Big Mistakes I Made When Outsourcing... (Philippines, Kenya, USA, Canada)

Yeah this is when NLP comes in, some people need a carrot while others need the stick so to speak. Getting to know your employees helps you diside what would best motivate your team. Some people you will definitely find the best incentive for them is the fact they get to keep their job LOL However people like that have never lasted long in my company.

Seems I'm not the only one to have faced the nightmares of hiring overseas. It takes a bit to get the hang of for sure.

One odd thing, I found paying hourly worked very poorly for me. Seemed like it always took 2x as long to do something as what it should have.

If you do want to pay per project just make sure you make it clear no funds will be exchanged until the project meets your quality expectations (be fair here). If someone forgets to dot an i don't refuse to pay em for goodness sake but if the work is sub par you have a right to demand it be fixed.

Again, thanks for some great tips!

James

Great tips, thank you. I have a couple questions:
- what is a good place to find a reliable experienced employee/virtual assistant?
- why not just go to a place like elance and hire a company/person for a specific project?

Who cares about how long it took them as long as the job was done right and it was done within a time frame that made you happy.

That so called "TIP" on paying hourly is brutally bad advice.

Pay them per month as a salary or per project. That is the best way by FAR.

The key with filipinos is courtesy and respect. You can get on their case, but do it respectfully. Do not talk down to them, which I see happen a lot. Just because they are from a country that is poor does not mean they are second class citizens.

In fact most filipinos are smarter, do better work, and can work circles around most Americans I know. But you must show respect, pay them a wage that makes a real difference to them, and then let them know that you expect quality. If you do that you can find incredibly loyal and hard workers that do a great job.

Just like with every other worker in the world BONUSES go a far ways. Pay a bit of a bonus for a job well done. Pay a bit of bonus for a job well done and in a time frame faster than you agreed. Make sure they give you quality though, and most of the time they will.

By the way, if you ever want to take a great vacation...go to the Philippines and see one of the most beautiful countries in the world with some of the nicest and loyal people on the planet.

Incredibly valuable info on this thread and from all posters who are sharing their experience. I'm currently outsourcing tasks and find that what's working best for me is to post a proposal and in the proposal state that I will hire 3 of the best candidates to do a sample of the task I'm looking for. I pay $6 -$7 for the test work, because that's what I can afford to lose.

Then in the proposal I state that I will hire the best of those 3. Sometimes I'll take 2 of the top 3 candidates and divvy up the work between those 2.

My original mistake when I started outsourcing was not to buy test work samples.

I'm getting pickier about who I choose. It's my fault if I don't hire a truly qualified person!!

I'm also spending more time on the front-end creating templates and instructions. You have to be specific with your instructions (write as if you were writing instructions for an 8th grader to follow). The more specific you list your procedural steps, the more apt you are to get the quality you are looking for.

@Christian Little - what is TMN?

I can't give you the site info here since I am new to the WF, but since we are on the subject, one of my sites offers a great video course on how to hire employees from the Philippines if anyone is interested.

You can find the link by looking up my profile on skype: RENANGLL

Cheers.

[quote=aesweb;3889369] Well, if deadlines were met and projects bid on were done the right way - this wouldn't be necessary. If you don't like it - find a different job. I'm going to start doing it myself...tired of wasting money on people who don't do the job right and I have to go in and fix everything. I might as well done the job myself.

Don't get all holier than thou - the fault isn't ours, the fault is people trying to make a quick buck and bidding on jobs they have no experience or knowledge of. I don't go around sending resumes for a Molecular Biologist..why? Cause I don't know anything about it.

I wouldn't hire you based on this comment either. Where I come from, if you don't produce results and make your employer money, you get fired. Sorry that offends you.

Big time savers for me:

1.Pay by salary only
2.Give deadlines
3. Have assigned work hours and off days
4. Use templates/ videos /screen shots/tutorials for training
5. Let them refer other workers
6. Get to know them
7. Refer to them as team members
8. Do conference calls with all your workers
9. Give them an unannounced bonus for their birthday, wedding gift for family member, holidays etc. The bonus doesn't have to be a lot either.

I can't tell you how many times my worker has called me with their family and friends on the line via Skype to say thank you for blank.

When dealing with the Philippines they are status quo and many siblings are responsible for providing for their families. If you make them feel like they matter it's not about the money, it's about being able to show their family that are important at what they do for you.

Pretty good, solid advice. I'll add my 2c.

#1 - Training assessment

I always hire a couple more than I'm looking for and train everyone. Then, I do a training assessment to see how they have followed through, what they have learned, etc. The period of 3-4 days of training also allows me to check other traits e.g. how dedicated they are, how inquisitive they are. Overall, this costs me more, but I've been able to pick better candidates and not just those who look good on paper.

#2 - Tougher hiring process [and a bit different]

Most people send you a pre-formatted cover letter and resume. Some even forward the same to scores of HRs. What I do is instead create a form on my website and redirect everyone there instead of giving them my e-mail. On the form, I ask them questions that require them to write questions to answers they have not already thought of.

This weeds out many people who won't take the time to fill up the form. It'll also give you more insights into the applicant without going through more steps.

#3 - Use some kind of Application Tracking System, if your hiring needs are that much.

Our hiring is always on-going. We normally add 5-6 people to our team every month or so to keep up with the growing business. To be able to track all applications and ensure that we don't lose a good applicant in the pile of applications we get, we use TheResumator.

May not be required if you're hiring one or two VAs but if you've more complicated hiring needs, you want to have something like this. In the past, I've lost a lot of good talent and have been unable to create a pool of those who are really good. This way, even if I don't hire them today, a month down the road I can.

#4 - Explain them their daily tasks

We used to manage our projects through Excel and Dropbox (:p) then outgrew it. Then, we used to manage our projects through Basecamp. Outgrew that, too. We now use a custom project management solution tailor-made for our business.

We still explain what exactly we want in a task. This way, there is no repetitive work (due to the nature of our work, a keyword may repeat itself 100 times) and everything is well explained and documented. This also helps the employees and all of them are very happy because they get what they want: instructions on how to do the work. We get better work this way.

We explain important things as well as things that a few that are trivial. We also employ a naming convention that is consistent across all projects. This helps us track who has done a particular project, and the project the file relates to, etc etc by just looking at the file name.

#5 - Give them regular feedback

I've seen many people hire VAs, give them tasks and forget. This works, yeah, but it'll be better if you give them appropriate feedback. People like to get appreciation, especially if they do good, high quality work.

You may also consider having team meetings over Skype (if your team is totally remote) every week. This way, they have the 'feeling' of being in a team and are able to get in touch with each other. Do this and you'll see they will, in future, be able to collaborate with each other much better.

There are quite a few other things I could write but this is something I could come off my mind. Basically, to ensure you get the best results, hire the best (make sure your hiring process weeds out everyone else), give them the best environment and give them the right inputs. Since they are working with you, they should be able to grow with you as well. If they are doing the same boring job over and over, over time, the productivity might decline. Hmm, so think that's about it.

I strongly agree with the OPs #5. Very, very true and if you're able to implement the team feeling in your team, you'd most likely see drastic improvements in the productivity, collaboration and subsequently, results.

EDIT: Also, I don't know but I've never tracked my employees. I let them do their own job without actually spying on them. The team leaders define the goals, weekly or monthly, and as long as the team completes it and everyone contributes their part, all is good. I've never had a problem with any tracking either. They all work towards the growth of the company and many of them do more than what they are expected to.

I of course do the normal drill i.e. get them to sign and return a copy of service agreement, NDA, employment agreement, etc.

For keeping your team motivated most of the time and to understand what really works when it comes to motivation, I'd recommend reading 'Drive' by Daniel H. Pink.

Or, watch the video below... :-)

awesome info and tips, thnx everyone

Awesome tips . I have been stung several times before i had to pay for very crappy work even from the most experience , most social proof workers . It was frustrating and i lost money . Thanks for the tips .

Just checked out hyperhour. Looks good ...

Always pay hourly - don't agree with this. I think for long term projects yes, but for specific projects where you have very specific specifications better to do it on a contract basis, for deliverables.

Hyperhour ... will check it out. I'm also building tracking software Time Doctor, so let me know what you think in comparison.

A couple more tips:

a. If you want to hire 1 person, try 5-10 people - already said, but just being a bit more specific. Depends on how difficult the job is, but if you want someone really good you might have to try 100 people. Sure it takes a lot of time, but sometimes it's necessary to find someone great

b. Once you find someone great, hold onto that person, and pay them well.

How can you get ripped off outsourcing to the Philippines? You do not pay until the work is completed to your satisfaction!!!

I find that many times people head to Craigslist and start posting ads for Manila or Cebu. Jesus, that is not wise.

Go to Craiglist, post an ad about EXACTLY what you want done.

You will get a lot of responses.

Hire someone to do the project you want done but only hire them to do a small project. Tell them they will get paid once it is done to YOUR satisfaction, but be reasonable.

There is NO WAY to get ripped off or lose money if you do it this way! How can you. You are not paying anything until you are satisfied. But to hire someone based on an hourly age is just foolish.

Start out with small projects. Get them on Yahoo IM or Skype...and even get their phone numbers and call them. Most filipinos speak English good enough that it is easy to communicate with them.

Just use some common sense.