Struggling to hire accounting talent? It may be time to look overseas.
Though the US is experiencing an accounting shortage, other countries have a surfeit of accounting talent, the AICPA’s longtime CEO, Barry Melancon, told CFO Brew in an August interview. And many of these accountants-from-abroad are highly proficient and capable of far more than back-office-type tasks. The key is knowing how to tap into this talent.
There’s “a general hesitation around working remotely with international talent,” Aman Puri, cofounder of global accounting talent marketplace Mavi, told us. Often, he said, companies equate offshore accounting with low-cost outsourcing of lower-level, “mundane” work.
Senior-level talent available: But in fact, as Puri and Mavi’s other founder, Molly Liu, told CFO Brew, many overseas accountants are highly skilled. They have accounting backgrounds and credentials, have worked at multinational corporations or Big Four firms, are fluent in English, and are knowledgeable about US GAAP.
These accountants are able to integrate into finance teams in much the same way a remote US hire would, Liu and Puri said. For instance, Mavi has staffed controller-level accountants and senior-level accountants who’ve managed teams and worked directly with clients, Puri said. “They’re very much part of the strategic planning, the leadership processes, and so forth,” Liu agreed. Mavi has provided “multiple customers” with staff who are “either running the entire accounting process or are a big integrated part of the monthly close process,” Puri said.
And global accountants want to work for US companies, which often pay better than employers in their home countries do, Puri added. That’s the “value proposition that we’re providing to talent on our platform,” he said—“the opportunity to work with really exciting companies in the US that are midsized or VC backed or PE backed and are growing quickly.”
Naturally, hiring accountants from overseas comes with challenges, as well—such as working across different time zones. On one hand, the time differential can bring you “round-the-clock service,” Sunil Deshmukh, global board chair of IMA, told CFO Brew. On the other hand, it can make it difficult for coworkers and clients to get in touch. Liu recommends ensuring at least a 50% time zone overlap. Other concerns to be aware of include geopolitical risks, cultural mismatches, and currency fluctuations, according to Deshmukh, who has decades of experience working for multinational companies in such countries as India, South Africa, and Singapore.
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What CFOs should know about hiring globally: There are ways to minimize the risks of hiring from abroad. Liu says that many of Mavi’s clients start with roles that aren’t as integrated into their teams, to get a feel for what a provider can offer. She also suggests companies choose agencies or partners that offer trial periods.
Perform a “proper due diligence of the outsourced agency,” Deshmukh said. And assess the talent as well, to get a sense of how they’ll fit in culturally with your team, Liu suggested. “It’s important that they collaborate well, they communicate well, [that] there are no cultural gaps,” she said.
Start your relationship off strong with a good service level agreement, “ensuring that everything is appropriately coordinated: the terms and conditions, the deliverables, the KPIs,” Deshmukh said. Keep in mind that overseas accountants will need training on your “company’s vision, mission, and values” as well as the work, he added, and suggested that you give them standard operating procedures or manuals.
You get what you pay for: Cost savings, naturally, are a key reason many companies consider using offshore talent. Mavi’s talent can cost about half as much as US-based accountants, or even less, Puri said.
But he and Liu cautioned that price shouldn’t be your sole consideration. The extremely low rates set by some outsourcing providers can skew customers’ perceptions of what offshore accountants should cost, Puri said.
“If there’s a shop that’s offering you talent at $10 an hour, that means they’re paying their candidates [around] $5 an hour, and you cannot find a strong accountant anywhere in the world for $5 an hour,” he said. “That’s going to be reflected in the quality of the work.” Instead, he said, set your benchmark in terms of what you’d pay a US hire for the same work.