FROM: Dave Fogg, company owner. I will link my LinkedIn page here so you can look me up. I live half the time in Pompano Beach Florida and the rest of the time at my 2nd home in the Dominican Republic.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-fogg/
I typed this page to help ensure you understand my company business model and how this can fit in with your business. And, to cover most of the common questions/answers.
I know we live in a world of short attention spans, bullet points and nobody wants to read - but making time to read the pages on this site can help effect your success/failure with USA employees as well as people I provide to you working remote from the DR at the lower cost.
Years ago I owned a few USA based companies where we tried offshore virtual assistant firms, call centers and RPOs for recruiting. 3 out of 3 tries was not good. My negative experiences with these offshore companies caused me to research countries closer to the USA where I could form my own HR company to hire and payroll people to work direct for my company, at their lower cost.
I selected the Dominican Republic as the best and close to USA location.
That was an awesome and positive experience!
Fast Forward: I sold my American companies but kept the Dominican HR company. Today, you can use my Dominican/HR company to find, hire and payroll people to work direct for your company as remote and lower cost staff ( same as I did ) and where my company is the established shortcut to make this happen for you.
Let's start with the most common questions. What types of people can we set up to work for your company remote from the DR? And, information on cost.
A - When it comes to people working remote from other countries the common types of jobs/skills are a personal assistant who can be trained to your specific job needs. Customer/Sales/Technical support are common because there are call centers in countries all over the world that hire English speaking people to assign with American companies.
Accounting/Bookkeeping is also common.
One of the reasons why the Dominican Republic is a better country to hire remote and lower cost staff is the location being only 2 hours from Miami, same time zone as Eastern USA, many people are bilingual English/Spanish, the culture is very Americanized almost like a USA territory, yet they are not part of the USA.
When the cost of living and dollar to peso currency exchange are combined you can see how good people can work remote from the DR for a much lower cost than comparable people inside the USA. And, many of these people in the DR are American/Dominicans with family living in the USA.
Jobs that require technical or complex skills normally require a Recruiting Search to find people with the correct skills and who speak or write English to a level that suits your needs.
Examples are if you want to hire a personal assistant there are plenty of educated people in the DR who speak fluent English/Spanish with the job and computer skills who are well suited for such a job. Same with customer/sales/technical support and accounting.
However, if you wanted to hire a person with unique skills such as a social media marketer we would have to conduct a search to find qualified people and recruit them to interview with you over Zoom (same as what happens in the USA).
The difference is when you select a person their salary & overhead to work remote from DR can be half the cost of a similar person inside the USA.
I ask that you realize in this modern world people can work remote over video call like Zoom or Microsoft Teams and communicate almost the same as if they are at a desk right next to you.
Prior to starting a search we would tell you what we think the pay range must be to attract the better quality people.
If you give us the OK, we can then start the search.
We will type a cover page for each resume to explain any extra details about the candidate and show you the total billing rate.
The billing rate includes everything from salary + taxes + overhead costs + payroll costs + our HR manager who partners with you to help supervise remote workers. Additionally, we cover the computer, internet, etc. All of this is combined into the billing rate so you will know the total cost of a person before deciding to interview.
And, is good to be transparent and honest. A reality with recruiting people is sometimes there are qualified people available within your budget range and other times not. We will invest our time and money to conduct the search where the result will be qualified candidates to submit to you, or we inform you the search did not find suitable people within the cost range.
If this were to happen and we could not find suitable people within your budget range you did not lose any money, we were honest and the door is open to work together in the future. Or, you may want to increase the billing rate to give us room to increase pay rates and see if offering a higher pay rate can enable the search to produce a few good people to consider.
Using a customer support representative in Miami as the example, there is their salary + company side of FICA payroll tax + workers comp, state unemployment and other insurance. And, the cost for HR and payrolling the employee, computer, office space, internet and all the other overhead costs that are often overlooked when calculating an actual cost to employ a person.
Have you ever been sued by a disgruntled ex-employee? That is another possible cost of hiring people inside the USA.
When the real costs of employing that Miami based customer service rep are combined and compared to the billing rate of a person we set up to work from the DR, the Dominican based person can be 50% less expensive.
And, there are no legal risks with the Dominican based worker such as frivolous lawsuits often filed by disgruntled USA employees when laid off or fired.
Another benefit is the turnover of people from DR can be lower than with USA based employees. In the USA people have many job opportunities which does cause turnover as people move from job to job. With these people in the DR, if you treat them well you and we will have created the best job they may find in the DR = loyalty and longevity with you!
There is no long term risky contract. You go into this the same as if hiring a person in the USA. You want long term success and low turnover, yet you are free to terminate or cancel at any time.
We do not offer people for short term projects like a temp assignment. Nobody who is any good wants temp jobs and a reality is if people accept temp jobs they are likely to quit before the temp job ends because they found full time permanent jobs.
You may ask about paid time off, sick days, holidays, vacation: This is the same as with a USA based employee. You are not legally required to offer paid time off nor are you required to give people annual evaluations or job growth.
However, when people are not treated well they will privately keep their eyes open for other & better jobs then quit once they find something better = turnover.
Personally, I would not want to do business with an American company that would have people work remote from DR, manage them same as career employees but not offer paid time off, vacation or some form of job growth.
Most all USA companies we have worked with over the past 8 years create a paid time off plan starting at 6 months that is similar to what they give their USA employees. And, is normal for USA companies to give their Dominican staff annual evaluations and if justified raises.
The plan would be to treat your Dominican staff well and create jobs that are GOOD in Dominican standards while also being half the cost of your employing comparable people inside the USA.
We can offer advice on these retention ideas but you are the Boss, you have control over PTO, evaluations, raises, bonuses etc.
Assume you give a person a $1 raise, how does this work? We increase the pay rate to the person by $1 and increase the billing rate by $1. We do not take any cut pr percentage of raises or bonuses. We pass through 100%.
Assume you want to give a person at Christmas bonus. I will FRONT the money to add this to the worker's pay. The next month I add this to your invoice so my company is reimbursed.
In fact, I front the money to cover payroll for the person or people we set up to work for you.
Example: Assume you select Nancy Gomez to be hired. We hire her through my Dominican HR company and set up HR and payroll.
Our Dominican HR manager, Chriss Contreras, will help you supervise Nancy. Chriss is part of the package.
Assume Nancy starts September 1st. On August 27th my USA company wires funds to my Dominican HR company. This is to fund payroll for September. I cover Nancy's payroll for September.
On October 1st Chriss sends you the September invoice. Any missed days are calculated in the invoice. The terms are net/15 so your company pays my USA company by October 15th. You are reimbursing my USA company for fronting the payroll for the entire month of September.
Your Company > My USA Corp > My Dominican HR corp > Nancy in DR works for you
The plan is for Nancy to fit in with your company same as a career employee yet there is no legal connection between your USA company and Nancy in the DR. Pretty Smart 🙂
When you start out, you will probably think of your Dominican worker as outsider. I encourage you to think of them as your employee. Over time as you grow a relationship with your Dominican based worker that employer/employee on the same team chemistry can grow, same as what happens with USA based employees.
Being the DR is only 2 hours from Miami and 4 hours from New York, you can easily fly to the DR to meet and spend time with your Dominican staff. That is not so possible with people in India or Philippines!
Finally, what are the common causes of failure?
A - Assume a manager works on the 5th floor of an office building and hires an assistant who's desk is close to the manager. When the manager wants to show training or work instructions the assistant can roll their chair over next to the manager. The manager can show the work instructions or training on their computer screen.
B - Now, imagine the manager is on the 5th floor and their assistant works in a cubicle on the 2nd floor. The manager could use Zoom or Teams video call to see and talk to the assistant and show them work instructions or training SAME as if the assistant is on the 5th floor sitting next to the manager.
However, what happens? The manager fails to use video call the way they should and make the mistake of communicating too much by email or chat.
You know how it goes, you can send a well meaning email to 10 employees and they all interpret different! Making time to SHOW a person work instructions where you can see their face and they see you is far better than communicating too much by chat or email.
This is not an offshore issue, same thing happens with USA employees working on different floors in the same building.
Another cause of failure is unrealistic expectations and lack of tools. Here is a good example. Recruiting companies will create activity metrics such as calls to candidates per day, emails sent, candidates submitted to jobs = this is the numbers game.
However, what happens if the recruiting firm is not giving recruiters access to resumes that have phone numbers and emails for the recruiters to contact people about jobs? In this example the recruiters have zero control over actually achieving the activity metrics.
Often times company leaders or managers will make up activity metrics that achieve a desired result on paper, such as growth or a profit number. If these numbers have not been proven as realistic to achieve normally, the workers are set up to fail. Or, if the numbers are achieved only with random lucky months that is not a realistic sustainable baseline, yet some companies use these lucky numbers as if they are normal.
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Next, it is very important to understand my company is NOT an offshore rent-a-worker company like virtual assistant firms, RPOs, call centers, outsourcing or any of these. We are totally different and cannot be compared to these companies!
I call these Rent-A-Worker companies.
In that scenario some USA company leaders are looking for extra, expendable and cheap remote based workers.
I am sure you have heard of human resources and payroll companies in the USA such as ADP or Paychex.
In that example you would hire a person to fit in with your company same as a long term career employee yet on paper they are legally employed by the HR company. The reasons could be hiring people through the HR company can offer more benefits and other perks than you can afford if hiring people directly.
My business model is similar except the people and the HR company are located in the Dominican Republic where they can work remote, online, for approximately half the cost of an employee inside the USA.
To be clear, we are not a rent-a-worker company like a virtual assistant or outsourcing company. In contrast, we can set up people to work for you remote from the DR where they fit in same as long term career employees. Yet, the cost is very low and there are no legal connections or risks as with USA employees.
We have people working remote from the DR for the same USA companies for the past 7 years. These USA companies treat their Dominican staff same as USA based career employees. This includes long term job growth and growing skills so the Dominican staff become very important yet at the lower cost.
Let's dissect the offshore rent-a-worker type of business so you understand why I created my business model the way I did.
Think of the people/workers who might accept jobs in that offshore rent-a-worker situation. Smart people with 2 to 4 years college, speak English and Spanish + have good computer and job skills will not work in that situation. If they do, is just temporary until they find a better job.
Regardless of the country, it is not possible to get smart, educated and capable people to work in situations where they are not treated well.
The old saying is true. You get what you pay for. This is why most all American companies that try offshore virtual assistant firms, call centers or outsourcing cancel within 1 year when realizing the problems outweigh the benefits of lower cost.
The only way to get good quality people to work remote at the lower cost and be hard working, loyal, ethical and give their 100% is to treat them well and create long term job opportunities. (No jobs can be guaranteed long term but the plan is to hire people hoping your company and the people are successful and grow together)
My philosophy is you should benefit from the lower cost, such as 50% less than employing a comparable person inside the USA. While also creating a job that is better than these people otherwise might get in their country.
That win/win thinking is how to get people working for you to be motivated, loyal, give 100% and be ethical. And, this win/win attitude is how to inspire excellent people to want to stay working for you long term!
Here is more information on offshore companies to help you better understand them and compare to our HR/payroll business model.
Imagine you sign up with ABC Offshore in India or Philippines and they assign Padma to work for you, Padma is their employee and they rent her to your company.
A - You think of Padma as extra and expendable and she knows this is your perception. She thinks of ABC as her employer and your company is just a gig for awhile. She is not loyal to you nor are you loyal to her.
B - Neither side are committed or loyal to each other in this rent-a-worker scenario. You cannot get quality and good work/attitude from this situation. Turnover is also high in this rent-a-worker scenario.
( It is common for these virtual assistant/outsourcing companies to set up workers with 2 or 3 American companies at the same time hoping nobody notices. And, the workers are not happy with these jobs so they bounce around working for these outsourcing companies hoping to find something more permanent)
C - Of the money you pay ABC Offshore/Outsourcing, the owners keep most of the money and pay low poverty wages to Padma. You can imagine her living in a slum apartment without AC and it being 100 degrees in her room as she works for you. That is reality!
I could go on, but you have probably had some negative experiences dealing with offshore people when calling your bank, airline or travel company. The root problem is the rent-a-worker scenario.
My solution was to research countries closer to the USA where I could set up my own HR/payroll company to hire people directly to work for me as remote and lower cost staff.
I wanted people to work for me, not rent them from another company! I wanted to treat them well so they were happy and loyal to me, while I also benefitted from their lower cost.
Mexico was too expensive and dangerous. The education, internet, electric and other issues in Belize, Costa Rica, Colombia and central American countries was not great and the costs to hire good people was more expensive than I expected. Also, finding people with college education who spoke good English was difficult.
I selected the Dominican Republic because this island nation has the best population of people with education, English/Spanish, good internet & electric, cost to hire is low and easily affordable and the people are highly Americanized, many have family living in the USA.
It took a year to set up the corporation in the DR and then get approval for international banking so I could connect my USA corporation to the Dominican HR company to create the payrolling process.
Over time, I hired people in the DR and grew a team of 30. I began flying to DR to spend quality time with my Nearshore team. They became an extension of my USA company.
My accounting staff were based in DR. My personal assistant, customer support and client/account managers all worked remote from DR.
Honestly, the lower cost was the only way my company could have survived. If I were forced to hire people only in the USA the cost would have been so high that my company would have gone bankrupt or remained very small.
When I sold my USA companies I kept the Dominican HR company.
Today, the business model is you can use my Dominican HR company has a shortcut to find, recruit, interview and hire excellent people in the DR to work for you.
Thanks for reading
Dave Fogg