Find the Best Talent: Hiring Remote Workers in the Philippines

Talent acquisition teams today find it difficult to hire the right people for open positions. Candidates rarely match role requirements. Jobs need specialized skill sets, technical knowledge, and good work ethic. These factors also differ from position to position and company to company.

As a result, 81% of talent acquisition professionals face challenges in hiring top candidates, according to the Employ Quarterly Insights Report. In 2024 alone, there is a global talent shortage of 75%, according to ManpowerGroup.

However, you can overcome today’s common challenge of finding the right people for your team. Consider top-tier talent in the Philippines. 

Hiring remote workers in the Philippines has been a viable solution for talent shortages worldwide. You may enjoy several benefits as outlined below. You can also look at what you need to know when hiring Philippine work-from-home talent.

5 Advantages of Hiring in the Philippines

1. Affinity to Western Businesses

Given the Philippines’ rich history, Filipinos have highly adapted to Western culture. They are highly exposed to Western media. Their Western affinity allows them to adapt easily and quickly to businesses in major English-speaking markets. Filipino remote workers know how to synergize with teams located in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, for example.

Hiring writers in the Philippines and other talent allows you to spend less time with employee training. Your team becomes more efficient due to flexible Filipino workers. You can expect your Philippine-based people to get jobs done without much overhead.

2. Access to Specialized Talent Pools

Philippine remote workers are highly educated and skilled individuals. Such a specialized labor pool placed the Philippines as one of the top preferred locations for outsourcing, according to  Deloitte’s 2023 Global Shared Services and Outsourcing Survey. Their technical skills and know-how have proven valuable for many teams worldwide.

You can tap into this specialized work pool in the Philippines. The most outsourced positions to Filipino candidates include full-stack web developer, tech support, customer service representative, graphic designer, and more.

Read more: Why You Should Hire Remote Workers in the Philippines?

3. High English Proficiency

Work-from-home talent in the Philippines are not only immersed in Western culture. Filipino remote workers also have strong English proficiency. They are even quick to adapt to location-based English.

Education First (EF) ranked the Philippines 20th out of 113 countries for English proficiency. In Asia, the Philippines ranked only second to Singapore.

4. Strong Cultural Values

Leaders today place equal importance on team values and culture as on technical expertise. Hardworking attitudes, adaptability, and engaging personalities have become valuable elements of team efficiency and synergy.

Hiring in the Philippines gives you access to such values and more. Philippine workers are known to be compassionate, respectful, resilient, innovative, and resourceful. A Filipino team adds these inherent Filipino cultural values to your company’s advantage.

5. All-Day, All-Night Services

Due to the popularity of Philippine workers for outsourcing and offshoring services, many work in different time zones. They are amenable to night-shift duties to cater to businesses in the US and UK. Australian businesses also have the advantage of being near the Philippines. Perth shares the same time zone, while Sydney is only two hours ahead.

Regardless of your location, you can trust a remote Filipino team. They can overlap with your work hours for better communication and collaboration. They can also get the work done within the time you need it accomplished.

How Do You Hire Filipino Remote Workers?

Even with your headquarters far away from the Philippines, you can easily reach prospective Filipino talent. Statista ranked the Philippines at the top in Asia Pacific for the most time spent online. 

Because of this, you can reach and tap Philippine labor prospects through online platforms. Many Filipinos spend time on Facebook groups and LinkedIn for employment opportunities. Some employers also use hiring platforms in the Philippines to source candidates.

Offshore staffing companies in the Philippines are also reliable options. Through it, you may discover the best people for open positions. They streamline talent acquisition and maximize cost-effectiveness. These providers may also provide administrative services for HR and payroll processes. You can focus instead on your core operations because of these offerings.

What is the Cost to Hire Philippine Talent?

One of the Philippines’ top exports is cost-effective labor. You get the expertise and skills you need at a fraction of the cost of hiring in your country. Despite this low cost, however, it is important to know about the minimum wage and the regular salaries of Filipino remote workers.

The minimum wage in the Philippines varies from region to region. For Metro Manila workers, the minimum wage is PHP 610 or USD 10.81 per day. Other regions have minimum wage standards lower than that of Metro Manila.

On a monthly basis, the regular salary in the Philippines is around PHP 18,423 or USD 326.67 based on the 2022 Occupational Wages Survey. However, specialized personnel such as software developers and accountants earn PHP 70,595 (USD 1,251.77) and PHP 48,982 (USD 868.54), respectively.

To find out the salaries for remote workers in the Philippines compared to your country, you can use an offshore staffing calculator. 

How Do You Pay Filipino Talent?

Philippine remote workers can be paid through bank transfer or payment services. Filipino workers have one or two accounts with major banks in the Philippines. 

They may also have accounts with popular financial applications such as Maya and GCash for local transactions or Payoneer, Wise, Paypal for international transactions. You will find it easy to compensate Philippine workers because of highly accessible financial channels.

What are the Legal Requirements to Hire Filipino Workers?

When hiring offshore staff in the Philippines, you have to comply with specific labor rules provided by Philippine laws. These rules pertain to work hours, night differential, overtime, meal periods, weekly rest periods, and leaves.

Hours of Work and Additional Costs

Under the Labor Code of the Philippines, Philippine remote workers can be required to work for a total of eight hours a day. They must also be given a meal period of not less than 60 minutes. Any required work above those eight hours will be considered overtime work.

Overtime work costs an additional 25% of the worker’s daily wage. In addition, night work will incur an additional 10% of the worker’s base daily wage.

Workers must also be given one rest period of not less than 24 hours a week. Leaves, called service incentive leaves, of five days with pay must also be granted.

Public Holidays to Observe When Working with Filipino Employees

The Philippines has around 10 public holidays and eight special non-working days. Employers who wish to build an offshore team in the Philippines must observe these holidays and special non-working days, aside from the required service incentive leaves.

Remote teams may be required to work on these days. However, their wage rates for these days must be twice their regular daily wages.

How Does Termination Work in the Philippines?

Terminating employees in the Philippines works differently than in other countries. Under the Labor Code, termination initiated by the employer can be done based only on specific just and authorized causes and for serious diseases.

If termination is done based on a just cause, notice of intent to terminate must be given to the worker with evidence of such cause. The worker must then be given at least five days to respond to the notice. A hearing may also be conducted to give the worker a chance to challenge the dismissal. Finally, if the termination pushes through, you must give a final notice to the worker.

If termination is based on an authorized cause, the notice of termination must be given one month prior to actual termination. A separation package must also be given. Severance must be computed at one-month pay or one-month pay for every year of service, whichever is higher.

In case of serious disease, termination may be initiated by the employer. You also have to grant a severance package for termination due to serious disease. The computation will be one-month pay or half-month pay for every year of service, whichever is higher.

Remote workers themselves may also terminate their employment. They must submit a notice one month in advance. You will not be required to pay a severance package in cases like this.

Find Talented People in the Philippines for Your Team

Hiring Philippine work-from-home talent brings you highly skilled and motivated workers. You can build your team through hiring agencies in the Philippines or hiring companies in Manila. 

They can take over your talent acquisition and other HR and payroll processes. They may also help your compliance with Philippine labor rules. You only have to pay cost-effective rates, which ultimately help your company’s bottom line. You get the people you need while keeping costs down.