New: Per Shift Overtime

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Stephen Jagger

per-shift-overtime We have rolled out a new feature that will come in very handy for our BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) clients – per shift overtime.

Our overtime system will automatically calculate the amount of hours OT an employee has rendered based on your company overtime rules. Your employees can just clock in and out via one of your clocking devices and when it comes time to generate payroll overtime, ND etc. are all calculated automatically.

However, many of our BPO clients operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They have multiple agents serving clients that are in multiple timezones. We decided that their unique setup required a unique overtime rule.

Today, we rolled out support for per shift overtime as part of our larger automated overtime calculation tool.

This means for employees that work a shift that runs past midnight and start their next shift that same day can be paid for any overtime occurred based on the shift hours, not the total hours within the calendar day.

For example:

Here is how you can see the difference between per shift overtime and per day overtime, both of which are possible in PayrollHero’s Philippine payroll platform.

per shift overtime for bpo

If you are interested in this feature, reach out to our client success team to learn more.

PayrollHero’s purpose built BPO payroll platform is perfect for your operation. We have quite a few specific tools just for the BPO industry. Here are a few more examples of how PayrollHero can help BPOs;

Employees who follow another countries holidays instead of Philippine holidays
Employees who have shifts overnight and how night time differential effects it
Employees who have shifts overnight and one of the days is a holiday

If you are not a PayrollHero client and want to learn more… you can see our offerings here:

Philippines | Singapore | Canada | USA | International

16 Entrepreneur Interviews for you to Learn How To Do Business in S.E. Asia

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Stephen Jagger

southeast asia entrepreneur advice

BPO

BPO Executive: Stefan Vermeulen, CEO of D&V Philippines

Executive Interview: Horst von Wendorff from VKWInc.com

Executive Interview: Nicholas Sinclair, President of the Outsourced Accountant

Certified Profile: Clare Matchett, ServiceSeeking Manila

Executive Interview: Simon Meers, Managing Director, Wint & Kidd Inc (Philippines)

Restaurant

Restaurant Executive: Karla Campos, CEO of Dell’s Foodhall

Restaurant / Retail Executive: Claudine Chan-Cobankiat, Kichitora of Tokyo and Qrius

Executive Interview: Russell Yu, IKI Concepts – a Singapore restauranteur talks about bringing his brands into the Philippines and is unique take on attracting talent.

Restaurant Executive: Adrien Desbaillets, President SaladStop! – a Singapore chain talks about opening in the Philippines and his restaurant expansion.

Restaurant Executive: Andrew Masigan, The Advent Manila Hospitality Group – a Philippine restauranteur talks about his experience growing restaurants in Manila.

Carlo Buenaflor, the CEO of Bigg’s, Inc. Carlo operates 15 restaurants in the Bicol area of the Philippines and is the honorary consul of Spain in the Bicol Region of the Philippines.

Retail

Joey Qua, CEO, Collezione-c2.com with 25 branches nationwide and a growing restaurant business.

Eileen Grey, The Picture Company a 9 location retail chain in the Philippines

General

Executive Interview: Rob Nixon, CEO & Founder of PANALITIX

Executive Interview: Mike O’Hagan of Mike’s Manila Tours

David Elefant: Doing Business in the Philippines

Carlos Celdran on the Philippine Business Environment

Continue reading →

BPO Executive: Stefan Vermeulen, CEO of D&V Philippines

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Stephen Jagger

We continue to profile business owners in the Philippines from all walks of life. From locals to foreigner across the restaurant, retail and business process outsourcing (BPO) industries, each sharing their experience and feedback of operating in the archipelago.

Today, we bring you accounting and payroll BPO executive Stefan Vermeulen, CEO of D&V Philippines.

1. Where are you from and what brought you to the Philippines?
I am born and raised in Nijmegen, a beautiful 2,000 (!) year old small city in the east of the Netherlands, right at the German border. As an internal auditor for Sara Lee in 2000 I was sent to the Philippines to audit the local Sara Lee subsidiaries. I worked on this assignment together with an auditor from EY who 2 years later became my wife. Early 2003 we subsequently moved to the Netherlands. In 2011 we decided to move to Manila because of the business opportunities and to set up D&V Philippines.

2. What does D&V Philippines do?
D&V Philippines is a professional services firm specializing in finance and accounting. Our clients are based in Australia (75%), USA (15%), the UK (5%) and various other countries (Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Hong Kong, New Zealand). In addition we have a unit focusing on local Philippine based clients.

3. Who is your ideal client?
For our international business either a CFO looking to outsource part of the finance and accounting function, an accounting firm looking for an extension of their practice in the Philippines, or an entrepreneur seeking to outsource bookkeeping and accounting tasks.

For our local business, foreigners who want to incorporate and start a business in the Philippines. We serve as their gateway to the Philippines.

4. What common challenges do foreigners come across operating in the Philippines
Mainly cultural differences. In my opinion culture trumps everything so it is really important to understand the culture before you start operating in the Philippines.

5. What services do you provide?
Everything you would expect from an accountant or a bookkeeper. Day-to-day bookkeeping like accounts payable/receivable processing, bank reconciliations, expense report processing and payroll processing and the like, but also higher end services like monthly financial close, monthly reporting, management accounting, financial analysis, business analysis etc. In addition various compliance tasks for our target markets Australia, UK and USA. Our niche is finance and accounting so everything within that realm.

Our local unit also includes setting up a corporation or branch, advice on tax incentives and all (annual and payroll) compliance, except statutory audit.

6. What advice would you give an entrepreneur moving into the Philippines, that you wish you knew before moving to the country?
Understand the culture first prior to engaging and starting a business. Invest time to visit and learn about the country.

7. What do your clients like about using PayrollHero?
Cloud based and technology driven product. Easy to use.

8. What do you read to keep yourself up to date with your industry and the clients you are serving?
Professional literature in the field of finance, controlling and accounting.

9. How do you see your industry changing over the next few years?
The job of a bookkeeper will disappear. Manual data-entry, e.g. accounts payable and expense report processing, will be completely automated. The technology is already available in the cloud. As a result it is possible for startups, for instance, to automate all transaction processing from day one.

10. Any other tips for entrepreneurs opening up in the Philippines?
Philippines is a fantastic and great country with a huge amount of talented people…. I suggest that they visit, explore and take time to get to know the culture.

Continue reading →

Best Ways to Send Money to the Philippines

Posted on October 21, 2015 by

Although industry leaders like Western Union, PayPal, and Moneygram have been dominating the money transfer scene to the Philippines, several startups are giving the incumbents a run for their money. Technology has gradually stripped these companies off of their long-held dominion of cross-border money transfers. These seismic changes, according to the World Bank, has saved developing countries such as the Philippines as much as $16B/year.

If you’re looking to transfer money to the Philippines, you have plenty of options now.

So… What’s the Cheapest and Fastest Way to Send Money to the Philippines?

The straight answer is: IT DEPENDS.

When considering what’s “best” or “cheapest” or “fastest” way to send money to the Philippines, several factors come into play. They include the following:

your current country of origin
the amount of money you’re sending out
your recipient’s preference of receiving the money\s currency (dollars, euros, peso or Bitcoin)
personal preferences of both sender and recipient (turnaround time, accessibility, pickup methods, costs, and customer service)

The crew behind Time Doctor created well laid-out tables comparing hidden fees, currency conversion costs, and the average processing time if you’re sending money from the US, UK, Australia, and Europe.

Your Options in Transferring Money to the Philippines

Whether you’re an overseas Filipino employee who’s looking for the best way to send money to your family back home, a foreign entrepreneur outsourcing local web developers in the country or a foreign firm with a local entity in the Philippines, you can explore the common money transfer options below.

The list is a mix of the most popular to newcomers in the money transfer scene in the country.

PayPal

PayPal is extremely popular in transferring money from anywhere in the world to the Philippines because creating an online account is intuitively simple, fast, and of course, free. Having your account “frozen” for certain “suspicious” reasons is one possible drawback if you’re sending money through this route.

Also, keep in mind that not all banks in the Philippines support fund transfer from PayPal. It could take 2 to 4 business days for the funds to appear in the recipient’s bank account. Lastly, be on the lookout for the additional (often hidden) fees.

A Php50 fee will be deducted from the total amount for transfers to bank accounts of Php 6,999 and below, while it’s free for remittances of Php 7,000 and above.

Coins.ph

Ron Hose, Founder of Coins.ph

Another efficient way for Philippines money transfer is Coins.ph. They make money transfer to the Philippines frictionless and accessible to everyone, even through the use of a smartphone! Based in Manila, Coins.ph is one of the easiest, and most convenient way to send money in the country.

Here’s what Founder Ron Hose has to say:

“With Coins.ph, employers can save up to 70% when paying oversea employee salaries by avoiding wire fees and costly forex charges.

They can send funds over web and mobile to all major banks in the Philippines and Thailand, as well as cash pick-up across 10,000+ retail locations.

With cash deposit facilities via partners across 30 countries, employers can conveniently add funds to their Coins.ph wallets and send payments directly to employees in their own local currency.”

Whether it’s for paying your employees in the Philippines, or for sending monetary gifts to loved ones, Coins.ph is a platform you can explore.

Rebit

Banking on the fact that “no single corporation or entity owns the Bitcoin network”, Rebit offers low transmission fees when transferring money to the Philippines. Their how-it-works page provides an in-depth look of their rates and turnaround times.

In a Reddit post, one of the developers behind the Bitcoin-based money transfer method emphasized:

One important thing that we are doing with Rebit.ph is that we will not be making money off of the USD to Peso exchange rate and will be using the fairest published rate available in the market.

One of Rebit’s advantage is that their prepaid cards make Bitcoin withdrawal a breeze. If you want an easy and hassle-free method of transferring money to the Philippines, Rebit.ph is a good pick.

Transferwise

Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder and CEO of TransferWise

With backing from elite entrepreneur Richard Branson and developed by the same people who built Skype, Transferwise boasts of their extremely low transfer rates – 1% for transfers from the US in USD, 0.5% for most other transfers, and 1% for the Philippine Peso. This is definitely game-changing when pitted against other medium such as PayPal whose extra fees can go as high as 4.5% (currency conversion rates included).

According to Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder and CEO of TransferWise:

“When you transfer money internationally, banks and brokers often hide the real cost so you end up paying more than you thought you were going to. They might say it’s ‘free’ to send your money, but they’ll then apply a mark-up on the exchange rate that they often don’t tell you about.
At TransferWise, we’re always completely transparent about the total charge and we make that as low as we can. We use peer-to-peer technology to get rid of hidden charges entirely, making us much cheaper and faster than using a bank.

We’re making sure that it’s our customers that benefit and not the banking system.”

Xoom

As another web-based money transfer player, Xoom allows your recipient to receive the funds you send through its partner banks in the country ( BPI, BDO, MetroBank, and PNB) and payment centers. They also offer door-to-door delivery or cash pick-up.

Payoneer

With Payoneer, your recipient gets a branded prepaid MasterCard and can withdraw the money on ATMs minus the steep bank fees. You can check their info page for businesses who are looking into paying remote employees. Like Paypal, we recommend verifying for hidden fees (for both sender and recipient.).

Western Union

This option is ideal if your recipient wants to withdraw the funds instantly (money-in-minutes option). Additionally, with roughly 8,000 locations in the country, withdrawing funds is convenient. Money transfers (done via online transaction or in person by visiting agent locations) can be possibly sent to a bank account, Western Union location, or mobile wallet. Fees for each transaction will vary on the amount of money sent and your turnaround time preference.

Final Thoughts

As a business owner, there are many ways to transfer money to the Philippines. Thanks to the ever-advancing technology, plenty of online platforms allow money transfer Philippines to be done with ease.

What other money transfer methods have you used in the past to send money to the Philippines? Why did you choose that option? We’d love to know more about these options (and the rest of our readers as well!) so share ‘em in the comments.

The 8th Annual Proactive Accountants Conference: 12 to 16 July in Bali!

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Pragya Gupta

We recently spoke to Rob Nixon about his software business: Panalitix. It is a software as a service that provides accounting data from small businesses to accountants around the world.

Panalitix has an exciting event coming up that accountants should definitely catch. They are hosting their 8th Annual Proactive Accountants Conference between 12th and 16th of July. The conference will be in Bali, Indonesia. Accountants will get a chance to meet their colleagues, hear some great speakers and attend networking events (and of course, spend time in BALI!).

Jack Daly, will be the keynote speaker. Among other speakers, the conference will feature Keith Abraham, creator of Living with Passion, Daniel Priestley from the program Key Person of Influence, Tamara Trentain, digital marketing expert and Karen Abramson – CEO Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.

Make sure to catch the conference in Bali! 375 accountants have already signed up for the event here.

To know more about outsourcing in the Philippines, you can read our blogposts featuring BPOs like VKW Inc, the Outsourced Accountant and Wint & Kidd. You can check out our executive interview section for all our interviews. You can also read our blog post on doing business in the Philippines, if you are looking for more information about BPOs in the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkFNyLDBzH0

Continue reading →

Executive Interview: Nicholas Sinclair, President of the Outsourced Accountant

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Pragya Gupta

As part of a new series on this blog we will be profiling PayrollHero users to learn more about them, their business, where they go to learn and best practices.

Nick Sinclair is the President of the Outsourced Accountant. The company is a BPO in the Philippines that helps accounting firms in Australia and New Zealand improve their client value added services. We spoke to Nick about his experience in the Philippines.

Tell us about your company.

The Outsourced Accountant is dedicated in helping Australian and New Zealand Accounting firms identify their current workflow blockages and employ the right team on a full-time basis to help them become proactive in client value added services. We are a BPO focused solely on this niche and our offering is unique and not like traditional BPO offerings.

How and when did you realise the need for Australian businesses to outsource accounting?

I visited Manila for an Entrepreneurs Organization board conference approximately 3.5 years ago and I went and spent the day with Mike O’Hagan and saw his operation there, as well as a range of other businesses. This then got my mind racing and I then thought how I could flip my accounting and financial planning business to become more efficient and allow my Australian team to actually add value to clients. This then grew into a business when others in my industry saw what we were doing and didn’t want to reinvent the wheel so we started an outsourcing business based on what frustrated us most with the providers we used in Manila. I understand that most accounting firms are buried in paperwork and process-driven tasks, causing them to lose focus on adding value to clients. We want to help these firms get back to client facing work by having an offshore team who can take care of all the compliance and administration work.

Where are you headquartered?

Our office in the Philippines is situated in Clark Freeport Zone, while our headquarters in Australia is located in Queensland.

How many locations do you have in the Philippines? Why did you choose this location versus other locations that are perceived more conventional (i.e: why Clark over Manila)?

Just one inside Philexcel Business Park in Clark.

I prefer Clark over Manila because it’s a lot quieter and less congested environment. A lot of our team members who live within the region have already worked in Manila, since it’s obviously one of the biggest work environments in the Philippines, but they wanted to come home and live with their families. Here in Clark, it’s easier to get to work as people will not be sitting in traffic for hours. We’re very much about work-life balance with our team over here so we want them to spend more time with their families.

Moreover, Clark is accessible to expressways, has its own international airport, and enjoys a variety of amenities and government incentives. We also have a talent pool of close to 8 million people with very little competition (compared to Manilla and other regions).

What was the biggest roadblock to establishing yourself in the Philippines?

The biggest roadblock was the time that I had to spend being in the Philippines, being away from the family and missing out on school events of the kids as I was constantly away.

The biggest roadblock to setting up in the Philippines is the legislation and getting the right advice as it isn’t straight forward and you need to register with multiple departments and each department needs the others approval. There are lots of experts who charge anywhere from $1500 to $10,000 AUD to provide this advice but a lot of the time they dont know what they are talking about. We struggled until we found a local lawyer, who is well connected and has a wealth of experience and endless connections. The other challenge is no one tells you all the things you need to have to even operate, things like Workplace health and safety approval, fire approval, a company nurse when you hit certain levels of staff. There is a lot more involved then get an office, hire some staff and your off.

6. Was there an unexpected outcome (positive or not) from moving into the Philippines?

The business we now have was an unexpected outcome. We originally did this to service our own firm’s needs, but we have since grown to 180 team members in less than 18 months and I have now sold my accounting and financial planning business to focus on our outsourcing business.
Outsourced Accountant BPO

How do you see this industry changing over the next few years?

I believe the industry is going to go through continued growth, but more BPO’s will start to niche in specific industries rather than be generalist BPO’s as this market is starting to become flooded with new BPO’s.

What were your evaluation criteria before you chose the Philippines? Were there any other countries you were considering?

We had tried outsourcing in India, Vietnam and in Australia (and failed in all). The Philippines wins hands down.

The Philippines has a strong english culture, a strong accounting workforce and an even better number of accounting graduates coming out each year (its one of the main degrees Filipinos complete). The time zone suits perfectly as its only two hours behind for all Eastern states of Australia and the same time zone for Perth.

What do you read to keep yourself up to date with your industry and the clients you are serving?

I don’t get too caught up in the BPO industry information, I focus on what is happening in the accounting industries in Australia and New Zealand. We focus on knowing our client, and talking to them regularly so we can continue to tailor our offering to meet there needs. We aren’t a traditional BPO. We also read a lot of industry information, specifically from industry thought leaders like Rob Nixon.

What advice would you give a businessman moving into the Philippines, that you wish you knew before moving to the country?

It isn’t as easy as some people make it out to be (or it looks to be). I have had so many people say that we have had massive growth and made it look easy, but they don’t see all the work that goes on behind the scenes to deliver what we do. The Philippines isn’t a straight forward place to operate, its very paper based and not technology based which makes it hard. I also would say don’t employ an expat that hasn’t had experience managing a business the size you want to grow to. I have seen many expats that couldn’t manage 50 people in Australia but are managing more than this in the Philippines and failed due to lack of experience. There is plenty of local talent that have significant experience, so look locally (we just hired a gun Country Manager that has over 20 years’ experience managing large operations and he is a gun).

What results that you delivered to your clients are you most proud of?

The growth of our business is testament that we are on the right track. 60% of our current growth is from existing clients putting more people on. We have plenty of case studies on it working for our clients. The comment we get regularly is our team are world class and pick it up quicker than our clients expect them to.

How has PayrollHero helped streamline your business?

First of all, it made timekeeping more convenient. It has let us process calculations accurately, and kept us compliant with tax regulations. It also made it easy to manage and generate reports for government statutory benefits since the required forms are already provided and automatically filled.

The big benefit is our leadership team can login to the system, anywhere in the world to see the stats at a quick glance. The system has allowed us to focus on time and attendance and manage this as one of our business’s key strategic goals, and with tardiness being less than 1% late per day and attendance at 98% average for the year to date it is working (compared to the industry average).

How did you run payroll before you found out about PayrollHero?

Before, we used biometrics door access control system for timekeeping, and we did payroll processing with excel spreadsheets. PayrollHero has certainly sped the process up and made it significantly more trackable and accurate.

14. What convinced you to choose PayrollHero over other payroll software vendors?

The unique TAS (Time, Attendance and Schedule) feature wherein team members have to take selfie photos to clock-in and out plus the good client experience (contact persons are accommodating; quick response time on queries raised) from inquiry to sign-up stage made us decide to go for PayrollHero.

Continue reading →

Executive Interview: Rob Nixon, CEO & Founder of PANALITIX

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Stephen Jagger

Rob Nixon is the CEO and Founder of PANALITIX, a software as a service (SaaS) platform that provides analytical accounting data from small businesses to accountants around the world. Rob does a lot of education work in Australia and New Zealand with accountants and showing them how/why to outsource to the Philippines. We did a question and answer with Rob about his experience with the Philippines.

1. Can you tell me a bit more about yourself and your business?

PANALITIX is a software as a service (SaaS) that provides analytical accounting data from small businesses to Accountants around the world
I have been working with Accountants for 21 years yet I m not one – I left school when I was 16
This is my 8th company and by far the most exciting
I educate Accountants on how to run a better business and how they can help their clients run better businesses
I constantly tell accountants they need to outsource repetitive tasks to lower cost labour in developing countries
I have been outsourcing to India for 4 years and the Philippines for 2 years.

2. Why do Aussie’s outsource to the Philippines?

We love the time zone difference – 2 hours
We love the English speaking abilities
We love the abundance of labour
We love the cost benefit – Australia is 5 times more expensive for the same task when all costs are added

3. What are the benefits?

Definitely cost – 5 times difference
Eagerness to work – the Philippine team member wants to work and they work hard
easy to get along with
The service culture means they want to serve and please their customers

4. What are some of the downsides you have seen with outsourcing?

if you don’t train the new team or give them clear instructions if will not work
you have to initially travel to get the team up and running*

(*Note: Check out our other post about Mike O’Hagan’s Manila tours)

5. What are some of the best practices others should follow?

create good systems so the worker knows what to do
have good quality IT so solid communication can take place quickly
have 100% of systems cloud based – no transfer of files.

6. Do you suggest your clients start outsourcing to a company? or setup their own Philippine company?

Not initially. Go through a BPO and get the hang of working with a remote team.
Then when the team is 20+ think about incorporating.
If you’re going to have a team over 10 people there needs to be management in place to keep them working

7. You talk about “future proofing” – how can more people learn about future proofing their businesses?

My latest seminar tour is in Australia and New Zealand in July & August. Covering 12 cities.
It is designed for Accounting firms and their team members
Full day workshop on how to to future proof the accounting firm and remain relevant.

Continue reading →

Planning on expanding to the Philippines? Here are some helpful resources

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Stephen Jagger

Are you thinking about doing business in the Philippines? With almost 100,000,000 people, mostly English speaking, a fast growing economy and the worlds largest centre for voice based outsourcing – the Philippines is a hot market.

Many business owners are coming to the Philippines looking to setup their restaurant chain, expand their retail business, outsource some of their operations or getting into the outsourcing business themselves.

I have compiled a bunch of resources that will help you along the way with your research of the Philippine market.

BPOs

Simon Meers of Wint and Kidd, tells his story about how he transitioned his Australian business to the Philippines and eventually opened a BPO. Read more about Simon’s story.

Clare Matchett, another Australian shares her story about human resource challenges in the Philippines, how they recruit, hire and manage their team as well as why she learned Tagalog. Read more about Clare’s story.

David Elefant has worked with tons of business owners wanting to setup in the Philippines. He is a fantastic resource to get your setup questions answered. Read more about David and what he is doing in the Philippines.

If your interested in learning more about setting up in the Philippines then check outMike O’Hagan‘s tours. He brings in entrepreneurs looking to see first hand how it all works. Read more about Mike.

Then of course there are questions about taxes, Government organizations, etc. Here are some resources on SSS, PhilHealth, Pagibig and PEZA.

Restaurant / Retail

Adrien of Singapore’s Salad Stop in the the process of expanding his restaurant chain into the Philippines. Read more about his adventure.

Eileen Grey, a business women in the Philippines who has grown The Picture Company into a multi-location success story. Read more about her experience here.

Andrew Masigan talks about his restaurant chain in the Philippines and how he got started. With 14 stores open and 2 more on the way, Andrew has some great experiences to share about operating in the Philippines.

Here is a video we shot a while back with startup founders and other stakeholders as to why they think the Philippines is a great place to do business.

Executive Interview: Simon Meers, Managing Director, Wint & Kidd Inc (Philippines)

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Stephen Jagger

As part of a new series on this blog we will be profiling PayrollHero users to learn more about them, their business, where they go to learn and best practices.

Last week we spoke with Clare from SeekingService, this week is Simon Meers, Managing Director, Wint & Kidd Inc (Philippines). We asked Simon a few questions and his responses are below:

1. What brought you to the Philippines?
We were in the process of implementing a new ERP system for our company in Australia (Air-Met Scientific); we had a database of some 30,000 customer records that needed to be cleaned up before we uploaded it into our new system. I was looking for a team to do that and all roads were leading to the Philippines. I employed 5 or 6 people in 2013 to undertake that work and having successfully completed that task I realised that my team in the Philippines could undertake other activities to support my business. I currently have 14 team members providing support services in data management, sales and marketing, technical service support, website SEO and content management.

2. Tell us about Wint and Kidd?
Recently we moved to a larger office and incorporated a local entity in the Philippines (Wint and Kidd), WK is a boutique BPO for my business (Airmet) and we are offering that service to other Australian businesses. We currently have capacity for 45 employees and 14 are employed to service Airmet.

3. What is the background on the company name?
Albert “Wint” and Charles “Kidd” are fictional characters (villains) in the James Bond novel, and the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever in the James Bond series. They are referred to in the novel and the film as “WINT and KIDD”, and act as enforcers for the smuggling chain of the Spangled Mob. It is their mission, amongst other things, to make sure the smuggling of diamonds, and everything connected to it go off without a hitch. I am a fan of the movie and the in particular the era of movies produced in the 70’s. In addition the name sounds like a professional consulting company.

4. What makes your company different?
At Wint and Kidd we believe that outsourcing or off-shoring should be used to transform a business not necessarily replace elements of it. We want to support businesses to deploy new ideas with ease, try new concepts without it being cost prohibitive, redirect key members of their current team to high pay off activities. There are other companies that provide outsourcing in the Philippines. They may share the same basic broad concept, but our partners work with us because of the people we provide and how our services are delivered. We understand that outsourcing must be efficient, effective and highly professional to succeed; we set out to connect people with what matters most — the experience for them and their customers.

5. When it comes to HR policies, what do you different that your employees love?
The Philippines employment law is very well established, in addition to meeting all our employment obligations we encourage our team members to work with energy and passion, to take responsibility and get involved in our continual improvement processes. Our offices are spacious and we have the latest technology, we promote a friendly and family atmosphere which is very important in the Filipino culture. We celebrate birthdays and other significant events; this encourages loyalty and a sense of belonging to an organisation that is genuinely interesting in the well being of its team members.

6. Where do you go for learning? (ie. what blogs, magazines, papers, etc do you read, watch)
I am a member of a CEO group which meets monthly to share experiences, I typically have 4 or 5 business books on the go at once because I find that most books should be only 100 pages long yet they pad them out for “perceived” value so I tend to skim them and move from one to the other. I have basically given up on watching commercial television; I get my fix from subscriptions to Netflix, Stan and dedicated sports streaming services. I was a “news hound” but to be honest it was just putting stress on my life and suffocating me with bad news stories so I just stopped watching the news and now just read my iPad over breakfast to keep up with the headlines.

7. Android or iPhone?
I started with the iPhone some years ago and have continued to support that product; I find it easy and intuitive.

8. Where do you find most of your talent? (which job site? what tactic do you use, etc?)
I tend to find people rather than advertise and hope that they can find me. I typically use LinkedIn to find people and then reach out for a conversation around opportunities. I use DISC profiling to ensure that any candidates are really well suited to the roles I have on offer.

9. What does 2016 look like for Wint and Kidd?
We will grow our services and continue to add real value to more businesses in the Australian market. My personal bent is business renovation and change management, I never stop looking for ways to improve my own business; I want to share my experiences and assist others.

10. Who is your ideal client?
We love clients who are looking to make real structural change to how they operate. Anyone can shift a bit of work offshore, we are not interested in clients who just want an ego boost by being able to say that they have a VA, we are in the business of driving measurable results, and our business is only as good as the experience we provide for our clients; we specialise in business transformation and my team in the Philippines is only one piece of that puzzle.

11. What was the biggest challenge when you setup in the Philippines?
There are so many layers of government that want a piece of the action and relationships between each group fragmented. Often you need to ask the same question in three different ways before you land in the right place.

12. What was the biggest positive surprise when you setup in the Philippines?
There is an enormous pool of talent in the Philippines and no shortage of human capital coming onto the market. The Filipino culture is one of resilience and this makes them ideal operators for contact or call centre work applications. Filipinos understand our culture; they get our jokes and share many of our values. They are a largely “Christian” based society which means they celebrate and share most of our religious holidays which is very convenient. The time zone is only 2 hours difference from the Australian East coast and is identical to the Australian West coast.

13. What were you doing before PayrollHero (for your hr tools) and how is it now with PayrollHero?
When I set up Wint and Kidd I wanted to leverage the best technology available, all my systems use cloud based software and PayrollHero was an obvious choice. It provides me with the visability I need when I am back in Australia, the system allows my internal accountant to maximise her time and the integration with the statutory bodies is very convenient.

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Executive Interview: Mike O’Hagan of Mike’s Manila Tours

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Stephen Jagger

As part of a new series on this blog we will be profiling executives that are working to help entrepreneurs and business owners expand into new markets.

Mike O'Hagan We spoke with David Elefant a while back about doing business in the Philippines, today is Mike O’Hagan who conducts tours of Philippine BPOs to Australians who are interested in setting up their operations in the Philippines.

1. Can you tell me more about your business (tours)?
Every 2-3 weeks, I bring 6 Western business owners to the Philippines where I teach and show them “how to offshore”, all the alternatives with the do’s and don’ts. They range from pre-start-ups, micro, small, medium, large and even listed companies.

There are seven different offshoring solutions – I teach all seven. We cover back office process, specialised services and manufacturing.

I also give them a massive dose of entrepreneurship.

The business is called MikesManilaTours and was started 3 years ago. I started after I made many mistakes when establishing a couple of offshored teams here and after observing many others making the same mistakes.

My role is to educate – as opposed to showing them their prefect solution. That is why unlike other offshoring tours where commissions are involved, my tours are unbiased and are designed to equip business owners with enough information about the good and bad sides of offshoring in order for them to make a wise decision for their business.

2. Why do you like the Philippines so much?
Offshoring is a worldwide trend. The mantra is make it in the east, sell it in the west. I’ve been involved in Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Russia and Ireland. They have their points but none match the Philippines for friendly, helpful well educated people. The Philippines government is backing the industry and making in easy to operate. The country is stable and easy to access.

3. Why is the Philippines a good market for Australian companies to outsource to?
Worldwide, the Philippines stands out due to over 100 years of education in English with Christian core values combined with 3rd world wages and massive numbers of workers. When aligned with the internet/cloud computing and allowed any sized western business to access these educated workers, the Philippines is a unique and very attractive opportunity.

The same time zone as Western Australia means we generally employ between 6am and 3pm when the biggest player, USA, who employ 75% of the 1 million plus workers engaged in offshoring, employ from 10pm until 4am. This means that Australian businesses don’t need to deal with night differential wage adjustments for their off shored workers.

The workplace culture of Australians also suit the Filipino work ethics.

4. What is the biggest benefit to the Philippines?
It’s the new export. Money coming into the economy, directly into the households – whilst only giving their time and education in return. For years, the Philippines has been struggling with the supply of jobs. Australian businesses offshoring to the Philippines help the country elevate the unemployment problem by providing job opportunities for Filipinos.

I also feel there’s something in – how can we alleviate poverty? Employ them!

5. What is the biggest challenge for Australian companies setting up in the Philippines?
Misinformation. A lot of Australian companies set up in the Philippines without fully understanding what they’re getting themselves into. They fail to understand the different ways they can engage services / solutions, fail to comprehend the education levels and skill gaps in Filipino manpower, and they fail to allot time to understand the culture differences.

MikesManilaTours is structured to overcome these issues.

6. What resources do you consume (and suggest people consume) for learning about HR in the Philippines? (newsletters, blogs? magazines?)
I learn from other business owners. I do this in closed confidential type groups where we share all. My favorite is EO – Entrepreneurs Organisation. I’m very careful with blogs. I place more trust in the personal trustee Filipino staff than most of what’s written online.

7. What area of the Philippines do you suggest people setup their BPO in and why? (Fort, Makati, Pasig, etc)
Manila is typical of capital cities (worldwide) in a way that it attracts the smarter graduates who come for the better opportunities with higher wages. They then discover transport and higher costs dilute the dream. Today, large Aussie businesses are also poaching staff in NCR.

If you need people with high level skills – then Manila is the best choice for you. If your needs are common skills then the provinces are far better. Lower wages, more loyalty with the staff.

8. How many tours do you do a year?
I have 6 other businesses in 4 countries so I run the tours when I’m available. Numbers may be a better way to measure this – to date we have brought over 320 people up. Many have multiple business interests – no idea how many. We estimate we have created about 5000 jobs.

9. How many of your attendees actually end up setting up in the Philippines?
My numbers are a little warped by “Accountants”. Of the 320 about 100 were accountants who notoriously are not very entrepreneurial. About 25% of the accountants do something in the Philippines. Of the remaining 220 people, about 83% take action after the tour. Usually they move some of their processes, then discover they can create more value by developing and adding new processes to their business – some engage specialised services – a few create entirely new businesses from the opportunities that they have realised when they went on tour.

10. What is the most important thing to keep in mind when deciding to do business in the Philippines?
Trust. You must know who to trust. There are many “advisors” who are biased with their advice due to commissions and directed agencies. Every week, I’m finding Aussies in trouble because they received the wrong advice – they didn’t fully understand all the alternatives.

11. any other thoughts? tips? feedback?
Learn before you do. Nothing beats coming to the Philippines and seeing for yourself how it all works – where the big gains can be made.
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