The Offshoring Consultant & Recruitment Expert – with Amy Skinner of Frank Consult

In this week’s episode of the Outsource Accelerator Podcast, Derek speaks with Amy Skinner of Frank Consult. A veteran recruiter, Amy now serves as the firm’s Director and Offshore Consultant. 

They talk about how Amy and Frank Consult help companies get set up for offshore services through consultation and recruitment services, as well as some of Amy’s experiences in the outsourcing industry.  

Frank Consult and Amy’s history in recruitment

Amy has spent her whole career in “various sorts” of roles within recruitment. Eventually, she learned about the concept of offshoring and outsourcing. 

“I realized there was a need for recruitment and consulting services. And at its core, that’s what Frank is.” 

According to Amy, Frank Consult “supports organizations primarily in Australia with recruitment services of quite niche roles– a lot of technical stuff, software development, things like that, but also with organizations who are starting their offshore journey.” 

Amy provides ongoing consulting, especially for smaller organizations. 

“That’s where I see quite a lot of value, to be added in to ensure that an offshore venture is successful the first time around.” 

By her own admission, she doesn’t hold back.

“My business is called ‘Frank’ for a reason. I do typically try and just tell how it is, and I think a lot of clients appreciate that kind of honesty and transparency.”

Dealing with expectations in offshoring

Amy agrees that there’s a sizable number of businesses who have tried outsourcing and walked away with a poor experience. 

However, in her experience, she’s also met with clients who realize their own mistakes. 

“Some will never ever try it again. But others will go ‘Okay, I think I did it wrong last time, I don’t think we had the right processes. I don’t think we went about it in the right way, but we need help because we know it’s a competitive advantage.”

Amy helps them assess their processes and set expectations with the types of people they source. 

“I think the most successful ventures offshore are ones where everybody wins. It’s not just siphoning off bits and expecting the work to come back. 

It’s more about creating value and also being able to share some of the amazing benefits of the Australian economy globally and sharing that wealth in many ways.” 

Amy reiterates that businesses need to look at their own operations and processes and see which ones are most effective to be offshored. 

“Typically my clients have quite defined processes ‘cause it’s part of the qualification criteria. It’s less about rebuilding their processes for them, but more about the people side, so understanding the capability of the leadership internally and their expectations of offshoring.” 

She finds that this kind of preparation brings the best results.

“I see it work really well in offshoring when the initial people that you bring in are in a defined area where there’s clear processes, but there’s a limited amount of complex decision-making. 

That’s where you can start to build some trust and confidence from the employer.”

This is a bit of a two-way street, and Amy advises businesses on communicating their value to potential remote hires.

“You’ve got to sell your opportunity and the way of life in your business and what they’re going to be part of and the vision of that. They want longevity typically, and they want to be part of something that’s going to enhance their career.” 

Reflections on remote work

Amy touches on the freelancer and gig economy, sharing her opinions on companies that think they can purely hire virtual assistants (VAs). 

“I think from a client perspective, it’s particularly difficult to manage a freelance workforce. It’s not something that I recommend.” 

However, she has no ill will for freelancers themselves, acknowledging that it’s an attractive route for young workers to take.

She talks about people’s preferences for remote work. 

“Every single person I’ve recruited has been at Work From Home since I started out, and not out of choice, but [it’s] just how the clients wanted to operate. And also that ability to access the best talent because typically they don’t want to work from an office.” 

She says that businesses now are “less bothered about having to have people work from an office. And I think it’s because they have the right processes, structure, leadership, and engagement activities in place. Some of them have completely remote businesses anyway.”  

Amy is an active member of LinkedIn, seeing the platform as the only real social media platform for business. 

She shares some advice for potential LinkedIn influencers. 

“If you can get into LinkedIn now, in terms of content, the most important thing is it’s got to be about value creation and consistency. 

My mantra is all about telling stories, sharing experiences, [and] providing value.” 

You may find both Amy and Frank Consult on LinkedIn. You can also reach Amy through her email.