Affordable Staffing's Caitlin Stuart on how outsourcing can help brokers meet the demands of a booming market
The housing boom has brought a lot of business to mortgage brokers – but in many cases it’s also brought a lot of pressure as brokers scrambled to meet rising demand. Outsourcing staff is one way brokers can ease some of that pressure, according to Caitlin Stuart, financial service business development manager at Affordable Staff. The company’s innovative staffing solutions helped it win an Excellence Award in the Best Industry Service category at the 2021 Australian Mortgage Awards.
“We’ve been outsourcing for 15 years and working with mortgage brokers for the past eight years, so being a finalist has been a coming of age for us, in a way, and a recognition of the hard work that we’ve been putting in – especially in the context of COVID,” Stuart told MPA. “There’s been so many curveballs thrown at businesses in various industries worldwide, not just in outsourcing. So we feel very honoured to be recognised against some industry greats.”
Stuart said that outsourcing staff is an affordable solution for many brokers – especially amid the current labour shortage being faced by many industries.
“We’re seeing a national shortage of staff in a lot of sectors at the moment – I’m sure we’ve all heard about the ‘Great Resignation’ – and I’m hearing firsthand accounts of some brokers who have had job efforts for months, and no suitable candidates coming through,” she said. “We can help take that pressure off them and source really talented people to help fill those gaps. … All of our clients are also supported by quite a large operational team in the Philippines with dedicated team leaders, trainers, HR, IT, the works. Pretty much anything you throw at them, they can handle.”
Read next: 2021 Australian Mortgage Awards: Affordable Staff
Stuart said outsourcing was also a way for brokers to ensure their business would keep growing once they hit the upper limit of what they could handle on their own.
“I talk to a lot of brokers every day, and one of the things that I’ve been hearing consistently, at least for the last 12 months, is that brokers are working 16-hour days, seven days a week, just trying to keep up with incoming leads, their existing clients, working through refinances … and a lot of those sorts of stories,” she said. “They do reach breaking point – there is an upper limit to how much one person can handle in terms of volume, and they’ll definitely see their growth start to stagnate at some point or another. For some, when they’re looking at staffing, they’re quite uncertain about what the future could look like – and in that case, I think those sorts of brokers should definitely look at alternatives to the standard onshore or in-office recruitment practices. We offer a sustainable, lower-cost staffing solution to free up some of that time, so they can focus on working on the business rather than in it. That’s really key for us – we really want to find that our clients gain balance in their life, as well as continue to grow.”
