Any role where staff work from home is a role that can be offshored. Read about it on the Wall Street Journal: The Next Wave of Remote Work is About Outsourcing Jobs Overseas
Offshoring is hiring staff overseas either directly or through a provider. Offshore staff work the same as your internal staff, only in another country.
Outsourcing can be done offshore or onshore and can take a number of forms. The most common is outsourcing of tasks. In this case the provider hires staff they control to perform the tasks and works with you on the KPI’s. You do not ever know or directly manage any of the staff. The other approach is where the provider will hire employees to your need and provide them the facilities and tools they need to do their work and ensure they are at work during the agreed hours. You as the client, train, task and manage productivity and quality so have complete control. In this case, the provider has various managers in operations, HR, IT and QA that interface with your management to ensure you get the best out of the team they build for you.
You can save up to 70% compared to onshore staffing costs. There are higher savings for more complex or senior roles, for example, higher savings are possible for an architect than a back office admin.
Your team will work in your time zone, or whatever hours you specify. There are 1.4 million BPO workers in the Philippines and culture is built around 24-hour life. 75% of BPO workers work for US-based businesses and working nights for US business hours is very common. Office hubs, restaurants, stores, and public transport are available at all hours of the day.
In the Philippines, English is taught as a second language from primary school onwards. Our staff speak college-level English with a slight Filipino accent.
This is why partnering with an offshore company can be a smart choice. We have developed a proven recruiting process over the course of more than a decade. Every shortlisted candidate is required to submit pre-hire documentation including:
All documentation is checked to ensure it is valid and has not been tampered with.
We hire a variety of ways – for back office staff we keep a continuous pool of candidates, we accept referrals from our current staff, and depending on the role we advertise on local BPO job boards, LinkedIn, Facebook, and professional trade organizations.
All of our staff, even back office admin, have at least one Bachelor degree and many have Master degrees. During the onboarding process you fill out a role sheet describing who you are looking for in terms of experience, qualifications, and certifications and we recruit to that.
No, the staff hired for you are considered your staff and remain on your account.
Our employee offices are located in Metro Manila and Angeles City:
Agility Office #1 – City of Pasig, Metro Manila
Suite 22nd Floor, Tycoon Building Pearl Drive,
Ortigas Central Business District (CBD),
Pasig City, Philippines 1600
Agility Office #2 – Angeles City, Pampanga
Level 15 eNTEC2 Building, Nepo Center,
Teresa Avenue, Angeles City, Philippines 2009
When choosing our office locations we plan for the tropical weather experienced here. It is less expensive to have an office in the south in what is dubbed “hurricane alley” but we specifically look in the Metro and to the North to reduce the chance of inclement weather disrupting operations. In the south during the wet season, floods can be severe which would simply prevent staff reaching the office. Manila is on the edge of the wet zone but is supported by being the major metropolitan hub with city services (it’s also where the international airport is located). Our Pampanga office is two hours north near the site of an old US Air Force base which is on high ground and also isn’t as impacted by weather.
If you want staff to work in the office, they will. There is a slight cost saving for Work From Home staff.
All in-office staff are equipped with Windows-based systems with dual monitors and noise canceling headphones. Our offices have high capacity dedicated internet lines into the USA capable of voice and data, with a backup line from a second provider if required. Work From Home employees’ equipment is provided on a case-by-case basis.
We use dedicated VPNs to access client systems and do not keep client data on our servers. Staff use client-supplied VoIP, email, and Slack. We operate strictly to USA HIPAA and HITECH compliance standards and are ISO 20071 certification pending.
On average, it takes 4-8 weeks to recruit and hire a team, depending on the roles, level of seniority, and how many staff are needed.
For certain back office roles we keep a pool of candidates and can activate in as little as two weeks. Have a specific need? Get in touch.
No. But it is recommended to fly out to meet your team and deliver the initial training. When hiring 10-20 staff, an initial two weeks of live training is very successful, especially when supplemented with a visit from team members from your onshore office as well. Then you get to know each individual and the team feels they know you too, and they’re loyal to you.
Our founder, Rob Brough, co-owned and operated a Durable Medical Equipment business out of Southern California. Faced with pressure to remain profitable, he boarded a plane to the Philippines to look into offshore staffing. He wasn’t satisfied with any of the available providers and decided to do it himself, making a deal on an office property and hiring his own staff directly. This didn’t come without challenges, but over ten years later offshoring proved to save the business during an economic downturn when others closed their doors. In 2019, he sold the DME to focus full-time on offshore staffing in the Philippines, taking on new clients and hundreds of new staff to form Agility Staffing Services.
We run our business American-style the same way we did our Californian DME. We foster a respectful family culture and even though many clients choose to offshore due to cost savings, we do not try to squeeze every last dollar from our staff. We hire great people and pay in the mid to high range. We also offer all staff HMO insurance plans that include their families. We are a company of people who want to turn up to work happy every day and do a good job. Learn more about us here.
