos have more than two pairs. In my house, we have slippers exclusively for the toilet and bathrooms. I also keep extra pairs for guests to use when they visit. Not to mention the “going out” pair we use if we want to wear something “dressier.” And even though it’s safer to drive using shoes, some people keep a pair of driving tsinelas in the car. We love our tsinelas because it’s so comfortable. They keep our feet cool in this tropical climate. It’s easy to clean and dry off when it gets wet. We’re so used to tsinelas we can hike for hours through rough terrain and not develop any blisters. We can bike and swim in them. We even have uses for tsinelas when they wear out. We use worn tsinelas for art and crafts, as cockroach killers, toys (our version of NERF toys), doorstops, makeshift swimming paddles, pool and bath floaties, or DIY bike brakes. When we travel, we always make sure to pack a pair. In offices, people will slip off their shoes and wear slippers under their desks. When I was in college, my go-to outfit was a t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of tsinelas. Tsinelas, though, are really informal. Most schools and offices with dress codes ban them (but allow under-the-table slippers for comfort). And you know how fancy restaurants have a “no shoes, no shirt, no service” policy? Here in the Philippines, the sign often includes “no slippers” because of the loophole that slippers are technically shoes. Entertaining. And I love the culture. John |
The tropical storm "Agaton" entered the Philippines over the weekend. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1581329/fwd-agaton-weakens-into-tropical-depression The good news is it's not a strong storm and it's weakening. The bad news is it brought in more rain than expected and is expected to make rainfall again. Some places in the Visayas and Mindanao did experience some flooding and landslides but rescue and relocation efforts are being done. They are ready for this. So if you have VAs in places like Samar, Leyte, and Biliran, better check on them. The worse news is that a bigger storm is expected to affect the same area soon. Once it enters the Philippine Area of Responsibility, it will be named 'Basyang'. https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/04/11/news/agaton-weakens-stronger-typhoon-to-enter-par/1839661 Ask your OFS if they're ok, and if they're going to be ok with this one coming. John |
Every once in a while, my OFS team and I talk about our kids. Most of mine are older than most of theirs...but not all. I have 5, with a 19yr old and an 8 year old. That's a big span. My OFS Julia mentioned recently that her daughter would be starting high school this year. I thought this was kind of weird because I knew her daughter had just turned 12. In the US, 12 and 13-year-olds go to middle school and start high school when they're 14-15. In the Philippines, it's normal to start high school when you're 12 or 13. They don't have middle school, so the kids go immediately to high school. Like here, you finish high school in 4 years. But they can't go to college or start working right out of high school. They have to go to senior high school first. Senior high school is a recent development in the Philippines. This was the result of the K to 12 Basic Education Program instituted back in 2012. The program was meant to help improve the quality of education by introducing universal kindergarten and learning tracks. Another aim was to ensure that students could enter the workforce with only a (senior) high school diploma. What makes senior high school different from regular high school? Senior high school is when students choose what track they want to pursue. Finishing that track means that you should have basic skills that could get you hired right away in your chosen field. Having these tracks is also meant to improve the quality of college education in the Philippines. If you've completed the basic track in senior high school, you should be able to specialize or take on more complicated concepts in college. Filipinos can register for an Onlinejobs.ph account when they turn 18. That's when most of them would finish senior high school. Yet, most people you find have a college degree because it's so important in their culture. The Philippines government is really invested in improving their education and economy in the coming years. John |
Ah yes, the 80/20 principle. Everyone has heard of it... 20% of the work produces 80% of results. It's true in almost everything we do. I worked all year to get my 8yr old to like skiing. - I made him ski almost every Saturday - I got him good skis - I let him pick the runs we ski - I forced him to ski steep gnarly runs - I let him ski with friends - I gave him rewards In the end, skiing with friends was the only thing that mattered. He loves it when friends are around. 20%. In my business, the 20% is content creation. I force myself to work on content creation FIRST every day (even though I don't love it) because it produces results. I even delegate and outsource a lot of content creation to my OFS. For you, what's your 20%? Can you delegate some of that 20% to an OFS? Can you hand off most of the 80% to an OFS. For Steve Raiken, the 20% is sourcing products and making YouTube videos. He’s been running an online business for almost a decade. He kept his company growing through the pandemic because: - He understands how important it is to focus on the 20% that makes money - He has a team of Filipino workers to do everything else Want to know how he got started and what his hiring process is like? Watch the video below: https://youtu.be/j7_A2MIgYUA Steven talked about how important it is to be patient with your OFS, especially during training. If you want to give your OFS training but don’t want to create it yourself, you can get them started with VAsMadeEasy.com. It’s done-for-you trainings on 30 different topics you can hand off to your OFS without needing to do anything yourself. Just help them succeed in the work they're doing. John |
Should you be providing health insurance to your OFS? Here in the US, having health insurance is required. But it's not required for companies to provide it. In the Philippines, it's not legally required. Private health insurance is a perk for businesses that can afford it. However, Philippine companies must get their employees Philhealth, their socialized medical system. You’re not required to give this benefit as a foreign employer, but it’s one of those things that you should give because it can help with hospitalization when your OFS gets sick. We provide an addition to each OFS pay to cover their Philhealth payment. We’ve also been offering our Filipino workers health insurance through an HMO (health insurance organization) for several years now. We did this so our OFS team would have something they could use for check-ups, preventive care, and outpatient procedures. I’ll be using the terms HMO and health insurance interchangeably here because they’re practically the same in the Philippines. The main difference is the size of the network, fees, and coverage (HMOs are bigger). Because we don’t have an entity in the Philippines and our OFS are considered independent contractors, we can’t give them health insurance directly. Instead, we asked our team to research the best HMOs/health insurance in their area. We let them pick the one they each wanted to use. HMOs are different in different regions of the Philippines. Hazel (our HR) coordinated with the HMOs and the team to manage their paperwork. They pay the initial premiums, and we reimburse them. The cost depends on the HMO provider, the age of the plan holder, and the coverage. It costs on average P20,000 ($390) per year per plan holder. I can’t tell you which health insurance is the best. It depends on a lot of factors. What you can do is have your OFS go to this website (https://www.mariahealth.ph/). It’s the most popular health insurance aggregator in the Philippines. Businesses and individuals can get private health insurance either as a contract or prepaid card through their website. Our team is not under group insurance because we don’t have a base in the Philippines. They have to apply as individuals. I agree this puts us at a disadvantage because individual health insurance is more expensive compared to group insurance but not by much. The biggest problem we encountered with this setup is that individual health will ALWAYS have less coverage than one given to a group. The cap on their health benefit is usually lower. When one of my OFS got sick, we had a hard time having her surgeries covered because it’s only been a year since she got her health insurance. But the longer they stay on the health insurance, the better their coverage becomes (at least for the HMO she signed up for). You do NOT need to provide this. If your OFS is short term, it doesn't even make sense. But if you find you have an amazing OFS (or amazing team) and you want to better take care of them, this is a great (and super reasonably priced) way to do it. John |
Once upon a time I commuted to work. I was fresh out of college and rode my moped to work, 30 minutes each way. It only lasted 8 months. I quit the job and have worked at home running my own businesses ever since. I don't really know the pain of commuting. Others do. Before my OFS, Julia worked for me she worked in an office in Manila for years where she had to commute every day. Sometimes she had to travel for work which also took her all over the country. That required her to commute in those places as well. Turns out, when you commute in the Philippines, you have options. -------- We have buses and trains like most countries in the world. We’re world-renowned for our jeepneys. But we also have other options that make commuting an adventure. If you live inside a subdivision (our version of a suburb), the best way to get around is to ride a "tricycle" or a "trisikad". These are motorcycles (tricycle) or bikes (trisikad) with sidecars that either follow a regulated route or take you anywhere you need to go within the community. Because of their small size, most "tricycles" and "trisikads" are not allowed on major roads. But in places where public transportation is limited, you’ll find these vehicles sharing the road with cars, trucks, and buses. Another commuting option is the "kalesa" or a horse-drawn carriage. In Manila, the kalesa is mainly a tourist attraction. But in places like Tuguegarao and Vigan, a kalesa can get you where other vehicles can’t go. If you go deep into the rural areas, you’ll see carriages drawn by carabaos (Philippine water buffalo). The more “modern” version is called “kuliglig” where they use a motorized hand tractor instead of a carabao. Last but not least is the "habal-habal". It’s a motorcycle modified to fit up to nine people instead of two. It’s also called “skylab” because it kind of looks like a space satellite (if you're squinting). These motorcycles are used in mountainous areas. Yes, I’ve tried all of them. No, there are no seatbelts. ------- I've ridden in the tricycles. Not something I'd want to do on a major road...or commuting long distances (which people do). When outsourcing to the Philippines, it's helpful to understand their culture. You can read about Philippine work culture in my book, the Outsourcing Lever. $7. John |
Our last inbounds ski day was last week. Instead of being a warm spring day (like normal in late April), it was a stormy winter day. I loved it! I got some feedback from my wife: "I'm a fair weather skier! I don't like winter storms!" This is our 8yr old who got to ski with some older friends on the last day of the year: I’ve often talked about the importance of giving good feedback, but what does good feedback look like? What kind of feedback would your OFS best respond to? 1. Timely and immediate. Don’t wait for days or weeks before giving feedback on your OFS’ work. Give feedback as soon as you notice something. If they’ve done well, they’ll remember what they did. If you’re giving constructive criticism, they’ll know what went wrong because their memory of what they did is still fresh. If you wait days or weeks, they’ve forgotten details. 2. Specific. Snagit has been really helpful for this. I take screen recordings of their work, and I point out exactly what I like and what needs changing. I'll say, “I like the color for this button,” or “The text for this part of the page needs to be a little bigger.” I'll record and explain and talk for as long as I think necessary. Sometimes I go overboard. Here's how I setup Snagit to save my videos permanently. (scroll down on the page) 3. The Sandwich Method. Before giving any negative feedback, I make sure to start and end the conversation with sincere praise. I’d say, “Good job on fixing that issue on project A. However, I noticed that you missed this mistake on project B. I know you can fix this because you’ve done a great job fixing a similar issue on project C.” Filipinos are people pleasers. When they make a mistake, they take it really hard and would get easily embarrassed. I talk about this in-depth in my book, the Outsourcing Lever. By sandwiching your criticism with praise, you’re letting them know that you still have faith in their abilities even though they did something wrong. As foreign bosses, we can come across as aggressive. If you’re giving negative criticism without any praise, it feels like you’re scolding them, even though that’s not what you’re doing. Recognition helps tone it down. It signals that you’re not angry. You just want to point out problems that need to be fixed. This is really important in Philippine culture. 4. Re-usable. This is another reason why I use Snagit often. When you save and organize your video feedback, you can add it to your OFS training. This saves you time when you hire a new VA. Speaking of training...what about just giving your OFS my training? VAsMadeEasy.com John |
If you're in the US, Daylight Saving time started a few weeks ago (unless you live in Hawaii or Arizona). Never really been a fan myself. In the summer months it doesn't get dark until 9:45pm at my house. Try putting kids to bed when it's light outside. It's almost a revolt every night. DST also bugs me because time zones are something some OFS have problems with. They don't do Daylight Saving time in the Philippines. A lot of them don't understand the concept. Why would they? They've never done it and it's really weird. I know from our customer service that we’ve had complaints about missed interviews or meetings. Then it turns out the OFS didn’t understand the time zone difference, especially once DST kicks in or when it goes back to Standard Time. If your business is affected by DST, make sure your OFS understands this. If part of their job is setting up appointments, then this is something that they NEED to know. One easy solution is to have your OFS install a world clock on their phones or computers, so they know what the time is on your side of the world. This will help them get used to your schedule. This isn't the only thing about Filipino culture that you need to know. I talk about meetings, interviews, having your OFS work in your timezone, and so much more in my book, The Outsourcing Lever. John |
Health insurance...yuck. This is one of my least favorite topics. If we (in the US) thought of it as an insurance product rather than as a charity that "must" pay for our health costs it would probably be different... ...but I don't want to get political here. I want to talk about the Philippines. One of the perks our team gets is Philhealth and health insurance coverage. Even companies in the Philippines don’t offer this because private health insurance isn’t required for employers. We started offering health insurance on top of Philhealth when we saw that Philhealth wasn’t enough. I bet you're a little confused by this. Isn’t Philhealth health insurance? It’s socialized medicine, and everybody pays for it. Philhealth is socialized medicine in the Philippines. All hospitals accept Philhealth but it only covers hospitalization, and it doesn’t cover all hospitalization costs. realistically, Philhealth just lowers their bill if they are hospitalized. This is where health insurance fills the gap. Health insurance and HMOs in the Philippines supplement what Philhealth can’t cover. To sign up for an HMO, you have to be a Philhealth member and be up-to-date with your contributions. So if you’re hospitalized, the HMO should cover whatever fees are leftover after Philhealth pays their share. Another good thing about health insurance is that it covers preventive health services and outpatient procedures. Our team can get a physical exam, check-ups, emergency treatment, and inpatient hospital care without worrying too much about the cost. Our team is also able to visit the dentist for annual cleaning. Some of our workers even pay extra to extend the coverage to their family members. They’re willing to pay for this out of pocket because it ends up cheaper in the long run and gives them ease of mind if anyone in their family has a medical emergency. This isn’t something we offer to all employees right away. To qualify for this perk, our Filipino workers have to render at least six months of continuous work. Some employers require at least a year. I think this is a good policy because if your worker hasn’t paid into their Philhealth yet, six months of regular payment will make them a member of good standing. Got questions about hiring an OFS? Get the answers at OFSGuide.com John |
On May 9, 2022 (Monday), the Philippines will be holding a general election for the executive and legislative branches of the national and local government. What does this mean? It means that on May 9, the Philippines will be electing a new president. It also means that on May 9, your OFS may ask to take a day off. Why? This day isn’t a regular holiday, but it is often declared a special non-working holiday to allow Filipinos to have ample time to go to the polls. Your OFS may ask to leave because the polling precincts are open for only 12 hours, from 6 am to 6 pm. That’s not enough time to vote, considering they have to commute to the limited number of polling places and the inefficient voting process. Here in the US, many places can serve as polling stations. Schools, churches, even private homes can serve as precincts if the government approves it. However, in the Philippines, voting is done mainly in public schools. These schools would house several precincts. On election day, it can get crowded with thousands of people all going there simultaneously, causing traffic all over the country. When they get there, finding their precincts and voting can take a lot of time. It might take longer to vote because you have to wait your turn in the polling booth. They could also encounter problems like not finding their name in the records, or they can’t find their precinct. The Philippines does have mail-in and early voting, but this is only given to Filipinos overseas and frontline workers like public school teachers (who serve as poll workers), police and the armed forces (to maintain the peace), and medical personnel. This is also a big election in the Philippines, making world-wide news. The son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos is running for president. A lot of people like him. John |
I spent last weekend in Fayetteville Arkansas at a bike race for my daughter. It was an important lead-up race to mountain bike national championships which are in July. Friends kept taking pictures of Addie on the big screen which they had at the start/finish line as she moved up in the race. She started 32nd. After lap 1 she was 18th. Lap 2: 11th. Lap 3: 7th. Lap 4: 6th. She finished 5th and on the podium. It was exciting to see her pick people off one by one as she moved forward. Here's what's interesting. Her training so far this year has been all slow riding. Lots of it. Like, 12-17 hour/week on her bike. She's not a fast starter because she hasn't done any high intensity riding yet. The girls who finished 1-4 have all done high intensity riding. They ran away with it from the beginning. How you train matters. With OFS, how you train isn't necessarily what matters. But providing training is. I got this email from Ryan recently. Actually, what he sent me is an email exchange between him and his OFS. He shared my email about Joven (the OnlineJobs.ph manager) with his team and he used that email to explain what he wants to achieve with them in the future. The response he got from them was so sweet. It’s also really telling of the benefits good training can do for you and your OFS. Thank you so much for sharing this email to us Sir. Based on my 7+ months working with you, I must say that you are like John Jonas, you help me grow Sir. I basically know nothing about your business Sir, but because of you & Ms. Katie's training, I was able to perform my daily job. I know I have a lot to learn but never once you made me feel that I'm not good enough. You appreciate & acknowledge my hard work, and because of that I felt motivated to do more. Thank you Sir for being a blessing to us. This is what we wanted to achieve with VAsMadeEasy. The VAsMadeEasy program has training that you can just give to your OFS so they can learn the skills they need. It also has short, easy-to-follow training materials for you. Because you’re still the boss and you’re the one who has to make the decisions. Why did we do it this way? Because we want to make it easy for you to train your VA, so you can get the work that you need faster. And we want to empower your OFS so they can do their work better and they’re motivated to improve. When you work together with this training: You learn to communicate and manage your OFS Your OFS learns the skills they need and are empowered to do more You and your OFS learn to trust each other because you’re growing together. Training matters. John |
My favorite thing to do outside is to ski in the backcountry. It's exhilarating and requires both physical and mental strength and awareness. Last week we skied 3 steep lines of fresh powder. Part of skiing in the backcountry is managing risk. - What if someone gets hurt? - What if this slope avalanches? - What is a safe stopping zone? - What are emergency numbers to call? - What are conditions like? There's a lot of risk management in skiing in the backcountry. There's risk management with OFS too. One of the biggest fears of outsourcing to an online Filipino specialist is security. How can you protect your data and your customers’ data when working with an OFS? Can you trust them? How sure are you that they’re not going to steal your information? What if something goes wrong? What can you do to make sure your business is protected? I have a bunch of tips I think can help you. Cultural Factors Filipinos are honest, for the most part, especially with foreigners. Once they get a job, they want to keep that job. They know stealing from you will get them fired, and it’s just not worth the risk. Personal data isn’t that valuable for them. In the Philippines, it’s not easy to sell data. In the Philippines, they respect authority. Theft is a serious crime with severe penalties. The Philippine government has made cybercrime laws stricter to encourage more online businesses to come to the country. Theft of digital information carries double the punishment compared to common theft. Sharing Tips Sharing Passwords - The best thing we have found to protect you is to use password managers like LastPass. You store your passwords in a password manager, allowing you to share passwords with your OFS. So your OFS can log in to the accounts they’re working on, but they can’t see or edit your passwords. If you need to let your OFS go, or they don’t need that account anymore, you can easily revoke access to that password. Sharing Data and Files- Google Drive allows you to manage permissions to specific files. You control who can see, comment, or edit your files. In Google sheets, you can even lock specific cells. Like with password managers, you can revoke access whenever you want. Security While Working Make sure that the person you’re hiring has their own computer. Any information you’re sharing stays on their device, and it’s not going through public Wi-Fi. Even if your OFS sometimes works in an internet cafe or a coffee shop (if their internet at home is slow), you want them using their device and not a shared computer. The more people share a computer; it’s more likely someone else will have access to your stuff. If they are using a shared computer (with family), ask them to create their own separate computer user login with a password so no family member can accidentally access their work. Many families sharing a single computer do not bother creating multiple user profiles, so having them do this can help. Are Filipinos more likely to be hacked? Generally no. Security and privacy there are the same as in most places globally. Most Filipinos don’t access unsecured websites, so they’re not at greater risk of being hacked. But if you want to be sure, you can subscribe to a VPN and have them use it. It only costs $2-3 a month. It’ll encrypt everything and help them access geo-locked websites and content. If you don’t want to send sensitive data and want everything to stay on your computer, you can set up a remote desktop. Your OFS goes online to log in to your remote desktop, and they work on your computer. It’s almost like having them work in your office. There are problems with this setup, though. The work is going to be slower because of lag and connectivity issues. And if you have several OFS, you’ll need to provide computers for each of them because you can’t have two people working on the same computer. Using virtual card numbers. Having your OFS make payments for you is one of the things I know many people want to delegate but are afraid to do. Sharing your credit card information is scary. But you don’t have to worry about it if you’re using virtual card numbers. Capital One has this feature where you can create virtual card numbers, control their use, and set spending limits. If your OFS tries to use or uses it without your permission, you can revoke access. The last thing I want to say about this (this is totally my opinion) is that I think that you’re more likely to have data stolen by someone in the US, somebody in your office who can access your computer, than by someone in the Philippines. It’s not in their culture. There’s no incentive for it. The cost of getting caught is too high. It’s just not worth the risk for them. I hope these tips have helped you feel more secure about hiring an OFS. In my experience and the experience of thousands of business owners, Filipino workers are pretty honest. You can trust them. |
I previously talked about how training can help your OFS improve your life and business. After I sent out that newsletter, Billy responded. He talked about how he empowered your OFS and built a stronger work relationship with her. Aloha, John! I appreciate your emails, they are very helpful. In June it will be one year with my VA, who is now our Operations Manager and I have given her AUTHORITY. I had to remind her that she is the boss several times, and now she finally is becoming more assertive. I asked her if she would like for me to help put together a 5 year plan for her life goals. I let her know it's important for the company to know her personal goals so that we can help her achieve them while meeting company objectives. She is still a little shy and I was surprised when she did not hesitate to accept my offer of helping her make a 5 year life plan. She was very happy.It took us less than an hour to write down the plan - wow - you should see her now. I am very proud of her, and it makes me want to work harder to ensure that she achieves those goals for herself and her family. Thanks again, John! Billy The way I outsource and built Onlinejobs.ph is based on the idea that you and your OFS will be working together for years. When you know you’ll be working together for a long time; you want to make plans. You want to set goals. You start hoping for a better future. But sometimes, it’s hard to believe this when you see people losing their jobs left and right. The unemployment rate in the Philippines has risen due to the pandemic, and people there are worried about job security. It’s also hard to think of this when you’re an online worker and everybody around you is freelancing. You can’t make a 5-year plan when you don’t know where the next paycheck is coming from. The great thing about what Billy did is he empowered his OFS to dream big. By helping her achieve her goals, he’s also achieving his goals for his business. If his OFS wants to double her income in 5 years or manage a bigger team, Billy and his OFS can work out a plan to help achieve that. What can they do to increase their sales? What can they do to make the business more profitable? His OFS is motivated because she’s taking an active role in achieving her goals. His business grows because he has a worker who’s just as dedicated to growing his business. When you empower your OFS, everybody wins. Here are 3 ways to empower your OFS: 1. give them a title 2. give them authority. Make sure they understand what they're responsible for. 3. give them training. VAsMadeEasy.com. |
This is going to be weird. After I sent out the newsletter about balikbayan boxes, I got a great response from Edward. His wife is from the Philippines, so they regularly send balikbayan boxes to her relatives in the Philippines. He had a lot of good tips that I want to share with you if you ever plan to send a box to your OFS team. We’ve sent Balikbayan boxes to the Philippines to my wife’s relatives. Things that make the most impact are: Canned meats (Spam, Vienna sausages, corned beef, canned chicken, roast beef, tuna) – meat protein is very expensive in the Philippines. A single tin or two is sufficient to feed an entire family since it is always eaten with a plateful of rice. Make sure to limit to two dozen of each to minimize the risk of Customs opening the box. Also, while canned fish is everywhere in the Philippines, the percentage of fish in the can is much smaller – sometimes, half the tin is comprised of oil or water. Spaghetti noodles, sauces, Kraft Dinner (not too much as they take up a lot of space) Toiletries (toothpaste, makeup, eyeliner, perfume, soap, shampoo and conditioner, deodorants, lipstick, lotion – note: Seal with tape the lids of anything that can leak) Fruit preserves (fruit jams of every kind, especially strawberry and raspberry) Vitamins and supplements OTC medicine (Tylenol, Aspirin, cough, cold, flu medication) Clothing and shoes (use socks and t-shirts as packing) Cheap handbags (my wife brought a dozen Coach and Michael Kors handbags with her when she went home a number of years ago since it was too risky putting them in the Balikbayan box) Candies and chocolates (especially the large Toblerone bars from Costco during Christmas) Batteries (Duracell or Energizer. Keep in the pack – the ones sold in the Philippines are crap) Flashlights/headlamps (a good quality, high lumens light is invaluable over there) American-made tools (screwdrivers, wrenches, socket sets – the Chinese stuff in the Philippines is junk) Dollar store knickknacks to stuff the box to the gills since weight is no object (stationary, pens, pencils, crayons, markers) – this is to show the inspector using the scanner that the box’s contents is for a family and not a business Make sure the balikbayan box has the recipient’s address AND phone number printed in huge bold font and taped to the box on at least two sides. Use lots of packing tape and do not leave any corner untaped. Wrap the entire box in 18-inch plastic wrap. I don’t understand the prohibition on batteries – they are not a problem AFAIK. Do NOT send any alcoholic beverages – that’s a huge temptation to the inspectors. Same with expensive electronics like smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Don’t bother with household cleaners – they’re everywhere in the Philippines and very inexpensive. Children’s toys are the same quality – they all come from China. Take care, Edward I showed the email to my OFS, Jamie, because of some contradictions with the last email. Some of the things she added were her personal preferences. So I think you can also put other items in a balikbayan box, as long as it’s not something prohibited. Regarding sending alcoholic beverages, she referred to those mini bottles instead of the big ones. But I agree with Edward; it might be best not to send them. I told you this would be weird. I can't imagine sending canned meat...but that's what's effective. John |
Earlier this week I talked about security with OFS. Let's go a little deeper. Like, deep into your business with a bookkeeper. They're likely to see everything! Here's an email from Tatiana: Hello, I have hired my first OFS at the beginning of the year and it's going great. I want to hire another one to do bookkeeping but worried about sharing bank/ credit card information.I heard some people give remote access so an OFS cannot download information on their end.Any other suggestions on how to mitigate risks? Regards, Tatiana I understand why Tatiana is worried. Just the thought of your clients’ banking and credit card information getting out there; it’s terrifying. I thought of the same thing when I interviewed Ethan Kap for a case study a few years ago. https://blog.onlinejobs.ph/outsourcing-insurance-finance-businesses-ethan-kap Ethan has an insurance agency. He’s been outsourcing for over ten years, and he has a team of 22 OFS who do everything from answering the phone to preparing financial statements. Ethan had the same fears as Tatiana when he was starting. But he was smart enough not to trust his VAs right away. He has to earn their trust and vice versa before they handle anything sensitive. Another reason he’s able to trust the people he hires because he has a solid recruitment process and provides training. One way you can find honest Filipino workers is through OneVAAway.com. To give your OFS training, you can use VAsMadeEasy.com to get you started. Does his Filipino team have access to sensitive financial information? Yes. Could they access and steal that information? Definitely. Has his Filipino team ever stolen from him? Never. Why? Because Filipinos are honest. I also asked my OFS, Jam, about this. He has a data security and finance background. Here’s what he wrote: “Remote access allows the OFS to access and control the employer's computer as if they are right there. There are many types of remote access, and it depends on the permissions given whether they can download from the employer's computer to their own or if file transfer is not allowed. Since they have another OFS, they may want to look at the possibility of making that first OFS they trust work in a supervisory capacity to check and vet the new hire first. Also, is it possible for them not to include full bank and card info in their bookkeeping software/spreadsheet? You can also hide numbers in Excel or Google Sheets if they’re not using a bookkeeping program. At the very least, that would allow the Bookkeeping OFS from handling sensitive data.” I can’t guarantee that the tips I’ve provided above work 100%. There’s always a risk. Hiring a bookkeeper to work in your office isn’t a guarantee they won’t steal or use your banking information. But with a Filipino bookkeeper, they’re less likely to steal because there’s no benefit. If you treat your OFS well, you'll see really quickly if you can/should trust them. John |
I've always been driven by freedom. It's a primary motivator for me. Time freedom. Money freedom. Responsibility freedom. I always work towards systems which will provide me freedom. Like, if there’s a task that takes too much time I either outsource it or say no to it completely. Or, if there's a business opportunity that I can see will require me to always be there, I say no. Freedom requires consistently making conscious choices. Training sets you up for freedom. That's why I encourage my kids to train for their biking competitions. I go with them because I know it motivates them. I give them all the tools they need so they're confident whenever they compete. When you're fit, you're free to go fast or slow. You can climb any hill you want. It's all doable. When you have a trained team, it's similar. You can take on a project. You can be more efficient. You can hand tasks off easier. If I need to train a new hire, I make time for it. I make sure my OFS gets what they need. Because even though it’s a lot of work for me right now, it saves me hours in the future. But there are still some who think that setting aside time for training isn’t worth it. Instead, they have these misconceptions. Misconception # 1: Training isn’t necessary if you hire the right person. Here’s a reality check. In the Philippines, everyone expects to get "On The Job training". It's part of the culture. Sure, you may not have to train them on things they're an expert at, but you'll still need to provide expectations, feedback, and help with what the output looks like. Even if you do find that perfect hire, you still need to train them, at least a little bit, so they know how things are done in your business. Misconception #2: Training takes too much time. Yes, training does take time. But it’s also time well spent. Time working ON your business rather than IN your business. Plus, if you use Snagit, training only takes the amount of time it takes you to talk through it. Then it's permanently recorded and can be given to others in the future. Spending that time today saves you hours in the future. Misconception #3: My VA doesn’t need training. They can just learn on the job. I’ve talked about the disappearing Filipino before. This happens when your OFS is placed in a situation where they feel helpless and they don’t know what to do. Instead of asking for help, they’ll just ghost you and disappear. This can happen when you tell your OFS that they can just learn as they go. When you tell them that, what your OFS hears is, “I can’t be bothered, just figure it out yourself.” So what happens when they run into problems? They disappear. They disappear because they feel like they can’t come to you when they need help. They’re afraid to ask you to make decisions because they don’t know if they should. But when you give them training, you’re showing them that you want them to do a good job. You’re showing them that you’re willing to invest your precious time in making this working relationship successful. So when they do need your help, they’re not afraid to ask you. I know training an OFS is hard work. That’s why, as I started hiring more people to work for me, I wanted to create a solution for this. So if you want an easier way to train your VA, just go to VAsMadeEasy.com. John |
This email probably should have happened 2 weeks ago, but that's not how the Philippines does it. May 3rd was Eid'l Fitr or the end of Ramadan. It was a regular holiday in the Philippines (full day off for almost everyone). But they didn't announce it was a day off until two days before. I try to keep you updated on holidays, but I need to schedule my newsletter ahead of time. Monday I'll let you know why. Eid'l Fitr is one of the holidays celebrated in the Philippines, particularly in Mindanao. If you have a Muslim OFS, this is like Christmas for them. They feast, party, and give gifts. You’re probably wondering why the Philippines, a predominantly Christian country, celebrate an Islamic holiday. Islam is the 2nd biggest religion in the Philippines. Around 5% of the population is Muslim, most residing in Mindanao. http://rsso11.psa.gov.ph/article/factsheet-islam-mindanao#:~:text=With%20a%20total%20of%206%2C064%2C744,of%20Population%20(2015%20POPCEN). If you go to Mindanao, you’ll see mosques, madrasas, and restaurants catering to the Muslim community all over the place. Why is the Muslim population concentrated in Mindanao? Historically, Islam flourished in Mindanao because the Spaniards couldn’t establish a strong foothold on that island. Spain was able to take over Luzon and Visayas; that’s why most Filipinos converted to Christianity. Mindanao was harder to conquer due to its mountain ranges, thick forests, and strong resistance by the indigenous Muslim communities. Also, if you look at the map of the Philippines, you’ll see that Mindanao is close to Brunei and Indonesia, which are predominantly Muslim. Throughout history, these places have traded with each other, which allowed Islam to thrive. This relationship continues until today. There’s a group called BIMP-EAGA, which stands for Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Group Area. This group was established to spur economic growth in that area. One of the things I love about OFS is their willingness and ability to contribute. I had no idea about the Eid'l Fitr holiday until my OFS told me. Then they wrote this email about it. They want me (and you) to understand the culture. John |
There's some big stuff happening in my life and in the Philippines. 1. Philippines elections happened last week. This is a big deal, electing a new president. I started getting texts Monday night from my team about the outcome. More to come about this. 2. I'm taking my family to Europe (tomorrow) to ride bikes. We'll be there for a month. Going to ride our bikes From Paris -> Germany -> Switzerland -> Austria. This has been months in the making. Planning, logistics, Covid, gear, training... We're going to carry all our clothes with us on our bikes...so there's a lot of prep work going into it...especially with taking 5 kids!: And, because you asked for it: 3. We're making individual trainings available for sale at VAsMadeEasy.com. I had so many people say: I want 2-3 of the trainings, but most of them aren't relevant to my business. We heard you and my team got to work making them available. You know I'm big on providing training to OFS. It's one of the keys to my success. We have done-for-you training courses on: Content Writing Customer Support Digital Advertising ECommerce Management Email Marketing Fundamentals for General VAs Mininets Social Media Marketing Fundamentals Social Media Marketing (Advanced) Basic Photoshop Basic SEO ECommerce Email Marketing Facebook Ads & Instagram Ads Google Ads Lead Generation for Premium Content (E-Books) LinkedIn Ads LinkedIn Marketing Pinterest Marketing Podcasting Shopify Video Editing for Davinci Resolve Video Editing for iMovie Wordpress Build an Attractive and Compelling Website with Wordpress Forum Commenting and Posting How to promote YouTube Videos Influencer Lead Generation and Outreach Campaign Plus 5 more that are completed but not published yet...those of you who previously bought will be getting access to those 5 new trainings soon. If you just want one or two, they're now individually available. John PS. If there's a training you'd like to see us create, let me know. We won't be able to create everything, but there are about 8 more we're currently working on and more in planning. |
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away... Sorry...I missed May the 4th. I went skiing. Deep powder. But really, a long time ago as I was going through my email on day I thought This is dumb. Why am I the one dealing with all this garbage. So I started teaching someone to deal with some of my email for me. Waking up with an inbox free of spam and free of garbage I don't want to see is such a relief and so rewarding. It's a simple process I was able to work through with someone else to accomplish something significant. I succeed. They succeed. We have interaction with each other. Win. Win. Win. Over the years it evolved into more. She now responds to some of my email for me. Usually she doesn't send the emails, she just makes drafts so I get to review them first. But I know a lot of you aren’t comfortable with the idea of sharing your email password with your OFS. If you use your email to sign in to websites, you wouldn’t want anyone to have access to your email. If you use Google Workspace or Gmail, what you can do is turn on Gmail delegation. https://support.google.com/a/answer/7223765?hl=en Email delegation lets delegated users (your OFS) read, send, and delete messages on the account owner's behalf. How is this better than giving your OFS your username and password? It’s better because they don’t need to log in to your account to manage your email. They don’t know your password, so they can’t log in to websites using your account. You don't have to deal with 2FA and getting them into your account. Take note that if your OFS sends an email on your behalf, it will show a “sent by” (your OFS’ email) in addition to the “from” address. Unfortunately, the “sent by” can’t be removed so people will see that your OFS is emailing for you. And...you might be surprised by people's reaction to your OFS sending emails for you. Some people won't say anything. But some will love it and they'll let you know. John |
My OFS, Jamie, sent me this link last week. It’s a news article from the American Journal of Transportation, and it mentions Onlinejobs.ph as one of the websites last-mile carriers use to help them with their labor shortage. https://ajot.com/news/last-mile-carriers-look-to-overseas-help-in-the-face-of-tight-jobs-market Last-mile carriers are the trucks and vans that bring everything we buy from ships and trains to the stores and your door. I didn’t know that last-mile carriers even used VAs or OFS until recently when we saw quite an increase in this industry. But with the pandemic worsening their staffing issues, some of them looked to the Philippines for help. Turns out it was a great fit because a lot of the skills Filipino VAs have are things that they could use in their business. Skills like: Customer service Calendar management Email management Administrative support Online marketing I liked the article because it emphasized that training is needed, and it’s going to be a steep learning curve if the worker you hire has no experience. Jamie talked to a VA for a last-mile carrier. He’s an experienced virtual assistant, so he didn’t have a hard time learning the ropes of the business. But he needed training on US geography to dispatch drivers and track and trace packages. Now he can navigate across California. I want to know if other industries out there use Filipino workers that I don’t know about. We’ve done case studies on e-commerce, finance, web development, SEO, and real estate. If you have a different kind of business and you have a Filipino team working for you, I’d love to hear from you. |
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 |
I haven’t been in Paris for about 10 years. The last time I was here we saw all the big tourist sights. Notre Dame, Versailles, Eiffel Tower, Catacomsbs, sewers, museums, Seine… This time…not so much. I have my 5 kids with me. They weren’t interested in going into the Louvre. Notre Dame is closed for rebuilding (after the fire). We didn’t have time for the Catacombs or sewers or boat trips on the Seine. But…we had our bikes. We made 2 circles around the Arc De Triumph roundabout. That was insane. We rode our bikes through the whole city. Wow…Paris riding is definitely different than the riding we do at home. But the biggest difference was the security around the Eiffel Tower. The last time I was here you could walk under the tower from anywhere. Now it’s all walled off and you have to pass through security to get under. Speaking of security… One of the ways you can have some degree of security with your OFS is by controlling their access to files and information. We do the same, using Google Drive to share files with the team. With Google Drive, we can control who gets access. We can add them one by one or send them a link. Some people need to see the files—some need to have the ability to comment or edit them. In one of my previous newsletters, Tatiana didn’t want her bookkeeper to see her client’s bank account numbers. With Google Sheets, you can control permissions for specific sheets, even cells. Editing permissions helps ensure your OFS can’t change anything. You can also hide specific sheets if you don’t want your OFS to see them. If you use Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) and OneDrive, you can also give your team controlled access to files and folders. They don’t even need to have Microsoft 365 since they would be able to open and edit shared files and folders online. The part that’s better than Google is you can set the sharing links to expire. If your OFS is using Excel, you can also control what parts of the spreadsheet they can edit and whether they can copy and paste the data there. This is good if your OFS is working on a short-term project and you don’t want them to have access after they’re done. Now...a word of caution. I talk about security and options because you've asked me to. But...if protecting cells from someone seeing them isn't something you'd do if the person was working in your office, you shouldn't do it with your OFS. It builds distrust. It handicaps your OFS. It takes your time. John |
The Philippines just concluded its elections and it looks like Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. is going to win. This was a really controversial election for them. Emotions are running high because there’s so much history with his family. Some are really happy about the results and some are really bummed about it. If you don't know the history, this is worth learning at least a little. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. is the son of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr who was the 10th president of the Philippines. Read the Wikipedia summary, it's pretty damning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Marcos Is this a good or bad thing for the Philippines? We don’t know. It’s too soon to tell. We don’t know if Marcos is going to make things better or worse. Is this going to affect how you outsource to your OFS? Probably not. Filipinos are going to find a way to make things work. It doesn’t matter who’s the president, they just want to work and provide for their families. However... There's more at play here. Anxiety for your OFS. Here's a conversation Greg had with his OFS that he forwarded to me. ----------- OFS: Hello, Sir. To be honest, I'm actually very anxious. Election results here are very disappointing and really depressing. I've been seeing foreign clients backing out on local artists because of politics. And it scares me. hehe I hope our political situation won't affect our employment. Because I really sure that whatever's happening here won't affect the quality of work I deliver. OMG. Greg: that’s really unfortunate to hear about foreign clients backing out on employees because of politics. shame on the clients. I want to assure you that there is no negative sentiment with me or anyone on our team about working with you. we are working with people in over 4 countries, and their regional politics are bound to change. In the US ours changes drastically every 4 years! there’s no reason for me or our company to let go of an employee because of political changes. you represent yourself in this company. your politicians do not. and you represent yourself very well! ---------- And another quote from Andreas OFS: I am having anxiety right now, considering what happened in the elections. Plus, I am somehow scared for my life. This is because my university is known to be a place for activists. For the past 6 years, there are graduates of my university who were killed.We received a chain message advising us to change our profile pictures on facebook and lock our profile. A lot of people are already redtagging students from my university as communists and such. The scary thing is that, the police force are now permitted to redtag people who they think oppose the government (and also people who vocally supported the candidate against the winner of the presidential elections) John |
We’re on day 4 of 30 as we passed through the gates of the medieval city of Provins. I wondered what life must have been like 1000 years ago for the people here. The primary focus of daily life was still survival for most people. After 52 miles of riding survival was on our minds too! Interviewing people wasn’t… …but I get asked about doing video interviews with ofs all the time. I don’t usually do video interviews when I’m hiring an OFS. I know many people do it, and it works for them. But I don’t do them for the following reasons. Many Filipino workers don’t like it. They’re worried that employers might not understand their English. Employers might also notice their background, which could be messy, and people walk behind them. Video interviews take up a lot of time and require asking a lot of questions. It’ll probably take you 30 minutes or longer to interview just one person. If you’re interviewing many people, that’s hours wasted on people you’re not hiring. It puts good applicants who don’t interview well at a disadvantage. Some jobs don’t require excellent spoken English. But a lousy interview can discourage you from hiring someone who could be good simply because they don’t speak English well. For example, I have a few developers who I know don’t speak English well. I avoid going on calls with them because I really can’t understand their English. But when I email them or chat with them on Slack, their English is really good. That’s fine because I don’t need them to have perfect English; I just need them to be good developers. I would have missed out if I had let the way they spoke English affect my hiring decisions. That being said, I understand why people still insist on doing video interviews. Doing a video interview does come with distinct advantages. A video interview is a quick test of whether they have the equipment and internet speeds to do the job. If their setup can sustain a video call, they can do most online work. A video call is more personal, which can help you get to know your applicants better. Seeing how they talk on a video call shows how well they’ll be on the job that does require good English-speaking skills (phone customer support, cold calls, etc). The interview is one thing that takes up time when hiring. It doesn’t have to be that way. If you still want to do a video interview with your applicants, there are ways to do them faster and make them more efficient. Don’t do video interviews early in the hiring process. Doing the interviews later in the hiring process lets your applicants know you enough that they’re not as self-conscious. They’ll be more relaxed and less guarded with their answers. Do your interviews with your top 2-3 applicants. This way, you’re not rushing through each interview. Also, you know your top applicants enough to ask them specific questions relevant to the job. Prepare your interview questions ahead of time. You don’t want to lose track and waste time talking about things unrelated to the job. In the end, here's the experience most people have with doing video interviews: - If it's the first thing you try doing only one out of 5 people will show up for the interview. Super frustrating for you. Super frustrating for them. They're scared. - If it's at the end of the interview process, 2/3 will show up. Now this is a good way of making your final decision. John |
I’m currently on a mini-retirement like Tim Ferris talks about in the 4 Hour Work Week. We started in Paris and cycled east. We moved into Germany and the Black Forest: The riding has been amazing. As has been the food! We’re here for a month and I didn’t bring a laptop! Just my phone. The first time I took a mini retirement was in 2008 and it taught me a bunch of things. How do I know my Filipino team is working while I’m on vacation? To be honest, when I first had to step away from my business years ago, I didn’t know if they were going to keep working. All I knew is they have everything they needed to keep working. They have the training and the tools. They knew I wouldn’t be back for a while. So, I was half expecting my business to be in shambles when I got back. It wasn’t. It was even better than before I left it. - unnecessary things got dropped - important things got solidified and improved upon So, over the years, I’ve realized that when your OFS has: The right training The right tools, and A clear set of responsibilities. You don’t have to worry about them not working at all. Now that I have around 40 people working for me, I also have Joven, my project manager, who keeps things running smoothly. There’s also our Basecamp. We’ve reached that point where my OFS team adds their own tasks on Basecamp. So I’m not worried they’re going to run out of things to do when I’m not around. The only thing I really need to do is to let them know how long I’ll be on vacation and when they can expect me back. This lets them know what projects we need to put on hold and which ones need to be rushed. Do they take things easy when I’m away? Yeah. But that’s mostly because there are some things they can’t do without my feedback. Other than that, things still get done and the business keeps running. By the time I get back, I’ll be ready to catch up on all the emails and messages they sent me. To get to this point, the best place to start is to give them the right training. VAsMadeEasy.com. John |
When we arrived at the Paris airport I really thought we were making a scene. 7 people, 5 bike bags, an obvious family all walking in a line together: It was a mild scene compared to when we put our bike “kits” on (“Kit” is what we call a cycling uniform): I didn’t realize the effect of 7 people all wearing these bright colors and riding in a line would have. We’ve almost caused a couple accidents from people turning to look! We’ve had a lot of pictures taken of us. Weird! I’m sure Marcos Jr has had a lot of pictures taken of him too. Here’s an update on the results of the Philippine elections. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been declared the presumptive president but it’s not going to be official until he’s inaugurated on June 30. Outgoing president Duterte sent out a press release to reassure people that government services will continue during the transition. So that’s a good thing. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1174270 Will the Marcos administration have an impact on the way we outsource? Is it going to have an impact on our OFS? At this point in time, it seems like business as usual. There are a lot of emotions and opinions. Some people are anxious and some are excited. It’s hard to predict anything at this point. They’re still in the transition process and the whole world has its eyes on what Bongbong is going to do. There are concerns that he’s going to do the same things his father did. But there are also those who are excited by his campaign promises and are looking forward to seeing them fulfilled. This election has been interesting because I have OFS who voted for Marcos and OFS who went with Robredo, so I can see both sides of this situation. What’s happening in the Philippines is a lot like what’s happening in our US politics right now. It’s messy. Talk to your OFS. See how they feel about the results. John |
We do big projects all the time. These big projects can be improvements to Onlinejobs.ph. Or when I launch new products like OutsourcingLever.com, OneVAAway.com, OFSGuide.com, or VAsMadeEasy.com. Or just stuff that I've always wanted to try because I know they'd be good for business, like making a podcast. We have so many ideas we have a long list of them on our Basecamp. We all have ideas for projects. This creative part is something I know a lot of business owners love to do. Coming up with ideas is easy. The hard part is implementing these projects. Implementing is easier when you have a team of Online Filipino Specialists. This is how I usually start a project: I create tasks, tag the right people, give instructions, and ask for input. We communicate on the task in Basecamp for as long as the project keeps going. Because more people are involved, I admit managing them can be tricky. It was easier when I had a small team of 10 people. Ten years and 40 employees later, it's gotten to the point that I had so many projects going I needed someone else to keep track of them. So, I promoted Joven to be the overall project manager of OnlineJobs.ph. He's overseeing all our website work. Managing developers, designers, copy, bugs, features... Joven mainly handles the website and app. It involves a lot of troubleshooting and changes depending on how things work—so having everything in one place works for him because it's easier to track changes that way. I'm used to how Joven works because that's how I usually do things. But it doesn't work for all projects. In the cases like the podcast or VAsMadeEasy.com, where we need to create and update content regularly, things have to be done differently. This is where Julia comes in and how she runs the podcast. Julia is a list person. When I look at her task list on Basecamp, it overwhelms me because there are so many tasks. But it works for her because that's how she keeps track of things. She created an assembly line system where my newsletters are turned into blog posts, social media posts, podcasts, and videos to keep things going every day. It looks like a lot to me. But I can see why her system works here because we need to deliver content regularly. Having groups lets me know what process is taking too long, which ones need to be ramped up, and what adjustments we need to make to publish on time. Jessica, another project manager for us, does things differently than us both. She’s kind of an in between. She separates projects into tasks (more than me, fewer than Julia) and manages them throughout the project. I'd love to know how you work with your OFS team when working on big projects. What software do you use? How do you/your ofs handle it? Any specific insights? John |
I’m a typical dad. When we pull up to something interesting, I want to point it out to my kids and maybe explain it. Sometimes they want to hear it and sometimes they don’t. We’ve visited a number of cathedrals since we’ve been here in Europe. They’re pretty amazing. This time I was explaining to my kids what a confessional booth is. My son took a picture to show evidence of me explaining things. Today, after we walked over a real draw bridge (they’ve never seen one before) I pointed it out and they made fun of me for the rest of the day. That’s the price I pay for being a good dad and explaining things. I never know what they’re going to like and what they won’t. Here’s an explainer about PhilHealth. If one of the benefits you’re paying for is your OFS Philhealth contributions, this is something you need to know. Philhealth (Philippine socialized medicine) just sent out an advisory announcing an increase in their premiums for the year 2022. They just announced it but the rate hike is retroactive. https://www.philhealth.gov.ph/advisories/2022/adv2022-0010.pdf For the past few years, the minimum contribution for Philhealth has been Php300 ($5.75) per month. Philhealth set that as a minimum assuming that most Filipinos have a monthly salary of Php10,000 ($191) and at a 3% premium. Now, the rate is at 4% or P400 minimum. That’s an additional Php100 ($2). Why is this happening? Under the Universal Health Care Law of the Philippines, that rate should be at around 5%. https://www.philhealth.gov.ph/about_us/UHC-IRR_Signed.pdf For the longest time, the premiums were around 2% and the Philippine government was having a hard time covering hospitalization claims. So what the government did was introduce the increases gradually. They did an increase back in 2019, raising the premium rate from 2.5% to 3%. The increase was supposed to happen every year but was delayed for 2 years due to the pandemic. Again, the rate hike is retroactive. This means that if your OFS paid their Philhealth contributions early, they need to pay the balance so their contributions would be credited. They also need to pay the difference for the previous months’ contribution starting with January 2022. This could be a big burden. Ask your OFS about it. John |
I believe when you do good in the world, it comes back to you 10-fold. We see this all the time but still, sometimes it's hard to believe. Also, as people, we have self-protective instincts. We want to make sure that we get our fair share and that nobody takes advantage of us. But when we go out of our way to show trust, consideration, and kindness to people around us, what we get in return is just overwhelming. I got this email from Danielle. She shared with me a message she got from her OFS (Online Filipino Specialist). Danielle: “Just want to say thank you for all the work you do! You really have been so great at tracking so many different and new tasks - thank you for your input, suggestions, and the willingness to try and learn new things!” Danielle’s OFS: “Wow. Thank you for your appreciation. 😊 I love what I am doing because of your trust, consideration, kindness & everything 😊” Consideration and kindness I would expect. That's part of being a human being. But the trust part is so interesting to me. This OFS feels like her boss trusts her. Because of that she loves her job, she does good work, she contributes to the company. Try gaining your OFS trust, and trusting them to do good work. They’ll love their work, They’ll love working for you, and They’ll do what needs to be done to make your business successful. One way to show your OFS that you care is to give them training. You can give them that training with VAsMadeEasy.com. John PS. Today we visited the Hohenzollern castle. The castle itself was great. But the view point we were able to ride to was exceptional. |
I got this great email from Kymn. She writes: Hi John, LOVE your newsletter! Quick question: 99% of my communication with my VA is via email. We used to meet on zoom frequently and now we do not anymore. Her work is still excellent. I’m wondering if it is a mistake not to connect with her face-to-face more often and wonder what you think about this. She seems satisfied; I’m satisfied yet this is a nagging question. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this!Kymn Honestly, I don't know. I NEVER meet with my people via video. Always via project management or email. Often I send them a video of me, but rarely do I get a video (screen recordings) of them. I asked them about it and got different responses. Some of them are okay with just the video message, email, Slack, or comments on our Basecamp. They don’t like doing face-to-face meetings because they don’t want me to see laundry or hear their loud chickens/dogs/tricycles in the background. I’m okay with it, but I understand why they’d be self-conscious about that. Some like regular meetings, but they're okay with how things are. These are my OFS (Online Filipino Specialists) who’ve worked in offices before and are used to meetings. The closest thing we have to a company meeting is when we do a Campfire on Basecamp. That’s where we post if we need to tell everybody something, and anyone can respond. For team meetings, we have our Slack channels. This system works for us, for how we do things. But I know this might not work for everyone. Meetings get a lot of flack for being too long and tedious, but some businesses need regular meetings. I think the important thing to think about is: Does a regular meeting serve a purpose? Does it help you run your business? Will it help your OFS get their work done? If the answer is yes to all three questions, then go ahead and have a meeting. If this is something that you want to do and would make you feel more comfortable working with your OFS, go for it. When you do it, you'll get a feeling from it. Might be great for you. Might be great for them. It might not be. I'd be interested in how you hold meetings with your team and how productive you feel they are. If you want to know more about how I work with my Filipino team, check out my book, The Outsourcing Lever. John |
I’m on holiday right now. In the past week we rode our bikes from Germany to Switzerland to Austria. The Bodensee borders all 3 countries and is beautiful: This coming Sunday, June 12 is the Philippine Independence Day. It’s a regular holiday celebrated all over the country. It commemorates the Philippines’ independence from Spain back in 1898. They declared independence on the balcony of Emilio Aguinaldo’s home (1st Philippine President) in Kawit, Cavite. This house has been donated to the government and is now a museum. If you visit the Philippines, that balcony where they first waved the Philippine flag still exists. Also in that place is this plaque commemorating the event. The plaque is in English! This year, Philippine Independence falls on a Sunday. This reminded me of an email I got a while back asking what the practice is in the Philippines when a holiday falls on a Sunday? Is the following Monday declared a non-working holiday? I know this was the practice back when the Philippines followed holiday economics, a policy that was created to boost domestic tourism and spending. But they don’t do that anymore because there are already so many holidays. So this holiday would only have an impact on your OFS if they work on a Sunday. Stay on top of the upcoming holidays by subscribing to our holiday calendar. John |
On our bike trip, we could only bring a small bag for our clothes. It’s called a saddle bag and fits under the bike seat. Here’s my wife’s bike fully packed: The rest of the bags are for food or gear or other essentials. The saddle bag is about 18” long and 6-8” in diameter. All we were able to bring is - 3 “kits” (the biking clothes we wear) - 1 pants - 1 shorts - 2 shirts - underwear - 3 socks - 2 jackets (rain and puffy) Thats it. We weren’t sure how rough it would be. But…to be honest, it has been really nice. No choices to make. Everything is simple. the hardest part is doing laundry so often. The rest of the world is getting back to work. In the US, that means getting back in a suit and tie. While many offices in the Philippines have adopted suits as men’s office wear, many still use the “barong tagalog”. The barongis a lightweight embroidered shirt used by Filipinos the same way we use suits here in the US. There’s a formal barong, a long-sleeved, intricately embroidered, sheer shirt usually made from pineapple leaf and jusi(pronounced: who-c) fibers from abaca (a banana sub species). It’s what you wear to life events like weddings or funerals. Wearing a formal barongcan also be a status symbol, especially if you get a barong from high-end designers like Pierre Cardin, Rhett Eala or Rajo Laurel. Formal barongs are worn on red carpet and black tie events. Even heads of state or dignitaries who visit the Philippines would wear the barong. The best example of this was during the APEC summit in the Philippines in 2015. Image: By Presidencia de la República Mexicana - https://www.flickr.com/photos/presidenciamx/23104738792/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45272604 For the office, you wear a polo barong. It has short sleeves, simple to no embroidery, is made from cotton or linen, and can come in various colors. It’s too informal for weddings but good enough for work or meetings with clients. There are even feminized versions of the barong. They’re often worn by politicians or corporate executives. Image: By Littlebeatlebum - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36507092 It makes sense to use this over a suit and tie when you see the shirt. Nobody likes wearing a thick jacket in a tropical climate. The embroidery work and design also look professional enough that they wouldn’t look out of place in a corporate setting. But what makes the barongreally interesting is that this type of shirt existed way before Spain colonized the Philippines. The kind of barong you wore would indicate your rank in society, what part of the country you are from, and what you did for a living. It can come in a wide variety of colors, styles, and designs. It’s one of those things that’s distinct about Filipino culture that has survived the test of time. Get my book to learn more about Filipino work culture: The Outsourcing Lever. John |
Dan sent me this screenshot a few days ago. This guy, Marshall, shared his experience when he went to his dentist. Normally, you’d have a receptionist greet you and get your information for your appointment. Instead, Marshall was greeted by a virtual Filipino receptionist on video. I’m really impressed with this dentist. Just imagine what a virtual Filipino receptionist can do for your business! If you’re worried that your clients won’t like it that they’re talking to your OFS (Online Filipino Specialist), Marshall’s reaction here is proof that clients don’t really mind. Your clients know that your OFS is your employee. If they’re getting amazing customer service from your OFS, it makes you and your business look good. Of course, the only way you can ensure that your OFS will do excellent work is to give them the training they need. For that, just go to VAsMadeEasy.com John |
Breakfast in Europe is different than breakfast in the US. In the US I typically eat pancakes or cereal or potatoes and eggs. Since we’ve been in Europe, I haven’t eaten any of those things for breakfast. My breakfast almost every day has looked like this: Here’s what Julia wrote about breakfast in the Philippines: ------------------------- When people talk about a typical Filipino breakfast, two things usually come to mind: the pandesaland the silog. What is a pandesal? The pandesal (salt bread) is a small piece of bread, around the size of a dinner roll, heavily loaded with bread crumbs. It’s toasted, slightly salty and crispy on the outside, and soft and sweet on the inside. Every bakery in the Philippines makes and sells pandesal. This type of bread is such a big part of our culture, that people would wake up early and line up for a bag of warm, freshly baked pandesalfor breakfast. Even the Philippine government goes out of its way to protect the pandesal. Whenever the price of wheat or sugar would fluctuate, the government would be on it right away because nobody wants to lose their beloved morning pandesal. And if you’re the type of person who sleeps in, tough luck. Bakeries would always run out by mid-morning. But if you’re willing to wait, you can try early in the afternoon when bakeries make another batch for snacks. You can eat pandesalon its own or use it as sandwich bread and fill it up with whatever you like. My favorite is scrambled eggs. My husband likes liver spread or Spanish sardines. Dunking your pandesalin coffee is also common practice. The small size of the pandesalmakes it ideal for an afternoon snack (hence the afternoon batch). You know it’s afternoon pandesalwhen people dunk their bread in Coke instead of coffee. I promise, it’s a thing here in the Philippines, but I don’t get it either. If you want a heavy breakfast, another Filipino breakfast classic is the “silog”. It’s not just one dish. It’s more like a family of dishes. The “si” in silogstands for “sinangag” (fried rice in Filipino), and the “log” stands for “itlog” or egg in Filipino. When a dish has a protein (usually fried), garlic fried rice, and an egg (usually sunny side up), that dish becomes a “silog”. So when you have a fried hotdog, garlic fried rice and egg, you get “Hotsilog”. My favorite is the “Spamsilog”. If you want a classic silog, go for Tapsilog. Tap is short for “tapa” or cured beef “jerky”. Unlike American jerky though, tapa is not preserved. It needs to be kept in the freezer and thawed before cooking. If you want to sell breakfast in the Philippines, you’ve got to have the silogand pandesal. Even McDonald’s has them here. When we’re in McDonald's, my husband usually orders the longgasilog. Longganisa(Philippine sausage that comes in many variations) in McDonald's is a skinless sweet sausage. And yes, our McDonald's makes fried rice. My favorite is the one pictured below. It’s a pandesalwith a cheese omelet. We do have McMuffins but I prefer their pandesal meals because they’re lighter and less greasy. Like the rest of the world, the McDonald's here refuses to serve these breakfast items after 11 am. ————— Nothing to add…So good. John |
I didn’t grow up watching “The Sound of Music” like my wife did, but I’ve seen it a number of times since we’ve been married. As we climbed these mountains in Austria I just couldn’t help but sing “The hills are alive, with the sound of music…” over and over again. These mountains really are magical. One of the things I tell anyone who just hired an OFS is that they should pay their OFS weekly, at least for the first couple of months. I understand that paying weekly can be a bit of work. You have to remember. But paying weekly protects you and your OFS. It helps establish trust. How does it protect you? If you see that it’s not working out in the first couple of weeks, it’s easier to end the working relationship. Plus, there are no hard feelings from your OFS because they got paid for their work. They won’t feel cheated or scammed. It just didn’t work out. Now, how does it protect your OFS? Filipinos just want to work. Once they get a job, Filipinos want to jump on it. They’ll care about their salary, but their first priority is to show you that you made the right choice. Add that to the fact that they’re not comfortable talking about money. Weeks, even months, can go by, and they keep working without getting paid. You have no idea how many emails we’ve received over the years of Filipino workers asking us to talk to their employers because they haven’t been paid for months. They’re even apologetic about it, telling us that they would have waited a bit longer but needed the money for rent, groceries, utilities, etc. Paying weekly in the first couple of months shows that: You’re not a scam employer You have a thriving business that can afford employees You’re somebody they can trust Once you have your worker's trust, working with them is easier. You can ease up the schedule and pay twice a month or monthly. When you have their trust, they’ll be loyal and motivated to help you succeed. I talk more about this in my book, The Outsourcing Lever. John |
Last Sunday, a volcano in the Philippines erupted, resulting in the evacuation of around 1,500 families. The volcano, Mount Bulusan, is in Sorsogon (Bicol Region). It’s part of the southernmost region of Luzon. It’s about 320 miles (517 km) away from Manila and just 43 miles (55km) away from Albay, the capital of that province. What do we know about it so far? The eruption rained ash 5 kilometers around the volcano. Bulusan isn’t heavily populated. The ones affected are mainly farmers and those working in the agricultural sector. It looks like the worst of it is over. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) lowered the alert level, but people can’t go back home yet. They’re hoping for fair weather because heavy rains can cause a lahar flow. Lahar (volcanic ash, mud, and debris) flow is when all stuff flows down the volcano to the surrounding area. It causes more damage than a typical flood or landslide because lahar hardens like concrete, making recovery harder. Volcanic eruptions happen regularly in the Philippines. I explained why this is in a newsletter early this year. /why-natural-disasters-happen-regularly-in-the-philippines/ If you have an OFS in Sorsogon, ask them how they’re doing. Also, pay attention in the coming weeks for any aftermath. Last time this happened winds rained ash all over the place causing major problems. John |
After reaching the pass the other day we had a long fun decent. At the bottom was an amazing river which we followed uphill for a long ways. Maybe 20 miles. The end miles were steep…just like the beginning miles were steep. Hard. After sleeping we didn’t really know what the ride looked like moving forward but we quickly found out it was another steep, long 1500 foot climb. It was rough. But with most rough things we do there’s something amazing on the other side: While riding, I got this email from Kymn John, Is there something in the Filipino culture that has my 0FS have such low self-esteem? No matter how much I praise her, no matter how much I give her paid time off etc, her self-esteem does not seem to improve. She hears feedback as criticism even when I do my utmost to frame it as instructive not criticism. Might you write about this? Frankly it gets a bit exhausting constantly feeling a need to build her up. To be honest, I have never encountered this before. I knew Filipinos are shy but I think the Power Distance Index can give the impression that Filipinos have low self-esteem. But based on the email, that doesn't seem to be the case. So I showed this email to my OFS, Julia. I asked her thoughts about this and this is what she wrote. ---------- It can be due to a number of things (from most likely to least likely): 1. Personality When my husband was working as a BPO trainer and I worked in corporate, we encountered people like this. Best case scenario, they're uncomfortable with praise because they feel that they're just doing their jobs. The praise is still appreciated but not needed. Worst case, it's an ego thing. This is what I get from (She hears feedback as criticism even when I do my utmost to frame it as instructive not criticism). It could be due to: her age (younger workers tend to have bigger egos), background (upper middle class, went to a big school have bigger egos) previous work experience (freelancers who do one-off jobs usually don't get criticism because they leave as soon as they're done/ office workers who already had management/power positions ) , etc. 2. Mental health It could be cognitive distortion, which is associated with anxiety and depression: This is something that has worsened during the pandemic. I noticed that those of us who are used to working from home have adapted better. But the new crop of VAs and people working from home really had a hard time: https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/05/19/21/at-least-36-million-filipinos-battling-mental-health-issues-amid-pandemic-doh Mental health isn't a priority in the Philippines. It's stigmatized and seen as a weakness. It's barely covered by Philhealth and not all HMOs cover it. Paying it out of pocket is expensive (I checked). If this is the case, she might benefit from these resources: https://doh.gov.ph/NCMH-Crisis-Hotline https://blog.opencounseling.com/hotlines-ph/ 3. Sexism I've actually had conversations about this with expats or foreigners who visit Asia. I also saw this when I visited Thailand and Malaysia. Compared to other Asian countries, the Philippines is less sexist but it's still pretty strong. https://pcw.gov.ph/philippines-drops-8-places-in-gender-equality-remains-top-in-asia/ Even though we have women in positions of power, there's still a lot of pressure to be the ideal wife/mother/daughter. The achievements of women and girls are still considered inferior compared to men. It doesn't matter if you're the president of the Philippines, if your family life sucks you've failed as a woman. Sexism is so ingrained that daughters are still jokingly referred to as "pambayad utang" (payment of debt). It's the (eldest) daughter's responsibility to take care of the family. They're expected to sacrifice everything for the family. Hence the inability to accept praise and criticism. Hard to accept praise when you feel all your work is never enough. Hard to accept criticism when you've worked so hard all your life and it's still not enough. I think this might be a part of it but just a small part. The workplace has given Filipino women freedom and power. The literacy rate gap between men and women in the Philippines is now less than 1%. More women are finishing school to enter the workplace. We even have better graduation rates than men. https://www.econstor.eu/obitstream/10419/46638/1/539787426.pdf Personally, when I finished school and started working, I felt empowered. Sure, I had a sexism chip on my shoulder but I also knew I can do just as well (sometimes better) than my male peers. I also had a lot of bosses (men and women) who made sure that we were seen and treated equally. That helped me a lot with my self-esteem. Even though the gender pay gap in the Philippines still exists, we're seeing improvements in this because more women are getting better educated and gaining skills at a faster rate. I think this explains in part why we have more women than men in our database. Working from home gives women the best of both worlds. Online work allows them to practice their skills and education while taking care of their home. The bad thing about online work though is we don't really get the same respect or recognition as our office working peers. ---------- I don’t always have an answer. Sometimes we just have to work through hard things. John |
The Philippines has a long history and understanding some of it helps understand the people. Before the Spanish colonized the Philippines in the 1500s, it already had a rich history of writing using an indigenous alphabet called baybayin. If you want to learn more about it, you can read about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baybayin Filipinos no longer use this writing style, even when writing in Filipino. However, there’s a resurgence of its use in official documents and seals to revive their lost culture and foster Philippine pride. The baybayin script there reads "Ang katuwiran ay nagpapadakila sa isang bayan" or "Righteousness exalts a nation" in reference to Proverbs 14:34. Some Filipinos use baybayin when doing calligraphy. It’s growing in popularity in with desktop font makers. https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/design/baybayin-fonts-a1926-20190806-lfrm It’s also a popular script for tattoos and on products. You can use https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/baybayin.htm to see what certain words and phrases look like in baybayin. If you know Filipino, you’ll get the best results. I tried it out for fun, and here’s what John Jonas looks like: (Di-yo-h-n Di-yo-na-s) Learn more about the Philippine work culture with my book: The Outsourcing Lever. |
A lot of people know that boxing is big in the Philippines because of Manny Pacquiao. Boxing is a big sport in the Philippines. There are boxing gyms all over the country. Whenever Manny fights, the crime rate in the Philippines virtually drops to zero But you know what’s bigger than boxing in the Philippines? Basketball How big is basketball in the Philippines? Every school has a basketball court and team. When you go to school in the Philippines, you will learn to play basketball, whether you like it or not. Every barangay in the Philippines has at least one basketball court. They can make a basketball court out of whatever's available, no matter how small the place is. You may even sometimes see guys use coconuts as their ball. The Philippines has a professional basketball league (The Philippine Basketball Association) that has millions of fans and has been going on for almost 50 years. If you think we’re crazy when March Madness happens, it’s the same with the Philippines and the UAAP and NCAA, their college basketball leagues. The NBA finals draw the same excitement in Filipinos the way the SuperBowl does for us. Basketball changes lives in the Philippines. If you can play professional basketball, you can leverage that into a political or acting career. The connections players make while playing almost guarantees success if they go into business upon retirement. A big example is Robert Jaworski, a PBA Hall of Famer turned senator who wrote and co-wrote around 300 bills in his 6-year term. Want to score points with your constituents? Politicians sponsor basketball leagues and build basketball courts as a form of public service. The Filipinos’ love for basketball is so well known, that some even put it on their Onlinejobs.ph profile. Some NBA fan sites hire Filipinos because of their extensive knowledge and passion for the sport. Rafe Bartholemew wrote a great book if you want a deeper look into Philippine basketball culture. https://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Rims-Flip-Flops-Philippines-Basketball/dp/0451233220 Why are we talking about basketball in this newsletter? Because my OFS, Julia, knows a lot about it. She learned to play basketball in school, watched games growing up, and passes by a basketball court every time she leaves the house. And she hates basketball. John PS. In Europe, you know they love soccer. Did you know they love cycling almost as much? They have bike parking lots the same way we have car parking lots. |
While my family and I were biking across Europe, I’d check my emails and Basecamp on my phone. It’s work, but it’s only a few minutes every other day. The best part is I’m able to do it in places with the most amazing views. This is one of the good things about having a remote team. You can work anywhere. Now that pandemic restrictions have been lifted, some of my OFS are also traveling to visit family. Some take their vacation leaves for this. Some don’t because they know they can work there. My OFS, Jamie, opted not to take her vacation leave when visiting her husband’s family for a month. I was worried that she can’t work there. It turns out she can work anywhere too. She writes: ------------ I’ve been working as an OFS for around ten years now, and I have worked in many weird places. I have OFS friends who have worked in odd places as well. In my case, the weirdest place I worked in was in a ball pit at a McDonald’s. My daughter was attending a birthday party, and I needed to get work done. I don’t know why but the ball pit was the place that had the best mobile data signal. A grown woman typing on her laptop in the middle of a ball pit with kids running around draws attention. Good thing the other parents more or less understood that I was working. I managed to keep doing that until the party was over. My husband can sometimes be caught working at parties too. He’s just more subtle because he can do some work on his phone. I have friends who have worked on tricycles, buses, boats, and jeepneys. I’ve seen Filipino VAs work in cemeteries, coffee shops, airports, bus terminals, seaports, etc. As I am writing this, I’m working from the dirty kitchen (an outdoor kitchen some Filipino homes have where most of the cooking is done). There’s someone doing laundry just a few steps away. Don’t worry, we rarely work in ball pits, cemeteries, and public transport. It’s only when we have something urgent that comes up. Thank goodness smartphones are so functional now because carrying our laptops everywhere is unwieldy. Working in the kitchen, bedroom, garage, or laundry area is more common. Most of us live in tiny homes, so it’s hard to carve out a dedicated workspace. Where in the house we can work is often dictated by two things: Is the internet good in the area of the house? Can a computer and a person fit in it? So we often end up working in the common areas. When I first started working from home, I would work in the kitchen or living room. After I had been an OFS for more than five years, that’s when my husband and I started investing in room dividers, computer tables, and chairs to make it more comfortable to work. So we now have home offices! Well, home office space in the corners of our living room and kitchen. I got to stay where there’s good WiFi. ------- Your OFS now has better options when it comes to internet connectivity. It’s nothing like when I started outsourcing to the Philippines. John |
I get emails like this from a lot of people. But I’m featuring Mitchell’s email here because it also gave a great suggestion. Hey John! I've listened to every podcast episode you have, I love them, short and sweet and to the point which I appreciate it. I would love to hear some episodes on compensation for OFS's. I know that will vary based on what position they do, how skilled they are, where they are located, etc. Just like someone in New York City or LA is gonna make more than someone in a small town typically, but I'd love to hear from you and your team about the minimum wage there, how that works and what is considered "good", "great" and "amazing" in terms of salary and what things cost over there to help us Americans better picture it in our minds of what things cost over there. Thanks in advance! I'm looking forward to this episode! Jamie's going to be hosting the podcast version of this newsletter. You can find my podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcast. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about minimum wage in the Philippines. The minimum wage is different per region in the Philippines and it’s determined by a government committee called Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board. They base the minimum wage on the cost of living, socioeconomic factors, and salary trends. Metro Manila and other big cities like Cebu and Davao have the highest minimum wage. Are these rates good starting salaries? Not really. Why? Below is another table that shows the monthly expenses of an average 3-person family every month. Now, let’s compare that to the minimum wage. As you can see, the minimum wage really isn’t enough to cover most of the basic needs. This is why most Filipino homes have 2 breadwinners and why working abroad continues to be an attractive option. When Filipinos work from home, a lot of those expenses can go down. The commuting, clothing, and food expenses go down because they don’t have to go out as much. Some might be able to get rid of rent altogether because they don’t need to move close to the city. The computer, electricity, and internet costs may go up but considering how much you’re saving by not having to go out every day, that increase is negligible. In our salary guide, you’ll see that the minimum rate there for inexperienced workers is around twice the minimum wage. It’s enough to cover their expenses and gives you a lot of room to give your workers a raise. I’ll have more newsletters talking about this. I want to give you guys a better picture of the cost of living difference between Filipino workers in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. John |
Voting brings a lot of emotion. During the last election cycle my wife and I had some different views. We had a number of heated conversations. Nothing ever got out of control...but it wasn't our normal. We ended up coming really close together and having really similar views in the end. That's rarely the outcome. The Philippines is no different. The Philippine Congress finally declared Bongbong Marcos as the next President. The daughter of Rodrigo Duterte (Sara) is going to be his Vice President. The term of the Philippine President and Vice President runs for 6 years, so they're expected to serve until 2028. There's no turning back now. Preparations for the inauguration on June 30 are already underway. They have started discussing what they plan to implement for their administration and picking their cabinet members. Bongbong has met with foreign dignitaries from Spain, Morocco, and Germany. He met with the United States Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on June 9. So far, they haven't said or done anything that would affect how you work with your OFS, which is good. Also, as far as we know, June 30 is not going to be a holiday, regular or otherwise. But we are following the news since this concerns Filipinos, your OFS included. Like, for the inauguration, the police will be on high alert. Protests are expected because a lot of people are not happy about it. Hopefully, they won't escalate to violence because the whole world is watching. Despite winning by a landslide, people still remember what the Marcoses did (good and bad) and the idea that the Marcoses are back in power brings up a lot of emotions there. Your OFS may or may want to talk about it, depending on where they stand. Of course...there's always the 3 things "we don't discuss": Religion, Politics, and Futbol! John |
Brett sent me this email in response to the previous email about having regular meetings with your OFS. Hey John! I meet with my VA every 6 to 8 weeks. These meetings are not particularly productive, but that is not the point. Systems and quick communication will always be more productive than conversations which easily side tracked. Meeting via video regularly makes my VA feel appreciated and like she’s part of a team. We don’t even always talk about work and projects though usually at least ask how the workload has been and if there’s anything I can do to make it easier or more efficient. Meeting via video also builds influence with your employees. It seems like for the most part Filipino VAs do what they’re told because that is their job, but the quality of work always goes way up in my opinion when in addition to it being their job, you have spent the time to develop the influence and relationship with the people that makes them want to contribute at the highest level. We have the opportunity as business owners to you have employees, but we also have the opportunity as business owners to build the types of working relationships that cause both the employees and the leaders to grow. In my opinion it’s the best investment of your time and resource to focus on leading well and growing people because in the long game this will always benefit everybody involved. Video might not be the only way but it’s one of the ways that I’ve been intentional about growth and building rapport and influence This is a great way to build rapport and make your OFS feel like they’re part of the team. Regular meetings don’t mean you have to meet with them every day or every week. Once a month can be enough as long as you’re intentional about it. You don’t have to always talk about work. Small talk is how you get to know your OFS and make them part of your team. It doesn’t even have to be a video meeting at all. I always send my team videos through Basecamp. I like what he said about influencing your OFS so they’d always want to do their jobs at the highest level. This is good. I’m probably going to try this with my team. Do you guys have anything you want to add to Brett’s tips? Or is there another topic you want me to talk about? Just reply or send me a message through Facebook or Instagram. My OFS will forward them to me. Want to really improve the relationship with your OFS, try visiting them in the Philippines. It's amazing. John |
A few years ago my grandparents (my dad's side) died at 99 and 100 years old. They died a few months apart, both of them still at home. They never went to a care facility. I don't hope to live that long, but I certainly have some long living genetics. This is kind-of morbid, but I have a death plan. I don't want to live into my 90s. So...if I'm in my 80's and things start to go downhill, I plan on going backcountry skiing on a high avalanche day. Avalanches aren't random...they're predictable within a certain range. Imagine...I could go out and ski the perfect slope. If it avalanches and I die, I win. If it doesn't avalanche, I win with the perfect ski run! Ok...this is unlikely to actually happen, I admit. To the Philippines... This June, my OFS’s Jam and Julia traveled to Manila to visit Jam’s parents. When they told me about it, I said, “It’s great that you’re visiting family for vacation! It’s been so long since you've seen them.” Julia was like, “No, it’s not a vacation. We’re going there because the family asked us to help care for Jam’s elderly parents.” Retirement care and nursing homes exist in the Philippines. But culturally, it’s not something they’re comfortable with. Financially, it’s not something that most Filipinos can afford. The facilities that do exist in that country mainly cater to expats. In the Philippines, you’re expected to care for your parents as they age. This is why most Filipino continue to live with their parents, even after they get married. Those that do move out are expected to live close by so they can keep tabs on their family. The only exception to this is when you have to move away for work. There’s an advantage to this setup. Living with or close to your parents means you don’t have to worry about childcare. Your parents can help watch over your child while you work. You don’t have to worry about rent if your parents own their home. Or at the very least, it’s easier to pay rent with more people contributing. Retirement homes in the Philippines are super expensive. Prices start at $1665/month for assisted living. It gets more expensive for seniors that need more medical care. As you can imagine, it can get pretty crowded. Julia sent me this picture. She and Jam are working in a common area while the parents and cousins and aunts are there. If your OFS can work with all that chaos around them, they really are rockstars. One way you can turn your OFS into a rockstar is to make sure they have the training they need. Give them that training: VAsMadeEasy.com You can buy all our training or just pick and choose whatever is right for you. John |
I just got back from cycling across Europe for a month. No laptop. That's right. I didn't take my laptop with me. "But John...I've been getting your emails 4 times per week for the past month. I've seen your ads on Facebook and Youtube. How?" Guess. Yep...OFS. Running my own business was always about lifestyle for me. It was hard in the beginning. I was doing everything myself. Wearing all the hats. "CEO" (hah...yeah right), book keeper, social media manager, content writer, customer service, web development, marketing, appointment scheduler, sales... I did it all. I worked a lot. It was hard. Until I learned how to find and hire the right people. And, it didn't happen all at once. It was a slow process. I hired one person to do one thing. Then I taught them something else. Then something else. Then it was time to hire someone else. That first person was a leap of faith. It was hard on me. Can I afford them? Can they do good work? Can I trust someone? Can I keep them busy? The second person I hired was another leap of faith. Less hard than the first. I already had answers to my questions. The third person, much less of a leap. The fourth...easy. Hiring someone the first time isn't easy for anyone. It's not easy for you. It's not easy for your neighbor. It wasn't easy for that guy you know who is super successful. But to make progress you have to take a leap. Working about 17 hours/week is standard for me now. I have an entire team of OFS who run my business, even when I'm away. Take the leap. It's amazing. John We climbed up and over the mountain behind us. Even starting the climb was a leap of faith. It was hard. |
Today is Independence Day in the USA. I'm at Lake Powell. I've often found that holiday mornings are some of the most productive times for me. Nobody expects normal work. It's a good time to spend an hour working on your business rather than in. Spending 10 minutes posting that job post that you've been putting off would be really good time spent today! We’re always looking for ways to improve Onlinejobs.ph. - We beefed up our verification system to improve the quality of Filipino jobseekers on the site. - We’ve improved the design of the website to make it easier to use. - We're working on improving the search function to give you more relevant talent when you search. In the latest line of improvements, here are some of the things we rolled out to make hiring an Online Filipino Specialist easier and better for you. You can now upload your business logo in your job post. This will help your job post stand out and make it look even more professional. We’re now offering annual subscriptions. Rather than paying every month, you can pay once with the annual subscription which will save you up to 71%, and make future hiring a no brainer. We’ve made improvements on our job board so that all job posts can be seen, even if there are a lot of posts that day. This increases your chances of getting more applicants. We're constantly making changes. Are there other improvements you want to see? Let me know! John |
This email contains free training to give to your OFS. I'm sending this out because it has been requested so many times. Training an OFS sucks. I know you don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. It's not fun. It takes time. It requires you to think. It's 1000% effective and will return on your time investment over and over again... So here's a preview of some of the training we've created for you which you get when you buy VAsMadeEasy.com. The document below is intended for you, the employer. It's 1 page. It explains the training you're about to give to your OFS. The training is titled: The 3 Steps to Quick & Easy Social Media Content Creation At the end of the document is a link to a video you should watch. It explains the process to you (the employer). At the end of the document is a link to give to your OFS. This is the actual process training teaching them what to do to create social media content for you. This is one of the shorter trainings we have available inside VAsMadeEasy.com. I'm giving it to you free. https://media.onlinejobs.ph/SOP_training/3StepstoQuickandEasySocMedContentCreation/SOP-The3StepstoQuickandEasySocialMediaContentCreation.pdf If having your OFS create social media content for you makes your life easier, feel free to use this. If you want other processes like this, get them at www.VAsMadeEasy.com. John |
While on our bike trip I heard about inflation all over the place. Gas is $8-9/gallon! Inflation is affecting everybody, including your OFS. I got this email from Tiffany. Hi John, Sorry to bother you on your holiday, but I got a rather urgent note from my VAs today about their cost of living increases, and wonder if you are hearing about this from others? I'm wondering how extreme the effects could be for them? Are you planning a newsletter on this (asap) perhaps? The insane inflation and cost of fuel is really affecting our business here in North America too, but we will be ok. Here's part of what they sent me, I'm glad they felt they could approach me on this: "There has been a rampant price fluctuation happening here in the Philippines because of the Fuel price Hike that started on June 7, 2022.Everything is affected since most companies here in all aspects run their business using Fuel,and I think prices of Rice, electricity and other utilities are expected to rise by next week." I asked my OFS, Julia, and here's her report on the situation: ----- Since January 2022, the Philippines have been experiencing inflation which contributed to the rising cost of commodities. One of the first things to feel the impact of the rising fuel prices is food, specifically agricultural products (meat and vegetables). Food has been getting more expensive or shrinking in size. Fuel and food prices are directly related here in the Philippines because most agricultural products are transported to markets and food processing plants by land. Fuel cost is added to the wholesale price when these products are brought to market in different cities. The further they have to transport these products, the higher the cost. Electricity costs in the Philippines have always fluctuated based on market rates, but it's not solely influenced by fuel prices because we buy electricity from multiple sources (coal, natural gas, renewables). Historically, rising electricity costs are felt more during the summer months, when there's an increase in demand and low water supply is affecting hydroelectric and geothermal power sources. Commuting costs has stayed relatively stable because the transportation board (LTFRB) has strictly regulated fare even with rising fuel prices. It's only recently that they allowed a provisional fare increase of $0.02 on the base fare for jeepneys. Buses and taxis have not been given permission to increase their fare yet but operators continue to campaign for it. Ride share and motorcycle ride share services have not increased their fare but are able to change their booking fees. The cost of internet has not increased and continues to be fixed within the plan period. Even with prepaid plans, the price is fixed based on consumption/availed data promo. Water is also a fixed cost. The government has started gas subsidies to public utility vehicles to help manage fuel costs. The Philippines also has rice reserves that are released in times like this. But the cost of everything else will continue to rise. -------- At OnlineJobs.ph we're feeling inflation too. We've decided not to raise prices for now. We just want you to hire the help you need. We want to make it easy. We want it to be reasonably priced. John |
“John, can you just recruit for me? The fact that you made OneVAAway tells me you have it down to a science. I really don’t have the time to do it myself. Let me just pay you to recruit people for me.” I get a version of that message in my email and social media at least once a week. I always give the same answer. No. It’s not because I can’t hire people. I’ve been doing and teaching it for years. We even have a recruiting service at Onlinejobs.ph. Despite having it, I don’t actively promote our recruiting service. Why? I don't like it. I always say no when people ask me to recruit for them, no matter how much money they offer, because usually it's not good for them. Hiring isn't just about finding the person with the right set of skills and experience. If it were, we could easily automate the process. Hiring the right OFS for your business is also about hiring the right personality. The personality that fits in working with you. The personality that's suited to the role. That’s why we have a DISC personality test at Onlinejobs.ph. I talk about Filipino culture a lot in my podcast, so you know how it would influence your OFS’ behavior. So the biggest reason why me doing the recruiting for you isn’t going to be good for you is because I’m not you. YOU are the best person to do the recruitment for your business. OneVAAway.com is my hiring process that helps you hire people that would work well with your business, your personality, and your management style. My personality, my business, and my management style are the things that influence my hiring needs. So, when I do the recruiting for you, that’s what I’ll always fall back on. Now, you might ask, “Could it be that OneVAAway only works with your management style, business, personality, etc?” I’ve noticed that those who say that they’re having problems with the OFS either: Didn’t really take the OneVAAway challenge Took shortcuts with the OneVAAway challenge, or Insisted on doing things I would tell employers not to do (like pre-paying for work, interviewing too early, etc). You’ll find the right OFS for you because Filipinos are not a monolith. Within my team of 40, we have a bunch of different personalities. Some prefer to work on their own. Some work better in teams. Some are early birds, and some are night owls. Some need a lot of handholding; some work best with minimal supervision. Some are outspoken, while some are shy and introverted. Doing the hiring yourself is around twice as likely to end in success than if I did it for you. John PS. I don't do the hiring at www.OnlineJobs.ph/recruiting. My team in the Philippines does. |
Late last year, a typhoon hit Cebu, which affected several of my OFS, mostly our developers. One of the OFS who was affected is Mark, who works as a web designer and front-end developer for us. Cebu is 2nd largest IT hub in the Philippines. A lot of people move there to gain experience working for tech and start-up companies. Many of these companies set up shop there because of the availability of talent and low cost compared to Manila. If you're looking for technical workers, you’ll find a lot of people who have either lived, studied, or worked in Cebu. I wanted to check in on him to see how he’s doing. I figured this is also a great opportunity to introduce you to other people who work in a team and a different perspective on how I hire technical people. From Mark: Hi! I’m Mark! I am a Web Designer and Front-end Developer at OnlineJobs. Originally, I am from Negros Oriental (a neighbouring island). But I now live here permanently in Cordova, Cebu and I am mostly proud of the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway. It’s an engineering marvel and is 5-10 minutes away from where I live. When I graduated, I moved to Cebu City to gain experience and hone my skills but that would mean that I will be away from my family. My story here in OnlineJobs began when I decided to quit my office job and tried out working from home to be with my family. After resigning, I went on and registered at OnlineJobs hoping to find my very first full-time job online. And then one day, to my surprise, I received an email from John Jonas himself that the team needs a guy with my skill set. I went ahead and grabbed the opportunity. Since then, my life at work has never been this fun. Work day for me starts in the afternoon since I’m a night owl and I have the freedom to work any time of the day (advantage of working at home). After my afternoon snacks, I go straight to my office and cave there until my tasks are done. My time before and after work is always spent with my wife and 1 year old mini me. I asked Mark what it was like back when he used to work in an office. His answer to that question was really funny. To be honest, I can’t imagine myself going to work in an office again. Too much travel time because of traffic. I would rather spend that time with my family. When I asked him how he and his family are doing, here’s what he said: Last year, typhoon Odette affected my work badly. After Odette hit, electricity, water, gas, basic needs, etc., are scarce and hard to get by. Since electricity was forecasted to be fixed in 3 months, me and my family had to move back to our provinces (Siquijor and Negros Oriental) because they weren’t hit as bad as Cebu just so that I can resume work. Our house has minor damages as well. When the electricity and internet was fixed here in our place, we immediately went back. Our area, today, I can say that it has fully recovered from Odette’s wreck. It was such a relief to know that they were safe. I had faith that they'd be able to recover faster with a bit of help. So, I sent them a bit of money to help them relocate. Now that people are free to travel again, I asked him what places he would recommend if I knew people interested in going to Cebu. Here’s what he told me: Cebu is quite a big province and has a lot of tourist spots. But personally, I will probably show them Bantayan Island and Camotes Island. Those two islands would be at the top of my list as they have super nice beaches and lots of activities touring around the island. As you can see, it doesn’t take that much work to check in on your OFS. It’s one of those little things that keep them motivated and keeps you connected with your team. Are you putting off posting a job because you're not sure what to put in the job post? You should get my free Job Post Templates. John |
One of the hardest things to do when you get back from vacation is putting away everything that you brought with you. There’s also the cleaning and the organizing. It’s so much work that sometimes you feel like you need a vacation after coming home from vacation. We all clean our homes. It’s a universal thing. We all have brooms, rags, and mops. They also use brooms in the Philippines, sort of. Remember in my previous newsletter where we talked about how Filipinos use flip-flops and how they have one for indoors and another one for outdoor use? It’s the same thing with brooms. You have an indoor broom (walis tambo) and an outdoor broom (walis tingting). Why have 2 different brooms? According to my OFS Julia, the booms that most of us are used to are too flimsy for outdoor use but also too rough for indoor use. She explains: Most of us have plants and trees in our yards. A rake works but it can’t go into tight spaces or uneven terrain. A typical broom would break if you use it on mud or wet dirt. A “walis tingting”, which is made by binding the dried-up spines of coconut leaves, is the best tool for the job. The shape and flexibility of the “tingting” make it easy to use in tight spaces. It’s also strong enough to be used in mud and even push water (to clear out puddles) if needed. We like the floors inside the house to be really clean. That’s why we don’t allow shoes and outdoor slippers inside the house. If possible, the floors inside the house have to be so clean, you’d want to walk barefoot. A regular broom can’t sweep the fine dust that we can feel with our feet. A “walis tambo”, which is made from corn fiber or weed fibers, has really fine hairs that can sweep those up. The “tambo” is so good at sweeping fine particles, we use it every day and before mopping. The “tambo” removes as much loose dirt as possible, then use a mop to clean up the dirt that sticks to the floor. Most older houses have wooden floors. To clean and polish them we have our leg-powered floor polisher called the “bunot.” The “bunot” is half a dried coconut husk that you use to scrub and polish the floor. The modern version of this is a floor pad made from woven coconut or plastic fibers. If you want to make your floors shiny and have your leg-day workout, polish your floors with a bunot! |
Wow, I didn’t really expect a lot of people to respond to a newsletter about breakfast. I’m not super passionate about food. For me, food is fuel. I eat to keep myself healthy. My wife says I don't have a "relationship with food". It's just something necessary for me. But some have really strong feelings about it. Thank you for your responses. I showed my OFS, Julia some of them, and I liked her reply so I’m sharing it here. ---------- The typical breakfast I presented here was the typical breakfast for a working-class Filipino. Someone who needs a heavy meal because they need to get to work right away or commute 2 hours to work. The Philippines, for the longest time, was an agricultural country. People would work from dawn until noon. In order to work for 6-7 hours straight, you’d want something that’s really heavy and filling. Now that a lot of us commute at least an hour to work, picking up breakfast along the way isn’t really an option. You don’t want to stop anywhere because you might get caught in traffic. There might not be any good food places along the way. So you'd want to eat a heavy breakfast at home. The typical Filipino breakfast I presented isn’t something we eat all the time. It’s just the kind of breakfast that we find comforting. I don’t eat like that every day. Most mornings, I would have coffee and toast. --------- Someone pointed out that I didn’t talk about the cornucopia of fruits and vegetables that they have in the Philippines and encouraged eating them for breakfast. Julia writes: ----------- We do have vegetables for breakfast sometimes! The preparation varies from place to place. When I think of breakfast veggies, I think of tortang talong(eggplant omelet). My husband prefers poqui-poqui(sauted eggplant with egg). Another popular choice is ginisang ampalaya(sauted bitter gourd). The easiest way for me to have veggies for breakfast is to add malunggay(drumstick tree) leaves to my eggs. Fried fish is also a healthier breakfast option. I have these options because I’m lucky. I have access to fresh vegetables, fruits, and fish everyday because we have traveling vendors that go to our subdivision. We live close to a wet market. I also have the time to make breakfast. Not everybody has that access. What most Filipinos have access to is a bakery for pandesalor a tapsilogan(food place that serves silog meals all day). --------- There was also a comment that I should have encouraged fruits for breakfast. I agree that fruits for breakfast are healthy. Here's what Julia said: ----------- Fruits are great, but it’s not typical for us if we need something filling. We sometimes have fruits WITH our breakfast but fruits really aren't enough to fill you up. We do eat a lot of fruits throughout the day and with our meals. We even have a term for it, "panghimagas". It roughly translates to palate cleanser and digestive aid. One fruit that you’d see as part of breakfast is the banana, but more often, you’d find that Filipinos will just bring the fruit with them so they can eat it on their break between the start of their work and lunch. I know “silog” isn’t healthy but I love it because it’s really comforting. Also, silogas a breakfast meal started as a way to make use of leftovers. The fried rice is made from day-old rice. The fried protein sometimes consists of what was leftover from yesterday. The egg is just added to make it "breakfast-y". It helps reduce food waste, which is always a good thing in my book. A "healthy" breakfast option that many Filipinos do enjoy that I forgot to mention in the last newsletter is taho. It’s silken tofu with tapioca pearls and caramel syrup. It’s protein-rich and often served hot, which makes it really comforting. If you want to cut back on sugar, you can ask the taho vendor to hold the syrup. In other places, they add milk or jackfruit. Some personalize their taho at home by adding fruits. Or in the case of my daughter, choco-malt powder. If you want an extra shot of protein without the meat, most taho vendors also sell fresh soy milk which is way better than the ones you can get in stores. Why didn’t I include this last time? Because I usually have taho as a snack. Most taho vendors walk so you can only get taho if the vendor gets to you in time. It’s not something everybody can have for breakfast. --------- Different culture, different food. John |
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