Now more than ever, finding skilled staff in Australia has become nearly impossible. In fact, new data from the Australian National Skills Commission shows that the country’s skills shortage has almost doubled over the past year. The accounting industry, in particular, is no stranger to this as 93% of accounting firms consider finding quality staff a challenge. 

The solution? More and more businesses have turned to offshoring through overseas providers.

Offshoring is the process of transferring business processes and activities to an external party from another country. This usually involves managing an overseas team as an extension of your onshore team. 

Usually, companies offshore through an arrangement with a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider– the biggest of which are in the Philippines and India. 

Outsourcing and offshoring are often confused with one another. While outsourcing also uses a third-party company to do business activities, they are two distinct concepts. The main difference between the two is the delegation of tasks. 

Outsourcing delegates certain business activities to a third-party provider with little to no involvement in talent acquisition and performance management. Whereas in offshoring, the activities are given to a dedicated team member the company can consider its own. 

The company is, therefore, heavily involved in interviewing and integrating the team member(s) into the company. It’s like having staff in another country and having a provider help you with HR, payroll, and IT requirements. 

If you are considering offshoring for your business, now is definitely the best time to start.

With the shortage of skilled labour, Australian companies are having difficulties finding staff and, in turn, are loaded with work. If you’re already at 75-80% capacity, it’s best that you act now and hire remote staff.

It usually takes 2-3 weeks to find qualified staff and, not only that, most of them would need 30 days’ notice if they’re currently working for another company. Not to mention, you need to make time to onboard the staff properly. A Study also shows that it takes at least 1 to 2 years before an employee is “fully productive” which is normal for accounting practice staff even in Australia. 

Offshoring is an investment that can help your company in the long run. Don’t wait until you’re at full capacity to make a decision– get started as soon as possible. 

Offshoring in Australia has become the norm, especially in the areas of accounting, administration, bookkeeping, and digital marketing. The business model allows companies to access talent who are highly skilled and fluent in speaking English. 

Top offshoring destinations like the Philippines, for example, are home to top accounting talent as the country’s education and professional accreditations are similar to that of Australia. They adopt the same International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and even have a more extended education length for an accounting degree than in Australia.

These similarities make it easier for Filipino accountants to learn Australian best practices and excel in their careers. 

Countries like Australia, the UK, and the United States commonly offshore to developing countries with lower costs of living. This means that labour costs are comparatively lower and allows businesses to save more money. Moreover, by using an offshoring provider, you can reduce costs on hiring and training an in-house employee. 

In Australia, accounting firms save as much as $47,000 per employee by using offshore labour which is 25 to 50% cheaper. Not only do you save on labour expenses, but you also get higher-quality staff to do core business activities. This frees up capacity and enables Australian staff to work on higher chargeable work like business services consultations. 

One of the main reasons why companies engage in offshoring rather than outsourcing is to have more control over business operations. Usually, companies only outsource ad hoc or per-hour projects, requiring them to hand over tasks to the outsourcing provider. 

Offshoring, on the other hand, lets you provide instructions and train staff to carry out all the tasks for that specific role. This way, you have more control over how the work is done and the quality of the output. It is significantly more flexible than outsourcing. 

Scaling your business can be challenging and costly especially if you’re finding it hard to find and retain staff. Offshoring makes it easier and faster to grow your team. Partnering with an offshoring company can also help you manage and retain your staff by ensuring they get the proper onboarding, training and employee benefits.

It’s best to find an offshoring provider that specialises and has experience in the field you operate. There are a lot of BPO firms that say they are accountants when, in fact, they are not and are not qualified. This can lead to staff being recruited for their profit rather than meeting your needs and doing a proper matching of skills. Recruiting and training staff is important to help you focus on your business’s core activities, initiate growth and achieve success. 

Offshoring presents many benefits for businesses anywhere in the world. If you've finally decided on starting your offshoring journey, make sure you find a provider that holds your hand through the process and is knowledgeable about your industry. 

We at The Remote Accountant are offshoring experts in finding accountants for Australian businesses. We are accountants! A CPA-qualified public practitioner heads our company so we understand exactly what you are going through daily before we even speak. We specialise in recruiting and inducting staff on how to do work for Australian practices, as well as mentoring business owners on how they can successfully manage their remote teams.