Steady work has lots of clout for workers in the outsourcing world, but so does money.  A well paid, happy worker will more likely remain productive and loyal to you.  A minimally paid worker may get disgruntled and will probably be continually looking for better opportunities.  If they find one, they may drop you fast and without a second thought.

Don’t Micro Manage Your Workers

Some freelancer sites actually allow you to require workers to have a webcam recording them while they work along with software which tracks their activities on their computer.  The idea is this allows you to Continue reading →

The work relationships where you can justifiably ask for a price reduction in return for a long-term work commitment are with teams of workers.  As mentioned earlier, teams usually ask for $12-$25 per hour for short term contracts.  That’s a princely sum in many of these foreign countries: the equivalent of making anywhere from $45-$200 per hour in North America.

Typically teams are organized by single person whose value add is offering a one stop shop for all your needs but who may be paying their team members $4-$5 per hour as lone wolf workers typically make.  So be sure to ask these team leaders what advantage there is in working with their team vs. individual workers.   Continue reading →

Negotiate Long Term Relationships

Competition among overseas workers for North American projects can be just as cutthroat as competition amongst domestic workers applying for domestic jobs.  Remember that developing countries like China and India have colossal populations:  40% of the world’s population comes from China, India, and Pakistan alone.  Oddly, in all the projects I’ve posted I’ve seen mostly bids from India and Pakistan yet virtually no bids from China.

At any rate, as an employer you have the ball firmly in your court when it comes to negotiating power for workers  in these countries, especially when it comes to administrative positions or any jobs or projects requiring minimal skills.  If you post a project it’s normally considered by workers to be a short term project lasting several weeks max unless you specify otherwise in the project description.   Continue reading →

Background Checks

A huge part of hiring domestic employees is obviously the in-person job interview.  Many employers rely solely on one or more interviews in deciding who to hire.  Since that isn’t possible with offshore workers you should definitely use other ways of assessing candidates, whether they be individuals or teams.

The freelancer site you use should have a rating system whereby past employers of that worker or team can rate their satisfaction level in working with them on a scale (eg. 1-10 rating: 1 worst, 10 best) and then provide an average rating amongst all employers they’ve worked with.  Ideally your freelancer site should also allow employers to write comments about their experience in working with each worker or team.  Continue reading →

Use Milestones For Projects

Just as you pay hourly workers on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, so too should you pay project based workers periodically during a project.  Negotiate with your worker before a project starts and establish milestones for their work rather than paying in a single lump sum at the project’s conclusion.  These milestones should be more than just particular deadline dates; there should be certain pre-specified deliverables due at each deadline date along with worker payment paid that’s commensurate with the amount of work they’ve accomplished between each milestone.

Working with milestones helps ensure Continue reading →

Simplified Accounting

Whenever you hire a local assistant you must keep all necessary records of their employment as any other employer would: hours worked, wages paid including any overtime, any government training subsidies accounted for, ensure all proper government deductions are made on each paycheck and pay your accountant to handle this work.

Things are very different with offshore freelancers.  They are contractors, not employees, so they are responsible for keeping their own financial records and doing their own tax returns in their own country.  You will not have to do this for them, which can save you a fair bit of paperwork and extra expense with your accountant.   Continue reading →

Diversification

With MLS deregulation now a reality across North America many real estate professionals are being asked by clients to provide their service a la carte rather than the traditional full service package.  In doing this many are finding certain services that are the same from one sales rep to another (eg. posting a home on MLS for a flat fee) must be priced at a very low fee to be competetive, particularly now that some companies are now actively promoting this particular service to For Sale By Owner (FSBO) properties.

So some real estate professionals are seeing the importance of adding new services to their portfolio as a way of diversifying their business and clientele, being more competitive and having new revenue streams.  Since offshore workers’ time and skills can be offered in such a timely, fluid way, you can effectively make any of them you choose a part of your service portfolio by subcontracting them to your clients.  For instance, you could offer any of the following services to your listing prospects or For Sale By Owner (FSBO) properties by tapping offshore workers: Continue reading →

Scalability

You may have been reluctant to hire or unable to retain a part-time assistant because your business volume flows and ebbs at different times of the year.  In the spring and summer time you probably have plenty of steady business coming in, so there is lots of steady work available for a part-time assistant.  However, when fall rolls around business the business volume (and therefore work volume) starts declining rapidly and by winter it’s all been reduced to a trickle.  If you can’t provide steady work for so many months of the years local assistants will tend to quit in favor of a job providing steady work year round. Continue reading →

Confidentiality

Using teams or otherwise mediated workers helps ensure your work and any proprietary knowledge you provide remains confidential.  If you work with an individual overseas worker you risk that person divulging any of your proprietary knowledge to your competitors as a way of increasing their hourly rate.  Even if you have an individual worker sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) it’s highly unlikely you could ever enforce it in overseas countries which may or may not recognize the laws of your country.  In using a team with at least some domestic presence or individuals or teams mediated by sites like Virtual Worker you have a much better chance of having your business’ confidentiality honored.   Continue reading →