Westpac New Zealand is a purpose-driven bank employing around 5,500 people across Aotearoa, and its approach to its people is as central to its strategy as its approach to its customers. “Internally for us, creating a better future is at the core of what we do, and we truly believe that creating a better future for our employees means that our customers will have a better future as well,” says Melanie Ilich, Head of Employee Experience.
Six years ago, however, the bank's people infrastructure was far from fit for purpose. “The systems were disparate. We had about 26 different HR systems, spreadsheets, knowledge sitting in people's heads, and data that the organization couldn't trust. Transformation for us was not a nice-to-have, it was something we had to do,” recalls Ilich.
Westpac needed a unified platform that could support its complex organization as it evolved. “Workday stood out for its end-to-end capability, its transparency, and its ability to support where work is going in the future,” Ilich explains.
From fragmented systems to trusted people data.
By consolidating more than two dozen systems with Workday, Westpac gained people data it could trust. With reliable information available across the business, HR teams and leaders could provide decision-makers with timely, evidence-based insights. Reports that had previously taken weeks to produce could now be completed within hours. “Now that we have trust in our data, we can deliver insights to the business to help them make timely data-driven people decisions,” shares Ilich.
That trust extends beyond the data itself. For a bank operating in a tightly regulated environment, strong governance and controls are essential. “In an organization like Westpac, controls and compliance is really important. For us, the role-based security in Workday gives us that assurance, and built-in controls help our IT team sleep at night,” says Ilich. Complex organizational changes are simpler, too. “Processes that used to be risky, like restructures, are now easy, simple, and the complexity has gone,” she adds.
Creating a more connected hiring experience.
Workday Recruiting has given Westpac greater transparency across the hiring process. People leaders can now track the progress in real time, while candidates benefit from a consistent and seamless experience from application through to offer. Internal mobility has also improved, giving employees a more direct way to explore and pursue opportunities across the organization.
“Workday Recruiting has brought a level of transparency and consistency we just didn't have before. Our people leaders, our candidates, and our own people looking to move internally are all having a better experience,” says Ilich.
Building a skills-driven, flexible workforce.
Building on its trusted people data in Workday, Westpac is taking the next step toward a more skills-driven and flexible workforce. The aim is to strengthen decisions about succession planning, capability development, and workforce transformation with better evidence.
As part of this next phase, Westpac will introduce Workday Learning. Ilich sees the AI capabilities within Workday as an opportunity to connect learning more closely with employees’ development needs. “Workday embedding AI into its product is going to be a really positive move for us. The way that it will enable skill development and push learning to our people is really going to accelerate our ability to drive capability across the business.”
The future for the organization is around skills and a flexible workforce. Workday helps us understand our people's skills, making sure we've got the right people in the right roles at the right time.
Head of Employee Experience