management

video call business man

Key Tips For Managing Your Offshore Team

Business, Offshoring in the Philippines / By

Already got a team abroad working on your operations? If this is your first time hiring an offshore staff, it can be a bit difficult to handle a whole team. You’ll eventually get used to it, but instead of finding your way in the dark, entrepreneur.com shares some vital tips on how to cater to your outsourced team.

One of the crucial things to consider when hiring an offshore staff is ensuring smooth communication. This includes choosing offshore employees with strong English skills and assigning a team leader that will help ease communication between you and the rest of your remote staff. Another way would be to visit your team abroad at least once a year, this is to strengthen your connection with your staff members and engage with them on a more personal level.

To learn more about these tips, you can read the full article here.

happy business woman

The Power of a Positive Attitude

Careers / By

Keeping a positive outlook in life comes naturally to some, but not all. As working adults, we often overlook positivity in favour of being grounded in reality to avoid getting disappointed. When it comes to your career, however, being cheerful and optimistic can actually help you a lot. If you find yourself having trouble thinking more about the good things in life, we’ve listed some of the ways you can change your state of mind.

1. Monitor thoughts by keeping a journal

We all have bad days and go through rough patches in life–it cannot be avoided. When the times are tough, staying optimistic is often the last thing we have in mind. By keeping a journal, you can keep track of your thoughts, feelings, opinions and ideas. You can then look back at what you’ve written and proceed to assess your mental state. Ever seen a Facebook status you wrote years ago pop up on your FB Memories? A lot of people cringe at their older selves for posting such stuff when they were younger, and keeping a journal is exactly like that. You can reminisce about all the good things that have happened, and remind yourself of what you’ve learned from your past mistakes and misfortunes. Some people maintain specific journals, like a “gratitude journal” to remind themselves of what to be thankful for, some people keep a dream journal and so on. Keeping a journal is also a healthy way of airing out your thoughts while still keeping your privacy.

2. Practice using affirmative language

Instead of saying “I can’t”, there are positive ways to approach tasks and situations. You can repeat the following phrases to yourself, or just keep them in mind to help motivate you:

  • “I know I can do it.”
  • “I can beat any challenge.”
  • “I’m one day closer to my goals.”
  • “If I believe it, I can achieve it.”  

Using this as a mantra helps set your mind in working towards your goals and keeps you in focus.

positive cup

3. Dedicate a few minutes to power posing

A new study has revealed that holding a power pose for as short as two minutes can help boost your confidence and performance. In a Ted Talk by Amy Cuddy, body language and non-verbal communication significantly affects and reflects our attitude and behaviour. By tweaking the way we use our body, we can project a stronger character that our brains can later adapt into. As she puts it, “fake it ‘til you make it.” Amy advises that this trick can be easily applied to real-life situations such as getting a confidence boost before a job interview or giving a speech. Power posing can raise testosterone levels by 20% and decrease cortisol levels (a hormone released by the body when under stress) by 25%.

stretch in office

4. Change the way you approach challenges

Whenever you hit a particularly difficult part of your life, or when things don’t go according to what you’ve expected, think of it as a simple detour. To quote Aaron Burr from Hamilton: An American musical, “I am the one thing in life I can control.” There are a lot of things that are beyond our control, but we can always incite changes within ourselves. Re-frame your challenges by thinking of failures as mere redirections instead of dead-ends: when one door closes, another one will open.

 

These are just a few ways on how you can maintain a positive attitude. When practised regularly, it will be just as easy as breathing.

Did you enjoy reading this article? You can check out this one for tips on how to spice up your work life.

codes on computer screen

IT Services: Why You Need To Outsource Today

IT Outsourcing Services, Outsourcing in the Philippines / By

Information Technology is an indispensable department in any company. IT teams are in charge of the creation, development and maintenance of systems regularly used by businesses around the world. Aside from these, tech support also varies in key responsibilities: Network Admins make sure that you have stable network functions, Developers are often in charge of the coding and programming aspects, while Designers create a comprehensive interface for programs to be used by your other employees or the website you present to your target audience.

Outsourcing IT eliminates other expenses

When hiring an in-house employee, you also have to consider other costs to accommodate your staff. Benefits packages, healthcare, and other cost factors such as a budget for training, sick days or leaves, and paid vacation need to be taken into account. Offshoring takes this off your hands, as the BPO company you’re in partnership with will be handling this for you. Usually, aside from the labour costs, you just have to pay a fixed seat fee or set-up fees to provide your offshore staff with the right equipment they need to perform their job well.

Outsourcing also allows you to access the latest technology that your offshore IT team needs, as paying regular seat fees and set-up fees will end up cheaper in the long run instead of buying new devices and other equipment.

IT person on his desk

Outsourcing makes hiring a full team affordable

As stated before, IT isn’t just one big job. You’ll need several people to perform specific functions in order to be more efficient. Since offshoring lets you save a lot of money on wages and equipment, you can then afford to hire more people and assemble a whole crew. You can even add multimedia artists and a dedicated QA (Quality Assurance) officer to work for you. Each of these roles is equally essential in making your IT team competent and more productive.

A full team of IT experts is also a great advantage when it comes to round-the-clock system maintenance, something you can achieve better when you outsource. You can opt to split your offshore team into two shifts and have the night shifts covered easily due to time zone differences.

Outsourcing improves disaster and risk management

Every department isn’t free from flaws, and sometimes networks or computer systems might fail. Having a team of professionals available 24/7 means there will always be someone on duty to assist you with any system problems you might encounter. Since your offshore team is composed of IT experts with more experience and technical skills, they are better equipped and trained in responding to network issues and system errors. The time it takes to fix a problem can be cut down significantly and improve your overall risk management.

 

Outsourcing your IT needs makes it easy to keep up with the world’s ever-changing demands. You don’t need expensive solutions to your business’ problems: just an efficient one. Hiring an offshore staff to handle IT tasks has many more advantages aside from the ones we listed here. Want to give it a try? Check out our services to see which staffing solutions can help you further develop your company.

stressed businessman

Telltale Signs That You Might Need to Outsource

Outsourcing in the Philippines / By

Building a sustainable startup business from the ground up is no easy task. Even after you overcome all preliminary hurdles, your company is sure to face harder challenges along the way. At that point, the difference between success and failure lies in your ability to adapt. Outsourcing is lauded to be a great option in surviving these challenges, especially for a small business looking to grow or expand. In this article, we will enumerate some of the signs that you might need to outsource in order to help your business thrive. …

Telltale Signs That You Might Need to OutsourceRead More »

business on smartphone

How to Run Your Business From Your Smartphone

Business / By

Good news for small business owners: everything you need is already in your phone. No longer will you have to spend a lot of money buying expensive equipment, today’s apps allow you to run your business anytime, anywhere. But before you download anything, it’s a good precaution to also be mindful of how to keep your phone secure. USA Today warns entrepreneurs: though using a smartphone is ideal, you must take the right steps when it comes to protecting your information.

Technology has advanced so much that the small computer we carry in our pockets are now capable of more things than we can imagine. From managing your payroll, inventory, writing invoices, down to scheduling, payments and even document storage–your phone can cater to almost all the essential aspects needed to run your small business.

To learn more about the business apps you can download and a few data security tips, you can check out the full article here.