Isn’t it fascinating how we never talk about money? Peers don’t talk among themselves about how much they’re getting paid. Managers don’t talk to their employees about how much they actually pay for their labour. Many students go into an industry without knowing how much they’ll be making if they’ll follow that career path. We really hate talking about money and that is hurting businesses across the World. Sure, it’s not the most comfortable conversation to have, but it’s important to talk about money so all of us could have a better understanding of how much it really costs to run a business.
When people start their own business they face many challenges and sometimes they need a little more help than what the government is able to offer them. When the times get tough, the employers aren’t the only ones to struggle. The stress of operating a business in murky financial contexts affects the work-life balance for employees too, and that leads to additional health problems and anxiety.
One of the most common reasons for quitting a job is being overworked. Many knowledge workers feel overwhelmed by too much work at some point. An above normal workload is considered by many business owners to be growing pain. The harsh reality is that sometimes these growing pains last for so long that people start looking for a new job. No manager wants to make people leave their company because they’re overworked, but most times entrepreneurs feel like they have no other option – they just don’t afford to hire more staff members to ease the current employees’ workload.
Well, if you’re the owner of a small but highly effective social media marketing agency in Sydney, you might not afford to hire a new social media manager when the average salary for an experienced one is $5,000-6,000 AUD/month. And you will certainly not hire a full-time staff member when you know that the workload will ease in 3 to 5 months. The risk is to lose one or more of your current employees because of burnout.
What is really great about having access to a global labour market is that you can protect your current employees and your bottom line. You can hire remote staff from developing countries where the living standard isn’t as high as in the Western World. In Sydney, you won’t get a highly experienced social media manager to work for your company for $1,200 AUD / month. That salary wouldn’t allow a person to maintain a decent standard of living. If you start looking for talent overseas, you’ll discover that those $1,200 AUD/month can get you a Philippine-based social media manager, one who is a native English speaker with an impressive international experience and sound work ethics. Life in the Philippines is much cheaper than it is in Australia. A Philippine-based social media manager will not be offended by a $1,200 AUD / month salary offer, that salary will soon help them join Philippines’ middle class.
