Findex has established itself as one of Australasia’s leading providers of integrated financial advisory and accounting services. A critical focus for Findex, and many professional services firms, is the challenge to attract, develop and retain a high performing and capable workforce in a talent constrained environment.

THE CHALLENGE

Professional services, like many industries is being challenged to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape characterized by new market entrants, regulatory change, digitization and the global pandemic.

Findex’s focus and investment in learning and capability development had evolved and grown, adapting to variations in governance as acquisitions occurred. However there were critical challenges that needed to be addressed to ensure the capability development needs of the workforce were addressed and the employee experience at Findex was enhanced.

We partnered with Findex to conduct a learning function review that spanned their learning function and infrastructure with a view to defining how it supported their exceptional employee experience.

The desired outcomes for Findex included a much clearer value proposition and related delivery model as it related to learning, that would in turn support employee growth and career pathing, talent mobility, and retention and attraction. Defining how the model and offer would provide value and efficiency was also a critical outcome for establishing investment confidence.

WHAT WE DID

Spring Point worked with Findex to conduct reviews of a number of activities to provide recommendations on the Findex learning function strategy and structure, learning tools, technical training and CPD, as well as the Findex leadership program.

We used this review to also provide insights and recommendations on emerging trends around employee experience related to learning, additional investment requirement and the associated business case needed to substantiate this, as well as budget setting and cost allocation recommendations based on industry standards.

Specifically, this included:

• Development of an ‘Evaluative Framework’ describing critical areas / topics for analysis & recommendations
• Development of a stakeholder and data gathering map spanning both internal stakeholders and external data gathering necessary to establish benchmark data
• Identifying target organisations and conducting interviews with benchmark clients and organisations
• Internal stakeholder interviews
• Designing and conducting employee ‘learning experience workshops’
• Data validation workshops to validate draft insights & identify any areas for further data gathering
• Development of options and recommendations report, including high level operating model options / recommendations, key external emerging trends and learning practice insights, & insights to inform budget recommendations 
• Consolidation of options and workshop outcomes into final report detailing review findings, prioritised recommendations
• Presentation of the final report and recommendations to key stakeholders.

OUTCOMES

This initial review identified several key activities required to enhance the learning function within Findex, one of which was to develop clearer understanding of the roles and responsibilities of employees in relation to learning and governance. We again worked with Findex to create and define a RACI model through a series of workshops to action this key recommendation as part of a project extension.