Yempo – A Service-Oriented Business with a Focus on Innovation

Finding local IT and accounting talent at a reasonable cost has never been harder for small to medium sized businesses (SMB). For example in the USA, there is a 500,000 person-strong cyber security skills gap. In the finance space, 75% of CPAs would have reached retirement eligibility back in 2020.

The scarcity of talent has driven up salaries and increased staff turnover leaving SMB leaders struggling to compete with large enterprises. Their time is soaked up solving HR challenges rather than pursuing growth. Companies not already exploring off-shore or near-shore solutions are unable to stay competitive.

Ten years ago, Yempo’s founders realised that SMBs were being let down by the offshore sector. Sector inexperienced owners (often with a background in running contact centers), poor staff selection, high staff turnover rates and hidden costs left clients wondering if offshore was the wrong choice.

Yempo was born with the mission to provide high-calibre, loyal, IT & accounting talent using a supportive, and transparent operating model.   

The business constantly strives to keep things simple for clients so they can focus on their own organizations’ success. There are no long-term contracts. Payments are only required when a successful candidate is placed. Moreover, in the rare instance of a mismatch, candidates can be exited with just two days’ notice, highlighting Yempo’s commitment to client satisfaction.

Clients enjoy a professional and flexible partnership with a company that operates with a highly responsive and customer-oriented mindset. The Yempo team goes above and beyond, establishing long-term relationships based on trust and success.

This is how Yempo’s clients describe the Yempo experience:

‘Yempo gives us access to a cost-effective pool of high-quality candidates, plus great advice. Yempo is a good employer from the perspective of local, Philippines, staff’’ Kirsten Forrester, CEO, Accounting for Good

‘’Yempo really does give you your own quality employees. You select and work with them while Michelle and her team manage everything else – HR, contracts, IT, recruitment.’’ Peter Hildebrandt, of IT firm Respiri.

‘’You don’t just get given people - we recruit for our own team even though, technically, team members work for Yempo. Yempo offers a very cost-effective way to add to your team.’’ Andrea Harris​​​​, CFO, PowerTech.

‘’Our business benefits from significant productivity gains vs. hiring in-country. Yempo is our trusted offshore partner, and our relationship continues to grow.’’ Russell Khan, Head of People and Culture, One Stop.

With offices strategically located in Manila and Cebu, Yempo provides exceptional services and high-caliber talent to clients in the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan.

Through Yempo, clients save about 70% on salary spend. But on top of this cost-benefit, they also gain access to the best human resources in the industry: staff who can deliver according to their own standards of quality, and who are invested in their success as a business. Yempo’s CEO Michelle Fiegehen regularly meets clients online or in-person to ensure that client needs are met, and that they are on track to meet their stated goals for offshoring. Over the course of a decade, Yempo has helped many companies grow their teams and bottom line, and today keeps a 99% client retention rate.

Yempo focuses on top-tier senior talent such as Full-Stack Developers, Systems Engineers, and Automation Testers in the IT space, and Management Accountants, Bookkeepers, and Financial Analysts in the finance space.

By not offering call center services, and having not grown from call center beginnings, Yempo provides an employee culture that guarantees long-tenured staff. The business has a reputation as a premium employer in the Philippines, which enables it to attract the very best candidates in the market –ones who are not only highly skilled, but loyal. Yempo’s IT and finance staff are provided above-market compensation, the best of today’s equipment, and the option to work from any of our well-appointed offices. Or, as most of our offshoring partners wish, they may also work from home. Whichever the case, a dedicated People & Culture team looks after them, ensuring round-the-clock support, and organizing employee engagement activities around a culture of commitment to clients, pride in their output and outcomes, and work-life balance. Yempo’s high rating on Glassdoor speaks for itself.

Yempo’s administration team is comprised of senior local leaders. While many offshore businesses are staffed with hordes of junior employees doing busy work, Yempo’s leaders are mature, responsible, and empowered to make decisions in their roles. Compliance is critical; legal advisors are consulted when local laws change or when changes are implemented to Yempo’s practices to ensure the business always minimizes risk.

Yempo’s leaders set an annual strategic plan for each of their functions, focusing on how they can offer improved services to clients at no extra cost, how they can offer more benefits to employees without impacting client costs, and how they can continually improve operations. A Process Automation team is tasked with systematically removing manual processes, using automation and AI to consistently curb costs without impacting quality.

Armed with its values and practices honed by decades of combined experience in the outsourcing space, Yempo looks forward to more years of helping businesses – especially small- and medium-sized enterprises – leverage the benefits of offshoring for their growth.

About Michelle Fiegehen

Michelle Fiegehen is the CEO and co-founder of Yempo; an Australian senior director with a long track record in both the Banking and Insurance industries. Having relocated to the Philippines in 2009 for a “three-month business trip” with her previous employer, she has called the archipelago home for over 15 years. Prior to relocating, Michelle successfully built multi-disciplinary offshore delivery teams in the Philippines and India and managed and integrated geographically diverse teams across the US, UK, South Africa, Australia, and Asia. Michelle’s extensive global experience has equipped her with a profound understanding of cultural nuances among different nationalities, enabling her to foster productive and cohesive relationships.