Ep. 216: OFS Turnover is a Management Problem

Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at outsourcing to the Philippines. This is episode 216 ofS. Turnover is a management problem. So I know this is gonna be controversial. I know some of you are not gonna receive this very well, but I sometimes, and not very often, but sometimes get a get comments from people about how turnover, there's so much turnover in the Philippines. And the bottom line of my response to that is turnover is a management issue. And I know that's hard to hear. I know that nobody wants to be told they're a terrible boss, but this is typically what I see. So I know that nobody gets into outsourcing or hiring VAs to be a bad boss. But it's also really easy to forget that the person you're working for is a human when you don't ever see their face. When you're so focused on productivity and tasks and getting things done that like you might forget that the people you have that are doing work have families and feelings and problems in their lives and that you really just need to manage a human and not a task. Now, this isn't always the case that turnover is a management problem. Not every instance that I see is that the case. But I'd probably say 95% of the time it's a management issue. And this comment that one of my OFS found on Facebook really, really well illustrates this point. So I'm going to read this comment to you. Here's what they say, and this is from someone in the Philippines who has a foreign boss. They say, hello everyone. I would like to ask your insights and also to seek out more advice. I'm thinking to drop my work, my full time work that pays me 25 to 30,000 Filipino pesos per month. But my mental health is at risk. It triggers my anxiety. My client doesn't have empathy, she doesn't accept her mistakes. And worse, she will pass the blame on me. She actually maltreated me. That's an interesting way of putting it, but I'll continue. This is purely based on what I have experienced. She says, I have a second work, part time, that pays me 16 to 17,000 pesos per month. I'm enjoying my work. My client is very clear with his instructions. The culture of my work is great. He knows how to appreciate my work. I'm still confused on what should be my decision since I'm almost the breadwinner of my family. And also the inflation right now is crazy. I also think of the ways If I will drop my first work with high pay, I will continue to upskill, apply again and again. That's the end of it. Obviously, you know, she has a full time job and a part time job, which is hard, but she really loves the part time job and says her boss is really great. And the full time job, she says her boss is really terrible. And so if you're experiencing turnover, I mean, she's probably going to quit this job, which means turnover, for that, for that employer. If you're experiencing turnover, I would ask you to consider how you are managing your people. Are you doing the things that this first boss is doing where she's blaming the worker for mistakes, she doesn't recognize that she's making mistakes and she's blaming it on the worker? Do you not recognize when maybe your instructions aren't so good even though you think they are? I've certainly been guilty of that a number of times where I was like, gosh, why aren't they getting this right? This is so obvious. And then I go back and review my instruction, it's like, oh yeah, wait a minute, my instructions really did suck. That was really crappy. So here's a couple things that, that I would suggest that you consider. Number one, try and build the trust of your OFS in you. What can you do to gain their trust? Number one, this typically involves providing training, providing good feedback, answering their questions, telling them, hey, what can I do for you? So that's one. Number two, give clear instructions. Obviously we don't always know when we're giving clear instructions or not, but when they do something wrong, give instructions again, go through it again, and recognize that maybe there are things in this that you understand that seem obvious to you but that they don't know yet and aren't obvious to them. I almost always do this with screen recordings, partially because I'd rather talk through something than type it, and partly because it's way faster to just show it exactly than to try and explain it in an email. And then, number three, show appreciation, like a thank you email or like a small bonus goes a really, really long way towards showing someone that you think they're doing a great job, that you appreciate their work, that they're contributing to your company. And in the end, mostly that's what they want. They want to feel appreciated and valued. That's really where Filipinos thrive. So one of the things that we've recently done, which I've talked about before, to help you in this process of gaining their trust, which was the first thing I said was we created VA's made easy, which is training done for you. Trainings that you can give to your ofs that will train them on something. It helps them upskill. It helps them know that you care about them and their success. It helps them know that you're willing to help them. It does all kinds of things towards letting them know that they are valued and towards you being a good manager. Again, that's available@vasmadeeasy.com it's completely not required, but it's a really easy way to help your ofs build a relationship with you and trust you, and to help them improve their work.