One of the most common concerns I hear from agency owners I coach is: “How can I ensure my offshore team will be accountable?” It’s a valid question. After all, when your team is 6,000 miles away, it’s not like you can just pop by their desk to see what they’re working on.
At Pronto, we’ve been working with offshore teams from around the world for over a decade. We’ve learned a thing or two about what it takes to build accountability into the fabric of an offshore team’s culture. I recently had the opportunity to share some of these learnings in my talk “Creating a Culture of Accountability with Offshore Teams” at the Digital Marketers Australia conference in Melbourne.
The key message? Building a culture of accountability with your offshore team is possible, but it requires intention, consistency, and the right processes. In this post, I want to cover the strategies and tactics that have worked for us at Pronto, from our hiring process to our communication practices to our investment in leadership development.
Let’s start by looking at the benefits and challenges of offshoring, and then we’ll move into the three key steps to building an accountable offshore team. By the end of this post, you’ll have a roadmap for creating a high-performing, accountable offshore team that can take your agency to the next level.
Understanding the Benefits and Challenges of Offshore Teams
Offshore teams offer several advantages for agencies, including cost-effectiveness, access to a broader talent pool, and the ability to provide 24/7 support. However, there are also challenges to consider, such as communication and cultural differences, reliability concerns, lack of local market knowledge, and quality assumptions made by clients.
At Pronto, we’ve experienced both sides of this coin.
On one hand, hiring in the Philippines has allowed us to significantly reduce payroll expenses and allocate resources more effectively. We’ve found highly skilled individuals who bring fresh perspectives and innovative solutions to the table.
On the other hand, we’ve had to navigate language barriers and cultural differences. For example, we’ve learned that Filipino team members may be more deferential to authority and reluctant to speak up in meetings — a cultural norm that differs from the more direct communication style in Australia and other Western countries.
To overcome these challenges, we’ve invested heavily in communication tools and training, and made a concerted effort to build personal relationships with our offshore team members. It’s an ongoing process, but one that’s been critical to our success.
Our Journey to Building an Offshore Team
Pronto’s journey with offshoring began in January 2018 with our first hire in the Philippines through an outsourcing agency. As we grew our team, we established our own business entity in Manila in January 2020, giving us greater control and integration. By March 2023, we had promoted our first senior manager in the Philippines.
Pronto’s journey to the Philippines
This growth was fueled by strategic hiring and investment in our team’s development. We utilized a structured recruitment process, including detailed job descriptions, scorecards, and paid trial tests, to ensure we selected candidates who fit well with our company culture.
We also implemented a comprehensive onboarding program, including training videos, standard operating procedures, and buddy systems, to help new hires integrate smoothly. These processes have been refined over the years based on our learnings and feedback from our team.
Three Steps to Building Your Offshore Team
Step 1: Find Capable and Reliable Team Members
The first step in building a successful offshore team is finding the right talent. At Pronto, we’ve learned that it’s critical to have a very specific idea of what you need help with before you start hiring.
For your first few hires, I recommend focusing on process-oriented roles where you can set very clear boundaries and expectations.
These might be tasks like…
- Data processing
- Website maintenance
- Customer support
As you build trust and refine your management processes, you can expand into hiring for more specialized roles.
When it comes to the actual hiring process, we’ve developed a multistep approach that helps us filter for the best candidates:
Detailed job descriptions and scorecards that outline the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the role.
- An intro video request that weeds out candidates who aren’t serious about the role
- A paid trial test that assesses skills and work ethic
- Multiple rounds of interviews, including a culture fit interview with a team member who’s not directly involved in the hiring
One thing that’s been game-changing for us is building out our recruiting web presence. We have several pages on our website that give candidates an inside look at our company culture and values. This helps us attract candidates who are not only skilled but also aligned with how we work.
Throughout the interview process, it can be easy to forget that not only are you choosing the best candidate for the role, but also the best candidates are choosing which business best suits them. High quality candidates are going to get multiple job offers which means you’ll be competing against other agencies for the best people. That’s why it’s important that you also give your candidates a clear picture of what it’s like to work at your agency and what they stand to gain for joining your team.
Pronto ‘Careers’ page offers a full look at what it’s like to be a Proton
Step 2: Integrate Team Members with Your Vision and Goals
Once you have the right people on board, the next step is to fully integrate them with your company’s vision and goals. This is where a lot of agencies fall short. They treat their offshore team as separate from their “real” team, and then wonder why they’re not getting the results they want.
At Pronto, we’ve learned that integration requires a multifaceted approach:
✅ Effective onboarding that includes training on tools, processes, and company culture
✅ Regular one-on-one meetings with managers to review performance, provide guidance, and build rapport
✅ Assignment of a “buddy” to each new team member for additional support and integration
✅ Continuous communication of company mission, values, and goals through multiple channels
✅ Opportunities for team bonding and public recognition
One of the most powerful things we do is help team members understand the “why” behind their work. We talk about how their individual tasks fit into team goals, how team goals fit into company goals, and how company goals ultimately provide value to our clients. When team members understand their place in this bigger picture, they’re more engaged and invested in the outcome.
Another key learning for us has been the importance
of treating our offshore team members as full team members, not just outsourced labor.
When you stop treating people as disposable, they stop treating your business as a disposable part of their lives.
Step 3: Grow Fully Engaged Leaders
The final step is to develop leaders within your offshore team. These are the people who will help drive accountability and performance in the long term.
At Pronto, we’re always on the lookout for high performers who demonstrate leadership potential. We invest in their development through face-to-face interactions, visits to our headquarters, and company-wide retreats that focus on building relationships and reinforcing our company goals.
We’ve also found that our high performers often know other high performers. By creating a referral program, we’ve been able to tap into their networks and expand our candidate pool with quality talent.
One of the most impactful things we do is fly potential leaders over to work with our onshore team for a week or two. There’s so much tacit knowledge that gets shared through these in-person interactions.
Team leaders flew in from the Philippines to Pronto’s Thailand HQ to share ideas, talk about their work, and have fun!
They get to see firsthand how we work, communicate, and problem-solve. They then take these learnings back and disseminate them to the rest of the offshore team.
Navigating Cultural Differences
One of the biggest challenges in working with an offshore team is navigating cultural differences. This is especially true when working across vastly different cultures, like Australia and the Philippines. However, these differences, when understood and managed effectively, can become a strength for your team.
🙇♂️ Deference to Authority
In many Southeast Asian cultures, there’s a strong deference to authority. This means that your offshore team members may be less likely to question decisions or speak up if they disagree with something. They may see you as a big, scary boss figure, rather than a collaborator or mentor.
To counter this, you need to put in extra effort to build personal relationships with your team. When I first started working with our Filipino team members, they would call me “Mr. or Sir Tim”. It took some consistent reinforcement that I was just “Tim”, and that they could approach me anytime with questions or concerns.
🤐 Reluctance to Speak Up
Related to the deference to authority, you may find that your offshore team members are reluctant to speak up in meetings or one-on-ones. This can be particularly challenging when you’re trying to encourage a culture of open communication and continuous improvement.
One tactic we’ve used to overcome this is preparing specific topics or questions that everyone is expected to answer in meetings. This gives team members time to collect their thoughts and helps build the habit of active participation.
🤫 Indirect Communication
In many Western cultures, direct communication is the norm. We say what we mean, and we expect others to do the same. However, in many Southeast Asian cultures, communication is often more indirect. This can lead to issues festering beneath the surface because team members are reluctant to bring them up directly.
As a leader, you need to learn to read between the lines and proactively ask the right questions to the right people. If a team member is consistently bringing issues to a peer instead of to you or their direct manager, that peer might be a good candidate for leadership development.
🤝 Face-to-Face Interaction
Given these cultural differences, face-to-face interaction becomes even more important with offshore teams. When you meet your team members in person, they become real people, not just faces on a screen. And you become a real person to them, not just a distant authority figure.
At Pronto, we make it a priority to have company-wide retreats where our entire global team gets together. We focus on team building activities and personal interaction, not just work. These interactions help break down cultural barriers and foster a sense of camaraderie and shared purpose.
We also make sure to have plenty of one-on-one time with each team member during these visits. This is a chance to really get to know them as individuals, to understand their aspirations and challenges, both professionally and personally.
🌍 Cultural Intelligence
Ultimately, working successfully with an offshore team requires developing cultural intelligence. This means not just being aware of cultural differences, but actively working to understand and bridge them.
It means building personal relationships, creating structures and processes that encourage participation and open communication, and constantly looking for subtle cues that might indicate underlying issues.
It’s not always easy, and it requires ongoing effort. But when you get it right, you unlock the true potential of a global team.
The Journey is Worth It
Building an accountable offshore team is a journey, and it’s not always an easy one. But I can tell you from personal experience that it’s a journey worth taking.
Since we started working with offshore teams in the Philippines, Pronto has grown in ways I never could have imagined. We’ve been able to scale our business, improve our service offerings, and provide better support to our clients. But more than that, we’ve been able to build a global team of talented, dedicated individuals who are truly invested in our success.
If you’re considering offshoring, my advice is to approach it strategically. Follow the three steps I’ve outlined — find capable team members, integrate them with your vision, and grow fully engaged leaders. Be mindful of cultural differences, and invest in building real, personal relationships with your offshore team.
It’s not always easy, but the rewards are more than worth it. With the right approach, offshoring can be a game-changer for your agency, just as it has been for Pronto.
If you are an agency owner that’s looking for more guidance on outsourcing your work, you can reach me personally at [email protected]. I am happy to offer any other advice.
