Officeworks is still moving work from its Australian support office to India and the Philippines, and a person at the company told The Aussie Corporate that Officeworks is now open about a target of 70% offshore for its support office.
The person said some roles have been marked as "possible redundancies" with a long lead time running from November to April, and that staff are being made to work their notice period and train their replacements offshore. Their message cut off after the 70% figure, so we do not know what followed it. We could not find a figure for how much of the support office Officeworks plans to move offshore in anything Officeworks or its owner Wesfarmers has published.
What Wesfarmers has said
In its full-year results on 27 August, Wesfarmers said Officeworks "commenced the next phase of its Australian support office operating model changes, including onboarding team members in India and the Philippines".
Officeworks' earnings fell 22.2% to $165 million for the year. Wesfarmers put that largely down to about $40 million in one-off transformation costs, which it said "largely reflect restructuring activities to reset the cost base and ERP related costs".
Wesfarmers expects "further one-off transformation costs" in the 2027 financial year and says the transformation program "remains on track for completion by the end of calendar year 2027". The November to April lead times the person described fall within that timeline.
Where the work is going
In June Information Age reported that work from Officeworks' Western Sydney customer service centre was moving to "an experienced provider in Manila" and that some activities in its Australian support office would move to a new global centre in Bengaluru, India. Citing the ABC, it reported that the company intended to shift hundreds of roles to India across three phases.
Officeworks told Information Age the changes "affect a portion of our support office workforce" and that the people affected would be "supported with redundancy entitlements alongside redeployment opportunities".
The Officeworks recruitment page for the Bengaluru centre, hosted on Talent500, says it "will operate as a fully integrated extension" of the "Melbourne based Support Office", building "data, digital, AI and core retail capabilities".
What people at Officeworks told us before
In September people at Officeworks told us roles were being advertised offshore before the people in them were told their jobs were going, and that merchandise, planning and Geeks2U roles were affected, with B2B and education cuts due in October. One said staff were expected to train the overseas people taking their jobs. The latest message says that is still happening.
What we don't know
We do not know how many roles are marked as possible redundancies, which teams they sit in, or whether the 70% refers to roles or to work. Wesfarmers' results give no headcount for the Officeworks support office.
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