How to Hire Your First Offshore Team Member in Australia

They’ve heard it works. They know the cost case. They’ve probably been referred by someone who did it two years ago and won’t stop talking about how good their loans processor is.

But they don’t know where to start. So they do nothing.

This is a step-by-step guide to making your first offshore hire the right way, from figuring out which role to start with through to your team member’s first week on the job.

Step 1: Decide What You’re Actually Hiring For

The most common mistake is starting too broad. “I need help with admin” is not a job description. It’s a symptom.

Before you write a single job ad, answer this question: what is the single task eating the most of your time, or your team’s time, that someone else could do with the right training?

For mortgage brokers, it’s almost always loan processing: submitting applications, chasing lenders, preparing docs, following up settlements. For accountants, it’s bookkeeping, data entry and client onboarding. For financial planners, it’s SOA prep and compliance documentation.

Pick one role. One specific function. Your first offshore hire should not be a “general admin assistant who can do anything.” That hire is hard to train, hard to manage and hard to evaluate. A defined role with defined tasks is where you start.

Write a list of the top 10 tasks you want them to own. If you can’t list 10 tasks clearly, you’re not ready to hire yet.

Step 2: Know What You’re Paying

You don’t need to guess. Typical market rates for Filipino professionals in 2026 are around:

Loans processor / mortgage admin: about $1,600 AUD/month

Bookkeeper / accounts admin: about $1,400 AUD/month

Financial planning support / paraplanning: about $1,900 AUD/month

Executive assistant: about $1,700 AUD/month

General admin: about $1,200 AUD/month

Accountant (degree-qualified): about $1,800 AUD/month

These are estimates. Rates move with experience, location and the exchange rate. Our Philippines salary guide has more detail by role.

On top of base salary, budget for:

Government contributions (SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG) if you hire the person, roughly 10–12% of salary

13th month pay, equal to one-twelfth of the year’s basic salary, paid by 24 December and required by law for employees in the Philippines (see our 13th month pay guide)

An employer of record (EOR) platform, if you use one, which charges a monthly fee per person for payroll and contracts. Check current pricing with the provider.

All-in, you’re typically looking at around $1,900–$2,500 AUD/month for a well-structured hire in most roles. That’s about $22,000–$30,000 per year. Compare that to roughly $70,000–$145,000 a year plus super for a local equivalent and you start to see why the firms that did this three years ago aren’t looking back.

Don’t underpay. Paying below market rate for Filipino talent is how you get high turnover and underperformance. The savings are large enough that you don’t need to squeeze the salary.

Step 3: Write a Job Description That Actually Attracts Good Candidates

Filipino professionals are choosing between several opportunities. A vague job description attracts the candidates with the fewest options. A clear, specific description attracts people who know exactly what they’re getting into.

Your job description should include:

What the role involves (specifically) Not “assist with admin tasks.” Write out the actual tasks: “Process mortgage applications in ApplyOnline, liaise with lenders via email and phone, prepare loan documentation packs, follow up outstanding conditions.” Be specific enough that someone reading it knows exactly what their day looks like.

Software and tools required List the platforms you use. If you’re a broker: ApplyOnline, MyCRM, Nextdoc, FLEX. If you’re an accountant: Xero, MYOB, BGL. Candidates who already know your software get up to speed faster.

Hours and timezone Most Australian firms ask for 9am–5pm AEST (or AEDT during daylight saving). Manila is two to three hours behind Sydney, so this is workable. Your hire starts early by Philippine standards, but that’s normal for anyone working with Australian clients.

Salary (in PHP) Convert to Philippine pesos and list the monthly salary. AUD rates look good to Australians. PHP rates are what candidates are comparing. $1,700 AUD/month is roughly ₱75,000 PHP/month, depending on the exchange rate. That’s a well-paying position in Metro Manila.

The company and what you do Don’t underestimate this. Candidates research who they’re working for. A short, honest paragraph about what your firm does, how many people are in the team and what working with you looks like matters.

Step 4: Screen for the Right Person, Not Just the Right CV

The CV is the least reliable indicator of whether someone will succeed in your role.

You’re looking for three things: English communication ability, attention to detail and coachability.

Communication ability: The best way to assess this is a live video call. Not a written assessment: a call. Can they explain their experience clearly? Do they understand your questions? Are they confident communicating in English in a professional context? You’ll know in ten minutes.

Attention to detail: Give them a practical task relevant to the role. For a loans processor, this might be reviewing a sample application summary and identifying errors or missing information. For a bookkeeper, reconciling a simple set of transactions. The task doesn’t need to be complex. You want to see how carefully they work and whether they ask clarifying questions before starting.

Coachability: Ask about a time they had to learn something new on the job. Ask how they prefer to receive feedback. People who’ve done this well for international clients will have clear answers. People who haven’t will be vague.

Ignore candidates who can’t turn up prepared to a video call. It tells you how they’ll approach work.

If you’d rather not run this yourself, this is the process Tarino runs for you. We start with 1,000+ candidates per role and narrow them through CV and quality screening (40% remain), video screening (20%), a practical assessment (10%), a structured interview (5%) and finalist review (2%). You then interview a shortlist of 3–4, typically within about 2 weeks.

Step 5: Structure the Engagement Correctly

This is where many businesses overcomplicate it. It is also where you should get your own advice. What follows is general guidance on how other Australian firms do it, not legal or tax advice.

When you hire a Filipino professional, you usually have two options:

Option 1: Independent Contractor The most straightforward structure. You engage the person as a contractor: they invoice you, and you pay them directly by an international transfer service or bank transfer. There are usually no platform fees or employer contributions, and it is easy to set up. Many Australian firms hire Filipino professionals this way. A clear contractor agreement sets out the scope, rate and termination terms, and it is the foundation of the arrangement. The relationship needs to really be a contracting one, so have the agreement reviewed.

Option 2: Employer of Record (EOR) An EOR hires your team member on your behalf in the Philippines, handling payroll, statutory contributions (SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG), tax compliance and contracts. You pay a monthly platform fee on top of the salary. This adds cost and admin, but gives the hire a formal employment contract and statutory benefits if that matters to you or them.

Many Australian SMEs use the contractor model because it is simpler and cheaper. Either way, you engage and pay the person yourself; Tarino recruits, but does not hire your staff or run payroll.

Step 6: Onboard Properly. The First 30 Days Determine the Next 12 Months

The biggest mistake firms make after a good hire is a bad onboarding.

They brief the person loosely, throw them into tasks and then wonder why the quality isn’t where they expected. The problem isn’t the hire. It’s the setup.

Your first 30 days should look like this:

Week 1: Orientation Go through your business: what you do, who your clients are, how you make money, what success looks like. Walk through every tool they’ll use. Set up access to all systems. Introduce them to the team, including Australian team members. Do a daily check-in call, even if it’s fifteen minutes.

Week 2: Shadow and repeat Have them shadow your existing process: watch recordings, review real examples, see how tasks are done. Then have them do a task while you watch. Give specific, direct feedback. Not “that looks good”, but “the client comms section needs to include the expected settlement timeline and lender reference number.”

Week 3–4: Supervised independence They complete tasks. You review output. Correct in real time. The goal is that by the end of week four, you’re reviewing a small percentage of their work rather than all of it.

The firms that invest properly in the first 30 days often end up with self-managing team members inside three months. The firms that don’t tend to conclude that offshore hiring doesn’t work. Our guide to your first 30 days with an offshore hire goes into more detail.

Step 7: Run 30, 90, and 150-Day Check-ins

A good hire isn’t just someone who does good work on day one. It’s someone who stays, improves and becomes part of how your business runs.

Three check-in points to build into your process:

30 days: How are they settling in? What’s still unclear? Are there tools or processes they’re finding difficult? What do they need from you? Listen more than you talk.

90 days: Review performance against the tasks you hired them for. Are the tasks getting done at the standard you need? Where are the gaps? What training would make them more effective? This is also the point where you start talking about what the role could grow into.

150 days: By now they should be working independently on their core tasks. This check-in is about the future: what else could they take on? Are they happy? Is there anything in the working arrangement that isn’t working? What would make them want to stay long-term?

Turnover destroys the value of an offshore hire. A team member you’ve invested in for twelve months is worth far more than a new hire on day one. Treat retention like a business metric. For reference, more than 95% of Tarino placements are still in the role at 6 months.

The Agency Question

At some point in this process, you’ll talk to an offshore agency.

They’ll tell you they handle everything: sourcing, screening, onboarding, compliance, management. You just pay a monthly fee.

What they may not spell out is that the monthly fee includes an ongoing markup on the staff member’s salary. As an illustration, an agency might charge you $2,800/month, pay the staff member $1,800/month and keep $1,000/month, every month, for as long as the arrangement runs.

Over three years, that example adds up to $36,000 in fees, while the staff member does the work. Published agency rates vary; one large Australian agency lists A$1,099 per person per month plus A$1,200 per hire, about A$13,188 a year.

The alternative is direct hire. You find the person (or someone does it for you), you engage them directly, and you pay what the person actually earns. No markup. No ongoing fee. No intermediary sitting permanently between you and your team member.

At Tarino, the fee is $5,000 excl. GST per hire, paid once: $250 upfront, credited back when you hire, and $4,750 on hire. There is no monthly fee. The hire is yours, and you hire and pay them directly. Each placement includes 6-month replacement cover for the same role, under the conditions in your Scope of Work. See pricing for the full breakdown.

What To Do Next

If you’re ready to make your first offshore hire, the process is simpler than it sounds when you break it into steps.

Start with the role. Be specific about the tasks. Hire for communication ability and coachability. Structure the engagement properly from day one. Invest in the first 30 days.

Done right, and based on the estimates above, your first offshore hire could reduce your cost base by around $60,000–$90,000 per year compared with a local equivalent and give you back ten to fifteen hours of your week. Run your own figures in the cost calculator.

Most of the firms that have done this wish they’d started sooner.

Want to hire without the agency markup? Book a 30-minute call. One fee per hire. You own the hire.

This guide reflects direct hire practices as of 2026. Salary rates are estimated AUD equivalents based on market data and move with the exchange rate. EOR platform costs and statutory contribution rates may vary. This is general guidance, not legal, tax or financial advice.