This Mackay-based agri accounting firm pushed through Australia’s talent shortages using remote and offshore talent. But were they afraid to tell clients about the change? This is how they handled it.
Your accounting firm is stretched thin and struggling to find great talent. You’ve heard your competitors are solving capacity constraints with offshoring—but what will your clients think if you do the same?
For Tony and Emma Olsen, co-owners of Queensland firm Flor-Hanly, this was their exact situation. Today? Their team includes 11 offshore staff in the Philippines alongside multiple remote team members across Australia.
Their clients not only accepted the change, some who initially resisted are now in full support.
So what did they do?
Flor-Hanly has the same issue facing many Australian accounting firms regarding critical accounting talent—especially in regional areas. Based in Mackay, Tony and Emma just don’t have access to all of the candidates they need to thrive as a business, and certainly not to reach the next level.
“We think Mackay's one of the best spots in Australia, but not everyone agrees. Luckily, otherwise we'd be like the Gold Coast,” joked Tony.
Tony describes how, not so long ago, they were “pulling their hair out” trying to get people. But, within the last few years, Flor-Hanly has made major investments in training an experienced team of remote and offshore talent.
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There’s a lot of fear out there about the optics of transitioning to an offshore staffing model, and Flor-Hanly felt the same.
“ We understand that—we had some fears around it,” Emma told our webinar panelists.
“We’ve got a small handful of clients who weren't on board, but some of them, now that they’ve seen it in action, are feeling very differently.”
She explained that they recently brought 6 of the offshore team to Australia, introducing them to a range of locations and industries. While they were already working for a number of local clients, others had initially said no to an international team doing their work. Flor-Hanly used this opportunity to build relationships and understanding on both sides.
Openness and honesty were the winners of the day for Tony and Emma when it came to bringing clients around to the idea, particularly their more rural clients.
“I think for a lot of rural clients,” said Emma, “if they saw us only investing offshore and not offering opportunities to up and comers in Australia, they would be concerned.”
“But when they see we’ve got cadets, we’ve got new grads, we’re bringing them along, and we explained that within our model, our aim has always been to allow our senior people to have more time to help and support them, they’ve understood. Rural clients are struggling to have people work for them too.”
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“Accountants are our own worst enemies, right?” added Tony.
“Fifteen odd years ago, when Xero was new on the scene, we [accountants] were the ones who were worried about it or making the assumptions that our clients wouldn’t like it. But now look back where things have gone: clients weren’t worried about it at all.”
One of the most common questions Tony and Emma received during their ring-around was whether or not Australian clients would need to speak with people in the Philippines. There was a concern about miscommunication, specifically the potential language barrier.
But, as it turns out, not much has changed at Flor-Hanly from a client perspective.
“We made it very clear that, no, our Australian team will not be talking to you. Nothing is going to change,” said Tony.
“Having said that, we do have some of our Philippines team who are involved in Zoom meetings with clients with our team in Australia. They’re gaining that trust and respect, which is really special to see happening.”
One client told Tony they wouldn’t even know the Philippines team was overseas.
Transparency and open discussion helped make Flor-Hanly’s onboarding of remote and offshore staff highly successful among clients, but that’s only one part of the wide-ranging conversation Tony and Emma had with Figured panelists Mark and Andy.
Watch the full 45-minute video free on-demand to learn: