Placement Student Review

In the last 7 months, my time working at Lidl has been remarkable. You would imagine working for a large cooperation that you would get 'lost' or forgotten about, especially when it is a live business environment. Although that couldn't be any less true. Initially, I applied for the placement because it offered a overall understanding in different business areas including working in store, working in the regional distribution centre (RDC) in departments including Admin, Personnel, Training and Supply Chain. This has therefore allowed me to know where I want to specialise in, and even more importantly the areas I do not wish to further my career in. You are given a lot of responsibility from the beginning, from ordering all the stock for the store or to allocating all of the bakery/flowers for the entire region. In some departments there was a lot to learn, and the need to learn quickly was clear. I even had the opportunity to work in the Head Office for Lidl in London which was very interesting. A lot of time is invested in each student and knowing the culture and principals for the company will most definitely be an advantage for gaining further employment with Lidl after graduation. It recently described the placement program as being a big jig-saw puzzle, the more experience in each department you begin to see how the company operates and interrelates which was important for me because one of my aims from the beginning was to increase my business acumen and understanding of the workplace. In order to give a fair assessment of my placement, it would be useful to have more one-to-one appraisals in relation to progress. Although the placement includes the same program for each student, in some cases students spent more or less time in certain departments than other students and I think the company should ensure that each and every placement spends the same time working in exactly the same department, so a clear overview of what must be learnt in each department would be an advantage. On the hole, a incredible business, a fantastic placement and certainly help me become more employable after I graduate - and hopefully with Lidl.

Extremely Valued. Going into different departments every so often I see how certain individuals may be shy or nervous and not feel part of the team. Having a decent personality and very out going I can not name any areas of the business where I wasn't valued or respected by any members of staff. The staff in store are extremely hard working and everyone works together as a team to get the job done, first time and you become a really important asset to the team in such a short space of time. Moving away from home in order to undertake the placement, i felt very close to those who i worked with and even socialising with some of them out side of the workplace which was great for me because I didn't know very many people in the area!

Starting at the beginning of the placement program I was welcomed to the RDC for an initial welcoming to briefly discuss the programme. On my first day at work in London we were informed of the support and guidance available. On a weekly basis each student reports to there line manager on the tasks they have learnt and if there are any issues these should be rectified. It wasn't uncommon to get a phone call asking how I was getting on from our training representative in London. In each department there is a lot of time invested in each individual so they know what the role of the department is and the duties that are undertaken, this is important so that you can learn the role and then carryout tasks on a daily basis. Further to this, working in the training department I was an eye-opener to see the time invested into employees whether they are a Customer Assistant or a Manager.

This was quite dependent on the department you are working in, and probably the region you are working in as well. When working in store, if you arn't too busy then it would be worth considering if retail is for you or not. Working in stores is stupidly busy but because of this it was one of my favourite areas to work in. Stores work on a thing called 'Productivity' so the higher the turnover, the more staff there are available to therefore support the day to day running of the store. In the 4 months working in store, I lost a lot of weight, walking over 20,000 steps a day, busting pallets, ordering 10+ pallets of stock, baking, cleaning, setting up promo goods - it was hard but thats what made it good. I was lucky to have a really good manager who had time to sit with me and explain things, some other students wern't always that lucky. You are in store to learn so I was very lucky to spend 90% of my time off till, its important that your manager ackowledges this. Working in the RDC, depending on the department, you will find yourself working at a different pace. In the training department you may be working towards a welcome event for new starts or a training session so some days may be quieter than others but then in Supply Chain for example there is constantly something that is needing done and the implications of you not carrying out a task is clear.

In store I was given personnel responsibilities making sure that staff knew what they had to do then and there in order to make the shift run smoothly. You would be responsible for ordering enough stock so there was full availability but not too much that it lead to write offs. These two figures are assessed every day so a lot of responsibility to ensure you don't ruin one store managers targets. Working in the RDC, I helped personnel carryout eligibility checks to ensure new members of staff have the right to work in the UK and the company. In some cases i was responsible for taking part of training sessions which was something I wouldn't have felt comfortable doing less than a year ago. Obviously depending on the department, in some departments you may find yourself assisting individuals so there is less responsibility than if you are working in Supply Chain for example and changing store orders to what you feel is more suitable or deciding that you want to give a store more flowers because of there early sell out times or reducing an allocation because of store write off figures. Working at weekends in some departments does take place, and therefore there is a lot of pressure and responsibility place on you that you do the job and that you do the job correctly.

To name a few skills that I have learnt this year: Team working, communication, organised, problem solving, self management, using initiative and analytical skills. I have been lucky enough to go to training sessions all over the UK, learning about recruitment, managing staff, change management and KPI management to name a few. My reasoning for undertaking a placement year was that I didn't feel ready for final year and wanted to be exposed to the full time working environment and I have learnt a lot about myself, i have developed in many areas and feel more comfortable under pressure and in stressful situations. I have learnt a lot about my personality and behaviour in the work place, such as the best way I learn - small things like this will help me in my studies and beyond. I therefore feel that i will be able to personally manage myself a lot better during my final year of studies. In my final year I feel like I will be able to relate to the topics better with real life examples from Lidl.

Atmosphere was good. Everyone knows when to put there head down and work and get the job done but equally, people know to stop and have a chat and a laugh. Some departments may be more serious than others, and more laid back than others but this really depends on the people who make up that department.

It was well organised. Each placement student is given a schedule which comes from head office, telling them when they are are in what area of the business and who is responsible for them during that time. That is organised and worked well - although the schedule is subject to change. At a more regional level, from what I have learnt, some regions are more organised than others in terms of the managing the placement programme. Some regions involve placement students more so than others and this is the only area where the programme could be developed - that each placement student gets the exactly the same opportunities regardless of the region they are in.

There is a lot of time and money invested into the training and development of each individual. I attended a lot of training sessions whilst in store and also when i was working in the training department, these sessions cost money and taking me out of the place of work in order to develop me for the short time that I am working for the company was good to see. I was flown down to London at least four times in order to attend national meetings and for training sessions too.

This also depends on the area of the business. Stores can absort alot of new members of staff so the chance of getting a job in store is probably relatively straight forward (ASM level or above). In order to get a job in the RDC, these jobs are advertised mainly internally so you would need to work for the company to be able to avail of these opportunities but having worked with the company, knowing the companies principals and culture it shouldn't be too difficult. There are some areas where jobs don't seem to come up, such as area management jobs so the future employment prospects in that area would be rather difficult. I have been lucky enough to have the support from personnel department and a head of department to try and organise a transfer so that I can work in store during my last year of uni back home. the thing about Lidl is that the company is growing so more jobs are coming available. In terms of graduate jobs, there are a lot of great graduate programmes available but word is that these are getting reduced, probably because current graduates are finding it difficult to secure jobs due to the lack of good category jobs being available. Having a job with Lidl will obviously help make to get another job with Lidl in the future.

Definitely. I have met a lot of different people through the programme, and all the placement students get on so well when we meet up at regional meetings in London and everyone is all very sociable. At a regional level, I have spent some time socialising outside of the place of work at staff dinners, parties, and out for the occasional night out.

Moving away from home isnt cheap so over the course of the year I have spent a lot of money just being here to work - but I didn't mover over for the salary I moved over for the experience and it was certainly worth while, I was lucky to find a good set of friends outside of work but moving away can be difficult but it is only suited to the person. I recommend living close to the RDC due to having to travel here most of the year, and I would also recommend anyone moving away from home to contact Lidl prior to finding accommodation so that they could get recommendations on where is best to live.

A lot different than what I am used to. I am never complaining about Irish Bars again! Why did I ever complain about them!! In all seriousness - anyone working in Scotland and living close to the RDC is right smack bang in between Glasgow and Edinburgh - two fantastic citys so a good night out is only a £10 train fare away and about £50 taxi back (Therefore i wouldn't recommend missing the last train back)!

There are several night outs for work such as Christmas dinners and departmental night out. I am not aware of any football matches between staff or anything like that. I know there are sometimes the odd charity event that members of staff hold and therefore invite people from the RDC.