Someone who submits deliverables late. Check.
Someone who suddenly disappears without a word. Check.
Someone who said he can do things that he actually can’t. Check.
During your outsourcing journey, you may encounter some or all of these incidents, and you’ve probably experienced or heard worse things. The reality is, finding the right person for the job on the first try is rare – very much like love at first sight.
In fact, it’s unlikely that you’ll find the right person for the job on the second or third try.. And when you think you have found the right one, he or she leaves because of whatever reason he or she might have.
And you go through the painstaking process all over again.
So, this brings up the question, should you be discouraged from hiring employees in the Philippines or any countries outside of the United States for that matter?
Well, if you want to miss out on the benefits of outsourcing, go ahead and do an about-face. However, before you do that, you have to realize one thing –
Finding the right person for the job – overseas or otherwise – is not a walk in the park. But the right person for the job is always there.
It All Starts with Your Hiring Process
The reality is, you can’t control how people would behave when you hire them, but you can control systems and processes to ensure that they behave the way you want them to. Why do you think our forefathers invented laws and rules and penalties for those who break them?
It’s the same when outsourcing to the Philippines. You may not necessarily need to impose penalties (or you can), but you have to create systems and processes to weed out the good employees from the bad ones.
And everything starts from your hiring process.
Your Job Ad is Your First Filter
This is why job ads are not written in under five minutes because it’s the first thing that prospective applicants see and it’s the first indication whether you would attract the right person for the job or not.
Take the following examples –
– If you’re going to frontload the compensation you’re going to pay, you will probably attract those who would just work for the money and won’t have real staying power at all.
– A super short, un-detailed job description will attract people who don’t really think through their applications and would apply for every available job out there.
– A really detailed job description would attract very specific candidates, those who know what they’re getting into, and those who would apply for the position because they really want it.
The rule is simple. Post the wrong job and you get the wrong candidates. Post the right job ad and you get the right candidates.
Bring Out the Worst among Applicants during the Interview
The majority of disappointments come from high expectations. You expect your employees to be and do certain tasks and they turn out to not being able to meet those expectations. A lot of employers actually get traumatized because of this and they never gave outsourcing to the Philippines or any country for that matter another chance, missing out on the benefits and advantages of outsourcing.
This is why it is important for you to try to bring out the best and worst out of the applicants during the job interview. Staple interview questions such as “What is your biggest weakness?”, “Cite an example when you did not meet your boss’ expectations”, “What has been your biggest failure so far?” helps you to assess what might be the worst-case scenario when you hire a particular candidate.
If a particular applicant can’t answer these negative questions, don’t hire him or her. Even Donald Trump, Warren Buffet and other world-renowned executives make mistakes. So if an applicant tells you they can’t think of an event when they failed and did not meet expectations, or if they can’t tell you their weaknesses, this applicant is overpromising.
Personality Tests Go a Long Way
When hiring someone, you should determine two things when it comes to his or her personality:
1. Is this applicant a good fit for the company?
2. Is this applicant a good fit for you as their boss?
Using the context of a dating site, you are essentially testing whether a particular candidate is compatible to you and your company.
This is where personality tests can be beneficial. Personality is more difficult to gauge and evaluate than skills. You can’t see personality in a resume and even though you can somewhat get a glimpse of an applicant’s personality during the interview, it’s typically still not enough.
Personality tests provide a scientific approach to evaluating an employee’s personality and tries to quantify it to something that is measurable and can be explained through qualitative interpretation. One of the most popular personality tests used by recruitment experts is the DiSC personality profiling which essentially evaluates a person’s personality using four criteria – dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness.
Before asking applicants to take these personality tests, make sure that you have already taken the same tests yourself. What you have to do is to compare their test results and your test results. Once you have the results, you can basically take two routes.
The first route is to hire someone who has the same results as you. This is if you’re looking to work with someone who thinks and acts like you. Someone who will fuel your ideas. Someone whom you can use as a sounding board for new concepts.
The second route you can take is to hire someone that has certain personality traits that you don’t. For example, if you’re looking for a project manager that can bring some sort of system or organization to your company because you don’t have the personality and the inclination for these nitty-gritty things involved in your daily operations.
Most of these personality tests are paid, but if it could help you find the best person for the job, then it’s definitely a worthwhile investment.
Hire Slow, Fire Fast
You often here experienced outsourcers and recruiters say this. It may sound harsh at first. Everybody deserves a second chance, right?
We agree and we’re not saying that you should fire someone based on one mistake alone. However, you should be quick to identify whether a Filipino virtual employee is no longer helping you and your company grow, and to ultimately make that decision as you see fit.
This also emphasizes the importance of a carefully thought out hiring process, that finding the perfect person for the job takes time. This means that at the helm of your business, you should have a clear grasp of where you are right now and at what point you should start looking for remote employees. Having a plan will prevent you from feeling rushed to hire someone.
Getting Bad Hires is Part of the Process
Hiring the wrong employees for the job can be disheartening, discouraging and can make employers lose faith in outsourcing. However, remember that these bad hires did not come barging into your company. They did not force themselves in.
However, don’t be discouraged. Getting bad hires is all part of the process and you learn and go along. The benefits of outsourcing clearly outweighs these hiring obstacles – no questions asked. It’s really a matter of having systems, checkpoints, filters, and processes to make sure that you attract the right applicants.
The Philippines is a country with a highly skilled and talented workforce. The right person for the job is definitely out there. You just need to beef up your hiring process to find them.