Smaller firms look to offshoring

Angela Vidler of from offshore recruitment company Diversify, and former head of people and development at PwC said 40 per cent of top accounting and law firms and 30 per cent of mid-tier firms are already offshoring.

Deloitte has also conducted research she said that shows that 20 to 35 per cent of all businesses are planning to offshore.

A lot of smaller firms she said are also now investigating offshoring as a way of attracting talent and reducing costs.

“I think they are very much acknowledging that’s there’s a different way to do business, and their businesses are such a size that they can actually control changes in their business,” she said.

“In a bigger business it takes a lot of time; they have to get board approval and executive approval, and manage thousands of staff and thousands of messages, whereas smaller firms and smaller businesses can move more quickly and can be a bit more agile. So we’re seeing a really large number of small businesses and small firms looking to take up offshoring.”

Ms Vidler said many smaller businesses are using offshoring as it allows them to put resources on in many aspects that they otherwise couldn’t afford in Australia.

“We have a lot of smaller firms come to us for marketing type roles because they simply can’t afford to have a full time digital marketing specialist or a full time graphic artist on in Australia, the cost is just too high, but if they do it offshore they can,” she said.