5 jobs cut as Proven transitions to new software
PROVEN Wealth Limited (PWL) has confirmed that it will reduce its staff by five to 35 people this Christmas.
The cut follows the transition to a new software platform for the wealth management firm which acquired First Global Financial Services (FGFS) earlier in the year, presently called PWL Transition Ltd.
“We made two permanent positions redundant and three persons with temporary contracts were not extended,” PWL Chief Executive Officer Chorvelle Johnson told the Jamaica Observer in a phone interview on Monday.
The investment bank employed most of the FGFS staff on temporary contracts initially in June 2014 following the acquisition, and eventually the majority of staff were “extended permanent positions”, the management said. However, since then, they have reduced staff. The latest round occurred last week following the system upgrade. The company shifted PWL Transition from Flexcube to 4Series.
Johnson explained that the company recently did a system change to enhance its efficiencies.
“4Series is already being used by Proven Wealth and is very effective and accurate in providing customer information,” Johnson said. “We were cognisant that this may lead to loss of employment for some persons, therefore all jobs available within the group were advertised internally and first preference given to team members already in house. We currently have a very good team who are extremely hard workers.”
A source intimate with the redundancy, and who spoke to the Business Observer on condition of anonymity, asked why management slashed staff during the Christmas season.
The question was put to Johnson.
“When is a good time to do a redundancy exercise? There is never going to be a right time”, Johnson replied, then added that an earlier timeline was planned for the system upgrade.
“The intention was not to do so in December; however, with any system upgrade there are changes that result in the ‘go live’ date being changed. The ‘go live’ date was October 2014,” Johnson said.
In April, Proven inked a deal with GraceKennedy Group to acquire FGFS for $3.05 billion. The conglomerate plans to focus on further investments to expand its First Global Bank which remains part of the GraceKennedy group.