Understanding the Philippines

Building a high-performing offshore team can be harder than you expect, and success starts with understanding the culture you’re working with. Here are some of the principles you need to nail in order to build strong working relationships in the Philippines.

Insider tips for working effectively with Filipinos

Filipinos are renowned for their friendliness, their tight-knit family communities, and their unstoppable work ethic. So far, so true! But to effectively work with Filipino teammates, it helps to dig a bit deeper to understand their culture and how this impacts work practices and norms.

In this video, we asked 5 ELK Senior Manager of Culture and Engagement (and proud Filipino woman) Shayne, to give us her insider tips for working effectively with Filipinos. We think you’ll enjoy her insights!

How to win when offshoring in the Philippines

Building a team in the Philippines might be the best decision you ever make for your business. But to make it work, it’s important not to underestimate the cultural differences that exist between your new teammates and your existing office mates.

We caught up with Mike Grogan of Kaizen Leadership Asia, a Philippines-based business coach who helps international business leaders to build teamwork and boost productivity in their Filipino teams.

Here’s Mike’s top tips on building a winning team in the Philippines.

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How to win when offshoring in the Philippines

Here's how to connect with your Filipino team

When you are working with an offshore workforce, the difference between ‘good’ and ‘great’ often depends on how ‘onboard’ your team is. But how do you create this feeling of connection to your team, clients, and results?

According to Mike Grogan, CEO of Kaizen Leadership Asia, our upbringing, education, and environment significantly impact our behaviours, belief systems, and attitudes. As such, you can expect that working with a team in the Philippines will bring some challenges… but nothing that a good dose of compassion and common sense cannot solve.

Here’s how it’s done.

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How to harness the strengths of your Filipino team

The Western and Filipino workplaces both bring their own unique strengths to a business. In general, we see businesses struggle when they expect their Filipino teammates to be more like them. On the flipside, the businesses that thrive are the ones who harness the strengths of their team in the Philippines and combine them with what their local team are already doing well.

So what are these differences in working styles, and how can you harness them to nail it when working offshore?

In this article, you can find the best tips on avoiding common mistakes and creating better alignment between the gifts that your domestic and international teammates are both able to offer.

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How to harness the strengths of your Filipino team

Collaborating better across borders - How to strengthen your offshore working relationship

Ever have a work issue become a bigger deal than in needed to be? Maybe something started out as a simple misunderstanding and ended up as a major drama. The fact is, in every relationship (at work and at home), sometimes what is SAID is not always the same as what is HEARD.

When you are working with teammates in a different timezone and a different cultural frame of reference, there’s even more room for a communication misfire. Here’s how to take account of your teammates’ cultural differences to ensure that your message is heard and your collaboration stays on track.

Our Offshoring Toolkit

Whether you’re still unsure about offshoring or want some tips on how to do it the right way, we’ve got you covered.

Our toolkit encompasses over 10 years of client best practices and lessons learned. Your journey to offshoring like a pro starts here.

Offshoring Myths

It’s common to have some initial reservations about offshoring. So we wanted to set the record straight and give you a different perspective on some of the common mistruths that we hear about building a global team.

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The ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of offshoring

There are so many tasks that you can send offshore and so many ways to do it, that it can all feel a little overwhelming at first. In this section, we’ll cover your options for offshoring so you can decide which one suits you best.

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Hiring 101

You’re probably not hiring staff in the Philippines every day but thankfully, we are! So there’s no need to reinvent the recruitment wheel; take a look at our processes and templates so you can minimise risk and maximise the quality of your next offshore hire.

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Offshoring the right way

We’ve worked with hundreds of businesses in our 10+ years of running 5 ELK. In this section, we share what separates the best from the rest when it comes to offshoring. Save time and hassle by copying best practice and learning from common mistakes.

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Essential Technology

Working effectively remotely is so much easier when you get the technology right. In this section, we share the tech that powers our client offshore teams so you can communicate well, monitor workflow and minimise risk.

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About 5 ELK

Whether you are looking to reduce costs, hire faster or free up your local team, 5 ELK can help you build an offshore team safely, seamlessly and successfully. In this section, you’ll find out more about the ‘nuts and bolts’ of working with us.

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What Our Clients Say

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   Stephen T 
 
 
 
  5elk takes away all your concerns about outsourcing work overseas.  They fully understood where they can be of benefit to our business, seeked the right candidate for us and then carried out all the necessary initial training for us so the person was ready to make a good start.  5elk gave us good communication and helped us through the whole process with good engagement and professionally. We have felt we have been in good hands. Our outsourced person is going very well for us.  5elk make it all easy.
  
 
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   chino chua 
 
 
 
  Our company has worked with 5 ELK for more than five (5) years now as it's back-office service provider.  I can definitely say that our company would not be where it is right now without 5 ELK.  They are our most valued strategic business partner and is integral to our company's growth.  I love how they value all their employees by providing them with their world-class training program and meaningful employee engagement activities.  I would highly recommend 5 ELK to any financial services company who is looking to outsource and build their own high-performing team here in the Philippines.
  
 
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   Mark Chan 
 
 
 
  5Elk are the very best outsourcing business for Wealth Management. Would highly recommend their services.  Highly Professional team, great support, great training and amazing team culture!
  
 
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   Geoff Ivanac 
 
 
 
  I was looking for a way to create more time for myself to focus on growing my business and explore other opportunities when I kept being dragged back to client work. I was thinking of a marketing outsource solution, but I eventually decided to engage 5 Elk after having a great conversation with Danielle and Andy and seeing how they could help. Our Administration Support was matched perfectly to our needs and has enabled us to improve the quality of our work, freed me from some time-consuming tasks and enable me to focus on seeing clients and marketing which I enjoy.  I am enjoying the regular check ins and being able to impart my wisdom and am hoping this will be a long-term solution for us. It also has helped to have someone to bounce ideas off as I prepare for client meetings. If you caught between a rock and hard place and not sure what to do to grow your business and still be relevant in an ever-changing advice landscape, I highly recommend you contact 5 Elk for a chat about your needs.
  
 
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   George Tsakiris 
 
 
 
  We previously worked with another outsourcing provider, and I was initially hesitant to switch to 5ELK, assuming all firms were similar. I couldn’t have been more mistaken. The leadership and virtual assistants at 5ELK have truly exceeded our expectations. Their service is exceptional, and we’ve been so impressed that we’ve expanded our VA team. I wholeheartedly recommend 5ELK without reservation.
  
 
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   chris klimatsakis 
 
 
 
  The team at 5 ELK are great and always strive to deliver the best possible service and outcome.
  
 
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   Sam Coutts 
 
 
 
  18 months ago, we decided that our financial planning business had reached a point where extra support was needed to handle to growing pains we were experiencing.

Had long toyed with the idea of offshore support but had heard a few horror stories that made us reluctant to pull the trigger. In the end, we did out due diligence and approached 5 Elk for support.

The team was wonderful from the start, took us through the on boarding process seamlessly and actively found us a candidate most suitable to our business, based off of the characteristics that were most valuable to us.

Were at the point now in which our offshore team member has been continuously learning and progressing through our business, no different to what you would expect from a local team member.

5 Stars - will be expanding in the near future.
  
 
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   Alec Berry 
 
 
 
  5Elk have been a pleasure to work with and the quality of work and communication have been fantastic. It's great to know that you have a business that understands financial advice partnering with you.
  
 
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   Amanda Cassar 
 
 
 
  5Elk have been an invaluable resource for the Wealth Planning Partners team.  We have 2 weekly team meetings to check in and all the background training is done for us.
5Elk make offshoring easy, simple and secure.
Happy to recommend to any financial advisory firm looking for an outsourced solution.
  
 
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   Mitch W 
 
 
 
  5ELK has provided a great platform to connect advice firms with support staff that are engaged and keen to learn. Starting with a baseline knowledge of the industry via the training program is also a positive. Highly recommend.
  
 
  
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