Over the past decade, the call center and outsourcing business has exploded in the Philippines.
In fact, the island nation in Southeast Asia has built a solid reputation for loyal remote workers.
Advantages of Virtual Assistants in the Philippines
The new technology combined with a young, educated, and ambitious workforce has made the Philippines a popular (and affordable) location for virtual assistants.
English is widely spoken, and I think you’ll find the culture is slightly more “Western” than that of India. Many workers are used to working with Americans from past careers in customer support call centers or other BPO operations.
Students grow up learning English in school, even though they may not use it in their home.
For these assistants, the opportunity to work with you could mean a life of greater freedom. It’s the chance to work from home, have some flexibility in terms of their hours, and probably earn more money.
Virtual or remote work is seen as a prestigious, sought-after, and maybe even envious career path.
Workers are loyal and polite, but sometimes slow to ask for help or clarification — sometimes to the point of disappearing without a trace. (Yes, it happens!)
And because of the time zone differences, you can essentially have a virtual assistant or assistants working while you sleep. Depending on your business, that could be a huge plus.
| OnlineJobs.ph | Wing Assistant | FreeUp | Online VA Team | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Rating | ||||
| Established | 2009 | 2018 | 2015 | 2014 |
| Hourly Rate | $3-8 | $6.878.75 | $5-20 | $7+ |
| Minimum Package | $69 to post a job | $699 for 80 hours | Free to post a job | 20 hrs for $250 |
| Dedicated Assistant | ||||
| Best For | Full-time hires | Small & Medium Business Owners, IT Services, Marketing Agencies, SaaS | Quick pre-vetted hires in e-commerce and marketing | Small & Medium businesses |
| Team Access | ||||
| Rollover Hours | ||||
| Free Trial | *For limited range of services | |||
| Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More |
*Dedicated option available.
Drawbacks to Hiring Virtual Assistants in the Philippines
Infrastructure
As in other developing countries, infrastructure problems can come up from time to time as tropical storms and brown outs knock out electricity and Internet access.
Magical Disappearing Assistants
It’s never happened to me, but I’ve heard frequent stories of virtual assistants just “ghosting” their employers — going dark and not responding to any communication.
My understanding this is often out of an extreme cultural shyness or passiveness. It’s seen as better to avoid conflict altogether than to rock the boat.
For most Westerners, that’s incredibly frustrating and hard to comprehend. Like, if you have a question, just ask! If you’re going to be late on a project, say why! I hired you for a reason, and I’ll probably understand.
This issue underscores the importance of regular communication and insisting on an open door policy where questions and even failures are encouraged at the beginning of a relationship.
Time Zone Considerations
The Philippines is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time and 16 hours ahead of Pacific time. That can make communication tricky if your assistant is working the day shift.
(The time zone is much closer to Australia, which makes Filipino outsourcing an even more popular choice for businesses there.)
Still, many assistants are used to working American business hours from previous outsourcing jobs.
The 13th Month
This isn’t so much a drawback is it something to be aware of, but there’s a custom in the Philippines known as the 13th month.
What that means is workers essentially expect a “Christmas bonus” equal to a month’s salary in December. If you hire a dedicated freelance VA through a service like OnlineJobs, it would be considered very polite and appropriate to pay that bonus.
If you hire through a virtual assistant company, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Education May Not Be as Strong (and Ends Earlier)
College graduates in the Philippines are often 20 years old, instead of 22 or 23. And this may be personal experience, but I don’t think the education system is as strong as in Western countries.
For example, when I was recruiting web developers, college grads with programming degrees couldn’t complete basic test tasks or answer simple coding questions. Maybe they were just overstating their qualifications, but I found that frustrating.
And that brings up a best-practice: before you hire, try a few “trial tasks” as part of your interview process.
How Much Do Virtual Assistants in the Philippines Cost?
Through a virtual job board like OnlineJobs, you’ll find full-time workers for as little as $400 a month, which equates to $3 an hour or less.
Naturally, the more skilled the hire you’re looking for, the rates go up. But let’s put it this way: it’s a country where you can live VERY well on $1000-1500 a month. That $1500 would be at the very high end of the pay spectrum for a solo freelance VA.
If you hire through a virtual assistant company, you’ll often see rates in the range of $6-15 an hour.
And as you might expect when hiring through a company, the bigger the monthly package you sign up, the better your equivalent hourly rate.
My Experience Working with Virtual Assistants in the Philippines
Like my outsourcing adventures elsewhere, I’ve found some amazing talent here — interspersed with some less-than-awesome experiences.
I’ve found workers on OnlineJobs with masters degrees in nursing and marine biology, who found it was more rewarding to work online.
One of my longest-running outsourcing relationships is with OkayRelax. I’ve been assigned several different assistants from the Philippines and they’ve all been above average.
Years ago, I used a recruiting service to try and find a full-time assistant but wasn’t impressed with the results. I was in a rush to fill the position and should have invested more time in training, but this person didn’t show much initiative in problem solving and didn’t show up to work when we’d agreed.
Now I’m testing a new design service and we’re off to a good start. My dedicated designer is fast to respond and incorporate feedback.
Which Filipino Virtual Assistant Company Should You Choose?
But despite the popularity of outsourcing to the Philippines, I don’t yet have a clear cut “favorite” company I refer people to. There are different “flavors” and different specialties depending on your needs.
The good news is that because of the robust VA economy, you have several options to choose from ranging from low-cost task-based services like OkayRelax, all the way up to full-time dedicated assistants — and everything in between.
Check out the reviews below to see which option is right for you.
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Fiverr.com is one of the most popular outsourcing destinations online. Built around a very simple concept – what people will do for $5 – Fiverr has grown into a large global community of freelance workers and people who hire them. […]
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SupportNinja is a company that finds, recruits and onboard the perfect candidates for you and your business so you don’t have to The company is based in the Philippines and all the staff they recruit are based in their offices. […]
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Outsource School is a hands-on platform that gives you access to top training courses and resources created by successful 8-figure entrepreneurs. For a monthly or annual fee, you can access dozens of training courses. These courses outline all the processes […]
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Zen Virtual Assistants Finder, or ZVAF as they are known, is a self-titled ‘professional matchmaking service.’ Which is another way of saying they supply virtual assistant services to entrepreneurs and business owners. The company was formed in January 2013. Founder […]
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SG Solutions is a virtual assistant company that connects you with a growing global network of VAs. This modern, cloud-based set up utilizes primarily home-based virtual assistants in the Philippines and India, but also some North American staff in the […]
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VirtualStaff has a truly unique model — the VirtualStaff Seat. The VirtualStaff Seat lets you hire reliable full-time support staff for $500–$1,500/month. It’s plug-and-play and puts you in control: you pick who to onboard, you set the work schedule, and you choose […]
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UPDATE: It appears Team Launcher is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. TeamLauncher.com is a virtual employee service with locations in Miami, India, and the Philippines. Their claim to fame is the ability to source qualified new […]
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Wing Assistant is a virtual assistant company specializing in connecting businesses, startups, and execs with experienced, dedicated virtual assistants. The company is headquartered in Berkeley, CA. Their virtual assistants are distributed across the Philippines, India, Hong Kong, and North America. […]
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UPDATE: It appears AssistNinja is out of business. Please consider one of these alternatives. AssistNinja is a virtual assistant head-hunting company based in Manilla, Philippines. They are a new company, starting operations in January 2018. Although their parent company has […]
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UPDATE: Pinoy for Hire may no longer be in operation. Please see below for alternatives. Pinoy for Hire is a Filipino virtual assistant company. Their head offices are located in Novi, Michigan, with their virtual assistants based in their offices […]
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Agents of Value is an outsourcing company in the Philippines. Established in 2005, the company is focused on providing technical help, online marketing expertise, and virtual assistance to entrepreneurial clients worldwide. Agents of Value calls their business an “offshore staff […]
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YourRemoteAssistant is a virtual assistant company in the Philippines. The company maintains a sales office near San Francisco, but all the work is done overseas. They’ve got their start in 2008. YourRemoteAssistant specializes in administrative tasks such as calendar management, […]
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20four7VA (EconMobile LLC dba 20four7VA) is an American-owned virtual staffing agency licensed and insured in Maryland, USA. Their staff and virtual assistants (VAs) are based all over the world and work remotely. Read on for a detailed 20four7VA review. 20four7VA […]
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Outsourcely is a virtual assistant company based in Foresthill, CA. They make it easy to connect with virtual assistants through their platform and have a large number of remote workers based all over the world. The company began with a […]
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UPDATE: As of 2020, it appears Virtual Helper 24/7 is offline. Please see below for alternatives. Virtual Helper 24/7 is a professional virtual assistant company headquartered in Australia with virtual offices in Hong Kong and Taguig City in the Philippines. […]
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UPDATE: EZY VA has pivoted their business model and no longer offer the services listed below. They are no longer accepting new clients. Please consider one of these alternatives. Headquarted in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, Ezy VA is the brainchild of […]
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Virtudesk is a virtual assistant company based in Washington state. The business was founded in 2016 and their assistants specialize in real estate prospecting, marketing, and administrative tasks. Their company tagline says it best: “We manage the small tasks so […]
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Carve is a virtual assistant company based in Davao City, Philippines. The company was founded in 2013 by Tom Secuya, who’s overseen the business’ growth from 3 people to a team of more than 100. Tom had several years of experience […]
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Remote Staff, or remotestaff.com.au, is an Australia-based staff leasing company that specializes in virtual employee recruitment. The company was founded in 2007, and has placed nearly 4000 workers in remote jobs since then. Remote Staff will find you a home-based […]
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Task Network is a Canadian based virtual assistant company with their head office in Toronto, Canada, and their fulfillment office in Metro Manila, Philippines. The company was founded in 2014 by founder and president Eric Opinion. About Task Network The […]