With the goal of saving money and concentrating on core competencies, companies of varying sizes often rely on outsourcing so low-value tasks are reassigned to third parties. Sadly, this doesn’t spare you from repercussions in the event that third parties fail to comply with local labour laws.
Common remote staffing compliance issues
Outsourcing domestically
Outsourcing tasks to businesses in your area may cause your organisation to be considered a joint employer or co-employer depending on your relationship with the third party. Let’s say you outsourced your marketing to a domestic agency whose only client is you, but that agency fails to pay its staff. The employees may be able to sue you instead by claiming joint employer status.
Dealing aggressively
One of the things that makes outsourcing so appealing is that it saves you money, but that may lead to high standards when you hire remote staff from the Philippines or elsewhere. If you demand too much, they might feel the need to violate laws to meet your expectations. This will only bounce back to hurt your own organisation.
Managing leniently
Unlike with full-time employees, when you hire a Filipino freelancer or something similar, you are unable to monitor their actions as closely as you’d like. They might believe that they have the freedom to do as they wish as long as they do their jobs, including violating labour laws. You may not notice that they have outsourced to a fourth or fifth party already.
Tips to comply to offshore staffing regulations
There’s more to building a remote team than just screening and hiring candidates. Failing to look into the legal considerations for offshore staffing will cost organisations a lot of money. In most cases, the fines incurred from regulatory violations will be more than what they save on labour.
This will impact your brand amongst your target audiences thereby affecting your revenue. It may have an effect on job seekers too, so you’ll have a harder time filling in positions. Consider these compliance tips when you hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines.
1. Get your business registered
Your company may be registered as a 60/40-owned domestic corporation, 100% foreign-owned corporation, foreign representative office, foreign branch, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Partnering with an offshore staffing agency like Remote Workmate helps you accomplish the documentation and registration easily.
Business registration requires you to visit government agencies like the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In some cases, you may avail of exemptions and incentives from the Board of Investments (BOI) and Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) too.
2. Ensure reliable connectivity
There are plenty of options for internet service providers (ISPs) in the Philippines. However, understand that not all of them are capable of providing stable connections in all parts of the country. This is true even if your team uses the latest devices and the most expensive internet packages.
Make a shortlist of providers and compare the plans they offer. Since your business relies on connectivity, pick one that meets the needs of your workers. When hiring Filipino remote workers and paying for their ISP, ask them which one is most reliable in their area.
3. Give appropriate training
Many employees feel that they aren’t achieving their full potential in their current roles because they lack training and development opportunities. This causes them to leave one after another to search for greener pastures where they may move up the career ladder.
There are plenty of online courses where your employees may be trained on specific tools and processes. If you have the manpower to spare, assign a mentor for each of your new hire Filipino VA. Partnering with a staffing agency may mean they’ll train the candidates for you too.
4. Finalise the budgeting
Before expanding into another country, take time to learn related to international expansion, especially about regulations for remote work. You’ll also want to think about the costs of opening another branch and adding more members to your team.
Weigh in the differences between sending your local staff to the Philippines versus maintaining a fully virtual workforce. Renting office space in the country may be more expensive than renting a co-working space every time you send in your local workers.
5. Align the time zones
When you hire a Filipino virtual assistant, consider the time difference between them and your headquarters as well as any other offshore offices you may have. It may be necessary to adjust the working hours of your onsite employees in order to coordinate with your remote staff better.
You have the option to make your VAs adjust to your local office hours thereby needing them to take possibly graveyard shifts. Or, they may have a mid-shift where half of their working days crossover time with the headquarters. This widens the pool of candidates interested in working with you.
6. Plan for business growth
After you hire a VA in the Philippines, think about what comes next for growing your team and overall operations. Failing to properly handle a growing workforce will affect efficiency and productivity. Consider how your system and infrastructure accommodates the continuing growth.
You may have to implement new processes or invest in other technologies for better collaborations. For good integration, train your offshore workers the same way you train your onshore ones. Take a look at your company culture to ensure your Filipino workers feel welcome.
Work with Remote Workmate
There a lot of legal considerations for offshore staffing so we understand if you feel overwhelmed about hiring Filipino workers for your company. By working with Remote Workmate, you may enjoy the benefits of building a remote team with lesser hassles of recruitment.
Our offshore staffing specialists are ready to walk you through everything and answer any questions you may have about remote staffing compliance.
There’s no need to hesitate; hire a freelancer in the Philippines and scale your business in 2023!
