Fenella's HR placement at ADP

This is a guest post from Royal Holloway student Fenella Jones on the BSc Management with Human Resources pathway, who is currently undertaking an HR placement at ADP.  Staines upon Thames - based ADP is a global company which offers industry-leading online payroll services & HR software and solutions tailored to individual clients that they work with. It is so pleasing to hear how much Fenella is benefitting from her placement year experience.

"Taking the role of HR Intern at ADP has been the best decision I have made as part of my University degree yet. 

 It was quite daunting at first, starting a placement at a global company. But I quickly became settled in all thanks to the amazing team I work with. They have always been happy to answer any of my questions or run me through a process. 

 I have been able to experience all avenues of HR as well as other areas of the business through my role. The role can be so vast, but also has core tasks that are carried out regularly. 

 I've been able to work on multiple projects focusing on various areas of HR and working with different people from the team or independently. For example, I updated our Welcome Centre which provides new starters with useful information before joining, such as, details about their office location, a first day checklist, a UK benefits overview and more. It really motivates me to know my work is contributing to the business and associates' experience.

 I am also responsible for certain admin tasks, such as responding to reference requests, writing and issuing various letters, checking car allowance documents etc. 

 My role has also covered data analysis, system testing and some Excel work. But don't panic, I am no excel expert myself and there is always someone to help!

 As for the office environment, I never knew I could enjoy office life so much. There's often a fun activity taking place in the office you can take part in. Over the past 7 months I've attended a Bingo session at the office (and won 😊), enjoyed pancakes on Pancake Day, organised and attended the Global HR Summit for the Staines team and more. 

 I've really enjoyed the past 7 months with ADP and have learnt so much not only about HR but also about myself. I cannot recommend this placement, the company and team enough. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about the role, company, or placement life so feel free to get in contact 🙂."

HR talent intern placement at JDE

This is a guest post from Royal Holloway student, Ellie Graziano who is on the BSc Management with Human Resources (with a Year in Business ) pathway. Ellie is currently undertaking an HR talent placement year at JDE, the company famous for coffee brands such as Kenco, L'OR, Tassimo and Douwe Egberts. Currently 8 months into her placement year, Ellie shares an update of what her role has entailed so far.

I had planned on doing a 6 month, halfway there post but I blinked and here we are, nearly 8 months down the line as HR Talent intern at JDE and what an 8 months it’s been. From joining the company in the midst of the Kenco Centenary celebrations and being lucky enough to attend Barcode Festival 2 weeks in (where several FMCG companies support Grocery Aid by showcasing their products and services). A very warm summers day in London, walking around different stalls, being handed freebees left right and centre (I came home with about 4/5 tote bags FULL😂) and ending the day with front row seats to Sam Ryder (I literally couldn’t believe it).

Fast forward a couple of months and I’ve built so much confidence in myself. Screening candidates, arranging 2nd stage interviews, making offers, and then seeing those candidates around the office knowing I had been a huge part of their JDE recruitment process. I was also lucky enough to help organise and then attend our job fair at Banbury last week which was an excellent networking opportunity that gave me some insight into how much planning goes into events like this. 

As well as the day-to-day recruitment for both Banbury and Maidenhead sites, I have also had sole responsibility of the intern recruitment for next year (a weird once considering I started looking for our ‘replacements’ within 2 months of being in the role myself😂). Between arranging briefing calls with hiring managers, working alongside Sanctuary Graduates, running ‘get to know JDE’ sessions for candidates, inviting them to interview and running assessment centres, it’s been full on but I’m glad to say that the end is within reach! With just a couple of roles left to hire for, I can start looking ahead at planning the first few weeks for our new interns and ensuring that they have an enjoyable onboarding experience.

Alongside all this, I have also been lucky enough to be part of student charity, something that I am glad JDE allow us to do. We started the 1st half of the year raising money for Alzheimer’s Society with endless bake sales and activities in Banbury and more recently, our sparkly new Maidenhead office and now have started the 2nd half of our year fundraising for Grocery Aid – with our first (Valentines’) fundraiser just around the corner!

Its safe to say it’s been an incredible first half (and some) of the placement and I can’t wait to see what the next few months have in store. 

Farah's top tips for seeking a placement - incoming HR placement student at Morgan Stanley

This is a guest post from 2nd year Royal Holloway Year in Business student, Farah Hanif, who has just secured a Human Resources placement with Morgan Stanley commencing in the summer 2021. Farah shares her top tips for students seeking a placement.

My name is Farah and I have just secured a Human Resources Industrial Placement with Morgan Stanley. I am going to be talking about my application process for my Year in Business.

On my first week of my first year of university, I attended a Year in Business lecture which was very informative and really excited me for my year out. However, there was one statement that shocked me and stuck with me until I received my placement; only 50% of people on the YIB pathway actually secure a placement! From this point onwards, I was desperate to educate myself on this topic and find out what opportunities were available to me. I compiled a list of companies that I was interested in, but at this early stage in year one of university, this was all I could do. I regret not talking more to students in their second year and asking for their advice and tips in cover letters or interview etiquette.

Before my second year of university started, the one thing on my mind was my placement and with the coronavirus pandemic making it difficult for even experienced professionals to find jobs, I was even more panicked. I signed up to RateMyPlacement.com, which is undoubtedly the most useful website to use when looking for jobs. It allows you to filter by role, location and many other factors and it allowed me to find companies I would not have thought of previously. It also lets you register your interest to companies and emails you when applications open. The YIB team also sent weekly emails detailing different opportunities available to us. These two resources were definitely the most useful to me, as my strategy was to play the numbers game; apply to as many places as possible and hopefully one will come back to me! 

Work Experience

By this point, I had already made my CV. As we are students and we usually do not have a huge amount of relevant work experience, I bulked out my CV to two pages by adding a list of 3 or 4 bullet points of relevant skills underneath each education or work experience. For example, I said that my current degree contributed towards my teamwork, leadership and time management skills and my work experience in a Marketing department of a head office helped with my analysis and research skills. Most of my work experience is in teaching (I volunteered at a Sunday school for three years and then was a private tutor for two years). Although not strictly relevant to HR, I mentioned in my CV and cover letter that it helped with my people and empathy skills. I also highlighted that I had experience with specialist software and data analysis in my teaching roles, which employers won’t know about otherwise. It is best to emphasise parts of your work experience that you think are even a little bit relevant to the role you are applying for. 

Cover Letters

I also had a generic structure for cover letters. It is vitally important to write a different cover letter for each company you apply for. My structure meant that it did not take too long to write a letter for each company. I recommend about 400-500 words and this is the structure I used:

First line: who are you, what are you applying for

First paragraph: research the core values of the company and match them to your values, show that you are a good fit to their culture

Second paragraph: go more into depth about your relevant work experience and prove you would thrive in this role. (as this is about your personal work experience and not specific to the company, you can copy and paste this paragraph into all cover letters)

Third paragraph: show your passion for the industry, mention previous encounters with the industry and flatter the company! Let them know how useful their placement would be to you.

Last line: end with a positive sentence, the last thing they read should leave them with a good impression of you; mention how enthusiastic and grateful you would be and how eager you are to contribute.

Recruitment Process

I started to apply to placements in August, which was apparently a lot earlier than others. Although many companies do not start the application process until the new year, there are so many opportunities before then that people miss out on because they are distracted with the start of their second year or they are simply unaware. I applied to a total of about 15 different companies, got onto the psychometric testing stage with 6 of them, had 2 telephone interviews, and attended 2 virtual assessment centres. One of my assessment centres included a group exercise with other candidates, a pre-prepared individual presentation, and an interview. Another assessment centre comprised of a strength-based interview, a case study, and a data exercise. I was lucky to receive an offer the day after my assessment centre and then I felt a great sense of relief that I have got this in the bag, and I can focus on the rest of my year.

My tips for applying:

·         Understand that getting a placement is difficult, but not impossible with the right prep!

·         Speak to students going through this process currently.

·         Make use of the YIB team to go over your CV and cover letters (I definitely should have taken more advantage of this)

·         Write a specific cover letter for each company; don’t use a generic one

·         Make an account with RateMyPlacement.com

·         Start applying as soon as you can!

·         Familiarise yourself with your CV and experience when in an interview

·         Familiarise yourself with facts and history about the industries and companies you are interviewing for

·         Dress formal for your interviews/assessment centres; it is better to be overly smart than not smart enough

·         Prepare to be flexible on location; a placement further away is better than no placement at all

Be confident in yourself and your abilities. It shows in your demeanour and goesa long way!

Alice Scott's placement at Unilever in the Human Resources Function

This is a guest post from Royal Holloway Management student Alice Scott who is currently undertaking a placement at Unilever in the Human Resources Function, based in Kingston. The deadline for 2019/20 applications to Unilever's placement programme is November 18th.

Unilever is a British-Dutch transnational consumer goods company, selling fast moving consumer goods (FMCG’s) in around 190 countries. London is home to one of the two global headquarters, the other being in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Unilever also have 3 global research facilities at Port Sunlight, Colworth and Leeds, as well as manufacturing sites and distribution depots around the UK. 

Unilever own over 400 brands selling in global and local markets, including Dove, Lynx, Hellman’s, Knorr, Lipton, Magnum and Surf to name a few. One of the perks of working for Unilever is definitely the shop stocked with Unilever products and free Ben and Jerry’s at lunch time!

I joined Unilever in June as part of the Learning Innovations and Standards team, and we support Global Learning (around 60 employees at Unilever) who produce and organise all the learning and training materials for the whole company. Our team’s role is to help them do their jobs by giving them all the support and online systems they need. 

My key responsibilities include providing support for our online learning platform Degreed, testing new tools that can be used by the learning team, creating content for the company to promote a learning culture and assisting our Chief Learning Officer with the organisation of weekly Learning Leadership Meetings. 

Alongside my role in the learning team I have had the opportunity to attend London Pride, campus recruitment events, as well as teaching school children about self esteem as part of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign, CV Skills and World Toilet Day teaching 5-7-year olds about sanitation.

Working on a global team means that employees working in Learning are based in locations all around the world, which gives me the flexibility to work from home a few days a week. My team are very supportive and are always happy to help – no question is a silly question! I have already learnt so much in the past 5 months that will benefit me in my final year of study and post-graduation.

My advice to students who are currently applying for placements is DON’T GIVE UP!! I applied for over 25 placements last year and although it can be disheartening when you don’t hear back / aren’t successful, when you finally find the placement that is right for you it makes it all worth it.

Unilever Applications

Unilever currently offer Industrial Placements in HR, Finance, Supply Chain, Marketing, Customer Development (Sales), Technology Management and Research and Development. If you are interested in applying for a placement at Unilever, applications are now open and you can find all the information here: https://www.unilever.co.uk/careers/graduates/unilever-industrial-placement-programme/. The application process includes an application form, gamified assessments, a video interview and then an assessment centre. The applications close on the 18^th November and if you have any questions feel free to get in touch!

We were really pleased to see Alice at the recent Call Back afternoon for YIBs out on placement. Alice is also a buddy to two second year students currently seeking placements and spent time chatting to 2nd year YIBs at our Employer Placement event on October 1st and our Pizza/ Games networking evening at the end of October. Thank you Alice for supporting the Year in Business programme!