Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: This is Remote Rockstars, the Proximity Outsourcing Knowledge Suite.
Learn how we work, what makes us unique, how we stand out at taking care of our team, our client success stories, and get advice on the best practices that we discovered.
Listen in and let's scale your business fast and easy with proximity outsourcing.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Hey, guys, this is Karla. Welcome to another episode of Remote Rockstars. This is the Proximity Outsourcing Knowledge Suite, and today you are going to learn about what it's like working with a Filipino team or a Filipino teammate. So a lot of you guys may have experience working with a Filipino team. Some of you, you know, this is like your first rodeo. So I'm going to give you the lowdown and I'm going to really tell you how it is. So I feel very, very grateful and lucky that I'm in this very special position of growing up in the Philippines as a Filipina. And also I have spent a lot of time overseas doing business, attending conferences, meeting people from different walks of life. And I always get a lot of questions and a lot of curiosities about what it's like to work with a Filipino team.
What is our culture like? What is, how do we work? What are some of our character highlights? So today I'm going to tell you by starting with a little bit of a story. So when I was in college, I grew up in Davao City, Philippines, which is a quite a big city down south, you know, southern Philippines. And when I was in college, I remember that the bpo, or business process outsourcing, was really growing. The. For those who don't know, BPOs are those companies that are located somewhere, you know, overseas that have moved a part of their operations or a part of their business processes in the Philippines. And so some of the very famous companies that have done this are like Verizon, ATT, PayPal, Airbnb, and 1-800-Flowers. In fact, my own sister spent a little bit of time working for 1-800-Flowers for a call center. So most of the work that we do as Filipinos is customer support.
And partly because we're really good at taking care of people. We love taking care of people Filipinos. And the Philippines has a very hospitable culture. And this is also part of the reason why it's common to see Filipinos do well in hospitality type roles, like being in the cruise ship or being the front desk of a, of a hotel or a resort, or even nurses, which is basically probably one of our best imports or exports. Sorry, one of our Best exports aside from bananas and mangoes. So, yeah, so we love taking care of people. And that is just like a little teaser of what it's like to work with Filipinos. So when I was in college, I was seeing a lot of these BPOs pop up and it really gave me an idea how there was a lot of opportunity for Filipinos and Filipino companies to start doing this as a business and me in college. That's over a decade ago. And so right now, outsourcing is still a very big business. There are still a lot of businesses overseas, and especially in our top three countries that we serve, us, UK and Australia, a lot of businesses are still really trying to get to know what it's like to outsource to the Philippines. And so I'm going to start by giving you a little bit of context.
So first of all, I already talked about BPOs. When I was in college. There were other college students that were taking college gap years. They would stop, you know, studying maybe for one year or maybe they were thinking of changing courses. And in the meantime, while they're waiting or they're thinking, some of them take jobs at these BPOs. There are also a lot of fresh graduates that choose to work in a BPO, mostly because BPOs pay way more than a regular job. And so for context, when I graduated college, I had a bachelor's degree in business administration, major in marketing, and I literally studied in one of the best business schools in the country.
However, when I graduated, even though I had kind of a star studded resume, I still had a minimum wage job and it was kind of just what was available. And a lot of kids start out that way. I was getting paid less than $200 a month for a full time job at a government office. After that, I also had a job that paid a little bit higher, but still pretty low compared to working at a bpo.
So working at a BPO would definitely instantly double my salary. At that time, however, I just wasn't very open to working at night. And so that's the other part of our context.
If you are wondering if the remote professionals that you're working with are sacrificing their health to work at night, a lot of them have actually adjusted to this lifestyle. And we actually don't hire anyone on night shift. If they haven't done this for a long time. We don't want them to just take the job and try to adjust. And then in the meantime they're suffering from this huge adjustment. And so some of them have already adjusted for a very, very long time. In fact, I personally know people who tell me they literally can't sleep at night and they can only sleep during the day. And this is because they've spent a lot of time working for BPOs. They love working for an American company or something like that. And then that is just their lifestyle and they've built a life around that. You know, some of them are single moms that are homeschooling their kids or dads who want a little bit more flexibility. Maybe they have a little small business on the side. And so working night shift has helped them to really take advantage of how special this situation is for them to do an. In an unconventional, yet a life that they are really, really choosing to live. And so with that, I also say that a lot of Filipinos are used to U.S. standards or working with a U.S. company. And so in terms of really trying to understand if they can get what it's like to work for an overseas company or a big US Business, you can definitely rest easy. A lot of the people, especially if they work for BPOs, have experience working for bigger companies and, and they understand a lot of the context that you guys have, not just, you know, working for a small business in the Philippines. And so there we have it. We have a lot of people who have a lot of experience working night shift, working with the US Standards, and of course, working for a specific type of support.
So some of the most common roles that these people have in the BPOs are related to customer support, client success, a little bit of appointment setting.
However, there's also a huge part of our.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Basically our audience and the people that we hire for, for them to have experience as a virtual assistant. So some of them have moved freelance, especially after the pandemic. And the first jobs that they were able to get were virtual assistants or something relating to that. Our best project managers and our best operations managers used to be team leads of these BPOs. And they really are, you know, high level managers and they have a lot of experience in that realm. And so the next thing that I want to discuss is if you're wondering what their English is like, well then you now have an idea because you're listening to me. So in the Philippines, English is our medium of instruction and our basically the pillar of our education.
So as early as kindergarten, everything that has been taught to us has been taught in English. And we actually take grammar lessons all the way to college for English and Filipino, basically the technicalities of Filipino. And so you will be surprised, a lot of Filipinos.
Sorry, I messed that up. A lot of Filipinos speak better English than people who live in, you know, who live in America. Because of the way that we learn English, we learn it as a second language. And so we needed to learn all the technicalities of it. So I grew up, you know, learning and relearning the eight parts of speech. What is a gerund run on sentences? When do you use a semicolon? And, you know, all of these. What is a phrasal verb? What is, you know, what? How can you properly cut paragraphs? What is a topic sentence? So it's very, very technical, the way that we learn English. So I would say that's an advantage because the way that we approach English is very next to nature, basically. In fact, a lot of foreigners love visiting Philippines. Not just because we have a lot of amazing features of our nature and art and the people, but it's because it's so easy to speak English to everyone. Even your housekeeper, who has only finished third grade, would know a little bit of English to communicate with you and to be able to help you out.
So that's also one of the advantages of hiring and working with Filipinos. We speak really good English. And if you have worked or if you're working with someone who has traveled a lot or spend a lot of time working with foreigners, then you're in for a treat because they would also speak English in a more casual way, in a more everyday manner. Because let me tell you something. Even though Filipinos know the technicalities of English grammar, I would say that sometimes the way that we talk is still too formal. So you will notice that in emails, we would say stuff like please attached, please, please see attach file. There was one time I was talking to another Filipino, and she used the word here with. And it's like Old English or something. Or we use kindly a lot. And so it is not very colloquial. And this is very common. But you just have to understand that the way that we learned English is because of formal education and not because, you know, we're watching American pieces all day. But also speaking of American pie, we are very, very exposed to American media, to series like How I Met yout Mother and Friends and Big Bang Theory. So we do understand a lot of, like, humor and banter and context. It's just that it's not natural for us to speak that way, you know, unless you somehow land a Filipino who has lived in the States or for a bit. And so, yeah, our English is good, but it's A little formal, so maybe you can tell your teammate to relax a little bit and let loose or maybe watch more American Pie movies.
The other context that I want to share is a lot of the people that you will hire with us or that you will find even, you know, on Fiverr or online jobs, a lot of them have bachelor's degrees.
And this is really because in the Philippines it is very hard or it has been ingrained in us that it is going to be very hard to succeed without a college degree. So even though our country is poor, it's a developing country, most people are poor, living paycheck to paycheck. A lot of parents really work very hard to send their kids to college. And it is because we think, think that, you know, if you have a bachelor's degree it is kind of like your best shot at getting a good job, getting a good life and all those things. And so I would definitely say prefer people who have bachelor's degrees and check how and you will be able to see how different it is from someone who only finished high school. So in the Philippines, people who only finished high school would somehow be limited to kind of a non office work or they would just start their own businesses. But it is very common for us, you know, for, for you to have a, even a minimum wage job. I like I told you about, they would require bachelor's degrees. So I think this is a little bit of advantage because if someone has studied in a university and has a bachelor's degree, they're a more well rounded individual in terms of like mental acuity and, and in terms of you know, understanding context and being able to talk to them and process thoughts in English and all of that. So that, that's definitely a plus of hiring in the Philippines. Lastly, you will notice that a lot of the people that you meet or.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: Talk to who are working remotely, who work with overseas businesses, you will notice that they will usually have qualified corporate experience.
So that's another plus. Almost everyone that we hired, I would probably say everyone, yeah, everyone that we hired at my company, Proximity Outsourcing, have had experience working for really big companies, you know, like png, Unilever, Coca Cola, some really big government offices. Some of our best chiefs of staff have worked with a mayor or a senator or they like worked with a really reputable businessman. So that is another thing to note and another thing to really look for when you're hiring. And so here you're not just learning what it's like to work with a Filipino. I'm also giving you advice if you want to do it all on your own, I'm super happy to help and share the context. And so let's move on and talk about management and communication styles. So this is really going to be drilling down on what it's like on a day to day basis working with a Filipino. And so the first thing that I definitely want to highlight is that Filipinos are not very direct communicators.
And I unfortunately, I can't do anything about it. But we do have certain ways to encourage Filipinos to speak up more and for them to feel more valued in the company. And this is actually a huge gem in our onboarding process. You know, I'm very proud to say I have an all Filipino team. Even the lead of our sales team is Australian, but he's actually like a quarter Filipino, which is funny. And that is just by chance, but.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: Filipinos are not very direct communicators. We usually avoid conflict and confrontation. And so you will notice that if you ask someone a yes or no question, they will think about what consequence would there be.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: And then kind of skirt around the issue, especially if the consequence is kind of a negative one.
But you have to just like repeat yourself and ask them and say, this is a yes or no question. Just answer yes or no. And to be honest with you guys, even I struggled with this with my own teammates. Now I just really empower them and tell them that this is a way that we can save time. We just have to be direct. We just have to tell the truth. And so.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: My advice for you is to really understand this context. Filipinos are not like Americans and Europeans that are very direct. They just really tell you what it is. And sometimes it may seem cold to us Filipinos, but especially if it's an email or if it's text based and there's no, you know, you can't have any, like, context like facial expression or body language. And so sometimes we assume that the voice is stern or that it is mean or rude, but it's actually not. So this is also kind of the onboarding, the magic, the onboarding we do on the Philippine side of things. We tell them that this is how you guys communicate and this is because we place high emphasis on honesty and transparency. And my advice to you is start your onboarding with this context. Tell your Filipino teammate that your company places a high emphasis on transparency and honesty and that they are hired for this position because you ultimately believe in them, you believe in their intelligence, and you have confidence that they can do the job well. The more that you kind of repeat and emphasize this thought, the more that they will be encouraged to be open in communicating with you and even go as far as taking the initiative to give their opinions and things to suggest better ways to suggest better systems. You really, really just have to dig in and tell them that and have your actions also show that. So the other thing to note about Filipinos is we don't want to be the one that's holding back the team. That is kind of embarrassing in our culture when we always have a culture of, you know, if you're a part of a team, you gotta bring your best to the table and at the very least, don't be the worst employee. So we care about, you know, our kind of reputation in the business, like that. And so I would say take advantage of that and also have that conversation of placing high emphasis on honesty and. And transparency. So talk to them.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: If you're giving a task, make sure that they understand it. And when you ask them, you know, is everything clear? Yes or no? Encourage them to tell you no if it's actually no. Because sometimes they will just nod and say it's fine, but it's actually not. And also a little thing to note is Filipinos place a lot of respect, respect to the elders. So sometimes they won't disagree because you're older than them, which is pretty funny because, you know, when you're at work, you're all equals, right? But just keep that little context in mind.
The other thing that I want to share is that because.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: We don't like embarrassing ourselves, sometimes we are afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes. And because of that, a lot of Filipinos will find it difficult to make new suggestions or change things, even though it's for efficiency or even test things. So the best way to go around this is you have to train your Filipino team to solve problems by thinking and thinking ahead. And so it is very common for Filipinos to kind of go through their day to day, kind of in a.
How do I say this?
Kind of like just following a checklist. And it is because we are scared to make mistakes. But really, you can train them by encouraging them to apply a little bit more critical thinking by speaking in first principles. And when you try to solve problems, encourage them to bring a solution to you when they come to you instead of just telling you the problem, but also encouraging them to solve it on their own. And if they can't, to bring the issue to you and then also bring a solution to you. This is what I've learned was super awesome with my team because if I train them to think in first principles and if I train them to think critically, they generally don't repeat the same mistakes because now they understand the heart and soul of the problem and they're able to solve coming from the initial premise of that problem.
And when your teammate shows a little bit of initiative, a little bit of critical thinking, a little bit of anticipation, you need to encourage that. You need to praise it and recognize it so that you can encourage them to open up more. And so a lot of my clients tell me, you know, before, you know, in the past when we work with other Filipinos, what frustrated me was that they usually never even tell me that something is wrong. And I think that is partly because there was also kind of a culture of just don't make mistakes. But if you open up and start a culture of everyone is hired for their intelligence and their contribution, and we're grateful to have you and we would love if you can help us make everything better, then I feel like if this is a repetitive, you know, message on an everyday basis, then you'll have an easier time working with Filipinos. So another tip, you might be wondering what would be the best way to give feedback to a Filipino?
So I would say you can use the time tested, the time tested method of doing kind of like a feedback sandwich where you start off with a compliment or you praise them and then you raise the issue, and then you close or end with another compliment and that you appreciate them for listening to you and for being open. And. And so I definitely advise that you keep this ground as neutral as possible.
You keep a tone that's calm, you give them the benefit of the doubt and have them give them a chance to also, like, explain themselves. And the very best one is, my very best tip is highlight the purpose of these feedback session. So if you're giving feedback, make it sound as constructive as possible and tell them about the purpose of that session. So the purpose is maybe, you know, we can all work seamlessly or maybe so that we can get this target happening or helping another teammate make their lives easier so that as a team, we can achieve a goal faster. And of course, also, I would also encourage to nurture a culture of feedback is a gift.
That's a statement. Feedback is a gift. And so that would be my advice.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: Try to be neutral if you encounter certain instances where someone would cry. And to be honest, this is because, like I told you before, we don't like to be embarrassed and we don't like to make Mistakes and so don't freak out sometimes they're very emotional, but you know what that means they really care about their job. So make them feel better by just stating the purpose and detach that from the kind of person they are. And you have to remind them about the kind of person they are. Detach the mistake from their personality. Do not make assumptions on their behavior, their character or their past. Hear them out and really hash it out with them.
Okay? Also a good relationship advice.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Lastly, let's talk about character highlights. So these are some of the features of growing up in the Philippines, being Filipino. Some of our character highlights that we actually take overseas with us and some of the things that we're really known for, attitude wise, number one would be Filipinos are very family oriented people.
So we are close to our cousins, our second cousins, our grandmas, our relatives. You know, even if someone just has a similar last name, we kind of feel a little bit of affinity to them. And so you really got to think about that.
Do not be surprised if someone will be requesting a leave because their second cousin died or something like that. We do have these bonds, of course, as long as it's planned properly and.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: They are really, really committed to not dropping the ball anyway. They will make specific arrangements so that nothing at work will be affected by their absence. And also sometimes if there are emergencies that are related to their children or their parents, you have to be open about it.
Number two, how do we feel about holidays? And so proximity outsourcing is a US Company. We hire people and tell them that this is a US Company. We will be following the US Holidays. And you know, what little note that is why you're making good money and a higher salary than your past corporate job in the Philippines or on a, you know, compared to a regular Filipino company. But because we are a US Company and so, however, so we follow the US Holidays, however, I want to place a little bit of emphasis on Holy Week because this is something that is probably not the same in, you know, the schedules and the context for most of our clients in our top three countries that we serve, which is the us, UK and Australia.
So the Holy Week is from Pam Palm. I don't know what it's how it's properly enunciated, but Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday and that's like a week. So in the Philippines, it is a very huge part of our culture that we Filipinos take the Thursday off all the way to Sunday. Usually this is a time for reflection, visiting churches.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Spending a lot of time with your Family prayer.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: And really kind of just relaxing. So I would say my advice is that taking the US Holidays, plus add a little bit of the Holy Week. The other thing to note is that America also has, I would say, probably one of the fewest holidays in the world. And this is because of the hustle and the intense work culture. And so Filipinos are not really used to that. We actually have a lot of holidays in the Philippines. We have like two national hero holidays. We have holidays for specific religions. I think we have like 30 holidays in a year. But I also know that it is a little bit excessive and it's not going to be healthy to take that much holidays.
And so our sweet spot is that my team takes the US Holidays and then the Holy Week. And so that is the compromise that I take with my clients. That would also be my advice to you.
So another character highlight is Filipinos love getting gifts. It's really the thought that counts. And so that's why at Proximity Outsourcing, we have a team care unit, which is basically kind of a cutesy way to call a human resource department. We call it team Care. And the job of this full time department is to take note of birthdays, ongoing workshops, and Christmas parties and Christmas gifts and things like that.
Sometimes a $50 gift goes a really long way. And so if there is a company milestone or if it's the birthday of your VA or your project manager, we will usually tell you, your CSM will let you know and you will get the option to send them a gift. But our team already sends them a gift in your behalf and they know this and they're really, really well taken care of. And so with that, I would also share that Filipinos also value work extras or kind of benefits that they really don't get elsewhere. And this is why at Proximity Outsourcing, we've designed our benefits program to really be able to take care of more areas of their life aside from just basic health care. So we do have private life insurance, private accident insurance, telemedicine access. We have a lot of wellness benefits that covers, you know, different doctors for maybe optical care or even reproductive system care, dentists and things and other wellness activities, even like massages, the reimbursables, or a haircut or something like that. So they really value that. And Filipinos also.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: Stay loyal and more productive in their job when they know they're being taken care of in their other parts of their life. They really, really value that a lot. In fact, we also have a part of our culture which is called.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: Which translates to a debt of gratitude. And so being an outsourcing company that I would say competitively probably has the best benefits program out there, I personally haven't met any other outsourcing company who can beat our benefits program.
We really, because we're super loyal people, having benefits such as this definitely contributes to our teammates, our remote professionals, our RPs, as we call them, being more productive and being more loyal at their job and also feeling just extra grateful that they're with us and that they're working, of course, with you. And so lastly, I want to share about the last character highlight. And this is, we take a lot of pride in being a Filipino. In fact, if you want a quick hack on how to make a Filipino smile, talk about Manny Pacquiao or talk about how Vanessa Hudgens is part Filipino, talk about Miss Universe, Miss Earth and everything, basically, Efrain Bata Reyes, the world's greatest billiards player, you know, talk about these people. You will, oh, my gosh, you will just make a Filipino stay. And so we take a lot of pride in being Filipino, and we also take a lot of pride in the work that we do. And so even if you have a multicultural kind of workplace where you say you have people from Bulgaria, people from Australia, you're an international team, people from the usa, and then you have like a Filipino team or this one lone Filipino va, you will notice that they take a lot of pride in their work and also being a Filipino. So we have certain clients that would have an all Filipino department.
That department is super bonded. And they, they are. They really take good care of each other because they know that they're kind of, you know, bringing the flag with them. And so my advice for you is to compliment them on that part really goes a long way. But also address them as equals, unfortunately. Let me share something with you. In some of the BPOs, I've heard from my friends that no matter how good a Filipino is at his or her job, they usually don't get promoted to certain positions. And they feel like they're hitting a ceiling only because they're Filipino or they're not Americans. And so it is kind of a source of frustration because they can do the job just as well, but they feel like they're just hitting a ceiling because they want to give the higher positions to Americans or Australians or people who are kind of like the same nationality as their country. Now, personally, there, that might actually be a legal issue. You know, hiring for certain positions, maybe they need certain clearances? I don't know, but I just wanted to share you a sentiment that has been shared with me by my friends who are working for BPOs. And so if you have an all Filipino team or one lone Filipino, compliment them about being Filipino and you know, make them smile by reminding them of the Filipino excellence and greatness and that will really make their day. And that's how you become an awesome boss. And you know, in Proximity outsourcing, we only choose people who will be awesome bosses or awesome clients because as a Filipino, I love taking care of my people and I love bringing positive change to their lives. And so with that, I hope that you really like this episode. I feel super grateful that I'm able to share this with you. I all the context, all the stories, all the character highlights. I'm definitely a hashtag proudpinoy and I'm super excited to work with you and grow your business with you.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: This mini podcast is sponsored by brands under Proximity Solutions, LLC.
Visit our websites at proximityoutsourcing.com, proximityplacements.com and proximityprojects.com.
