Unleashing Filipino Talent: Your Ultimate Guide to Empowering and Amplifying Success

It’s no secret that the Philippines workforce is full of untapped talent. Filipinos are recognized for their strong work ethic, diligence, and commitment to delivering quality work. They are often known to be dedicated, disciplined, and highly motivated employees.

Companies such as Canva , IBM , 微软 , 思科 , 埃森哲 and 亚马逊 are just a few of a long list of companies, who have already invested in their Filipino workforce.

If you’re looking to hire Filipino talent or set up a business in the Philippines, understanding the Filipino work culture is one of the most critical components of successfully integrating your Filipino talent into your company or team.?

In 2019, I set out on a mission in collaboration with Marlee to write and publish the first ever Philippines Culture Map. This research enabled us to understand from a motivational theory perspective, how does the average Filipino best like to work, and how can organisations and teams empower and amplify their Filipino talent.

After 3 years and surveying over 2,500 Filipinos, we were able to launch and publish this research in collaboration with the Philippines Department of Trade and Industry and StartUp Village at the 2022 Philippines Startup Week!

Below you will find the key findings of the Philippines Culture Map and how you can best empower and amplify Filipino talent at work:

Provide all of the context up front

Provide a clear rationale behind why you are assigning a project or task. Filipinos are naturally inquisitive and will want to know the reason ‘why’ something is important. When sharing context use visual methods such as Miro boards or Canva slides to illustrate the concept for the task or project. You will want to avoid being vague in your instructions, or rushing to start a project without providing time for questions.

The more context you can give at the beginning of a project, the more confident your Filipino talent will feel to execute it.

Don’t provide instructions or make decisions based on conversations alone

Filipinos tend to be highly creative and visual learners. They will be more likely to retain information when it is delivered in a visual way. This can mean screen recording videos of processes or instructions (you can use Loom ), complementing training with slide decks (easily built in Canva) and by asking the question, “how does this look to you?”.?

Filipinos place a great amount of importance on the accuracy of information and delivering consistent results. In order for them to do this, you will need to be ready and willing to offer reassurance throughout the project or task that you are on the same page.

This can be done through a regular work in progress update (WIP) or setting an ongoing cadence for meetings over a video call where questions and feedback can be delivered.

Be realistic with your expectations and focus on the short term

Filipinos tend to be very pragmatic and motivated to focus on what they can do in the immediate term to make an impact. They will want to know what information is most relevant to them and their current priorities.

Break larger time frames into smaller ones and work from a day-to-day or week to week timeframe. This can be achieved through the use of shareable project management software like monday.com ?

Introduce changes gradually

Based on the findings in our research, we found that Filipinos will prefer to take something that already exists and innovate upon it over time. This means to set up your Filipino talent for success, it will be important to communicate the stages before making changes and putting time aside to allow for improvements to be made. Creating opportunities for Filipino talent to share their perspectives on how things can be improved will be highly energising to them.?

Avoid making constant or radical changes or introducing too many new processes at once. If a radical change must be made, such as introducing a completely new software, make sure to provide adequate time and support for them to adjust to the change.

Filipinos are most confident when they can deliver high quality and consistent results, empowering them to do this is good not only for them but the business too!?

Be respectful of cultural values, clearly communicate standards and expectations

In the Philippines, family values and a culture of respect are instilled from early childhood and so it is no surprise that these are carried into the workforce.

To set your Filipino talent up for success, clearly communicate and follow the rules that you set and demonstrate respect for your Filipino talents personal values.?

Be clear and concise in communication

Different to typically Western cultures, the Philippines has a preference for direct communication. This means it is the meaning of the words used in communication that takes priority and not the non verbal cues or undertones of the message. This means you should avoid “hinting” at something or expecting Filipino talent to immediately understand what you mean from what is “inferred”.

Be clear, direct and concise with your communication, don’t leave them guessing or your words open to interpretation.?

Provide direction and guidance

Filipino talent are motivated to take a thorough and considered approach to decision making. Rather than jumping straight into something without fully thinking things through, they tend to be analytical thinkers who consider the strategy behind the action.

Take the first step to ask for feedback or provide guidance, instead of expecting them to initiate on their own.?

After presenting the big picture, always provide the specifics

When communicating a project or task, start with the big picture overview and then work sequentially through the tasks. Provide a visual guide such as a presentation deck, Miro board or strategy doc, that has further details that are easily accessible for reference.?

Never assume that everyone is on the same page, make sure the priorities are clearly and concisely communicated and prepare ahead of time any details relevant to the specific steps to achieving the desired outcome.?

Provide regular feedback

Filipinos are highly adaptable and value feedback. The more well thought out your process for giving feedback, the more productive and energised your Filipino talent will be. When assigning projects or tasks, consider providing buddies or mentors who are consistently available to answer questions and support decision making.?

While Filipinos place a high value on feedback, they may not seek it out if they do not feel comfortable to do so. By taking the initiative to prompt for feedback, you can provide the space to channel the feedback and amplify your Filipino talents' impact.

Remember to provide feedback in a way that is visually engaging and easily accessible for your talent to review and refer back to.

Reward and recognise achievements

Filipinos are driven to contribute to their teams and will feel empowered when their individual contributions are recognised. When it comes to leadership the people who will be most respected will be those who have demonstrated achievements that prove their capability as a leader.

Creating an employee reward program or incentive will fire up your Filipino talent to aim above and beyond what is expected.?

Provide as much information as possible

Filipinos place a high priority on having the most relevant and up to date information, and will likely become subject matter experts in their specific fields. Meaning the easier you make it for your Filipino talent to tap into information, the more accurate, thorough and detailed the output. In addition to a need for information, Filipinos tend to be highly aware of the systems and the interrelationships between different functions, which means they will naturally uncover leverage points for their teams where a single solution could have a ripple effect across the entire business.

If your Filipino talent suggests a way to improve efficiency, you’d be best to listen! This focus on efficiency relates to Filipino talent being motivated to have the right tool for the job, whether that is the software or hardware, equip them with the right tools, systems and procedures and you can effectively scale teams much faster than what would normally be possible.?

The easier you make it for your Filipino talent to tap into information, the more accurate, thorough and detailed the output!

Document and communicate procedures

Filipinos tend to prefer methods of best practice and doing things the right way over going in blind. They are motivated to aim for consistent, accurate and reliable results. Which means if the procedures are not well defined or communicated, this can lead to uncertainty of the outcome and therefore hesitancy to take steps forward to deliver on a task or project. Creating reference material (think of how you can incorporate visuals) using a Miro Board or table to document the steps for procedures, means your Filipino talent will easily learn, adapt and execute on these procedures.

This does not mean Filipino talent is not flexible, it simply means they would prefer not to reinvent the wheel if it is not necessary, and will prioritise efficiency and certainty over experimentation.

If you are wanting to convince Filipino talent to consider alternatives, communicate the steps involved and how it would reach the desired outcome more efficiently compared to existing methods.?

Build a sense of community and belonging

If you are outsourcing Filipino talent or are a distributed team, it will be important to foster and provide opportunities for face to face interactions.

There are multiple ways of doing this, for example using a virtual office (like Teemyco ), hosting a regular company show & tell, or scheduling in check-ins that are not purely work focused.?

Set realistic goals

Create a process for setting clearly defined, mutually agreed upon goals that include the key milestones required to achieve them. Remember Filipino talent tends to focus on immediate impact, so set goals within a shorter time frame (weekly or monthly). It is also important not to shift goal posts without providing clarity on why there has been a change.?

Filipinos are pragmatic and thorough, if you do not take the time to clearly lay out the milestones, or identify potential risks that may interfere with the completion of these goals, your talent may feel stuck or that the goals are not attainable.

When starting a new project or task, clearly assign responsibility

Filipinos will be most confident when they have clarity on who is responsible for what. When communicating a new project or task, always have a table or visual that documents the roles and responsibilities of each individual or team involved.

Clearly defining and assigning roles and accountability not only ensures that the scope of the project is managed efficiently, it enables asynchronous work that maximises collaboration.?

And there you have it, your very own quick reference guide to tapping into Filipino talent, their incredible strengths and amplifying the success of your business and teams!

Want to learn more about setting up your cross-functional or international teams for success, book a free 30 min call with me today.?