Not all they are cracked up to be - Anonymous employee Fortus Employee Review

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts, feelings and advice to management here at Fortus. We’re delighted to hear your of your positive experiences during your time working with us; our people, workplace, training opportunities and social events – these are fundamental to our success and inclusive culture which we take great pride in. We’re disheartened to hear of your not so great, personal onboarding experience. From our extensive investment in our recruitment process via our dedicated partner, right through to the successful completion of probation, we’ve a structured programme that can and should be applied by your line manager. We’d welcome further insight into your personal onboarding journey to see where improvements can and should be made for the future. To your comment ‘top management blinkered’ - our senior management team have been very open in sharing the fact that leading the business in a challenging market against an ambitious growth plan (and pandemic) has been, at times, extremely testing. We’re sure you can appreciate that experiencing such exponential growth and success in such a short space of time can manifest itself in many ways. Having to adapt at a moment’s notice meant there’s often been a requirement to take a step back and look at the ‘here and now’, which we understand can perhaps be construed as ‘unpredictable’. Adding to this, whilst we’re a transparent organisation, you will not have sight of all strategic decision making and the obstacles and challenges faced by senior management. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to say our senior management team are neither unapproachable or closed-minded to new ideas, different approaches and opportunities. This has been validated by both long-term employees who’ve been with us for many years, or new starters who’ve chosen to join Fortus since 2020. At Fortus, diversity isn’t simply a box-ticking exercise for us. When it comes to genders, beliefs, perspectives, education and backgrounds, we recognise a deep societal duty to strive to ensure diversity’s embraced within the communities we serve, and within our workplace itself. As with many organisations, diversity remains a challenge, yet is one we are prepared to continue to rise to. By way of example, we’re proud to have many senior females in key and influential roles within our senior management team across the business. This is further reflected in the fact that we don’t have an ‘all white male’ Executive Board, and both our Client Advisory and FORUS Employee Boards also consist of male and female team members. Additionally, we’re pleased that the make-up of our national business comprises almost a 50/50 split of male/female colleagues. Your advice to ‘listen to our experts instead of telling them’, we simply wouldn’t be the business we are today had we not sought out and provided our people with both the platform and mandate they need to successfully deliver on both business and client expectation. We’ve gone well beyond what might be described as ‘traditional’ areas of expertise for an accountancy firm - our experts bring additional proficiency in areas such as Property, People, Marketing & Branding and more – this expertise is incredibly valued by colleagues and clients alike. As a brand that prides itself on being people-focused both in terms of how we support individuals, professionally and personally, we’ve nothing but respect for our team. We show this through a number of programmes that give individuals the opportunity to shine and to be recognised by their peers, whether this be in our monthly newsletter, social posts specific to individuals or teams, long-service awards or exam congratulations. Above all, we’re always here to listen, help and support our people, and actively encourage everyone to reach out with thoughts, feelings and ideas in confidence - whether it’s your direct line manager, a member of the senior leadership team or our People team. We’d like to thank you once again for sharing your own thoughts and would welcome further discussion around any of the points raised.