Questions About Our Service
Ascendia Works Next generation offshore outsourcing to help the modern company scale. This includes:
Ascendia Works’ leadership team has been successfully outsourcing work to the Philippines since 2008. In truth, anyone can hire an offshore employee but if you rely on the expertise and experience of someone that’s outsourced multiple teams over the past 15 years you are going to find the process hassle-free and avoid the typical mistakes that can hold back an offshore team from doing their best work.
Ascendia Works can help you build the business case and identify the tasks and processes in your business that are fit for purpose for sending offshore. Once you have a strategy in place, then Ascendia Works can help you prepare and get offshore ready by drafting the offshore team’s job descriptions (in terms that make sense for the local Philippines market) and help with documenting the processes for your offshore team to perform. Once your business is offshore-ready we can help you go to market to find your offshore outsourcing partner. Finally, we can then help transition your Australian team to the new way of working with a remote team.
Yes, you can rely on the advice of an outsourcing offshore provider. Many of the providers in the market have deep experience in helping clients make the transition to using an offshore team. However, the process of meeting with various providers and doing the required due diligence to make your own assessment of which provider to use can be very time-consuming. Also, there are many things that you would need to consider which are unique to running a team in the Philippines that you may have not been exposed to before. Using an Ascendia Works Consultant allows you to make a more informed decision, makes the process hassle-free, frees up your time so you can focus on managing your business, and maximises the chance that you’ll be successful at establishing and operating your offshore team.
There are fixed fees for each phase of work you would like us to undertake. For instance, if you are establishing a team in the Philippines for the first time, then you might consider using your Ascendia Works Consultant to 1) build the business case including identifying those processes in your business that are fit for outsourcing offshore, 2) help you get offshore-ready, 3) select an offshore outsourcing partner, 4) help you transition your Australian team to the new way of working. If you have an existing team and they are not meeting your expectations, you may consider using the Ascendia Works Optimisation program to improve the performance of your existing outsourced team.
Timelines can vary significantly subject to the speed at which you can build a strategy, get offshore ready and then go to market to find a partner. Once you have chosen your offshore partner and started the recruitment process it typically takes 4 weeks to make your first hire. This is generally subject to their notice period with their current employer - often a minimum of 4 weeks in the Philippines but can be negotiated down. So, from start to finish it can take 4 to 8 weeks. It also depends what type of talent you require. For example, engineers can take longer, whereas administrative staff can take less time.
Yes. Often businesses setting up an offshore team overlook some fundamental issues that will affect their team’s performance. Again, many of the issues you face in the Philippines are new to Australian business executives and they need advice on how best to address these. We can often (but not always) improve the performance of a client’s offshore team without replacing outsourcing providers or changing team members.
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Ascendia Works has a proprietary methodology for building and supporting your offshore team called the Ascend Method ™. The Ascend Method is a tried and tested way to maximise your offshore team’s success. It includes:
- Mapping the function and process fit for your outsourced team.
- Building a plan to find and attract high quality talent.
- Deciding your offshore team's remuneration.
- Establishing KPIs, reporting and an operating rhythm for your offshore team.
- Maximising your offshore team's engagement and productivity.
- Addressing the challenges with transitioning to the new way of working with a remote team.
Australian corporations have been outsourcing work to the Philippines since the 1990s. Later, in the early 2000s, small businesses started outsourcing work to the Philippines. Outsourcing work offshore is a mature and proven business strategy to help scale your business. What’s unique to the Philippines is the neutral accent and English-speaking skills, depth of talent available, the favourable time zone (being only 2 to 3 hours’ time difference, subject to daylight savings) and the hard-working ethics of Filipino employees.
We pass back the direct cost of your offshore employees including their salary and benefits charged per month, plus a monthly charge for your offshore employees IT Equipment Rental Fee plus a monthly Service Fee which includes all the things that Ascendia Works does to maximise the success and performance of your offshore team.
Thus, Offshore Talent as a Service (OTaaS) = Salary plus Employee Benefits + IT Equipment Rental Fee + Service Fee.
Our pricing is super transparent, and always clearly shows how much your offshore staff are being paid, including government benefits. The “Service Fee” includes many things, including:
Thus, Offshore Talent as a Service (OTaaS) = Salary plus Employee Benefits + IT Equipment Rental Fee + Service Fee.
Our pricing is super transparent, and always clearly shows how much your offshore staff are being paid, including government benefits. The “Service Fee” includes many things, including:
- Ensuring your employees are paid in a timely and compliant manner (which is no small undertaking given the World Bank ranks the Philippines in 95th place for ease of doing business),
- HR support to address performance issues,
- A customer success team member who helps address any issues you have, ensuring you make the best use of your time,
- IT Support to keep the lights on, manage IT security and address any IT issues your remote team might encounter.
Our Offshore Talent as a Service (OTaaS) is an end-to-end work from home (WFH) outsourcing solution that allows our clients to focus on getting work done by their offshore team, without having to deal with a myriad of issues that can affect your outsourcing team’s performance and engagement.
If you have specific requirements - for example, in terms of your remote employees’ technology set-up beyond our standard specifications - there is an additional cost for this.
If you have specific requirements - for example, in terms of your remote employees’ technology set-up beyond our standard specifications - there is an additional cost for this.
No. We are 100% a work from home (WFH) delivery model for the right reasons. Simply said, high quality talent wants and often needs to work from home. There are many benefits to employees of working from home, specifically in the Philippines. Peak hour traffic starts at 7am and goes to 7pm in Metro Manila, Philippines. Given the high cost of real estate in Manila, staff would have to otherwise travel 2 hours to get to and from work for a total of 4 hours travel time per day. Simply put, working from home can put 4 plus hours back in your offshore staff’s working day. There are many other reasons why the work from home (WFH) movement in the Philippines is here to stay.
Work that is repetitive in nature or process-oriented is perfect for a Filipino workforce. However, it’s not limited to that. For example, you can also have software or website development work undertaken. We have identified over 37 roles – and counting - that are “fit for purpose” for sending work offshore.
Timelines can vary significantly subject to the speed at which you can build a strategy, get your business offshore ready, and then go to market to find a partner. Once you have chosen your offshore partner and started the recruitment process it typically takes 4 weeks to make your first hire, subject to their notice period with their current employer (which is often a minimum of 4 weeks in the Philippines but can be negotiated down). So, from start to finish it can take 4 to 8 weeks. It also depends what type of talent you require. For example, engineers can take longer, whereas administrative staff can take less time.
You need to make sure you get your brief right. The amount of talent readily available in Metro Manila varies significantly depending on the roles you are looking to fill. For example, there is an abundance of accountants in the Philippines, whereas engineers with specific skills are less common. You need to draft the job description in such a way that it makes sense to a Filipino candidate. Filipino talent is often motivated by different things and this needs to be reflected in your job advertisement. It’s normal practice to administer a technical test during the candidate application process. This can range from something simple like a typing test to something more complex like a technical test for an engineer. This information can be supplied to your hiring manager coupled with the candidate's resume for consideration during the hiring process.
It rarely happens that you cannot find a suitable candidate for your company if you get the brief right, the hiring process right and have realistic expectations. For example, if you want to hire a full stack developer with 10-years’ experience for $2,000 a month in salary, you are not going to find one! 🙂
Ascendia Works uses its best endeavours to keep our client’s information confidential. Also, your agreement has a clause whereby Ascendia Works has no interest in your intellectual property. Furthermore, each offshore team member has a confidentiality clause in their employment agreement and their employee manual. The Philippines government supports the outsourcing industry with punitive penalties for theft of information. At a practical level we also use technology that monitors your remote employees’ systems (only during work hours) and provides us with the ability to remotely lock down their workstation or laptop. Taking into account the legal and practical measures we use, the standards to which we hold ourselves accountable are often higher than those applied to most remote employees based in Australia.
You, the client, of Ascendia Works. We provide the talent, the infrastructure and support functions to give your offshore team every chance of success. Our model allows our clients to directly task their remote team, which is no different from you working with a remote employee in Australia.
There are a number of things that can affect your team’s ability to be productive during their working day, ranging from the wet season (with the excessive rain and storms), earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, protests, power outages, internet outages, laptop failure and so on. This is why you use an outsourcing partner in the Philippines to do the heavy lifting and manage these potential issues should they occur.
There are several direct costs associated with hiring a remote employee that will be unfamiliar to businesses establishing and operating an offshore team for the first time. For instance, offshore employees in the Philippines quote their salary in terms of their “monthly basic salary” rather than an annual salary like in Australia. A highly experienced customer service representative might earn 30,000 PHP a month in “monthly basic salary”, otherwise known as gross monthly salary. Then there are several government-mandated contributions that both your remote employee and employer (Ascendia Works) pay on behalf of your offshore employees. These will be detailed on your quote to the nearest PHP to give you complete transparency of how much your remote employee is being paid and the benefits they have access to. Another benefit is employer sponsored healthcare coverage with a Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO).
The Government owned PhilHealth provides limited health insurance coverage and HMO providers bolster the level of coverage.
The Philippines government run healthcare coverage provider is called PhilHealth which is limited in the amount of coverage it provides, when compared to Medicare in Australia. Thus, it's more commonplace to provide company sponsored healthcare coverage from a Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), which bolsters an employee's healthcare coverage.
A standard working week in the Philippines is 40 hours. Anything beyond that, or more than 8 hours per day, attracts a 25% premium for overtime. So, it’s best to structure your remote employees’ working schedules around an 8-hour working shift. Due to the time difference between Australia and Manila (two to three hours depending on daylight savings) it is very common for your team to start working at 6 am or 7am in the morning, Manila time, which is 9am Sydney time. Please bear in mind it’s important to work in the same time zone to task work, check your remote employees understanding what you’re asking them to do, and address any issues or questions that may arise during the working day. This ensures your team is as productive as possible without them having to wait to address questions or issues the following day (as is the case when you work with remote employees in different time zones).
The Filipino labour code dictates that your remote employee is entitled to two paid time 15 minutes breaks throughout the day and a one-hour lunch, which is unpaid time. That means an employee who starts at 9am in the morning Sydney time will finish at 6pm Sydney time.
The Filipino labour code dictates that your remote employee is entitled to two paid time 15 minutes breaks throughout the day and a one-hour lunch, which is unpaid time. That means an employee who starts at 9am in the morning Sydney time will finish at 6pm Sydney time.
Under the Philippines labour code your remote employees are entitled to overtime pay, sick leave, annual leave, public holidays, maternity leave, and other benefits. We detail these in your client agreement. For example, you may need to pay 200% of the normal rate of pay for someone working on a Filipino regular holiday.