One of the services employee relocation company Cartus offers relocating customers is Expense Management—processing, auditing, and paying relocation expenses. Unlike typical travel expenses, relocation expenses are unique in that they are taxed differently and may be incurred over a short time or throughout the course of a year or more. Given these factors, it is vital to Cartus’ clients and their employees that expenses are paid quickly and accurately.
Relocation volume and associated expenses tend to increase during the summer months. For example, the volume of expenses to be processed and paid increased by 14 percent from May to July 2013. This increased work and the potential of having up to 20 percent fewer Expense Analysts available due to summer vacations, makes it necessary for Cartus’ Expense Management team to offset the increased workload with a summer intern program.
Utilizing current college students on summer break, this intern program provides several benefits:
- Interns gain corporate work experience.
- Interns assist front-line employees during the busiest relocation season.
- The program enhances the pipeline of potential future employees to the Cartus organization.
Program Details
In the Expense Management function, interns are expected to fully contribute to department goals and ideally be as productive as full-time employees during the short 14 weeks they are on staff. This is different from the situation in other departments where interns are put into a support role, taking on administrative tasks and functions requiring fewer training hours.
As such, interns are given the same four-week training as a new full-time Expense Analyst, effectively preparing them to help process the increased summer volume, as well as offset absences due to vacations.
The department has two primary performance goals:
- Each analyst should process 22 expenses a day.
- Incoming expenses should be processed within three days (or less) of day of receipt.
Results
Over the last five years, interns have measurably contributed to these department goals. For example, over the 10 weeks following their training, the 2013 intern group successfully completed 16 percent of incoming volume of expenses submitted, and processed 16.5 expenses per day on average, helping to keep the queue of incoming expenses at or below the three-day goal.
Without this fully trained assistance, existing employees would be left to contend with 14 percent increased volume with up to 20 percent fewer colleagues available due to vacation on any given day. Without the interns, these factors would have required staff overtime during the summer months, negatively affecting both morale and process time.
The intern program has allowed Cartus to meet client and customer needs, directly contributing to its excellent service ratings. Additionally, it serves as a conduit to hire better-prepared and trained employees. In fact, 30 percent of interns from the last three years subsequently have been hired as either full- or part-time employees.
