KPMG to offshore bulk of its Australian executive assistants to Philippines

The Australian branch of Big Four professional services firm KPMG is planning to offshore 200 of its executive assistant roles to the Philippines – or almost four fifths of its current local count.

First leaked to The Aussie Corporate and still under consultation, the cost-cutting proposal would see half of those jobs slashed in April and the other half to be phased out over the following two months, with just sixty or so EA’s remaining in Australia.

KPMG has taken a number of measures in recent times to combat the consulting downturn and the firm’s falling revenues, including a major restructure and reorganised consulting division. KPMG has also been recently ramping up its offshoring capabilities in Fiji.

In a statement to the press, a KPMG spokesperson confirmed the latest initiative; “We are continually reviewing the way we work to build a scalable, modern, resilient business that positions us for growth and competitiveness. In moving away from the practice of doing everything in-house, we are proposing a different resourcing model to provide support services.”

The spokesperson added that consultation on the matter remains ongoing, and was being conducted with “empathy, respect and transparency” for its people. At least one of those people however leaked an internal slide-deck to business gossip site The Aussie Corporate, which outlined where and when the cuts would take place and the expected impact.

As per the slide, only KPMG’s state chairs would be spared from losing their local executive assistants, while their EAs and those remaining for national managing partners will be expected to take on some additional minor duties. Senior team leaders will be scrapped altogether, along with senior leadership support, while team leaders will no longer provide support to partners.

One person commenting on Instagram, asked; “Who will make the coffee, do the last-minute errands, meet and greet a client, use their EA network to get through when seniors can’t, smooth over so many relationships, understand the nuances of who should have access to seniors and when? All those skills make executive offices function and can’t be done remotely.”

With thanks to others for doing the rough maths, the offshoring of 200 assistant roles – and it isn’t entirely clear if this is in fact the case – could save the firm an estimated $17 million in annual wages, with average EA salaries at KPMG sitting at around $86,000 per year as per Indeed listings and outsourced ‘virtual assistants’ in the Philippines earning as little as $900 per month.

Overall, KPMG’s Australian headcount has now dropped below 9,000 following a series of recent cuts, particularly in the area of business consulting, with more than 600 jobs axed in the firm’s previous financial year. Meanwhile, EY also offshored a number of its EA roles back in 2016, but at a time of double-digit growth, with the firm’s US branch last year doing the same.