The Filipino-Australian experience continuum

So, you’ve chosen to outsource to The Philippines and at the top of your list of requirements is finding a candidate with Australian experience. While this is not an impossible request, the fact of the matter is that you’re going to have to manage your expectations. The Philippines outsourcing proposition was never ‘find talented, English speaking workers who can slide right into any role you have available in your business without any training.’ How often do you find someone in Australia that doesn’t require any training? Never.

This isn’t to say that you can’t find a Filipino with experience working with Australian businesses, but people outsource to the Philippines for so many more reasons other than “how much Australian experience do you have?” Let’s explore this concept in more detail.

The experience continuum: what is it?

Let’s break this down. If you wanted an employee to be Australian or have a significant amount of Australian experience, then it would be simple to just place a job ad on any job seeking platform. Given the current difficulties and stresses many businesses are experiencing as a result of The Great Resignation or The Great Re-Evaluation, finding quality talent is getting arduous. But, if you are looking to ‘kill a few more birds with one stone’ like reducing costs, achieving 24/7 customer support, improving efficiencies or staff satisfaction, then you may benefit from considering Filipino talent instead.

It’s not to say that any of these goals are not achievable in Australia, it’s just that the Philippines can hit all of these goals as they advocate themselves as a low-cost economy with a skilled workforce. The experience continuum looks a little something along these lines:

The key takeaway from this graph is that experience is a constant but price increases. Taking away the mentality that you’re “looking for Australian experience in the Philippines” you can still hire candidates with the exact talent you’re searching for in the Philippines and usually at a lower price point than in Australia. In fact, you can save up to 70% on employment costs alone by outsourcing to the Philippines.

Price

The right outsourcing provider, the third-party organisation you choose to partner with, will have a recruitment process in place that fully understands that type of talent you need and can actively go into the Filipino market to source this for you. But what does that “reduced cost” or “lower price” mean? Are we talking about just the salary? Yes and no.

The outsourcing industry advertises its major benefit as cost savings and depending on the role type and level of experience required these savings can be considerable. However in saying this, it is dependent on what type of outsourcing you engage with and the fees do differ.

Something to note is that if in the Australian market a certain skillset is specialised or currently in high demand with higher salaries as a result - the same goes for the Philippines. An example is web development. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, web developer and designer roles are anticipated to grow by 8% between 2019 and 2029. So keep this in mind if you want to hire a position that may take more time to source .

Experience

With price out of the way, let’s discuss the other key factor of the graph: experience. The Philippines outsourcing industry is forecasted to hit $29 billion and grow by 13% in 2022 mainly due to the depth and breadth of attractive talent in the Filipino labour market.

While it is a popular misconception that business process outsourcing (BPO) in the Philippines is limited to call centres, there are a large number of providers offering talent across a multitude of fields including human resources, customer service, financial services, accounting, eCommerce, real estate, web development, digital marketing and administration support.

The Philippines has excellent universities and a very young population. This means that hundreds of thousands of highly motivated students graduate yearly with college degrees on par with international education standards. The legal, financial and government systems of the Philippines are based on those of the United States. This means that most professionals are accustomed to Western ways of doing business. It also makes it easy for Western companies to work with Filipino accountants, lawyers and other professionals. In fact, with the BPO industry starting in the Philippines sometime in the 90s, you can be sure that there are many Filipinos who already have Australian experience - if that is somewhat of a dealbreaker for you.

Filipino employees are also quite resourceful and are able to find the easiest ways to carry out their assigned tasks with minimal supervision when given clear instructions. They are fast learners and are able to easily adapt to new systems, processes, technologies and workplace situations.

With all this experience backing the price benefit mentioned earlier, it’s no wonder that people who understand the experience continuum, understand that outsourcing to the Philippines is a worthwhile investment.

Other benefits of outsourcing to the Philippines

Apart from the varied experience and low price point of hiring Filipinos, what are some other benefits?

• Time difference is not an issue: Filipino employees are willing to work shifts even if it means working at night, on holidays, and in different timezones to accommodate clients regardless of where they are located in the world.
• English language proficiency: The Philippine’s English competency is ranked 18th out of 122 countries and is ranked second only to Singapore in Asia.
• Excellent work ethic: Business owners invest in Filipino teams due to their excellent work ethic, values, integrity, loyalty, service-oriented mindset and the friendly working atmosphere they seem to foster.
• Strong government support: As one of the economic pillars and main revenue generators of the country, the Philippine government recognises the potential of the outsourcing industry by providing strong support and infrastructure for outsourcing companies and for businesses setting up an outsourced team.
• Cultural compatibility: As a nation that was colonised by various foreign countries in the past, Filipinos were influenced by ethical values, traditions, customs, behaviours and ways of life that weren't originally theirs.

The list goes on. From improving your onshore staff satisfaction and motivation to reducing overheads and achieving business growth, the Philippines presents a plethora of benefits to businesses looking to invest in its outsourced solutions.

Commonly outsourced roles

The following are examples of roles that are outsourced frequently with great success to the Philippines:

• General
  • Administrative assistants: perform all day-to-day administrative functions
  • Executive assistants: ensure that senior managers and executive-level staff “keep moving efficiently”
  • Virtual assistants: provide support services to organisations from a remote location
  • Data analysts: collect, analyse and organise relevant data to assist with decision making.
• Customer support
  • Chat management: manage the live chat functions on your website or other social messaging platforms
  • Customer service representatives: interact with customers to handle queries, complaints and process order requests while providing information on products and services of an organisation
  • Inbound sales support: provide administrative support to outbound and inbound sales representatives who contact potential prospects and existing customers to sell new or existing products and services.
• Digital marketing
  • Digital marketing specialists: plan and develop marketing campaigns through online, digitised content focusing on techniques that boost engagement and brand visibility
  • SEO and SEM specialists: review and edit websites to achieve higher search engine rankings
  • Social media specialists: monitor and create content to ensure an organisation has a notable presence across relevant social media platforms.
• Finance
  • Bookkeepers: document accurate records of financial transactions and assist in the production of financial statements for an organisation
  • Accountants: analyse and report in preparation of financial statements and tax returns for an organisation
  • Financial analysts: examine and interpret the financial data of an organisation
  • Procurement officers: research products and services from existing and potential suppliers on behalf of internal business units
  • Tax advisors: provide organisations with expert financial advice and guidance regarding tax accounting and tax law.
• Human resources
  • HR specialists: responsible for the entire lifecycle of managing employees from job advertisements and onboarding through to management, administration and termination
  • Talent acquisition specialists: source candidates using various channels, plan interviews with hiring managers and coordinate selection procedures and criteria.
• Web development
  • Database administrators: control and maintain an organisation’s database management systems
  • Java, .NET, PHP, WordPress and web developers: create, develop and implement software or web applications for an organisation’s project and internal requirements
  • Web designers: design the layout, usability and visual appearance of a website
• Technical support
  • Service desk support specialists: maintain an organisation’s computer hardware and software systems
  • Help desk support specialists: troubleshoot and provide technical support to customers or clients experiencing hardware, application and software issues
  • QA testers: analyse and review new software or existing programs for any defects
  • Systems administrators: ensure that computer systems are up-to-date, configured correctly and reliable for the users.

Discover the Philippines

The Philippines is one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia with companies all over the world viewing the country to be one of the best outsourcing locations. In the Philippines, the outsourcing industry is worth AU $38.7 billion and is anticipated to grow 6% in 2022, and is also responsible for employing over 1.2 million people. In this blog, we explore seven reasons why.