Let us take you to a very brief history of the Philippines as to further understand why hiring Filipino virtual assistants outweighs the cons of the industry.
The Philippines has a rich culture. The archipelago is a melting pot of different cultures. Others believe that the first people inhabiting the country long before it was the Las Islas de Filipinas from the Spanish Era to what it is now known as the Republic of The Philippines came from a faraway land through the land bridges before even the continents separated. Let’s take a look at this *excerpt:
Archeological evidence suggests that the Negritos, a broad term for indigenous people of dark complexions, reached the Philippines around 25,000 years ago by a land bridge from the Asian mainland. Waves of Indonesians followed by sea from 3,000 BC and Malays got a firm foothold around 200 BC, followed in later centuries by waves of Chinese settlers. Most of today’s Filipinos have grown out of intermarriages between indigenous and Malay people. Modern Filipino culture, including language and cuisine, was heavily influenced by the Malays, who also introduced arts, literature, and a system of government.
A few centuries before the Spanish reached the Philippines in the 16th century, Filipinos involved in trade had also met Arabs and Hindus from India, while the expanding Chinese population wielded considerable commercial power. Islam entered the Philippines via Borneo in the late 14th century.
The Philippines is culturally diverse even before the Spaniards came to conquer archipelago for over 300 years ago and then the Americans and the Japanese. Aside from that the *British also did a very brief invasion of Manila between the years 1762 to 1764. It would be years after the country declares its independence. From then on the country enjoys the camaraderie with other countries all over the world as the Filipinos scatter all around the world to be overseas workers in hopes of finding greener pastures.
Meanwhile, the BPO industry made its way to the Philippines in the year 1992 and virtual assistance came with it. As the industry flourishes over the years so does the number of virtual assistants grew. There are no concrete data as to how large the number of virtual assistants is currently in the Philippines. It is safe to assume that since the conception of the internet, there has been an influx of virtual assistants all over the world. Virtual assistants have a range of skills that you can employ in whichever way you need. *Before, virtual assistants mainly cater to menial jobs such as booking plane tickets, scheduling appointments and meetings; now you can almost rely on them in a wide variety of skills. Each virtual assistant has different skill sets that clients can utilize. And by now, almost every business has at some point, had some help from virtual assistants.
That brings us to Filipino virtual assistants, with the Overseas Filipino Workers’ work ethics known all over the globe, it wasn’t hard for other countries to start trusting Philippine-based offshore outsourcing companies. The industry continues to grow, aside from virtual assistants that are working in BPO companies, there are also a great number of freelance virtual assistants all over the country. As stated earlier, virtual assistants have different skillsets and clients definitely can control the tasks that you can delegate and trust your virtual assistants with.
However, what are the Pros and Cons of hiring Filipino Virtual Assistants?
Here are the Pros:
English Proficiency.
The Philippines is one of the Asian countries that are proficient in the English Language. Basing from an *article written in October 2018:
“Per Literacy Statistics, Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) of 2013, 96.5 percent of Filipinos were literate, an improvement from 95.6 percent in 2008. Almost all Filipinos ten years old and above were basically literate, while nine out of ten Filipinos 10 to 64 years of age were functionally literate. At least in terms of reading, writing and comprehending, Filipinos have come a long way.”
That assures you that there will be no language barrier to get in a way of great communication between you and your virtual assistant. And that all tasks that you give your VA will be done as per instruction. After all, communication is vital to ensure that whatever you need is addressed in the utmost understanding.
Versatility
Filipinos are versatile. The skillset they have can and will improve over time. They can adapt easily to any situation and assess the best way to approach a problem and turn it 180 degrees to ensure that every client need is met with the highest standard. Filipinos are known to multitask in their daily lives and they also use it to keep everything done in the time frame you set them with. You might think that multitasking has some disadvantages, however, with proper time management, your Filipino VA can deliver you an on par quality service.
Cost Efficiency
The Philippines as a third world country has one of the lowest rates. It is therefore also advantageous to you as a client, whether you are a small startup company or a big business, hiring a Virtual Assistant won’t cost as much as hiring someone in-house and worrying about office space and government-mandated pays as most VA’s work remotely and home-based. Also, virtual assistants operate on an hourly basis, which means that they only charge you on the hours that they work on your project. You can always discuss with your virtual assistant and the rates you both prefer to come to an amicable agreement for both parties.
Flexible working hours in spite of Time zone difference.
Okay, this is something that most think is more of a con than a pro, nevertheless, the difference in timezones is also taken into account of every virtual assistant as most clients come from the western part of the world. This time difference is not a big of a deal as most Filipino Virtual Assistants have experiences in working in the night shift. You can always find a virtual assistant that is willing to work around the hours that you want depending on both of your understanding and what your timeframes needs.
These are the prominent reasons as to why you should hire Filipino virtual assistants, how about the cons?
Fluctuating Power supply and Internet Connection.
A fast and reliable internet connection is a must for any virtual assistant, but due to unreliable network providers many struggles to overcome this certain technical issue. There may be times that your virtual assistant is virtually impossible to reach due to a bad connection and that doesn’t really reflect on the quality of your virtual assistant’s skill but it does contribute to the fact that you can’t always reach them. An easy remedy for this is to try and delegate tasks that they can do when they are offline so that things still can be done until their connection is stable again.
Risks on Data Security
This is not just a problem when hiring Filipino Virtual Assistants, this is a problem in general when you share everything through the internet. This is a matter of how much you trust your virtual assistant not to leak any information or data you share between the two of you. Filipino virtual assistants are loyal to clients that are open and honest about their concerns. Contrary to popular belief, Filipinos are open to constructive criticisms and have an innate need to improve themselves.
As you can see, the pros outweigh the cons of hiring Filipino Virtual Assistants. As we have mentioned, Filipinos are adaptable and culturally diverse that working alongside with foreigners is not a problem at all. You all have to do is find the perfect Filipino virtual assistant for you. We, at Virtual Colony, will provide you a top-quality virtual assistant basing on your business needs. We have virtual assistants that are adept in all manner of skills that you require in any industry such as insurance agents, graphic designers, content writers or even with your data encoding tasks. No matter how small or complex the tasks are, your Virtual Colony partner will rise above to exceed your expectations.
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