Human Resources Undergraduate Placement Review

I throughly enjoyed my HR placement with the Newcastle Building Society. From the offset, the HR and L&D teams made the interview and onboarding experience seamless. Opportunities to network and interact with other members, internal and external were readily available and encouraged. When you join the society, you become part of the 'Early Talent' team which is made up of all Apprentices, Graduates and Undergraduates, who are all at similar career stages to you, so working alongside them is very inspiring and motivating. As part of the ET programme, you are assigned to a small project group to work on a consultancy brief within a separate area of the business. This was a great experience as we got to work with teams and employees from all over the business. My group made some exciting connections and worked closely with some of our key stakeholders, including the Heads of Finance and Risk and even the CFO!

I personally felt extremely connected to my team and fellow Early Talent members. My work was recognised and valued, and you don't feel like another cog in the machine. All of the work that the Building Society does has such a great impact on the communities its involved with, and I felt like the work I did contributed to this.

Before I had even started my placement, my manager arranged to meet for a coffee to discuss my placement and any queries I might have before starting which I thought was a really personal touch. Mentoring is a big part of the society and is readily available to all employees. When you start as a member of Early Talent, you are already assigned a mentor. How often you meet, and what you would like to discuss are all on your terms, and if it is something you do not want to be a part of, there is no pressure either way. I had a number of meetings with my mentor and manager to make sure they were clear on what I wanted to get out of my time with NBS, and how they could help me progress and grow as a professional individual. As well as your mentor, manager and team, the Early Talent manager provides great support and ensures that your experience runs smoothly.

I was lucky enough to move between different teams within the overall HR function, so my workload did change depending on area. Initially some of my activities were quite mundane, repetitive and I wasn't enjoying them at all, I raised this with my manager who spoke with my team leader in a discreet and professional manner, we came up with some other tasks that were more interesting and relevant to the placement. Upon moving to the next area, this wasn't the case at all, I was given a lot of responsibility and my new manager ensured that I always had something to do, and would involve with me lots of different tasks. The society were aware that I had university assignments to complete during my placement and were more than happy to manage my workload around this.

Again, this did depend on the area of the business I was working with. I would say overall that I was given quite a lot of responsibility and was assigned specific tasks that I would need to carry out every week. Working on the project alongside the day to day tasks of the placement came with a lot of responsibility too, as we were helping to explore and research on a real-life project that could actually be implemented within the business.

My placement experience allowed me to see first hand all the aspects of business that I have read about and studied at university, put into practise in the real business world. Working within the HR department gave me a great insight to workings of the whole business and allowed me to integrate with employees at all levels in across multiple business functions. Along with the Project, I feel I have gathered a lot of first hand in depth experience that I can apply to my studies and will stay with me throughout my future career.

The atmosphere in my office was great. All of the recruitment and HR teams are spread out across an open plan office, meaning that you are free to walk around and speak to anyone without feeling too intimidated. Everyone in the HR and L&D function were really friendly and very inclusive. I would always look forward to coming to work as even if I knew I had a busy day, my team would never fail to lift my spirits! - Every other Friday we would all take it in turn to bring in Greggs breakfast and coffees which was always fun!

The Early Talent programme is very well structured and includes so many great opportunities, including the ET project and volunteering. The 2 day induction was great and very informative, along with the welcome week where you're lucky enough to spend some time with the board of directors and get some excellent isight into the business! My placement year was supposed to have been broken down into 5 mini rotations around the different teams within the HR function, however due to some of the teams being busier than others, and the impact of COVID19, I was only able to spend time with 2 areas.

The Society has quite a lot of in-house training courses to help you develop your confidence, networking, presentation skills etc which are free and available to every member. I was keen to gain some experience across multiple departments, which was supported and encouraged by my mentor. With regards to the HR placement, there wasn't any specific or additional training that I was put through. I had 1-2-1s with my line managers on a quarterly basis where you would discuss strengths and any areas for development, and what I wanted to get out of the whole placement and how they can assist.

I throughly enjoyed my time at the Building Society and wouldn't hesitate to return there in the future, however there isn't currently any training or opportunities available for the career path that I have now decided to pursue. The society is growing the number of Early Talent opportunities available, and some departments have kept some of the placement students on afterwards for part-time roles whilst they finish their final year.

As part of the welcome week, we spent a lot of time together as a cohort, this was very valuable and was a great way to get to know everyone. I have made some really great friends who I keep in touch with, even now the placement has ended and I have moved back to University. The Early Talent Manager made a lot of effort to organise group sessions for us to come together to discuss our projects and find out how everyone else was getting on in their placement/apprenticeship etc., everyone was split over two sites so it was nice to be able to see everyone on quite a regular basis.

Newcastle is such a fab city and has so much to offer, it is a pretty cheap city to live, work and socialise in, compared to lots of other major cities. I am studying in Leeds, but I am from Newcastle so moved back home for my placement year, which made my living considerably cheaper, however there is a massive range of student accommodation on offer as well as student house sharing, covering a range of prices, so there will definitely be something for everyone. My placement was based in the City Centre office, so the transport links into town were great. I had a metro rail card which I was able to get through work on a staff travel loan.

Newcastle is notorious for it's nightlife, so there is something for everyone on pretty much every night of the week! As well as bars and clubs, Newcastle has some amazing restaurants too (Newcastle Grainger Market has some real foodie stands!) With multiple cinemas, theatres, galleries and live music venues, you will always be able to find something to do, no matter what you're after.

There were lots of volunteering opportunities available for everybody to take part in, if there was something happening during the your work day, you could use one of your three volunteering days. There was a large company-wide Christmas party, as well as a smaller department one. If you signed up to the Staff Association scheme, you would have access to discounted tickets and other events at exclusive prices for the Society employees.