Frequently Asked Questions
HOW QUICKLY CAN I GET STARTED?
We can sign you up in 10 minutes and your staffers can be ready in as little as 2-3 days.
Read about our onboarding process below.
HOW DOES THE ONBOARDING PROCESS WORK?
To get started simply call one of our account directors and they will get you signed up. We just need the weekly schedule (unless it’s an open schedule), a list of the functions you need your staffer to start with and the contact info for the person that will be handling payroll.
After we have those we will send you:
- the service agreement (which is always pay-as-you-go)
- The NCND (a non-disclose/non-circumvent agreement which protects your proprietary information)
- An intro email from the CSM with their contact info
- An invoice for the $300 ($400 for full time) Initial Launch Deposit (not a fee, applied against your final payroll)
Your CSM will get to work on matching you up with your Ready Staffer(s). This usually takes 2-3 days depending on how many clients are ahead of you. In the meantime the CSM will have asked in the intro email for you to send over any materials (websites, platforms, documents, programs, instructions, training materials, company info) your staffers will be working with. This is important to make the training session(s) go more smoothly for you.
Once the CSM has matched you with your Ready Staffer they will contact you to secure a time you will be available for the training and orientation conference call. Training is free. You get up to 8 hours of training time included (4 hours for part time) . You can do that all on one day or split it up into a couple of days. You can do the training yourself or have your staffer train using instructional materials all with the support of the CSM. After the 8 hours, you can continue to train if need be but the staffers will have launched and be on your time at that point.
WHAT SCHEDULE CAN THE STAFFERS WORK?
You can set up your Ready Staffers’ weekly schedule just as you would your in-house employees. Our staffers work all U.S. time zones. Some clients need staffers to work US business hours. Some prefer their staffers work U.S. overnight or “graveyard” shifts and some give their staffers “open” schedules, which means they don’t need their work performed at any specific hours.
WHAT ARE THE MINIMUM HOURS PER WEEK?
The minimum to qualify for the discounted full time rate is 44 hours per week. The minimum for part time is 22 hours per week. Your Ready Staffer can work the exact volume you require these minimums just determine what rate you qualify for.
DO I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE CURRENT PAYROLL PERIOD IS FINISHED TO SCALE UP?
Not at all. We will prorate every hour so you never need worry about deploying your Ready Staffers as you need. Many clients find that delegating more and more work to their Ready Staffer team enables them to free up their own in-house staff to focus on more important functions. So your CSM is always ready to help you scale your team as needed.
ARE THE STAFFERS FREELANCERS?
No. Ready Staffer cares about offering great employment opportunities to overseas college students. We hire all of our staffers formally. We pay all of their taxes and even provide 100% medical insurance coverage. All included in the lowest rates in the industry.
WILL I HAVE THE SAME STAFFERS WORKING FOR ME ALL THE TIME?
Yes. This is key to getting the most out of your engagement. You should never hire a company that will have you working with a rotating crew of staffers because you won’t accrue the benefits of experience that the staffer gains over time. An experienced staffer is MUCH more valuable to your operation. Plus who wants to waste time training new people all the time?
WILL I HAVE TO TRAIN THE STAFFERS?
That depends on the kind of work you need performed. Most office work today is done on popular platforms such as project management apps, CRMs, bookkeeping programs, social media and other such applications. If a staffer is not familiar with a particular platform you require, your CSM can pre-train them and you can complete their training by instructing them on your specific tasks.
Training is free (up to 4 hours PT and 8 hours FT) and your CSM will sit in on all the training sessions to provide support. We are very fluid in order to make sure we accommodate your needs during the training process so you can advance to launch as smoothly as possible. Once your staffer is up and running, providing your office with a much needed increase in productivity you will be glad you glad you made the effort to get them trained and launched.
We do a lot of work for many different small business clients. There is no reason we can’t do the same for you.
WHAT ABOUT TIME OFF?
You never pay for an hour that is not worked due to a staffer being off. Occasionally it is inevitable for a staffer to take time off. Any missed time is deducted from their payroll.
HOW DO I KNOW WHAT HOURS THE STAFFERS ARE WORKING?
You set up the weekly schedule as needed and this is monitored by your CSM. Every client’s needs are different. Some clients, such as realtors, work with their Ready Staffers directly throughout the day. Others, like some law firms send over file work and know what volume of work should be completed daily or weekly. Others have their staffers monitoring inbound customer contacts on phone/email/text/chat and so they can see their staffers logged into their platforms in real time during their designated shifts. And others, that don’t fit into any of these categories because their tasks are more varied, typically have their staffers take the last 15 minutes of their shifts each day and send a rundown of their tasks and the time each took via email. All clients are also sent a time sheet every week with a day by day breakdown of the hours worked.
WHY DO YOU SAY THAT YOUR "ROCKSTAR" MANAGERS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR SERVICE?
Many small business clients try and fail to incorporate outsourcing into their organizations. Every Fortune 500 company outsources yet very few small businesses do. And the reason is they don’t have the management resources to make outsourcing a success. So we built our model around our Client Success Managers (CSMs). Every client is assigned a dedicated CSM so you not only have the same staffer but also the same manager available to you every day, all day. And the ROCKSTAR part has to do with the fact that our core of CSMs has helped countess small businesses establish an excellent outsourced resource and is experienced in many different industries and platforms.
WHAT IF MY STAFFER IS NOT RIGHT FOR ME, OR IS NOT PERFORMING AS NEEDED?
This is where our Rockstar CSM’s come in. With us it’s never just you and the staffer. You have an experienced manager in place to help with any issues that arise. If your staffer is not performing at the level you require, or if you just feel they are not the right fit for you, all you need do is contact your CSM and they will help either train up your staffer or match you with a replacement. It’s no problem, just because they are not the right fit for you doesn’t mean they won’t be the right fit for a different client. The key is that you lock in with the right staffer that is a long-term solution for your needs.
WHAT ABOUT THE LEARNING CURVE FOR THE STAFFER TO BECOME FAMILIAR WITH MY BUSINESS?
We tell our clients that are unfamiliar with working with remote staffers that there is a learning curve and period of adjustment in the beginning. Both for the staffer, who needs to learn a whole new set of tasks, and for the client who may find the adjustment to working with a remote staffer difficult because they are used to working only with U.S. employees and only face-to-face.
It is important that both sides make an extra effort at the beginning and keep their eye on the prize, so to speak. After the training and the first couple of weeks, usually clients will find that, despite the adjustment in the beginning, they end up with a great amount of value every week for their investment. The savings in time and money that come from working with a remote staff are such that they afford small businesses and independent professionals the ability to go after many opportunities that they couldn’t pursue without the cost savings that outsourcing provides. Increasing the margin of error on the risk of trying new things can mean a totally new strategic outcome for a small business. And of course, taking a lot of tedious daily tasks off of your in-house employees plate frees you up to focus on the big picture.
So the point is that it requires some effort in the beginning, but proves to be extremely valuable later on.
HOW DO I COMMUNICATE WITH MY STAFFER AND CSM?
We highly recommend Skype. You can have your Ready Staffers and CSM on Skype and have them at your easy reach any time of the workday. You can also call, text or email your staffer. (All staffers come with a US phone line, included.) Some clients have their own communication or project collaboration platforms like Slack for example, already set up. Your staffer can be assimilated into any system you currently use.
DO THE STAFFERS DO COLD CALLING / TELEMARKETING / APPOINTMENT SETTING?
Yes, we have a small dedicated outbound call center we recently opened with experienced callers specifically to serve clients who had been requesting phone sales. We actually started out as a cold calling call center back in 2003 but moved towards BPO (business process outsourcing) in 2009, so we have a lot of experience in all types of phone verticals. Now we are happy to offer this service again to our clients. Hourly rates for the staffers in the call center are our regular rate schedule plus $2.
DO THE STAFFERS SPEAK ENGLISH? DO THEY HAVE ACCENTS?
All of our staffers are English-speaking college students and recent college graduates. Some staffers have better spoken English than others of course, but when working with overseas staff accents are unavoidable. That being said, we handle phone support successfully for many clients.
DO YOU HAVE SPECIALIZED STAFFERS?
Our staffers typically have experience in a variety of office and online work. They can also be pre-trained by their experienced CSM’s on other functions you may require. When a client signs up we try to match them with staffers that are appropriate for the type of work that they require. For example if the work is primarily bookkeeping and admin, we will try to assign a staffer that is an accounting major or has other relevant experience. Occasionally an existing client requires a staffer that is a specialist or professional in a specific field, such as a coder or developer for example. In these cases the client will provide us a list of needed expertise and we will send them candidate resumes that best match their needs. Sometimes these specialists will have higher salary expectations than what our regular rates are (usually from around 50 cents to about $2 additional) and we will let the client know which candidates require the higher rates.
IS MY COMPANY INFO SECURE?
We work for law firms for which we do all types of case file work. We also perform HIPAA-compliant functions for doctor offices. We handle client billing and payroll for different companies. We also do customer acquisition for Dish and DirectTV retailers which involves social security numbers and other information. We handle loan processing for mortgage brokers which involves credit histories and banking information. So we are well-versed in protecting sensitive information. We are a U.S.-based corporation and we send every new client an NCND agreement which protects their company information.
ARE YOU HIPPA COMPLIANT?
Yes. We work for a variety of medical practices and can provide our HIPAA compliance statement upon request.
HOW DOES PAYROLL WORK?
Unlike our competitors, we don’t charge you for several weeks upfront. Instead, we take a $400 ($500 for full time) initial launch deposit per staffer and then send you a payroll invoice at the end of every two-week payroll period. Every payroll is the same each period (unless you schedule extra hours, which are billed at the same exact rate) so there are never any surprises. You always know exactly what your total cost is.
The initial launch deposit is not a fee, it is a deposit that we hold and apply against your final payroll with us, if and when you ever cancel.
(For the cold calling/telemarketing sales staffers there is no deposit required. Instead, payroll is invoiced at the beginning of every 2 weeks.)
WHAT ABOUT BONUSES, RAISES AND INCENTIVES?
Our clients often wish to incentivize and/or reward their staffers and CSM’s for good performance, longevity, etc. like they would a regular in-house employee. We certainly encourage clients to do so if they wish as it will help keep turnover low and even a little bit can make a big impact . Any bonuses or raises paid by the client are passed on 100% to the staffer and/or CSM as the client dictates.
WHAT ABOUT TAXES, EMPLOYMENT REGULATIONS, HR LIABILITIES, ETC
One of the great things about partnering with a staffing service like ours is that you get the benefits of being an employer (complete control of the schedule, ability to assign any tasks required, flexibility to change anything that is needed, in real time) but you don’t have the regulatory or HR expenses and hassles or the legal liabilities that come with hiring directly. You are in control but our company is technically the employer. And your relationship with us is that of vendor/customer. So you can cancel at any time without the legal consequences of laying off direct hires.
HOW DO YOU TAKE PAYMENT?
Zelle is our main payroll payment platform. It is an online payment network set up by the major banks (Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo). It’s safe, instant and free. And you do not need to be a customer of one of these banks to use it. It works with all banks. We also take checks, online bill pay, wires and ACH transfers.
WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
Just call one of our account directors. They can discuss your needs if you have any questions and sign you up in a couple of minutes. They then hand you off to one of our CRM’s to get the onboarding process started (more on onboarding above).
Outsourcing works.
That is why virtually every Fortune 500 company outsources.
Call an account director today and let’s discuss.