Build your own Offshore Team and free-up at least $27,740 AUD per annum per year in cashflow
How do we find you top-notch staff?
The first step on your journey is to book an initial obligation free discovery session with one of the company directors.
We’ll see if we’re a good fit and if we believe outsourcing will work for your business.
However with over 600 staff and 220+ clients across a variety of industries, chances are if the role can be done in front of a computer, we already have someone doing that role in our office.
Delonix has two sites in the Philippines.
The Cebu Office has a total capacity of 600 employees and has been operating since 2012. Cebu is the second-largest city in the Philippines (behind Manila) and was chosen as the first site by the CEO for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the English spoken in Cebu is considered the best in the Philippines, with a slightly “softer” spoken accent than, Manila.
The traffic in Cebu is far better than Manila, and with fewer companies operating, there is less tendency for staff to “job hop” between employers. Cebu (Island) is also positioned that misses nearly all Typhoons during the rainy season.
Dumaguete was the site chosen for the second office for its proximity to Cebu and the ability to act as redundancy in a worst-case scenario should a natural disaster occur in Cebu. It’s far enough to avoid a disaster to hit Cebu but close enough that it’s only a half-day bus ride (25-minute plane ride). Dumaguete also has one of the top Universities in all of Asia and has an abundance of highly educated, experienced customer service staff working in the BPO industry. 
Following the initial consultation, payment of the recruitment fee begins the process.
This one-time fee goes towards:
- The cost of posting your job in the two most popular online job portals here in Cebu
- Paid advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn
- Sourcing, Interviewing, Screening candidates and administering trial tasks where appropriate
- Payment of the 3rd party background check to ensure accuracy of their Resume (Education and previous employment)
- Payment of the 3rd party medical examination (to ensure they are “fit to work” thus minimizing chances of any disruptions)
The role of the recruitment team is to shortlist you around 3 candidates per role required, within 3-4 weeks of you submitting the Job Description / order form.
The team will book a time with you to conduct the final interviews, which will be done via Zoom Video call in our office. You’ll have a copy of each candidate’s resume prior to the final interviews, which will be lined up back-to-back for you to choose the right person for the role.
Admin, Sales & Customer Service positions require the candidates to pass an English Grammar test (plus short Essay) whilst technical roles have unique “trial tasks” to assess their competency.
Following final interviews, you will choose the best candidate(s) whom then will give notice if still connected with a current employer whilst we conduct an in-depth background check.
After starting, your staff will be put on a 1-month training / trial period, followed by a further 5 months “probationary period” – which is standard in the Philippines. If you’re not happy with any of your chosen staff members during the first month, we’ll replace them for free.
The (all-inclusive) monthly fee we charge includes the following components:
- Your staff’s gross monthly salary
- The government mandated extras (social security, 13th month, health insurance etc)
- Workstation (including computer) space in one of our offices
- Delonix’s fee (HR, payroll, support & coaching, retention programs & company social activities)
If you have a team of 6+ staff, we can provide your own dedicated room inside our office, otherwise your staff will use a workstation in one of our shared office spaces.
Tell me more about the advantages of a Delonix Teams service
versus the more well-known "work from home" model?
If you want to employ a remote staff member or “Virtual Assistant” in the traditional “work from home” capacity, there are no additional costs outside of their salary. If you can find yourself a reliable VA, and they have a good Internet connection, then this may suit those first starting out in business, and just need a bit of help here and there on a contract basis.
However, if you’re looking to build a team that is critical to your everyday business operations, that has
Australian Management
& Coaching support
Business grade
fibre optic Internet
Backup generator
Power
Low latency
VoIP telephone lines
Staff retention
& social activities
(Free Daycare, birthday celebrations, bi-annual staff’s kids
activities, Xmas and Summer parties)
What’s included in our fee?
1. Office / Work Space with computer
Whether you need one employee or a team of 150, Delonix provides your staff with office space and a workstation that already includes a computer.
This saves you MORE money in local office lease / space, and capital outlay (computer, desk, chair, insurance etc).
The office is open / available 24/7 since Delonix has clients in Australia, New Zealand, UK and USA.
The office building has a backup generator, 5 separate fibre-optic Internet connections from 3 different ISPs including:
- 2 x 300Mbps PLDT Fibre connections for Web Browsing and file transfers
- 1 x 50Mbps Sky Fibre backup connection for Web Browsing and file transfers
- 1 x 150Mbps Rise Fibre connection for VoIP traffic
- 1 x 20Mbps PLDT Fibre dedicated lease line for VoIP traffic
The office also gives your staff access to meeting and training rooms, lunch-room with free water / coffee, On-site nurse and Free Day Care for those staff whose baby sitters call in sick
2. Management & Supervision
The office was setup and management trained by Jeremy Morgan (who has been online marketing since 2006, and influenced by the likes of Mal Emery, Jamie McIntyre and Tony Robbins to name a few) along with Alison Omega, a local born Filipino, with 5 years’ experience working overseas for US and EU companies, plus 5 years’ prior experience working for other Australian companies.
Attendance & Punctuality – Staff sign in each day via biometric scanner, and you’ll be notified by one of our team should any of your staff call in sick. A monthly attendance & punctuality summary is also available.
3. Training, Mentoring & Coaching
Rather than hire your staff, and leave you to fend for yourself, we also have senior support staff, to help both the client and their newly hired staff on-board and understand each other.
- A dedicated client liaison / account manager will be assigned to you. Their role is to assist you with the on-boarding, and hold the hand of both the client and staff during the first couple months, assisting where required
- Induction – All newly hired staff go through a half day induction including :
- Local culture & customs
- Local language, pronunciations & slang
- Local geography
- Business owners expectations, attention to detail
- Email etiquette, spam / virus protection
- In-house training modules available for:
- Xero accounting software (Xero certified staff)
- Lead Generation
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- WordPress website basics
- Creating landing pages using lead pages
- Social Media campaign management
4. Full-time IT & Tech support at all times.
Delonix has IT staff on hand 24/7 to cater to our clients in different time zones, can assist your staff with any software installation, techy “how-to’s” like converting a pdf document or just exterminate those little gremlins that love to run around inside technology!
5. Data & Internet Security
- All clients are given our Non-Disclosure Agreement, plus all staff sign a privacy and confidentiality agreement before they are employed in our office, giving you peace of mind that your data and intellectual property is treated in strict confidence.
- For financial clients, we can also provide a full IT security audit (extra fees apply) as was the case for one of our AMP endorsed financial planner clients.
- Our office Internet traffic is controlled with “Sophos” firewall software, which means we can set which sites your team can and cannot access to remove distractions
- Specific User ID logins per employee
- The office employs 4 security guards on rotating that man the entrance during both day and night operations
- The front door has biometric scanner to permit entrance
- Inside the office is a CCTV system
6. VoIP Telephone line
Enjoy crystal clear phone calls via a dedicated lease line just for phone calls. You can be assigned your own local phone number – eg (02) for Sydney, (03) for Melbourne etc so your staff can receive calls. There is no charge to receive calls to your VoIP number. Outbound calls are billed separately (please see our VoIP rates here)
7. HR & Administration
Full-time onsite HR Manager, assistance and access to onsite HR support, legal employment of staff, induction and orientation of new staff, reporting and communication of any related HR matters direct to client, observation, monitoring and oversight of staff’s productivity and wellbeing / attitude attendance, attendance reporting, processing of company identification cards, performance management and termination of non-performing staff, employee retention program facilitation, team building and social activities.
Full administration and processing of payroll and all Gov’t obligations including Tax, Social Security System (SSS), Philhealth and Pagibig Loans, setting up staff payroll bank account, processing of employee benefits including health insurance (HMO) and 13th Month Pay, new staff tax identification number (TIN), SSS, Philhealth and Pagibig enrolment, assistance in government loan applications.
8. Team Building and Social Events
Full-time onsite HR Manager, assistance and access to onsite HR support, legal employment of staff, induction and orientation of new staff, reporting and communication of any related HR matters direct to client, observation, monitoring and oversight of staff’s productivity and wellbeing / attitude attendance, attendance reporting, processing of company identification cards, performance management and termination of non-performing staff, employee retention program facilitation, team building and social activities.
Full administration and processing of payroll and all Gov’t obligations including Tax, Social Security System (SSS), Philhealth and Pagibig Loans, setting up staff payroll bank account, processing of employee benefits including health insurance (HMO) and 13th Month Pay, new staff tax identification number (TIN), SSS, Philhealth and Pagibig enrolment, assistance in government loan applications.
We like to build a strong family culture in the office, so the staff enjoy coming to work and being amongst friends, and hopefully want to stay longer! We have regular social events and team building exercises, free snacks Friday afternoons (from pizza to more traditional Filipino foods) and get into the spirit of events such as Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s day etc by decorating their work stations and having staff parties. We also like to be involved with charitable events, whether that’s a day at an orphanage or helping some of those affected by Typhoon Yolanda.
Are my staff's government mandated benefits (including their 13th month pay & health insurance) included?
Absolutely. The rates quoted above already include their contributions and benefits. We’ll even enroll them in our company’s private health insurance after their initial month’s trial.
A few of our staff have had to be hospitalised in the past…proper health care for them and/or their children is massive.
How do you handle Public Holidays?
We like to keep things very easy for our clients, and as such, our policy is:
“If it’s a normal working day in [Your State], then your staff will be working too”.
That way you don’t have to worry or keep track of the myriad of Philippine special holidays, regular holidays, school, bank holidays etc (did you know there are around 22 public holidays each year in the Philippines?!) Don’t worry, we’ll pay your staff the penalty rates for working on any Philippine public holidays, in fact, this is already included in the rates quoted above.
We often have social events on national holidays like Anzac day in Australia (the perfect time to go Island Hopping in the Philippines) or Independence Day for our US clients. Your staff will love sharing in your local culture on public holidays.
What about Holiday Pay and Sick Leave?
Up to the client, but our standard policy is 12 “leave credits” (days) per year plus anytime your business closes over the Xmas / New Year’s period. The 12 days leave per year are accrued at 1 day per month of service. Leave days can be used for either paid sick or paid holidays. Staff will also follow your local public holidays (AU/UK etc) which like for your local staff are considered paid days off.
Example:
Your Australian business closes from December 23rd 2016 until January 3rd 2017 & your staff started July 1st 2016.
Since your staff accumulate 1 day’s paid leave per month, come end of December they would have accumulated 6 days leave (July 1st start date) which can be utilized for either paid sick leave or paid vacation leave during the year.
On top of these 6 days accrued leave, your staff is entitled to be paid for the 3 days of your shutdown + 3 public holidays (Xmas, Boxing and NYD)
In 2017, your staff would accrue 1 day per month leave credit(s) + your 2017/2018 shutdown period as paid holidays.
What if your business does not close between Xmas & New Years?
If you do not have a “shutdown period” around Xmas, then we suggest including a further 3 to 5 days leave per annum, giving your staff a total combined number of paid days (sick + holiday) of 15 t0 17 days per year.
What if your staff is late to work or absent on a day and does not yet have any leave credits?
If your staff are late to work, we will encourage them to make up the time by having a shorter lunch break, or extending past the usual finish time. If your staff are sick and does not have any available leave credits (days) then we’ll encourage them to either work on a Saturday in Lieu – or extend 2 hours per day for 4 days to make up for the day they missed.
Can I have my staff work on [AU/USA/UK/NZ] public holidays instead - so I can take the time off?
Absolutely! If you prefer a custom arrangement, we can tailor an agreement that suits your business.
Do I really have to pay my staff holidays?
Yes – consider it no different to your local staff getting paid holidays. Your outsourced staff are part of your company, your culture and should be no different to your local staff other than physically being located in another office. If you’re asking this question, perhaps you’re better suited to hiring contractors from Upwork to work only on a contract basis.
Our Payment Terms:
- Payment of the recruitment fee begins the outsourcing process (3-6 week timeframe)
- Once you’ve chosen your team, their first month is payable in advance.
- Following the first month, we’ll set up a monthly auto-debit for your Visa, MasterCard or PayPal account
- If you do NOT want to pay using a credit card, and prefer an alternate means (eg bank transfer) then a security bond of one month is required in addition to the first month’s fee
- There are no fixed-term contracts, we only require 30 days written notice if you wish to cancel your service.
- In the unlikely event that you are not happy with a staff member, we will replace them for you during the first 90 days.
Why we recommend working in an office as opposed to the “work-from-home” model
Working at home has huge distractions:
- Sadly, a work from home job is often not taken seriously as a “real job” by the extended family also living in the same home, which means interruptions from the kids, parents, and grandparents (not to mention the noise from chickens & karaoke all day!). Productivity is much higher in a controlled office environment.
- We ensure your staff are arriving to work on-time and working solely for you – they are not watching TV, browsing Facebook all day, or worse – working at home for another client when they should be working for you!
Reliability & Redundancy:
- The power and Internet reliability in the Philippines is in a word….terrible! Most work from home staff use an old computer, with a USB stick modem, at the mercy of the local power company’s power-outages (called “brown-outs” in the Philippines). Our office building has a backup power generator and 4 separate fibre optic Internet lines (plus a 5th separate line just for VoIP) from 3 different Internet Service Providers
- None of this “waiting for half a day for email replies” since we are following your business hours, working full time in our physical office with phone or Skype to communicate with you.
- Should your staff member be away sick, quite often we can have their assigned team leader or one of our other staff jump in and work on any urgent tasks you have for that day.
- The Philippines are subject to 10-15 typhoons per year, on average. Power and Internet repairs afterwards are always prioritised to the business areas, often leaving residential areas without power for days. Our office is in “Cebu” – geographically located in the middle of the Philippines which doesn’t experience the same volume of typhoons as Manila, for example.
Team Building and Up-skilling:
- We focus on building a strong family culture at Delonix, so staff enjoys coming to work, lowering our attrition rate. We have regular social events and team building exercises for all the staff in our office.
- Working together in a physical office means a “collective hive” of information and skills – the staff help each other out and share their knowledge to further individuals on new skills
- Should your staff member be away sick, quite often we can have their assigned team leader or one of our other staff jumps in and work on any urgent tasks you have for that day.
- The Philippines are subject to 10-15 typhoons per year, on average. Power and Internet repairs afterward are always prioritised to the business areas, often leaving residential areas without power for days. Our office is in “Cebu” – geographically located in the middle of the Philippines which doesn’t experience the same volume of typhoons as Manila, for example.
Bottom line, if you’re just launching a new business, and need some assistance here and there, then perhaps the work from home model or even Fiver / Upwork is all you really need.
But ultimately if you’re looking to grow your business and have staff an integral part of your operations (and why wouldn’t you?), then you really need the reliability and redundancy of managed service. Focus on the big picture, work ON your business, not IN your business by systemising, automating and outsourcing.
