The Philippines boasts a diverse and extensive talent pool, with a population of over 105 million and a strong emphasis on education. The growth of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry has led to a shift towards skill sets in demand by Western organizations, resulting in a genuine alignment between industry demand and graduate skills. With a median age of 25.7 years, the supply of talent is unlikely to be an issue in the near future.
However, due to the country's strong cultural legacy, many skills are "Americanized" (the “z” is on purpose) to some extent.
The Significance of Education
From 1899, the Philippines was a US colony for about 80 years, during which the US established an education system modeled on its own, with English as the medium of instruction. College education is highly valued in Filipino society.
Graduate Talent
Most degrees relevant to the VA industry are of reasonably high quality, and graduates possess valuable skills. However, like new graduates worldwide, their job-ready skills can be limited, and their technical proficiency may be less than that of a local hire. The many benefits of working with Filipinos often outweigh these initial deficiencies.
Experience
While the offshoring industry is mature in the Philippines and experienced talent is available across many skill sets, Australian experience is relatively rare. However, for SME offshoring, success is more about the processes you offshore and their implementation, rather than the experience of the talent executing them. Start with basic tasks and build from there, as offshoring is about finding suitable talent for appropriate processes, rather than replacing an entire role.
Highly Technical Roles
Experience plays a significant role in highly technical positions, such as software or application development. In these cases, the full spectrum of experience can typically be sourced, with wages and conditions varying accordingly.
For such roles, consider a supported work-from-home arrangement to access the broadest possible pool of candidates, without limiting talent availability due to geographic constraints. This option allows you to leverage the benefits of a managed employee solution without compromising on talent availability.