.svg){kind=icon}
Making a hire from the Philippines has long been touted as a great path to $2/hour Virtual Assistants, but as the years have gone by and the world has gotten more global, the quality of candidates from the Philippines has unfortunately gone downhill.
Is making a hire from the Philippines going to make your business, or destroy it?
If you hire a Filipino — will it be the best choice you ever make, or the worst?
That’s exactly what I’m going to try to answer in this video.
I’m going to cover:
How We Got Here:
Long before internet entrepreneurs were hiring cheap VAs from the Philippines, big companies like Nike, Adidas, and other fashion brands were outsourcing to this same region.
Then Tim Ferriss wrote the 4 Hour Workweek and advocated for everybody to hire cheap labor from Southeast Asia in order to only work…4 hours a week.
The 3 Main Reasons Hiring from the Philippines Isn’t a Good Idea:
There are 3 core principles that I outline that discuss why the quality has gone downhill, while the amount of work to find the right Virtual Assistants from the Philippines has gone significantly up.
Everybody Speaks English but Not Many Speak GOOD English:
When everybody speaks English there is no filtering mechanism. Everybody has a baseline level of English and everybody tends to overestimate their own abilities. This means that when you get a bunch of people applying for a job, they all “speak” English because they “studied” it their whole lives.
Maybe they even passed a certification saying so.
The reality is often different when you hire from the Philippines, and the only way you can know is to get them on an interview. Even asking them to record a Loom or a video and send it over isn’t enough, because sometimes people might speak a high level of English but their ability to think on the spot and answer intelligently isn’t there. You just don’t know.
High Population Levels:
I discuss why the “needle in a haystack” phrase is so apt here. Yes, a larger population means a larger pool of candidates…but that isn’t always necessarily a good thing.
Reason why is simple — the key word that every business owner has drilled into their head, over and over again…
TIME.
Your most valuable asset. The most valuable thing your business has. Your time.
Your time shouldn’t be spent sorting through hundreds of resumes when you want to hire from the Philippines. Hiring is one of, if not the most important thing you can do for your business, BUT…if it takes hours, days, or weeks of that valuable asset to make it happen, maybe there’s a problem with the locale.
Filipino IQ:
I explain why there’s flaws in measuring by IQ, but also why it does work on a macro level.
Alternatives to Hiring from the Philippines
I’ll discuss the better alternatives to hiring from the Philippines in 2024, and how to pursue these options if you want your business to succeed. If you’re interested in pursuing Ukraine as an option, click here to book a call with our team.
