Outsized launches Bench to speed flexible talent for finance firms
Outsized has launched Bench, a platform aimed at providing financial services and consulting firms in Australia with pre-vetted, on-demand independent professionals.
The introduction of Bench comes as Australian businesses face rapid digital transformation and a projected shortfall of more than 108,000 skilled finance, technology, and business professionals by 2030, according to the Future Skills Organisation's Finance, Technology & Business Workforce and Skills Report (June 2025).
The Bench platform currently makes available nearly 3,000 independent professionals across Australia and New Zealand. Outsized says the platform enables organisations to find specialised expertise within two to five days, significantly faster than traditional hiring processes.
Changing workforce needs
Sara Kahlau, ANZ Lead at Outsized, described how market pressures and workforce changes are driving firms to seek more flexible talent solutions.
"Across Australia, we're seeing businesses rethink how they build workforces and deploy talent," said Sara Kahlau, ANZ Lead at Outsized. "Changing market demands, skill shortages and a shift in how people want to work have made agility a core business advantage. Bench gives companies a way to access deep expertise at speed, without the fixed costs or rigid structures of traditional models."
The Bench platform applies a combination of AI-driven matching and human-led vetting. According to Outsized, every independent professional is interviewed and quality-assessed before being introduced to clients. This approach is intended to ensure that rapid access to talent meets the performance needs of financial and consulting sectors.
Through Bench, clients can scale their workforce up or down in a matter of days. Outsized describes this as supporting a more flexible and responsive approach to workforce management, balancing time-to-hire and cost with rigorous quality standards.
Platform in practice
One corporate adopter of Bench, SC Ventures by Standard Chartered, shared its experience with the service. Justin Schnoor, Head of Resourcing at SC Ventures, commented on the benefits to their business:
"The ability to bring in deep subject matter expertise, the ability to scale quickly, the ability to get people on board fast, and the ability to bring people that are pre-prepared and pre-vetted quickly is a huge help for us," said Justin Schnoor, Head of Resourcing, SC Ventures by Standard Chartered.
He added, "We rely on Outsized to connect us with independent talent, find us the best people, ensure they're well-supported, and know that someone's always thinking ahead about our future talent needs."
Bench's launch marks one year since Outsized entered the Australian market. The company has rapidly expanded its independent talent community, working with a variety of clients, from consulting firms to corporates and venture builders, supporting projects related to strategy, transformation, and digital innovation.
Workforce trends
"The future of work isn't just flexible, it's fluid," Kahlau added. "Organisations that can plug in the right expertise at the right moment are the ones that will stay ahead."
Bench's focus on pre-vetted pools of talent and a flexible engagement model aims to help organisations adjust quickly to increasing market uncertainties and demand shifts. According to Outsized, the addition of Bench to their offering is intended to help clients respond to challenges in workforce planning and critical skill gaps.
Outsized serves more than 80 clients globally and connects over 55,000 independent professionals across the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa regions, with the Bench platform representing its latest step in the Australian market.
