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Insights from an offshore accountant – in this episode we talk with an accountant who used to work for a labour hire agency in the Philippines.
Insights from an Offshore Accountant
Hear first hand what working for an offshore labour hire agency is like. To make it simple we won’t mention the agency’s name – although you probably know them anyway – nor the speaker’s name.
To listen while you drive, walk or work, just access the episode through a free podcast app on your mobile phone.
Here is what we learned but please listen in as the speaker explains all this much better than we ever could.
Insights from an Offshore Accountant
Two topics that we cover in this interview and that you don’t often hear about are moonlighting and staff poaching, but we also cover quite a few other topics. Here are ten points we touch on.
1 – Moonlighting
Moonlighting is when your staff member works not just for you full-time but also for other clients in their free time or while officially on the clock with you.
While everybody worked from home during lockdowns, that was a big issue. Many staff members working in labour hire agencies signed up with online freelancer platforms early on in the lockdown, found additional clients and started working for these in their free time or while on the clock with their official agency client.
This is still an issue but less so when your staff works from a central office and not from home.
2 – Staff Poaching
Working with staff through a labour hire agency costs you at least AUD 700 + GST per month in management fees, in addition to the wages you pay. So it happens that both client and staff member agree to leave the agency and to work directly with each other without the agency in between.
3 – Clock In and Clock Out
When your staff arrives at the office they clock in and when they leave, they clock out. This is harder to hack than screen-recording software.
4 – CCTV Cameras
The agency has CCTV cameras so harder to do dodgy stuff while officially working for you.
5 – Mobile Phone Restrictions
If you don’t want your staff to have mobile phones at their desks, then the agency promises to control this.
However, some staff needs their phones for authenticator apps – for example, to log into the ATO online services as a basic user – so some staff are allowed to have their phones. Questionable how much an agency tracks who is allowed to have their phone and who isn’t, but that is a different question.
6 – IT Security
The agency provides the computers your staff work on so there is more IT security and privacy than if they worked on their own laptops.
7 – HR
Annual leave, sick leave, performance management, redundancy – all this the agency takes care of for you. But of course, performance management ultimately has to come from you. The agency just sits down with your staff and discusses your concerns.
8 – Onsite Training
Agencies tend to offer onsite training courses that staff is encouraged to attend. You as the client pay for these training courses by covering the wage of your staff while they attend.
These training courses usually cover soft skills and personal development rather than technical skills. The technical skills you – you as in the accounting practice – have to provide.
9 – Peer Support
Working from home can be lonely. Working in a labour hire agency’s office your staff are surrounded by hundreds of people who are a similar age to them and do similar work.
Staff can only help staff working in the same client group. So if you have two or three staff within the same agency office, they can help each other. But staff working for other clients can’t.
However, there is still peer support. Friendly chats over lunch about an issue, comparing notes and experiences and sharing general advice.
10 – Hardware
Your staff gets a desk, chair, two screens, and a computer to work on in a central office. All things they don’t necessarily have at home. We mean, of course, they have a desk and chairs. But not necessarily a spare one to work on in a separate room.
So this was just a short summary of some of the points we discussed. But please listen in as the speaker covers a lot more than what we have listed.
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Disclaimer: Tax Talks does not provide financial or tax advice. All information on Tax Talks is of a general nature only and might no longer be up to date or correct. You should seek professional accredited tax and financial advice when considering whether the information is suitable to your or your client’s circumstances.
Last Updated on 22 August 2022
