How Indian subcontractors are working with remote staff international clients:

At Remote Staff we understand that distance has become irrelevant when it comes to working in the 21st century. This is due mainly to Remote Staff’s technologies and in house HR services, which has assisted 100's contractors establish lasting and successful working relationships in some cases longer than 3 years with international clients located overseas. Today regardless if you’re working from a home office in India, for clients located half way around the globe, you will soon discover working from home offers much the same career growth and opportunities traditionally found within an onsite office environment. At Remote Staff our technologies and HR services are used as the foundation to help you build a professional home-based career with the job security that can help you build a lasting career.t.

Below is a list of Remote Staff systems and procedures to make working from home a professional experience for everyone involved.

 

  • Log online to the Remote Staff Sub Contractor Portal and on Skype...and you’re officially present for the day. It's that simple, your commute time is only a few seconds walking from your bedroom to your private home office desk;
  • Working from home means quite literally, your Internet connection and working computer is your lifeline to the job. As a result you must have access to a landline Internet connection with a minimum connection speed of 1.0mbps download and 0.35mbps upload. Higher Internet connections are preferred. If your Internet connection speed is below the required speeds and is disabling you from performing your work tasks at a professional level, then it is expected that you invest in purchasing the Internet package that will give you every opportunity to perform the standard of work required from home. You will only be given limited time (1-2 week) to upgrade your Internet connection speed if it is below the minimum required standard.
  • A representative of Remote Staff will personally visit your home to verify your ID, address as well as confirm you have professional working environment and that your computer equipment and Internet connection speeds are all of a professional working standard.
  • You will be required to login to the Remote Staff online timesheet and Remote Staff Screen Capture system. We use the timesheets and screen shots as a main reference for organizing payroll;
  • At Remote Staff we guarantee that if you work a day, you will be paid a day, on time, in your own local currency and at the end of every month.
  • As soon as you login to the Remote Staff Sub Con Portal, you can start working. The portal has a built-in function that captures screenshots of your computer activity. This function is not intended to snoop on you, but more specifically intended to provide transparency to the client, to better manage your daily tasks efficiently, manage the quality of work outputs and provide proof to the clients that you are in fact working;
  • The Remote Staff Contractor Portal will ask you to update and fill the activity tracker every 20-30 minutes. The activity tracker note summaries will be sent to the client at the end of the working hours, to give the client a general and overall idea of what work has been accomplished during your working shift and a great way to manage your work outputs.
  • You will be required to work the office hours of 9am to 6pm of your international client’s time zone if you are working full-time. Part time is often 9am to 1pm or 2pm to 6pm. This means you are on a fixed structured schedule and expected to begin working at a particular start and finish time each working shift. If you will be late (for any reason), you need to inform the Client-Staff Relations Officer on-duty at least one hour before the start of your shift, either via SMS, phone call or e-mail.
  • Contractors who work with Australian clients need to be online around 3 AM or 4 AM, UK clients between 2 PM or 3 PM and for US clients (depending on East- or West-coast location and also daylight savings time adjustments), will be on nightshift from 7 PM or 11 PM starting times;
  • Due to the early morning/night shift working hours of an Indian contractor when working for Australian or American clients, 5minute webcam shots will be necessary to confirm that you are in fact working in a good working state and not half asleep.
  • You are allocated two 10-minute quick breaks (coffee-break) and a one-hour lunch break every day if needed; (for full time contracts only)



  • If you will be absent (for whatever reason), you need to inform Client-Staff Relations Officer on-duty at least two hours before start of your shift, either via SMS, phone call or e-mail.
  • If you require any assistance relating to work or cultural issues with your client, you can contact any number of the Remote Staff Client-Staff relations Officer on-duty. At Remote Staff, our focus is to foster sustainable long-term relationships between you and our clients.
  • Any questions with regards to attendance compliance, systems and payroll must only be addressed directly to the Staff Relations Officer and must never be discussed with your clients. The terms of your contract are non negotiable with the client. It is a serious breach of contract to speak directly with the client regarding terms of your hire and to do so will result in termination
  • All issues relating to your contract negotiations are to be conducted with Remote Staff only. Once terms are agreed to between yourself and Remote Staff you will not be able to re-negotiate your contract such as pay rises until a minimum time you have worked for Remote Staff has lapsed such as 6mths to 1 year.
  • It is important to have a professional home working environment that is a quiet working space without the distraction of others who maybe living with you such as family members or friends.
  • Ensure that your work resources are in place and functional before the beginning of any working day because issues like problematic internet connections, power outages and computer crashes puts your working relationship with the client at risk. As a sub contractor, you're expected to find ways to manage your home work environment.
  • Remote Staff works on a no work, no pay policy. So, for every absence (or tardiness), you will receive deductions on your monthly pay; Contractors are only paid for the hours and days they have worked. To sustain a professional work from home career, you are expected to have punctual work attendance and work the hours and times you are contracted to do so
  • Your ability to be tech savvy and utilize online collaboration tools such as Skype, Microsoft Word, Excel, and others is essential to your day-to-day work tasks.
  • Effective and instant communication is essential and that is why you will be required to work the same time zone of the client. To assist in building trust in any working relationship we have a 3 minute Skype response rule implemented to facilitate both client and staff lines of communication are open and work momentum is achieved;
  • You will need to professionally represent Remote Staff to the clients as you will be working directly for the client. At no time will you be project managed by Remote Staff. This means that any input or feedback with regards to the standard of your work, work time line completion dates etc should be communicated directly to the client. This is a very important step towards developing a good working relationship with your client as well as giving you the opportunity to manage your client’s professional expectations of your work regarding the different tasks set.
  • The stress and pressures you might find working from in an office environment will still be noticeable when working from home because the professional expectations and responsibilities in doing the job only differ slightly, regardless of where you are working from;

 

Contractor's wages can only be negotiated in the initial interview process of hire and must be agreed to and accepted before you commit to Remote Staff as an independent contractor and sign your contract. This is important because we will start marketing you at this agreed to price point and client will be making decisions to hire you because of that price point. You cannot renegotiate the terms of your contract after the interview process especially once commencing work for a client because it is a deal breaker. Imagine buying a product expecting to pay $1 and getting to the check out and finding it to cost $1.50. However, after six months of continued work for a client you will be given a review which will give you the chance to put forward your case to renegotiate your wages, if you can demonstrate you are adding above and beyond value to your job. This does not guarantee you a pay increase because performing a good job is the minimum that Remote Staff expects of our contractors. In saying this, Remote Staff has witnessed that some clients will give bonuses and pay increases to staff who are continually performing to a high standard. In addition to your 6month review if you have worked for one whole year with the same client you will be entitled to a 5% pay increase only if you have not received any pay increases during this year.

All wages for contractors working for Remote Staff are calculated using real Indian market labour rates. We do not pay inflated western market rates you may find on freelancing project-based type of work which are unrealistic and non competitive in the global landscape. Just like in the hotel industry, rates for rooms differ from a day rate, to a weekly rate, to a monthly rate and to a yearly rate. Unlike freelancers or project-based workers who only deal with short-term projects, Remote Staff only deal with long term work based on part-time or fulltime positions, therefore our pay rates are calculated on real Indian market labour rates. If your hourly rates are too high you will out position yourself in the competitive global labour market, which will also disable the ability for Remote Staff to market you as a candidate.
At present Remote Staff has hundreds of staff that are contracted out to clients at Indian Labour market rates and these are the rates that Remote Staff pay contractors. 

For Remote Staff to run a successful global business we need to add our fixed margins on top of your wages. Our margins we offer to clients are fixed and do not differentiate between wages paid for your skill level and experience. What is important to understand is that these fixed margins are essential to how we survive as a labour hire company and without them we would not be able to attract new clients, offer you opportunities and provide the services that are expected of us by the client.

These margins contribute to covering the costs of some of the following:








In addition to covering these costs of the services we provide is the fact that Remote Staff has spent millions of dollars from its inception to the current day and it is important that they to have a return of investment to ensure Remote Staff is a financially sustainable and successful company that can continue to operate as a stable company that home based professionals can work from.
All these reasons combined require Remote Staff to add fixed margins to the cost of your wages and we hope that you understand and respect these facts. Just because we are a foreign company dealing in Labour hire BPO industries does not mean we will pay unrealistic rates as this would jeopardise the foundations of what has helped to make Remote Staff a competitively priced staffing solution to so many of it's clients and inturn has helped prospective candidates to achieve a long lasting career as a home based professional.