Why
Tugma
exists.
We believe that the way most businesses hire Filipino talent is broken — not because the talent isn't there, but because the signal gets lost behind CVs, keyword filters, and gut calls made from a 30-minute call.
From experience,
not theory.
Before Tugma, we sat on both sides of the table. We saw firsthand what was broken in how businesses find and hire Filipino professionals.
We saw the "send 20 CVs and hope" model. We saw companies rejecting extraordinary people because their English "sounded off" in a written application — without ever hearing them think out loud. We saw Filipino professionals underselling themselves because the format rewarded bullet points over substance.
And we saw the hires that didn't stick — not because the person wasn't talented, but because no one thought to ask whether the way they work matched the way the team operates.
Tugma is our answer to that. Three curated matches, selected on vibe, skills, and communication evidence — not a search bar and a prayer.
Hiring Filipino talent was broken
in three specific ways.
The CV hides the person.
A two-page CV tells you what someone's done — not how they think, communicate, or handle the ambiguity that every real job is full of. The best hires we've seen don't always have the tidiest CVs.
Volume replaced discernment.
The old model: post on a job board, receive 300 applications, shortlist based on keywords. The result: a hire made fast but wrong — costing months of onboarding, retraining, and operational drag.
Talent was treated as labour.
Offshore hiring became a cost line, not a team expansion. Underpaid, under-supported, and churned out when the budget changed. We wanted no part in that model.
Match on how people actually work —
not just what they've done.
Voice, not just writing
Every Tugma candidate records voice prompts — short answers to work-style questions. You hear how they think, not just what they typed. Communication clarity becomes a measurable signal, not a guess.
Vibe matching, not keyword filters
Our AI reads six work-style dimensions: how heads-down vs collaborative, how structured vs flexible, how async vs in-sync. We match these against your brief — so the person we send fits your rhythm.
Three matches, fully curated
We don't send you a talent pool. We send you three people, in ranked order, with a written explanation of why each one fits. You're not shortlisting — you're choosing.
Ethical from day one
Every hire runs through Team Up Now's Employer of Record framework: locally compliant, above-market pay, full HR support in the Philippines. Your hire has a real employment structure behind them.
Curated per brief — not 30 applicants to wade through
Locally compliant hires via Team Up Now's EOR framework
Average time from brief to shortlist
Required to find your next hire
Four things we won't
compromise on.
People over pipeline.
We don't send you a spreadsheet of applicants. We send you three people we'd vouch for — each one selected because they fit the role, the rhythm, and the way you work.
Ethical is the baseline.
Every Tugma hire is paid above market, locally compliant in the Philippines, and supported by Team Up Now's Employer of Record framework. Fair pay isn't a premium feature — it's the starting point.
Vibe is signal, not fluff.
How someone communicates, how they operate under ambiguity, how they recharge — these things determine whether a hire sticks. Our matching engine reads this from voice recordings and transcript evidence, not self-reported checkboxes.
Both sides win, or neither does.
Tugma means 'us together' in Filipino. We're here for the businesses that need great people, and for the Filipino professionals who deserve to be matched to work that fits them — not just placed and forgotten.
Powered by
Team Up Now.
Tugma sits on top of Team Up Now's Employer of Record platform — the compliance, payroll, and HR backbone that makes every hire legally sound and genuinely supported in the Philippines.
Visit Team Up Now ↗Ready to hire someone you
actually want on the team?
Three curated candidates, free. Post your brief and we'll match on vibe, skills, and communication signal — not just CVs.