In a world obsessed with growth, Reuben Brennan, CEO of PeoplePartners, delivered a timely and powerful keynote to Victorian business leaders on a more powerful idea: Workforce Re-Engineering.
What began as a desperate pivot in the face of collapse became the cornerstone of a decade-long mission—helping business owners not just survive, but thrive through smarter, future-ready teams.
The Origin Story: Rebuilding from a 70% Revenue Cut
Reuben began his keynote by recalling a pivotal moment in 2014 when a last-minute government pricing change slashed his RTO’s funding by 70%.
With no warning and thousands of students relying on them, Reuben and co-founder Anthony Rice had a decision to make: surrender or adapt. Thirteen weeks later, they stood in Manila having onboarded 35 new offshore staff—a plan built on necessity, speed, and radical rethinking of their entire org chart.
This wasn’t outsourcing as usual. It was Workforce Re-Engineering. Instead of just shifting tasks, they broke down every role, assessed which elements could be delivered offshore, and rebuilt a leaner, smarter structure from the ground up.
This strategic approach is detailed further in our Workforce Re-Engineering Overview.
Workforce Re-Engineering: What It Is and Why It Works
At its core, Workforce Re-Engineering means designing your team intentionally, combining onshore leadership and offshore execution in a way that enhances both efficiency and profitability.
As Reuben put it, “We re-engineered every single role in our org chart… That culminated in 35 new roles being made up, essentially. We stitched together all manner of tasks and responsibilities and made up a title for it.”
And the results? In June 2015, just months after their pivot, their business posted its most profitable month ever.
“It was the workforce re-engineering, paired with the global staffing, that had helped us produce an exponential effect… in saving, and not only saving, but helping our business thrive.”
Top 5 Benefits of Workforce Re-Engineering
1. Reduce labour costs by up to 70%
2. Improve employee retention and satisfaction
3. Increase gross margin by up to 213%
4. Build future-ready teams with clarity and focus
5. Enable leaders to work on the business, not in it.
The Exponential Advantage of Workforce Re-Engineering
In his keynote, Reuben used a clear, visual model to explain the exponential benefits of this approach. If a company spends $500K in labor to generate $700K in revenue, labor eats up 71% of revenue. But through strategic re-engineering and global staffing, you could reduce that cost to just $75K—dropping labor costs to 11% and increasing gross margins by over 200%.
The kicker: Most businesses would pour time, money, and stress into achieving 20% revenue growth—only to see marginal profit increases. Instead, Reuben suggests that “you can’t outgrow inefficiency.” Efficiency must be the foundation before scale.
“If we collapse our labour from 71 percent to 11%, that’s an 85 percent reduction… that’s a 213 percent increase in gross margin.”
For a deeper dive into these strategies, explore our guide on Maximising EBITDA with Workforce Re-Engineering & Offshoring.
Leadership Reimagined: Creating a Department of Business Efficiency
“It’s almost impossible to outgrow inefficiency.”
Reuben urged leaders to stop viewing growth and efficiency as trade-offs. Instead, he challenged every attendee to become the “CEO of the Department of Business Efficiency” in their organisation.
He offered a practical exercise: break down a field sales department and list everything a BDM (Business Development Manager) does—from meeting clients to sending proposals. Then, identify which of those tasks are inefficient, non-client facing, and better suited to offshore or support roles.
Reuben encourages leaders to become the CEO of their own Department of Business Efficiency by:
Auditing Your Org Chart
- Ensure each team member is engaged in tasks they excel at
- Identify and eliminate low-value tasks
Reallocating Responsibilities
- Delegate administrative tasks to offshore teams
- Allow core staff to focus on high-impact activities
The takeaway? By reallocating administrative tasks to offshore sales coordinators or lead gen assistants, BDMs can focus on what they do best: closing deals.
Learn more about building your global team here.
The Human Side of Efficiency
One of the most compelling parts of Reuben’s message was how Workforce Re-Engineering actually improves team morale and retention.
“Staff who love and are great at their role produce better results and stay… They stay for longer, because they’re not having to do the CRM hygiene anymore.”
Instead of overwhelming high-performing staff with admin and inefficiencies, leaders can free them up to do work that energizes them—while support functions are handled reliably offshore.
This isn’t about replacing people. It’s about supporting them better.
Global Staffing, Security, and Compliance Done Right
Reuben also addressed the elephant in the room: security and quality concerns with global teams. Drawing from experience with financial institutions, energy companies, and mortgage lenders, he stressed the importance of rigorous data security, controlled hardware, and tight compliance practices.
“We’ve got clients from nuclear energy, right through to… the financial sector… So certainly cyber security and our investment in that is massive.”
Our commitment to security is detailed here.
And whether it’s through cultural onboarding, rhythm-based engagement, or monthly team-building, PeoplePartners invests in creating long-term, high-retention offshore teams that feel like part of your core business.
The Real Cost of Waiting
Reuben closed with a poignant reminder: the longer you delay restructuring your team, the more you lose.
“Every day without clients means lost income and missed opportunities.”
For growing businesses, workforce decisions aren’t just operational—they’re existential. As Reuben learned firsthand, a seemingly small policy change can disrupt everything. But with the right strategy, even disruption becomes an opportunity to build something better.
Key Takeaways from Reuben Brennan’s Keynote
1. Efficiency is a Growth Strategy – Don’t chase top-line growth without fixing the inefficiencies underneath.
2. Reimagine Roles, Don’t Just Replace Them – Stitch together tasks to build new roles that drive productivity.
3. Support Your Stars – Free your best people from admin by offloading work to trained global teams.
4. Global Teams = Strategic Advantage – With the right planning, offshore staff can be secure, compliant, and fully integrated.
5. Retention Starts with Role Clarity – Let people do what they love and are great at to boost retention and performance.
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