Perpetual Case Study

CASE STUDY

Perpetual

Human Resources Business Partner Amit Pahuja was in charge of a four-week work experience plan or Vacationer Programme, that would enable penultimate students an opportunity to experience what life is like at Fordham with guidance and mentorship that will help to kick start a career in Accounting.

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Perpetual is an Australian ASX-listed diversified financial services company with three separate businesses that help grow and protect clients’ wealth. One of these businesses under the Perpetual banner is Fordham, a chartered accounting practice. Fordham is a specialised Chartered Accounting Practise part of Perpetual Private, focusing on private businesses, established wealthy, NFP’s and large corporate trusts. Fordham is one of the fastest growing chartered accounting firms in Australia, helping our clients with specialist accounting advice which has earnt us the title of trusted advisor.

Fordham runs a comprehensive graduate and Vacationer program that guides students to grow their skills and deliver exceptional outcomes in an environment of high performance and integrity. As part of this, Human Resources Business Partner Amit Pahuja was in charge of a four-week work experience plan or Vacationer Programme, that would enable penultimate students an opportunity to experience what life is like at Fordham with guidance and mentorship that will help to kick start a career in Accounting.

The Project:

When Amit sat down to start planning the required content, laying out the foundations, and thinking about all of the administrative needs that these new interns would need to get onboarded and up and running, even just from a technical perspective - he quickly realised that in order to keep up with the BAU and ensure the wider business needs were met, extra support was essential for the project.

With a part of the Learning and Development budget signed off for a temporary member of staff, Amit felt a non-traditional arrangement would be optimal, ideally an engagement that was split to cover the times of need, and one that could begin urgently. Saving his own time on interviewing and screening, Amit realised he could get somebody in much quicker if he hired a pre-vetted Weployee, than if he was to rely on a traditional temp agency. In addition, his budget would go much further if he hired a Weployee for the busiest times only - 4 days per week during the pre-onboarding preparatory time and physical onboarding, then again at the offboarding and exit time, without the downtime in the middle when the course was in full swing.

The requirements...

He posted the job, looking for someone with HR experience, and was matched with Weployee Jan. “Jan helped us create all the content collateral for the course which included workbooks for the Vacationers to work through including goal-setting and feedback forms. She helped us schedule training sessions with stakeholders from Tech, Finance and Quality and Risk teams for the vacationers. Then, there was all the tech enablement for Melbourne and Sydney vacationers to access the materials and start using our CRM, and of course, the coordination of catering and room bookings.

Jan supported the vacationers throughout their onboarding process and became a familiar, friendly face for the Vactioners to turn to for questions and encouragement. She liaised with a couple of external Learning and Development companies on behalf of Fordham, arranging two presentations on Presentation Skills and Communication skills, organising show bags and building passes for everyone involved.

“Jan wasn’t a typical hire for us and I found I’ve learnt to be more open minded when it comes to assessing candidates on their capabilities through a blind interview process, and not letting unconscious bias play a part in the decision."

Amit Pahuja,Human Resources at Perpetual

Contingent staff for specialised roles:

"Jan was able to communicate my high level ideas and strategies into practical, workable frameworks, in scope and in budget.”

The Vacationer Programme is a real success story for Amit and his team, who will be utilising the frameworks for future students enrolling for the Graduate and Vacationer programs henceforth. Although the teams at Fordham are used to using temp workers for seasonal work or projects, Amit sees the benefits of using Weploy to help outsource for certain skill sets and transform the way they structure their teams. In the future of work, it makes sense to source for more specialised roles rather than just administrative or junior roles that are commonly filled by temp workers.

“Although some of my stakeholders are not yet comfortable with the process of blind recruitment, the results are difficult to ignore and I am sure the ongoing success of Weployees will help us embark on the change.

For us at Fordham , I really see the value of Weploy to manage Surge Capacity and it feels a lot more reassuring to know that I can always call on Weploy should another project come up."

"With a Weployee, I am confident I am getting someone in who has already been tested for aptitude and cognitive ability and is able to think on their feet, and be plunged in at the deep end!"

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