In the past decade, there has been a noticeable uptick in the demand for remote workers as more and more companies turn overseas to find talent to fill the gaps in their business. Outsourcing has now become the norm instead of an anomaly. In this article, we will be talking about the good and the bad aspects of outsourcing. Of course, if there are rewards to outsourcing, there are bound to be drawbacks as well. After all, no system is perfect.
One of the major benefits of outsourcing is affordability. Look at it this way. Which would you rather do? Pay $4,000 per month for a personal assistant who can take care of several tasks for you, or $500 per month for a remote worker who can do the same job? The answer is easy.
That’s why a lot of entrepreneurs are turning to the Philippines as an outsourcing destination. Because of the low cost of living and the cost of labor in the country, you can find highly educated remote workers there who are willing to work for $500, $400, or even $300 per month in some instances. It should be noted that these are college-degree holders who speak English fluently.
Before you say this is exploitation, you have to understand that it’s tough to find good work in the Philippines. For those who have nice jobs, commuting to work can be a daily struggle because of the traffic and overcrowded public vehicles. That’s why many would rather work in the comfort of their home.
It’s a win-win situation for both sides. Your Filipino remote worker will get the chance to work from wherever he wants while getting a highly competitive salary, and you don’t need to worry about extra expenses like taxes, insurance, or employee benefits. That’s the good thing with offshore staff.
If you’re looking to hire a remote worker from the Philippines, you should check out OnlineJobs.ph. The site has a massive talent pool of professionals who provide a wide range of services, and you can hire people very inexpensively there. To browse resumes and post job listings, all you have to do is create a free account on OnlineJobs.ph. However, you need to upgrade to a paid account if you want to contact them.
Disclosure: The link above is an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To find out more about our view on affiliate products, please see this page.
Want to hire your own VA?
Click here to find amazing talent waiting to work for you.
Another benefit of outsourcing is that it frees up your precious time so you can concentrate on what you do best. Now, you can work on your business while your team works in it. Why should you spend hours, days, or even weeks learning to do something when you can hire a remote worker who can do that job correctly? Give that task to someone else and save your time. Do what you do best, and outsource the rest.
Of course, many entrepreneurs are stubborn and don’t want to let anything out of their control. Or they don’t want to spend money to hire someone to do a task they can do themselves. You shouldn’t think that way. You have to understand that you can’t possibly invest too much time on tasks that others can do. That will only stunt the growth of your business. Learn to delegate. Learn to make the shift from doing to leading so you can work on your business, not in your business.
Here’s William Harris, the founder of growth marketing agency Elumynt, talking about how the failure to delegate is one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs can make.
While it takes time to scale up as you build a locally trained workforce, you can actually expand your business, potentially without limit, if you outsource. Normally, building a highly-skilled workforce takes a lot of time and money if you do that locally. That’s why you will run into obstacles scaling.
Fortunately, this is not the case if you outsource. Outsourcing allows you to tap into the knowledge and expertise of qualified professionals who have years of experience in their fields, so you can gain access to their skills immediately. Imagine hiring a team of web professionals to handle all your web design and development projects. Now you have access to the skills and knowledge that would have taken many years to train.
That’s one of the main benefits of outsourcing. The ability to quickly scale up with an experienced workforce who can respond to increasing workload is just too good to ignore. And a remote team can do this on a level that an in-house team cannot possibly match. You can make adjustments to fit any situation.
If your company continues to grow, your remote team can handle the increased volume of business. And if you need to, you can scale down just as easily. A lot of retailers do this during the holiday season. They would get a team of call center agents who can handle all the customer service-related stuff when it’s busy, and they scale back down when the holiday season is over.
Wait, isn’t time zone difference supposed to be one of the drawbacks instead of one of the rewards of outsourcing? Okay, let’s clear things up. Yes, you can actually take advantage of the time zone difference between you and your remote employees. While it’s true that this can be an issue initially, especially if back-and-forth communication is needed, you can turn this into an advantage once you get things sorted out and establish the ground rules.
With your remote staff located in a different time zone, you can keep your business running around the clock. By outsourcing, you’re putting it all on autopilot. Your business can grow while you sleep. That is why a lot of entrepreneurs have become increasingly enthusiastic about outsourcing.
Outsourcing remains a topic of debate in the United States, and a lot of people believe companies should turn inwards to protect jobs for American workers. So if you decide to hire someone outside the country, people who have taken a stance against outsourcing may cause problems down the road.
Many Americans believe outsourcing is bad for the U.S. economy, but nothing could be further from the truth. Outsourcing keeps businesses profitable through lower production costs, and this benefits consumers as well because they can obtain goods and services at a lower cost. It leads to increases in revenue for the economy. Janet Yellen, an American economist at the Brookings Institution who served as the Chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018, had even noted that outsourcing has a positive effect on the U.S. economy.
Still, there’s no way you can escape criticism if you outsource because a lot of people feel strongly against it. This is one of the drawbacks you’ll have to deal with if you want to reap the rewards of outsourcing.
One of the biggest potential drawbacks of outsourcing is the risk of data breach. Worrying about this is perfectly normal. After all, you will be handing over sensitive data, like trade secrets, payroll, or even your clients’ emails to your remote employees. There is definitely a risk that the confidentiality may be compromised. That’s why you need to do your due diligence and ensure that all your remote workers sign non-disclosure agreements that prohibit the release of sensitive material. You have to reduce the risk and identify any potential problems or unexpected liabilities that could arise in the future.
This is probably the biggest hurdle to overcome in outsourcing. Yes, you have to deal with this when you bring in remote workers from other countries. You have to learn how to bridge the cultural gap because the inability to do so can have dire consequences for your business.
It’s important to be aware of cultural differences so you can avoid conflicts. Don’t jump to conclusions if you see your remote employee acting a certain way. Maybe it’s just the way they do things in their culture. Communicate with them. Learn more about their culture, and in turn, talk to them about how you do things on your side of the world. To work with remote workers, you need to understand world views that are different from your own. This is another one of the drawbacks you will likely encounter as you look to enjoy the rewards of outsourcing.
Again, the Philippines is a popular outsourcing destination because of how they have embraced Western culture. Modern Filipino culture is a culture in which East meets West. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone if your Filipino remote worker knows the latest slang words or the latest memes. They watch the same TV shows and movies, the same sports. They listen to the same kinds of music. It makes hiring someone better when they understand your culture, and things will get even better once you get to know about their culture as well.
Here’s all you need to know if you decide to outsource to the Philippines.
As mentioned before, no system is perfect. However, the rewards of outsourcing far outweigh the drawbacks of outsourcing, and you can reduce or eliminate these risks involved if you’re aware of what they are. This is why a lot of businesses are turning towards outsourcing as a solution to help them run their business smoothly.
Are you looking to hire a VA?
Click here if you’re looking for someone to work for you remotely.