Those without prior contact with Filipinos may not know what they’re like, or why they make for great outsourcing agents. While the rest of the world indulges in a certain degree of ethnocentrism, Filipinos, by virtue of their colorful history, are engineered to be highly adaptable and flexible when it comes to tasks and encounters with Western cultures. Here are some things that you may want to know about the Philippines’ ever lovable people.
The Philippines has been a colony of three major countries over the last 400 years –namely Spain, the United States and, for a brief moment, Japan. While the Spanish colony had the most influence in terms of culture, the United States swiftly followed suit and aimed directly at educating the Filipinos in the proper use of the English language. The Japanese during the time oppressed the Filipino people, which led the latter to come to love their freedom of speech.
Of course, it would be unfair to condense four centuries of culture into one paragraph, but by that picture alone, we can imagine what kind of people the Filipinos are. They have had so many interactions with foreigners that they are completely used to it. They are highly sensitive to cultural changes and can adapt accordingly.
Furthermore, staff shortage is relatively rare in outsourcing companies, since there is a large number of Filipinos ready to be trained at any given time. Turnover rates are relatively lower than their Indian counterparts, which make them highly desirable to employers who want to outsource their work.
So from a historical and cultural perspective, we can see why Filipinos make great outsourcing agents. Of course, they can go far if they want to, but if you have some of them working for you, consider yourself really lucky. Take care of them, and you can rest assured that your company will definitely grow with them at your partners.
