Philippines Outsourcing Tip 1 of 16: Daily Communication

Great points, Jonas! Those 3 questions you referenced are totally key. When I first started, I didn't do daily communication and learned a hard lesson. More business owners should definitely heed this advice. Nice scenery

Great idea Jonas!
Yes I have instructed my employee to contact me daily. She does most times, but, there is frequent times that the she says that she has experienced internet problems.
I have been working so hard to outsource myself, but I am so far working harder than ever:) I think we are getting there, but, I think it is fair to say that one should not expect immediate production and clear communication off the start. You, as the boss, have to develop and train your employee relationship, which is challenging when they are so far away (and in different time zones).
What I have began to do is record videos of me doing a task I want her to do. They I send it to her and say "here this is what I need, this is how I do it, let me know if you have any questions". This has been very effective.

This becomes especially important when you start hiring more than one person.

I enjoy communicating with my employees. I like feeling connected to them. When I take the time to connect/communicate with them, I am able to get an understanding of whether THEY understand what I require them to do. If I've got my stuff together, hired the right candidate, and have nutted out what I need them to do for the business to succeed and then I communicate that to them, EVERYONE is better off. If they do what I need them to do and do it well, the business will do well. And if the business does well, I am in a position to be able to reward them for their efforts! I like to think of myself as enlightened, generous, not tight and stingy, and I like to be able to recognize the efforts of those who have contributed to a successful outcome. Most people like to know someone puts their money where their mouth is, so what better way to recognize someone than with "great job" and a bonus. Through my communication with them, I let them know up front that if their efforts contribute to the success of the business, I will reward them. Consequently, the right employee will get it … and EVERYONE will be better off … and happier!

I don't mind working more initially and front loading the effort so I can sit back later on and let things run on automatic. They key is choosing the employee with the right attitude and the right skills foundation … that's the key because the training is always available to hone their skills … but how do you hone attitude?

I just let go a good contractor for not doing this key task. She did good work (at times) This is after a good initial start and several months of trying to improve things. Her lack of continual contact made it impossible in a team to tell what was going on and how to integrate what's she's was doing into the production workflow.

Life in the phillipines can be less than reliable than in the US. Power outages, internet outages, floods, etc. This can mean that communication is not always possible. Plus getting sick taking care of family (Some Phillipinos in my team have very strong family obligations, like what I pay them is going to help pay for their mother or father, or brother go to college).

With all that's going on, I like to think of the daily update as a heartbeat, hey you still alive? It's all of 2 minutes to say nothings changed.

I've seen two unscrupulous workers that will try and play you for a sucker. It's not that they can't do the work, they are just trying to get paid for all of the work by doing little of it. So here they will come up with some backstory/excuse and then try and sneak in a log – right around pay time- , which given you can't tell if the work they have done is easy or hard, there's no way to know if they are making it up.

When you first start working with a contractor ask them to repeat what the expectations are in their own words to make sure it's in. I like to let them know that daily reports are a REQUIREMENT for employment, and to getting paid, and in some cases I make them invoice with day line items to double enforce it. I also back it up with repeated failure to give them will lead to being let go as it's not fair to the rest of the team.

Also make sure it's understood that the job is FULLTIME and the office is open MONDAY-FRIDAY normal business hours (or whenever the rest of the team is online). I make it required that while on the job that they have skype open or gchat open.

Second given the number of possible failures, make sure there are multiple avenues to communicate. Like if you find email is unreliable, switch over to a google doc for reports (which I actually find easier to see all of what's going on), or if using basecamp, setup a task for each daily report.

I don't see any videos on any of these pages….Unusual.

Where are the videos promised in your Email?

John,

?? I watched a few of these videos a week or so ago. The ones I watched were good!

Earlier (as in several hours ago) there was a 500 server error page.

Now the pages are displaying, but there are NO videos.

I look forward to viewing the rest of the videos when you get this issue sorted out.

Thanks!

Brigitte

Right -> no video = perhaps the robbers stole them too? *sigh*

Dude you look like Tom Cruise in this vid. lol!

Great info as always. I am seriously considering outsourcing (especially since I work 2 jobs and don't really have the time to focus on my online business). I'm also on a very limited budget so untl I can afford ReplaceMyself I'll just have to work with these great free tips.

God bless..
Lady J

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