Login
iscover
According to two industry disruptors, the secret to harnessing an agency’s full potential may lie in employees working outside the Australian time zone.
In the eyes of Nick Georges, offshoring, or hiring overseas talent to undertake the tasks of certain businesses, is often misconstrued.
“The perception of offshoring is big call centres with hundreds of people crammed in; chaos, and very sort of low-level administration staff,” explained Mr Georges, who recently departed the LJ Hooker Group to become a partner across five businesses, including offshoring company Wingman.
But a recent visit to the Philippines to meet the Wingman team “blew [his] mind”.
“The quality of the people; they’re all very loyal people, all of them have university degrees, English is their first language, [they’re] very, very driven, [and it’s] a very, very loyal culture.”
However, it’s not only the strong personal attributes of the Wingman team that enhance their value to Australian real estate businesses, but also the relative similarities between the two nations’ time zones, with the Philippines just two hours behind Australia.
For the employees, there is a work/life balance benefit to working with Australian companies, as opposed to those in other nations like the US, with their 7:00am to 3:00pm working hours closely resembling a typical working day for Australian tradespeople.
Jonathan Bell, founder of the Wingman Group, added these offshore employees “love working with Australian businesses”.
For Australian real estate agencies feeling sceptical about employing international employees, Mr Bell posed a simple question: “Why not?”
In his eyes, it’s a no-brainer. Not only do you get high-level talent, many of whom have backgrounds at huge international corporations such as Microsoft, but you get extreme loyalty.
“These guys stay with you for life,” he insisted.
Despite the obvious upside, a dubious attitude towards offshore employees hangs thick throughout many Australian businesses. Mr Bell believes this is because “they’re offshore; people get nervous about ‘what do I need to do to prepare them?’”
“People build it up in their head bigger than it is,” he said.
He encouraged employers to “give it a try”, adding “the risk is very low”.
The challenge for Wingman is changing the perception of offshoring on Australian soil from the widely held belief currently in place of “Telstra [and] call centres” as Mr Bell explained to a more accurate one where employers realise the quality of the individual they’re employing.
“If someone thinks about [offshoring], they’re thinking about using a degree-qualified person who is probably as qualified as the property manager, [who will] be able to help them in their business rather than just using an admin assistant who’s got a headset on in a call centre,” he concluded.
Newsletter
