Officeworks is planning to offshore hundreds of jobs to India and the Philippines, joining a growing trend of businesses seeking highly skilled white-collar workers overseas. The Australian office products retailer informed staff at its Western Sydney-based customer service centre that their roles would be made redundant and replaced with a call service in Manila, Philippines. Additionally, technology support business Geeks2U and other office roles in Sydney and Melbourne will be moved to Bengaluru, India.
A company spokeswoman cited "rising costs, increasing competition, and rapidly changing customer expectations" as drivers for the strategic shift, aiming to continue offering low prices. Communications to staff also indicated increased use of AI, automation, and data to improve efficiency.
University of Sydney international business professor Vikas Kumar noted that offshoring lower-skilled jobs like customer service to Manila is cost-driven, but the trend of offshoring "high-value" jobs, such as AI development, reflects a lack of skills in Australia. He warned of a "vacuum" of talent due to decades of underinvestment in upskilling locals in technology and AI, stating, "If we don't do it now, we will create an even bigger vacuum into the future."
Officeworks India has begun hiring for about 50 roles in Bengaluru, with plans to shift hundreds of jobs in three phases to minimize disruption. However, the company emphasized that the majority of jobs, particularly customer-facing roles in stores, will remain in Australia.
A federal government spokesman stated, "Our government will always back Australian jobs and put the interests of Australian workers first," expressing a desire for companies to bolster local workforces.
Officeworks joins other companies like National Australia Bank and Telstra in offshoring operations. The change is overseen by managing director John Gualtieri, who previously led Wesfarmers' Kmart and Target, which already have 500 employees in a Bengaluru "global capability centre."
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