Offshoring to the Philippines: A Practical Guide for Australian Businesses
Why more Australian companies are looking offshore — and why the Philippines is top of mind this 2026?
With increasing pressure to scale, maintain service quality, and control costs, Australian companies are turning to the Philippines. With a deep talent pool, cultural alignment, and shared time zone overlap, it offers a compelling case for strategic offshoring.
What Does Offshoring Outsourcing Mean?
Offshoring is the practice of relocating business functions — such as customer service, IT, or finance — to another country to access cost-effective talent and operational scale.
For Australian companies, it's a proven way to build teams quickly, reduce overhead, and maintain service levels across time zones.
Offshore delivery models like Employer of Record (EOR), staff leasing, and managed services offer flexibility depending on how much control or speed you need. With strong English proficiency, cultural alignment, and a mature outsourcing industry, offshore teams in the Philippines can support everything from day-to-day operations to complex, high-value tasks.
Is the Philippines considered “offshore” for Australian Businesses?
Yes — the Philippines is a premier offshore location for Australia due to proximity (8-hour flight from Sydney), minimal time zone gap (just 2–3 hours), and a 70% English-proficient workforce with neutral accents. With a 30+ year BPO legacy, it supports some of Australia’s largest CX, IT, and finance functions. Cultural alignment and strong customer service ethics make it ideal for front- and back-office operations.
Why Australian Companies Offshore to the Philippines
Australian companies choose the Philippines for its speed-to-capacity — teams can be built in weeks, not months. Deep talent pools across CX, IT, and finance align well with AU business hours. Cost savings range from 60–70%, covering labor, office space, and local management. Service metrics important for Australian businesses significantly include:
Your Competitors Already Have the Advantage
Think offshore talent is still experimental? Think again. While you're dealing with Australia's skills shortage (33% of occupations can't be filled), smart businesses have moved on. They're accessing the same talent pool as Fortune 500 companies and leaving domestic-only competitors in the dust.
Every month you delay, they pull further ahead:
ASA (Answer Speed Average)
FCR (First Call Resolution)
MTTR (Mean Time to Resolution)
By finding an employer who can handle these metrics, Australian businesses can lower defect rates and improved QA make it ideal for both customer-facing and technical functions.
What Companies Offshore Their Services to the Philippines?
Several well-known global and Australian companies use offshoring in the Philippines to scale operations and reduce costs. Here are some key examples:
Telstra
Offshores customer support and back-office services.
Canva
Employs Filipino teams in design support and customer experience.
Atlassian
Builds engineering and support capabilities offshore.
HSBC
Operates finance, compliance, and IT teams in the Philippines.
Accenture
Runs large-scale BPO and shared services operations.
ANZ
Supports banking processes through offshore delivery centers
4 Common Offshoring Risks and How to Mitigate Them
Offshoring comes with risks — but with the right controls, they’re manageable and often lower than expected.
Risk | How It Manifests | How to Mitigate It |
Vendor Lock-In | Lack of exit flexibility or tool dependency | Include detailed SLAs, ownership clauses, and exit terms in contracts |
Attrition | Loss of key offshore staff, impact on delivery | Use retention programs, offer career paths, and ensure cultural alignment |
Business Continuity | Natural disasters, internet outages, talent gaps | Choose providers with DRP, redundant infrastructure, and hybrid/WFH backup options |
Intellectual Property Risk | Unauthorized use or theft of proprietary work | Secure IP via NDAs, IP assignment clauses, and local legal enforceability |
Philippine Legal and Compliance Essentials: What Australian Decision-Makers Need to Know
Industries and Roles Commonly Offshored in the Philippines
The Philippines supports a wide range of functions across industries — from entry-level support to highly technical or strategic roles.
Popular Roles by Function:
- CX & Service Desk: Voice, chat, email support; Level 1–2 tech support
- Quality Assurance: Manual testers, QA analysts, test automation
- Data & Analytics: Data entry, ETL engineers, business analysts
- Software & Cloud: Full-stack developers, DevOps, AWS/GCP engineers
- Cybersecurity: SOC analysts, vulnerability testers, compliance officers
- Finance & Accounting: AR/AP, bookkeeping, management reporting
- HR & Payroll: Talent acquisition, onboarding, compliance payroll
- Traditional and Digital Marketing: SEO, content, performance media, email automation, public relations
- Healthcare Support: Claims processing, medical coding, telehealth
What Is an Employer of Record (EOR) and How Does It Compare to Offshoring?
An Employer of Record (EOR) is a third-party entity that legally employs talent on your behalf, allowing you to build a compliant offshore team without setting up a local company. Unlike offshoring or BPO, where control and deliverables sit with a vendor, EOR lets you manage the day-to-day work while the EOR handles payroll, taxes, benefits, and statutory compliance.
Why It Matters:
- Reduces misclassification and employment risk
- Ensures local tax, 13th-month pay, and benefit compliance
- Maintains IP control with enforceable PH contracts
A Quick Comparison of Offshoring Models for Australian Executives
Which Operating Model Fits Your Expansion Goals?
Most offshore platforms dump the project management on you. We're different. You get dedicated employees working exclusively for your business—we handle everything else so you can focus on what actually matters: growing your company.
Model | Control Level | Entity Required? | Best Use Case |
EOR (Employer of Record) | High (team managed directly by you) | No | Hire employees quickly without setting up a local entity as well as managing payroll |
Staff Leasing | Medium–High | No | Directly manage day-to-day tasks with back-office handled for you |
Managed Services | Low | No | Outsource outcomes (not headcount), ideal for defined SLAs |
Project or Role-based Outsourcing | Low | No | Short-term, clearly scoped deliverables |
BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) | High (eventual full) | Yes (on transfer) | Test operations with risk-sharing, then take full ownership |
GCC (Global Capability Center) | Full | Yes | Long-term in-house expansion under your brand with full IP control |
How Should You Analyze Your Offshore Journey:
Employer Of Record
Ideal if you need to legally hire in-market this quarter.
Staff Leasing
Get team control without HR/payroll complexity.
Managed Services
Keep focus on business outcomes, not headcount.
Build-Operate-Transfer
Risk-managed expansion that becomes your own asset.
Global Capability Center
The gold standard for long-term, focusing on in-house team building.
How KMC’s End-to-End EOR Model Works
We don’t just manage paperwork. We build thriving offshore teams that align with your brand, mission and performance goals—fully supported by our human‑centric, full‑stack infrastructure.
01
Plan and Recruit
Align on goals; source top talent via our networks in the Philippines, Vietnam, Mexico and Colombia.
02
Hire and Comply
KMC becomes the legal employer: contracts, taxes, payroll, benefits and labour compliance.
03
Onboard and Equip
Prepare workspaces, IT, CASA housing and cultural onboarding.
04
Manage and Scale
We support HR, compliance, performance and workspace as your team expands.
Proven-Australian Case Studies Across KMC’s Portfolio
One of Australia’s largest online retailer with over 45 thousand square meters of warehouse space shipping over 20,000 orders per day.
The largest retailer of travel in Australia. Its parent company, Flight Centre Travel Group, operates under multiple names in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Hong Kong, India, China, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Mexico, and licenses its name in a further 80 countries.
Vault Outsourcing (previously known as Berkshire BPO) is an Australian client specializing on accounting and financial services. Their team provides support services to their end-clients from accounting, bookkeeping, customer support, technical support and project management services.
Frequently Asked Questions on Offshoring in the Philippines
Stop Falling Behind. Start Getting Ahead.
Your competitors with Philippine teams have an 18-month head start and 60% lower staff costs. Every month you delay, they reinvest those savings into growth while you're spending the same money on domestic salaries that are getting harder to find and more expensive to keep.
You don't have to figure this out alone. Join 400+ companies who chose the proven path to competitive advantage.