FAQs

Got more questions about how we work and what our service includes? We’ve included answers to the most common questions we get asked about our Financial Advice services below. If you have questions about our General Insurance services, click here.

We have a fixed pricing structure, based on the level of support you need. Download our brochure here to find out more.

Our team members are capable of tackling many of the tasks that are clogging up your back office. Long story short, if there’s a process, your offshore team mate can do it! To see some of the common tasks a 5 ELK team member could take on for you, download our free task list here.

Unlike other firms, we won’t rush a team member into your business. We take the time upfront to understand your business and needs so we can onboard the best fit offshore team member for you. 

No two businesses are the same, so onboarding options vary. In some cases we source, interview, appoint and train team members. For other clients we source, screen and shortlist candidates and then the business takes over from there. We are very happy to run through the options and come up with a plan that will work for your business.

To find out more about our process, take a look at our brochure here.

We’re glad you asked! This is something we feel really strongly about.. . and it’s one of the things that we think sets us apart.

By having a dedicated team member, they will really learn the ins and outs of being part of your business and your working relationship will develop over time.  You also won’t have the frustration of dealing with multiple people and explaining things repeatedly. And as your teammate’s skills and knowledge develop, they will become an increasingly valuable asset to your team.

Our teammates are passionate about what they do because they are not anonymous operatives working through task lists. Rather, they are skilled and motivated team members, who just happen to work offshore!

A happy, healthy and comfortable team member performs at their best and stays around for longer. Other than a competitive salary, there are a number of  reasons why our people love working here.

Many team members are involved in our structured in-house training program and have peer mentors to support their personal and professional development.

We also provide our team with extra benefits such as free private health insurance for both them and a dependent, a personal trainer and an in-house nutritionist.

We are also proud to have created a safe, supportive environment where team members are part of a thriving community, boosted by a full complement of extra-curricular sports and social activities.

And these things appear to have made a difference. In 2023, 5 ELK was awarded the internationally-recognised ‘Great Place to Work‘ certification, which is largely based on team member feedback.

We won’t be ‘sailing into the sunset’ once your team member starts in your business. Outside of the ongoing management of your team member, we’ll be regularly checking in with you. This will allow us to discuss training gaps and solve any problems, ensuring your team member is constantly adding value to your business.

Our headquarters is located in Cebu, Philippines, with satellite offices in Pampanga and Dumaguete alongside some senior teammates based in Australia.

Unlike other outsourcing businesses, our CEO is based in the Philippines, working mostly from 5 ELK HQ in Cebu.  This means she’s on the ground, she really knows our team and has a unique insight on how to make the offshore partnership work for our clients.  It’s just one of the things that makes 5 ELK a bit different from the rest.

We think the Philippines is an excellent option for businesses considering offshoring.  We chose to base 5 ELK here for the wonderful people who have so much to offer Australian and UK financial services businesses, such as:
  • a strong customer-service orientation
  • excellent fluency in both written and verbal English language
  • relatively low labour cost and
  • a large number of highly talented and educated people, with 450,000 annual college graduates

We understand that client data privacy and security is critical for all financial services businesses. The risk of sensitive information being compromised is real and as such, we have taken a number of steps to ensure the security of your data. These include:

  • The use of a world-class Amazon Web Server
  • Completing due diligence and background checks upon recruitment
  • Compulsory comprehensive cyber-security training for all staff
  • Supervising all staff in a dedicated work area that requires security access
  • Using specialist password protection software so that we never require your external log-in details
  • No printers or USB ports are connected to our PC terminals, and use of portable devices such as smartphones or iPads are prohibited from the designated workspaces, restricting downloads
  • Surveillance software that can be used to track activities and emails
  • Onsite IT, meaning that any ‘system downtime’ is minimised.

Danielle explains the best way we keep you safe in this video, you can watch it here.

Typically this takes about 3 months but as with anything in life, you get out of the process what you put in. The more consistent and constructive you are with your feedback and communication, the more rapidly your team member will settle in and start adding value to your business.

We’ll be checking in throughout the process to support you and your team member.  This might be new to you, but it is not to us… so we’re on hand for all the advice and guidance you need along the way.

If recent history has taught us anything, it’s that physical separation is no longer a barrier to effective communication. While your new team member will have an email address for your business, we have found the most effective way to avoid having your inbox clogged up is to communicate via an instant chat function, such as Microsoft Teams or Slack and through regular video meetings catch-ups. If you prefer the phone, the good news is that your team member will also have their own outbound phone line, so they can call you any time, as needed.

Our level of involvement in ongoing training will vary depending on the outsourcing arrangement you have in place. We put great value on continuing professional and personal development, so in relationships where we take on responsibility for training, onboarding is just the beginning of our team members’ educational journey.  We are really proud of our professional development platform, the Growth Academy, which is a real point of difference for us.

If you want to find out more about our Growth Academy, you can watch the video here.

There are over 26 public holidays in the Philippines, so we don’t follow the Philippines public holiday schedule. To ensure consistency in security and support across our business, we have decided to follow the Victorian public holiday schedule for our Australian clients, as well as all UK national holidays for our UK-based clients.

If your team member is unwell, you will be notified prior to the commencement of the working day, as soon as we possibly can. With regards to annual leave, we enforce a ten business day lead for team members to request annual leave and all requests need to be signed off by you. Your team member is entitled to 20 days of combined annual and sick leave each calendar year.

Like most of the businesses we work with, we shut down over the Christmas to New Year period. As you would know, the exact dates of this period vary from year to year. This is a wonderful time for our team members to travel back to their provinces and visit their families.

Yes, we do. Our business is well-equipped should a disaster occur, as evidenced by how we navigated living through an entire country lockdown in 2020 and the devastation of Cyclone Odette in 2021.

One of the key ways we achieve this is through our ‘multiple office’ approach, which means if one office needs to close down, we have multiple alternate work locations for our team members to continue doing the great work that they do.