If you’re not a numbers person and have worked with a financial spreadsheet, you know how overwhelming it can be. When long time IMNZ client, HEB Construction, found their non-financial staff lacking confidence in financials and budgeting, they got in touch with IMNZ for help.
While managing and understanding the finances quota, had been an important part of many roles at HEB, there had never been formal training for those having to manage big projects and business unit budgets. To introduce financial training to their staff, HEB worked with the team at IMNZ to customise the standard Finance for Non-Financial Managers course to meet their business needs.
“One of the reasons we chose to run this training through IMNZ was that we were able to customise the course for our needs, particularly around project and departmental budgets” explains Lesley Southwick, Learning & Development Manager at HEB “This was an opportunity to upskill our staff so that they could understand what they were looking at [in financial documents], without becoming accountants themselves.”
Through the bespoke course, HEB wanted to give staff the tools to read a balance sheet, put a profit and loss together and build their confidence and understanding
And What a success it was! “Our staff told us that it was the best course we’ve ever offered” says Lesley. Through his pragmatic teaching style, course facilitator Richard Millar broke down barriers of financial jargon to deliver the course in plain English- a language the team could easily understand.
On their return to the office, course attendees and their managers described the renewed sense of confidence and enthusiasm they felt in taking on financial tasks. “It has made a big difference for month-end and the budgeting process. If you’re not a numbers person, analysing and interpreting a financial spreadsheet can be difficult, so being able to understand the information has made a huge difference to their confidence”.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to continue to partner with HEB Construction to upskill and grow their staff. If you’d like to work with IMNZ to customise a training course for your own company or are interested in taking part in one of our public courses, get in touch today.
Photo: Shekal Singh, Operations Manager and Course Participant, HEB.
