The Philippines Is More Than a Source of Cheap Labour

Twenty years ago, Rob Bramwell moved from Canada to the Philippines with a hockey bag full of stuff he quickly realised he didn't need.

He'd never seen a palm tree before.

He arrived in Manila at around 3am and couldn't believe how hot it was.

Today, he's married, has raised a family here, has spent two decades working inside the Philippine BPO industry, and is building his own company, Aspira Global.

I sat down with Rob for the first interview in The Manila Brief series.

We talked about everything from leaving Nova Scotia, to Filipino family culture, to building a business here.

But one part of our conversation stuck with me.

Western companies still misunderstand Philippine talent.

When Rob first came here, the Philippine BPO industry was still relatively young.

A generation of Filipinos were starting their careers answering phones and supporting customers for Western companies.

Twenty years later, many of those same people are managers, senior leaders, executives and business owners.

That's an important shift.

Because when Western founders hear "outsourcing to the Philippines", I think many still picture the Philippines of 15 or 20 years ago.

Call centres.

Customer service.

Virtual assistants.

Cheap labour.

That picture is increasingly outdated.

Rob told me that AspiraGlobal recently received 110 applications overnight.

Among them were full-stack developers, bookkeepers, recruitment professionals and DevOps engineers.

Many had several years of experience.

These aren't people who can simply manage your inbox.

They're professionals.

This is something I've been talking about a lot lately.

Somewhere along the way, "virtual assistant" became a catch-all term for Filipino remote workers.

You can be doing marketing.

Operations.

Recruitment.

Bookkeeping.

Revenue operations.

Project management.

And somehow you're still called a VA.

I think that hurts Filipino professionals.

Because words create expectations.

Tell a Western founder you're hiring a "virtual assistant" and they probably imagine someone handling calendars, email and basic administrative work.

Tell them you're hiring a Filipino operations specialist with five years of experience and the conversation changes.

Rob put it simply:

They're specialists in their fields.

And I agree.

The opportunity isn't just for Western companies to rethink how they hire here.

Filipino professionals also need to rethink how they position themselves.

Don't sell the geography.

Sell the capability.

We also talked about something I see constantly online.

Job postings offering Filipino workers $1, $2 or $3 an hour.

The justification usually sounds something like:

"That's still better than the local minimum wage."

Rob's response was simple.

You get what you pay for.

Someone with five or ten years of experience working for major BPOs isn't making $1 an hour locally.

And if you build your entire Philippine hiring strategy around finding the cheapest possible person, you shouldn't be surprised when that person leaves.

Rob said churn inside some organisations can reach extremely high levels.

If the company next door offers ₱25,000 for the same job you're paying ₱22,000 for, people have a reason to move.

So I asked him what foreign companies should do differently.

His answer might have been the most important part of the entire conversation.

Treat them like they're working in-house.

Not like outsourced labour.

Not like a cheap offshore resource.

Like employees.

Bring them into the company culture.

Give them context.

Include them in the mission.

Give them opportunities to grow.

Make them feel like they're actually part of what you're building.

Because if you constantly treat someone like an outsider, don't be surprised when they eventually leave.

Filipino professionals have work to do too.

Since I started writing more about the Philippines, I've received a lot of CVs in my LinkedIn inbox.

Sometimes the first message I receive from someone is essentially:

"Hi Ryan, here are my services."

No conversation.

No relationship.

No understanding of what I do.

Just a pitch.

I understand where it comes from.

People need work.

They have families to support.

But Rob and I agreed that there's a better way.

Build relationships before you need something.

Comment on people's work.

Have conversations.

Understand what they're building.

Help people without immediately expecting something in return.

Rob and I are actually a good example.

We met through LinkedIn.

He commented on my content.

I commented on his.

Neither of us immediately tried to sell the other anything.

Eventually, we had this conversation.

Maybe someday I'll know someone who needs Rob's help.

Maybe someday Rob will know someone who needs mine.

That's how networks actually compound.

I ended our conversation with one question:

When you look at the Philippines today, what makes you optimistic?

His answer was education.

More specifically, the growing technical capability of the Filipino workforce.

Manila and Cebu are already major business and technology centres.

But Rob is watching places like Iloilo and Davao develop too.

More Filipinos are studying technology.

More experienced BPO workers are moving into leadership.

More are building companies of their own.

And AI is giving skilled people access to capabilities that would have been unimaginable even a few years ago.

That's the story I think Western founders should be paying attention to.

For decades, the Philippines built an enormous industry around supporting Western companies.

Now the people who grew up inside that industry have experience.

They have networks.

They have technical skills.

Some of them have 10, 15 or 20 years of experience working with global companies.

And increasingly, they're building things themselves.

The question shouldn't just be:

"How cheaply can I hire someone in the Philippines?"

A much more interesting question is:

"What could I build if I had access to the talent that's already here?"

I think we're going to hear that question a lot more over the next decade.

And that's exactly why I'm building The Manila Brief.

I want to talk to the founders, operators and investors actually building here.

Not from a distance.

Not based on assumptions.

From the Philippines.

If you're building something here, investing here, hiring here, or have a story you think founders should hear, I'd love to talk.

And if you know someone I should interview next, reply to this email and introduce us.

Ryan Victor Mark

The Manila Brief

Following the founders building the future of the Philippines.