Hi, it’s Damien here from Affordable Staff and today I’m interviewing Pepper and Tim from Money Bro. Welcome.
Why did you choose to outsource?
Hi, it’s Damien here from Affordable Staff and today I’m interviewing Pepper and Tim from Money Bro. Welcome.
Thank you um thanks for thanks for joining us so I suppose I wanted to have a bit of a conversation with you around um Affordable Staff outsourcing and I suppose my first question really is why did you choose to outsource?
I well to be honest we chose the outsource because during COVID we were experiencing some some issues with some of our application teams so it it just meant for us we were able to just free up some resources and be able to hopefully take our staff through I guess I think the right word that I’m looking for is that we’ll be able to upskill them into other roles.
Why did you choose us?
Why did you choose us? Why did you choose Affordable Staff?
My main reason why we chose Affordable Staff is because you had a base in Australia so that we can communicate to you, cause when you’re looking at outsourcing overseas it’s quite daunting and all but my main point was because you had local people on the ground.
How did the local team find integrating with the offshore team?
How have the local team found working with offshore staff because you deal day to day in the business with the offshore with your offshore team which you’ve now got six team members in your business um so how’s the local team found integrating with?
Yeah well we’ve um recently just introduced the buddy system for the local team and the offshore team where we want them to work closely and build a relationship so that any of our leads that we’re generating are being looked after by our offshore team and then carries over to our local team but at the same time both, both staff members on either side are both following and looking after.
has that been able to help your local team as well as your offshore team?
Absolutely, this morning I got feedback from the local team saying how well the buddy system’s working at the moment yeah.
And I suppose from business owner point of view Tim how have you found the local the local teams engagement and with the offshore team
Oh they love it unfortunately they love it so much that um you know they start to give them more and more work yeah but that you know that they you know.
Is that helping you achieve the results that you that you’re looking for I suppose both operationally and from a business owner point of view?
Yeah absolutely, it does yeah.
What limitations have you found?
What limitations have you found or if any with going from a completely onshore based in Melbourne, Victoria um business to having a hybrid team based in two countries is there any limitations that you found or is there I suppose any bits of advice that you go :hey when I looked at that i didn’t think that that would be something I’d look at”
For me um for me working with the offshore team as well as the local team I find just the physical interaction is lost and you know just wanting them to be physically here to be part of the local team any celebrations or recognition awards that we may have so it’s although we do recognize them and we celebrate them online um to have them here physically would be ideal for those monthly
Few monthly catch-ups that you have yeah that we have and I suppose Tim?
Yeah I guess that’s what’s going to be a a challenge but what it has done has made us better made us a better organization because yes we’re you know millions of miles apart but we’ve had to rely a lot more on technology and then to our middle management it’s actually upskilled our management to not just rely on what’s what’s happening live on the floor but they’ve actually got us a little bit more time to engage online
I think one of the things i really noticed watching your business is that um the amount of systemize like you’re very you’re a very organized person Pepper I would say but that has helped contribute to um to the team being able to integrate really well um and I know you say that you would love to have them in person here but I know you you’d still do celebrate them celebrate all those events um in the Philippines and organize stuff there so I suppose there are a couple of things that you don’t normally I suppose think about until it comes up to happen but you found ways around a lot some of those challenges haven’t you?
Yep we certainly have.
What direct results have you found in having an offshore team?
What direct results if we can talk a little bit about results what what what what’s what’s the real difference that outsourcing and having having that VA team made to your business and I suppose if I can talk first of all Pepper from a purely a people point of view and that and Tim from a business business owner probably that higher level what what type of results have you seen out of having an offshore team?
People’s point of view um there’s just an amazing bunch of people um there must be a different it must be because of the culture in the Philippines that they’ve just taken on board um whatever processes that have been you know presented to them and they just run with it and they just and they’ve given results um that we haven’t seen in the past.
Were you expecting it?
No that I wasn’t, it was good that we tested the waters with it and we’ve stayed with that.
And I suppose Tim probably from a higher level is probably a bit the same wouldn’t it?
Absolutely I think as well you’ve also got we’re able to uh free up some of our resources so that we can that we can grow and scale in other areas um and and then I think also it allowed us to with the teams that they replaced it was a little bit daunting in the beginning because your team members kind of become your family and you think unfortunately I’m gonna we’re gonna be bringing outsourced people to your role but it allowed them to step up and allow them to to I guess to to dig deeper and and just become and to I guess progress more into their career which is really nice to be able to see some of our staff to be able to kind of progress more in their career which gave more income and it was just a good result.
And I think that’s one of the things that like I notice a lot with businesses is that the local teams start to once once you’ve set in place the offshore team the local team are able to I suppose we call it focus on those higher return on investment things but the direct results of that appear to be increased income, increased wage yeah I mean like the ability to earn earn more for the local team so and that’s something that we see quite commonly across across all businesses so yeah it’s really good that’s good to hear and like from an us point of view yeah it’s something that I love to see you know where we’d like to see our clients succeed.
What advice would you give to others when they are looking to outsource?
What advice would you give someone if they were looking to outsource?
Communication, communicate yeah um it’s you know you’ve got to be transparent if you’re going to bring in new people and make sure that we’ve got the right team right fit
Communication with your local team like about what’s happening or are you?
Yeah so what i found when we first started bringing in our VA is just being transparent with the team and letting them know we’ve got this new team coming in team member and then just growing from there but staying in touch or communicating with them and letting them know where we’re progressing
Tim what about you?
I think just having clarity around what you’re expecting from the role and and also having good processes set up so that you can monitor the benchmark and you can be able to look at where you know where you can make some improvements but um you know so I think my advice would be just to step into it and to you know to trust the process and you know see some results
Thank you Tim thank you Pepper this is uh Damien from Affordable Staff with Tim and Pepper from Money Bro finance.
thank you, thank you.
