The market rates for different positions will vary depending upon which city your contractor(s) are living and working in. Manila is the capital of the Philippines, and has the largest population. It also has the highest cost of living and so the market rates are also the highest.

Cebu is the second largest City in the Philippines, but with less population and far less traffic! It was the location of choice for Delonix setting up their first office. The cost of living and wage rates in Cebu are less than Manila, and Cebu also doesn’t seem bare the front of Typhoons as much as Manila or even the southern areas of the Philippines. Therefore it is our first choice for hiring remote staff.

Dumaguete is the next city to the south of Cebu and was Delonix’s location of choice for their second office. It has a lower cost of living than Cebu, but still has fibre optic Internet. Whilst the population is far smaller than the bigger cities, and finding experienced technical skilled staff is difficult, if you’re looking for Customer Service roles or general admin / Virtual Assistant roles, it’s our recommended city of choice.

To make it super easy for you, we’ve created a chart of market rates for Cebu City and Dumaguete City. These figures are in $AUD and already factor in the extra employment costs that staff would be entitled to if hired by a local company (SSS, Philhealth, 13th month etc) meaning the rates suggested are very competitive.

It’s an unrealistic expectation to find someone multi-skilled in accounting, website management, Social media Management & Content writing etc from day one. This is a common (false) belief that is often purported in webinars and events selling “the dream” of having someone from another country run your business for $2 per hour. We call it the unicorn theory! You should focus on your 3 highest “bang-for-buck” tasks that you can outsource to free up as much time as possible so you can then focus on the marketing and income producing activities in your business.

That being said, you can always start small but train your staff with new skillsets as they progress, so that they can take on more and more tasks (and be rewarded with a higher pay!) which is why Delonix has both the online training modules as well as the face to face training available in our concierge package.

As an independent contractor working for you, there are no obligations to pay your remote staff sick leave or annual leave. That said, to remain competitive and foster a great long-term relationship, we strongly recommend treating them as part of your team and just like your local staff, acquire paid leaves. We suggest 2 weeks paid leave between Xmas & New year plus 5 days paid sick leave as a minimum to begin with, and you can always expand to 3 weeks leave after 12 months.

Similarly, as an independent contractor working for you, there is no obligation to give pay your remote staff on public holidays. But again, to foster a great long-term working relationship, we recommend allowing your remote staff to take the same public holidays as your local team. If however, you need your remote staff working on your local public holidays in an after-hours support role, that’s perfectly fine, just be clear on their holiday schedule at the time of hiring.

If you indicated to your remote staff upon their hiring that they will follow your (Western) public holiday schedule, then they will be expected to work on most Philippine public holidays. As an independent contractor, they are not entitled to be paid penalty rates, however we’ve already factored this in with our suggested rates in the chart above, which is why our suggested rates are very comparable competitive.

This was an actual 40-minute topic at a recent Business Blueprint conference, so we’ve summarised the answer here

If we are unable to provide at least 2 candidates in the agreed timeframe, then we will refund your payment in full. If you are not happy with any of your shortlisted candidates after you have interviewed them, we shall continue sourcing and present you with at least 2 more candidates for interviewing.

Following commencement of your staff, if any do not meet your performance standards during the first 90 days, we will replace them without any additional recruitment fee. If you choose our concierge support package, then you’ll also be assigned your own Client Success Manager (CSM) who’s job is to be part of the training and coaching with your staff from day one to help you get the stated objectives from your team.

Our concierge support package is committed to getting the outcome(s) you need and make your life easier! We’ll work tirelessly with you and your remote team to coach them through any shortcomings and help them understand your vision and needs. Cultural differences and miscommunications are 90% of the cause of challenges with remote staff, so lean on our experience of operating and growing Filipino teams since 2012. We have dozens of success stories from clients employing just one team member, to clients transforming their entire business with over 150 remote staff.

We make the process very simple for you, and very fast for your staff to get paid (with awesome FX exchange rates – far better than PayPal or the Philippine banks)

Firstly, we’ll work with you to reach a mutually agreed renumeration package for your team members. Whatever that rate is, 100% goes to your staff – Delonix do not take any fees or commissions.

Next, Delonix invoices you for the month in advance for both your staff’s renumeration, plus our office / Support fee depending upon which package you choose.

You have access to your team’s weekly time logs, and by the end of each month, any extra hours (overtime) or any undertime hours are noted and adjusted on your following month’s invoice.

For Australian clients, you can pay in $AUD via local bank transfer to our Australian bank account (fee free) or via credit card (2.5% fee to ensure your staff receive the correct amount).

For Clients outside Australia, we accept $USD payments via credit card (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX) or International bank transfer.