Monthly Archives: December 2014

December 30th celebrates Rizal Day in the Philippines

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Rizal Day

Rizal Day is a national holiday that celebrates the life of Philippine hero José Rizal. December 30th commemorates the day of his death 1896 after being executed by Spanish military personnel. After the US took control of the Philippines, José Rizal was named a Philippine National Hero a year later making December 30th the holiday to be remembered.

Ensure any employee that have to work on this national holiday are compensated accordingly based on DOLE standards. Feel free to talk to us at PayrollHero.ph and we would be happy to help.

What Restaurants are open Christmas Day in Fort Bonifacio?

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This was going to be a blog post about restaurants that are open for business on Christmas Day, but after quite a bit of digging, it is hard to tell who is open and who is closed.

When I Google “What Restaurants are open Christmas Day in Fort Bonifacio?” the only post that comes up is from Black Sheep confirming that they are open on Christmas Day. But nothing else that talks about restaurants that are open. If you own a restaurant, why not advertise that you are open? Black Sheep made a simple Facebook post and it comes up #1 when I asked Google;
Screen Shot 2014-12-24 at 8.21.43 AMBut where are the rest of them. I’m sure there are many that are open and many people looking for a place to be on Christmas night. Why not make it known that you are open.

We have covered this topic before. From my point of view, many restaurants in the Philippines don’t make the effort to market their businesses online. They leave that to 3rd party companies like MunchPunch, LooLoo and the like. For example, here is a Google search looking for “Todd English, Fort Bonifacio”. You would think their website would come up #1, but it is all 3rd party services. Here is what shows up;
Screen Shot 2014-12-24 at 8.28.28 AMPayrollHero has a couple resources to help restaurant marketing departments up their game. Download these for your team. Let us know if you have questions. 

Here are 10 things your Philippine restaurant needs to have on their website;

Here are 9 ways to promote your restaurant in the Philippines;

Adventure Engineer from the Philippines arrives in Canada

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Another one of PayrollHero’s Adventure Engineers has arrived in Canada. Nico Suria, a Philippine native has moved over to our Whistler office as part of his quest for Canadian Residency. I sent Nico a few questions about his experience thus far (he has been there about 1 week) and here is what he had to say:

1. What was the biggest shock when coming to Canada?
A lot of us Asians, especially ones that haven’t been to Canada before, will say the cold. I’ve spent some time in Ontario as a kid so I don’t have the same problem. But.. yup, it was still the cold. 

Also being able to drink directly from the tap. Melted glacier water is yummy.

2. How do you like the weather?
You really just have to dress correctly and, once I got used to it, I had a great time walking around and just enjoying the sights. There’s something about walking the streets of a city like Vancouver or the forest paths of Whistler, all bundled up and with your breath fogging that I find really pleasant.

3. What do you think of Vancouver?
Rainy. I didn’t get to really go out a lot outside Yaletown, and it was only sunny for an hour the whole time I was there but when it did, it was lovely. Looked like there were lots of interesting places and people everywhere.

4. What do you think of Whistler?
I’ve never lived in a small town but I can definitely say that I like it. The weather’s cold but the people are warm and friendly. The place itself is quite beautiful. They’ve done a great job of designing the town to complement nature instead of just building on top of it. All of this and I’ve never even visited the mountains themselves – which people spend heaps of money just to be around of.

5. What do you miss about the Philippines?
Mostly my family and friends. The food (and prices) too.

6. What Filipino thing did you find in Canada that shocked you? 
Well, Filipino’s themselves! They everywhere. I needed a single envelope for mail but the post office only sold them in 50’s so I went to the UPS store to see if they sold singles. The guy just asked me in Tagalog how many I needed and gave it to me for free.

7. How was the process of getting setup? (SIN number, bank, etc)
Let me just say this: with nobody to show me around much less serve as my ‘fixer‘, I was able to 1) Get a post-paid mobile plan with great data, 2) Get a Social Insurance Number, and 3) Open a bank account – all within 12 hours.

 

Read more about our Adventure Engineers here.

What is an Adventure Engineer, watch below;

We are always hiring.

Singapore Payroll Update

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We announced at the start of November that we will be expanding our payroll platform into the Singapore market soon. Since that announcement we have held a couple Charter Client Events in Singapore where business owners, HR managers and payroll professionals can learn more about our platform and how it will function for the Singapore market. These events have been a big success and we will be holding one more before our official launch into Singapore. So, if you are interested in learning more about PayrollHero’s Singapore payroll platform, contact us now. Our next event will be early January 2015 and space is very limited.

Singapore Payroll Software by PayrollHero

15 Reasons Why You Should Use PayrollHero’s TeamClock iOS

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Here are 15 reasons why you should use PayrollHero’s TeamClock iOS for your time and attendance needs.

  1. Simple, easy to use Time and Attendance tool
  2. It can function offline (for when you have internet interruptions)
  3. Kiosk Mode can include Customer Feedback tool
  4. Kisok Mode can include Apply for a Job tool
  5. Managers can edit schedules right through the app
  6. You can lock down the iPad with Guided Mode (free, part of Apple’s iOS) so employees and customers can’t access other apps
  7. Quality hardware that has the power to operate quickly
  8. Fantastic camera that takes perfect photos
  9. Employees can see their past clock photos on the home screen
  10. Employees can view their upcoming schedules
  11. TeamClock can be set to auto-update
  12. Wifi and cellular option
  13. PayrollHero releases new feature to iOS first
  14. PunchClocks are prone to fraud (ie. buddy punching)
  15. Bio-metric machines are built for a single purpose

Need more reasons? Contact us and we would be pleased to speak with you about your needs and how PayrollHero can help.

12 Reasons Why Emerging Markets Rock

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employee count in the philippines

Most software as a service (SaaS) companies focus on the US market, or other western countries with little regard for emerging markets. While there are definitely challenges with focusing on emerging markets (internet, power, traffic, corruption, to name a few) there are some big advantages.

For example, the above photo was taken at a department store in the Philippines. In this photo, of one of the many areas of the 3 floor department store has no less than 12 employees. For a company like PayrollHero that charges based on employee count, you can see why we like emerging markets. In Canada or the US, if I took the same photo, you would be lucky to see 1 employee.

But it is not all as easy as it seems. These employees are actually not employees of the department store but rather merchandisers who work directly for the brands they are standing beside. So while you might see 12 employees, they most likely work for 12 different companies. Making selling a product or service to them a bit more of a challenge.

But still, employee counts in restaurants, retail, etc are usually much higher in emerging markets due to the cost of labour.

Would you like to learn more about PayrollHero? Contact us and we would be pleased to speak further or visit our country specific websites; Philippines, Singapore with the rest coming soon.

Recap: Youth Entrepreneurship Congress, Naga, Philippines

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I had the honour of being invited by the Camarines Sur Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CSCCI) in Naga, Philippines to speak at their 1st Annual Youth Entrepreneurship Congress Conference. It was an amazing event with over 1000 in attendance from all over the region. My talk was on techno-entrepreneurship in which I told the story of how Mike and I started out working together and how we have progressed over the pat 14 years.

Youth Entrepreneurship Congress, Naga, PhilippinesMy friend and EO forummate Carlo Buenaflor who is the CEO of Bigg’s Diner (check it out, great food) and the Honorary Consul of Spain for Bicol also setup a private event at his residence with a few of the regions top technology startups. It was an intimate event where we got to chat a bit about the region, the challenges of running a startup in a province of the Philippines and how we came to be a payroll platform for emerging markets. All in all an awesome weekend.
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