Most Singapore SME owners who ask us about pricing expect a catch. They’re used to it. You get a quote from a recruitment or offshoring agency, the number looks reasonable, and then three months in you realise you were paying a 30-40% markup on the talent’s actual salary the whole time — and the agency was quietly collecting the difference every month without telling you. It’s a common model. We chose not to run it.
Kaizenaire charges a flat SGD $350 per month management fee. That’s it. The Filipino talent’s agreed salary — typically SGD $700 to $1,000 per month — passes through to them in full, on the 5th and 20th of every month. We don’t touch the salary. We don’t mark it up. We don’t take a cut of it. Our revenue is the $350. The talent’s salary is theirs.
That probably sounds simple. It is. But we get asked about it often enough that it’s worth explaining the reasoning behind it — and being honest about what it means for both sides of the arrangement.
The Markup Model and Why We Walked Away from It
The standard agency model works like this: the agency presents you with an “all-in” rate that bundles talent salary and agency margin together. You pay, say, SGD $1,800 a month for a Filipino remote talent. The talent receives SGD $900. The agency keeps SGD $900. You often don’t know the split.
This isn’t illegal. It’s fairly standard. But it creates a structural problem we weren’t comfortable with: the agency’s incentive is to keep the spread as wide as possible. They want to pay the talent as little as they can get away with, because every dollar they pay the talent is a dollar less in margin. And they want to charge you as much as you’ll accept, because the gap is their revenue.
That’s a misaligned structure. We think it leads to under-paying Filipino talents, which leads to high attrition, which leads to bad outcomes for the Singapore SME clients who hired through us. We’ve watched this cycle play out — agencies with high client turnover because the talents leave for better pay, and clients who chalk it up to “Filipino remote work just doesn’t work,” when the actual problem was the pricing model.
So in 2019, when we incorporated Kaizenaire formally, we made a deliberate call: flat fee, no markup, full transparency. The talent knows what they earn. You know what we charge. There’s no hidden spread.
The Exact Math: What You Actually Pay
Let’s be specific about this, because “transparent pricing” without actual numbers isn’t particularly useful.
A typical Kaizenaire placement costs a Singapore SME client between SGD $1,050 and SGD $1,350 per month, all in. That breaks down as:
- SGD $700–$1,000/month: The Filipino talent’s agreed salary, paid in full via bi-weekly transfers on the 5th and 20th
- SGD $350/month: Kaizenaire’s flat management fee, fixed regardless of the talent’s salary level
That’s the complete cost. There’s no annual renewal fee, no placement premium beyond what’s agreed at the start, no surprise charges when the talent’s contract renews. The SGD $350 is flat whether you’re paying your talent $700 or $1,000 — which means as your talent becomes more experienced and earns more, our fee as a percentage of total cost actually decreases.
For context: a Singapore-hired employee doing equivalent work would cost a Singapore SME somewhere between SGD $4,500 and $5,500 per month, fully loaded with CPF employer contributions, AWS, and standard benefits. Even at the top of our range ($1,350/month all-in), you’re at roughly 25-30% of what a local hire costs. That gap is real. We don’t think you need us to dress it up.
What the $350 Actually Pays For
This is the question worth asking. If we’re not marking up the salary, what is the $350 covering? Because $350 is not a lot of money for an agency to run a sustainable operation on — and we want to be honest about what you get and what you don’t.
The $350 covers: active account management throughout the engagement, our replacement guarantee window (90 days if a placement doesn’t work out, at no extra placement fee), our screening and shortlisting process for your initial hire, contract administration (the Independent Contractor Agreement on the talent side, the Service Agreement on the client side), and payroll processing on the 5th and 20th of every month without you having to think about it.
It also covers what we’d describe as interference when things go wrong. And things do go wrong — not catastrophically most of the time, but they go wrong. A talent misses a deadline. There’s a communication breakdown. A client’s expectations shifted and the talent doesn’t know. We sit in the middle of that. We have conversations on both sides. We try to fix it before it becomes an exit. That’s part of what $350 buys you.
What $350 does not cover: we’re not a managed service provider running the talent’s day-to-day work for you. We’re not going to project-manage your deliverables. The talent reports to you operationally. We’re the structural layer that holds the arrangement together — compliance, payroll, replacement mechanics, and issue escalation. Think of it as the plumbing. You don’t think about it until something breaks, and when it does, we’re the ones who fix it.
Why the Salary Pass-Through Matters More Than It Sounds
We’ve had this conversation maybe forty times with Singapore SME clients over the last few years. The reaction when we explain the pass-through model is usually something like: “That’s nice, but I don’t really care what the talent gets paid, I care about my total cost.”
That’s fair. Your total cost is $1,050–$1,350. That’s what matters to your P&L.
But here’s why the salary pass-through matters structurally, even if the number on your invoice doesn’t change: when a talent knows exactly what they earn and that the full amount comes through without the agency skimming from it, they trust the arrangement. Filipino remote professionals talk to each other. They know which agencies pay on time and in full, and which ones play games with the split. Our bi-weekly payroll on the 5th and 20th, with no deductions, builds a reputation among Filipino professionals that means we attract better candidates than agencies that pay late or pay less than agreed.
Over 15 years and more than one million Filipino candidate applications filtered across our team’s cross-border experience, the pattern is consistent: talents who feel fairly compensated stay longer, communicate more proactively, and outperform talents who feel they’re being underpaid by an opaque arrangement. Your retention rate as a client is downstream of how your talent feels about being paid. The pass-through is how we protect that.
The Monitoring Software Question
We should address this directly because it comes up in our bad reviews. Yes, Kaizenaire uses monitoring software. It’s agreed contractually before the talent starts — this isn’t something we spring on people. It’s part of how we maintain accountability standards, which is part of what the $350 buys you.
Some former talents have left one-star reviews because of the monitoring requirement. We understand why — it’s not a comfortable thing to be monitored. But our position is: if you’re representing yourself as working from 9am to 6pm for a Singapore SME client, that client deserves to know the work is actually happening during those hours. The monitoring software is the mechanism that makes that verifiable. Without it, “remote accountability” is just a phrase.
Before you engage with us, we’d suggest reading the full picture. Check out our bad reviews (PS: this is not a typo) at kaizenaire.ai/bad-reviews — we think the context around those reviews tells you more about how we operate than our five-star ones do.
How the 90-Day Replacement Window Works with This Structure
Because we charge a flat fee and don’t markup salaries, our replacement policy is cleaner than most. If a placement doesn’t work out within the first 90 days — for any reason covered under the Service Agreement — we find a replacement at no additional placement fee. The $350/month continues. You don’t pay a new placement premium.
This matters because it aligns our incentive with yours. If we were running a markup model, a failed placement that required a replacement would mean we get to charge another placement fee. Under our flat fee model, a failed placement costs us our own time and resources to re-screen and re-shortlist. We’re not rewarded for placements that don’t stick. We’re only rewarded when they do.
That’s the structural reason we chose this model. Not just because it sounds principled, but because it puts our skin in the game alongside yours. A 90-day replacement guarantee that actually costs us something when we exercise it means we’re careful about who we place in the first place.
Actually, let me be more precise about this. The guarantee covers situations where the placement fails due to fit, performance, or circumstances beyond your control. It doesn’t cover situations where the client’s working conditions change significantly mid-engagement, or where the talent exits for reasons entirely unrelated to the placement quality. We’ve had both happen. The specifics of what’s covered are in the Service Agreement — read it before you sign it.
Who This Model Works For and Who It Doesn’t
Flat fee, no markup, salary pass-through — this structure works best for Singapore SMEs who are looking for a long-term arrangement. The $350 only makes sense for us operationally if placements run for 12-24+ months. If you’re looking for a one-month hire, we’re probably not your fit and there are cheaper options available. Our offshoring services page is honest about this.
It works well for SMEs that want the structural accountability that $350 buys — the payroll processing, the issue escalation, the replacement guarantee — without having to become expert operators of cross-border employment themselves. If you want to manage everything yourself and just need a platform to find candidates, OnlineJobs.ph charges less. That’s a legitimate choice. What you give up is the intermediary layer when things go wrong.
What we’ve found over the last six years since formally incorporating: the clients who get the most value from the flat fee model are Singapore SME owners who’ve been burned before. Either they hired direct and had a talent disappear with no recourse, or they used an agency that marked up salaries and they found out the hard way, or they tried to manage a cross-border arrangement themselves and found it ate hours they didn’t have.
The $350 is essentially an insurance premium on the operational overhead of running an international contractor relationship. Whether that’s worth it depends entirely on how much your time costs and how much operational risk you can absorb.
If you’re a Singapore SME owner thinking through whether this structure makes sense for your situation, contact Kaizenaire at our WhatsApp Business Number +65 9636 2204. Our team will be ready to serve you — with the exact same numbers you’ve just read, no variation depending on who picks up.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Kaizenaire charge per month for offshoring a Filipino remote talent?
Kaizenaire charges a flat SGD $350 per month management fee. The Filipino talent’s salary — typically SGD $700 to $1,000 per month — is paid in full without any markup or deduction. The total all-in cost for a Singapore SME client is therefore SGD $1,050 to $1,350 per month, depending on the talent’s agreed salary. There are no additional placement fees, annual renewal premiums, or hidden charges.
Does Kaizenaire mark up the Filipino talent’s salary?
No. Kaizenaire operates on a salary pass-through model. The Filipino talent receives 100% of their agreed salary, transferred bi-weekly on the 5th and 20th of each month. Kaizenaire’s revenue is limited to the flat SGD $350 management fee. This structure is disclosed to both the client and the talent, so there is no hidden spread between what the client pays and what the talent receives.
What does the SGD $350 monthly fee actually cover?
The SGD $350 covers active account management, bi-weekly payroll processing on the 5th and 20th, contract administration (Independent Contractor Agreement on the talent side, Service Agreement on the client side), monitoring software coordination, issue escalation when problems arise, and the 90-day replacement guarantee. It does not cover day-to-day project management or deliverable oversight — the talent reports operationally to the client.
What is Kaizenaire’s 90-day replacement guarantee?
If a Kaizenaire placement does not work out within the first 90 days for reasons covered under the Service Agreement, Kaizenaire will source and place a replacement at no additional placement fee. The SGD $350 monthly fee continues during the replacement process. This guarantee applies to fit and performance issues and is designed to align Kaizenaire’s incentives with the client’s — a failed placement costs Kaizenaire re-screening time, not a fee windfall.
Why does Kaizenaire use monitoring software for remote Filipino talents?
Kaizenaire uses monitoring software as a contractually agreed accountability mechanism, disclosed to talents before they start. For Singapore SME clients paying for dedicated working hours, monitoring provides verifiable evidence that work is occurring during agreed periods. The use of monitoring software is one reason some former talents have left negative reviews of Kaizenaire. Kaizenaire publishes these reviews at kaizenaire.ai/bad-reviews/ for full transparency about how the system operates.
How does Kaizenaire’s flat fee model compare to standard offshoring agency pricing?
Most offshoring agencies bundle talent salary and agency margin into a single ‘all-in’ rate, without disclosing the split. This creates an incentive to underpay talents and overprice clients. Kaizenaire’s flat SGD $350 fee separates the two clearly — the client knows exactly what they pay, and the talent knows exactly what they earn. This structure is designed to reduce talent attrition and improve placement longevity compared to opaque markup models.
Is Kaizenaire the right choice if I only need a short-term hire?
Kaizenaire’s flat fee model is optimised for long-term placements of 12 months or more. For short-term or one-off engagements, the $350 monthly management overhead may not represent value compared to direct hiring platforms like OnlineJobs.ph. Singapore SMEs that benefit most from Kaizenaire’s model are those seeking structural accountability — payroll processing, replacement guarantees, issue escalation — over multi-year placements rather than one-off contractor sourcing.