UK HR Placement Role Review

One significant project undertaken this year has involved hiring 30 placement students for next years intake. This involved posting job descriptions, being a main contact with the university placement teams and students, presenting virtual career fairs and sieving through CVs. I then solely organized assessment centers via Teams and composed contracts. I have coordinated several events during my time at Faurecia and one of the notable responsibilities involved ensuring suppliers were paid on time for our events by raising Purchasing Orders. On a day to day basis I also support administrative duties of Compensation and Benefits schemes that we offer, I am the accounts administrator for company cards, phones, workwear and Fuel Cards. I also run the Faurecia Social media accounts including the Future Careers UK LinkedIn page, Twitter and Instagram.

I have become more confident with presenting and running events in a virtual sense due to COVID, meaning that events haven't gone ahead in person. This year has also increased my organization skills eg using excel spreadsheets and my professional skills by making sure that I was prepared for these events. I have become more experienced on the variety of topics within Human resources and developed my functional knowledge of the subject. I have also improved my skills in being able to meet deadlines from university where I left more until the last minute.

One of the main parts of my placement was hiring the students for next years intakes. Therefore, I was given a lot of autonomy and responsibility in presenting during career fairs, sieving CVs, putting on a virtual assessment center, inviting students to second stages and then writing up contracts for students. Running the assessment center held a lot of responsibility on me with 120 students in total invited to the 5 events that ran back to back. This meant that I had to control a carousel of events within the assessment center via using breakout rooms, make in depth timetables for interviewers, students and everyone helping the event. This allowed the event to run smoothly and to the strict timelines.

I received support throughout the year when asked for it. Due to Covid, receiving the support was more difficult due to managers not always being in the office so support via email was more difficult rather than being able to ask in person and understand what was required/how to do something. I had a week handover when I started the placement but this wasn't long enough (normal handover period is 2 weeks) to cover all topics. I received a lot of support and guidance from the HR Graduate due to a year experience already in the role and with our roles sharing some of the same responsibilities. This was very helpful.

I think due to COVID the general atmosphere has been very different and not great at times. Having to wear masks at your desk and barriers between the desk has made it harder to communicate with co-workers. However, it was good that I never had to work at home during the pandemic, as this would have been worse. My team culture could have been improved by the whole UK Team not being spread across the UK as it meant that i hadn't met half of my Team for the whole year.

Overall, I did enjoy my placement as I think that I have learnt as I was given a lot of autonomy, putting me in a better position to get a job after university. The placement would have been better in a non-covid year due to my travelling to career fairs/ running an in person assessment center/ student induction / wrap up event and managers convention all being moved to digital events. Although, this did teach me many digital skills of running large events on teams with breakout rooms and carousel of activities within but this was very stressful at times. This meant that in-depth planning was so important and taught me professional and organizational skills .

Yes

I would give the advice that it is probably not what you are expecting and you have to be ready to learn on the job, as a few months go by you feel more confident in your ability to do the work set and understand the processes. It is not quick to learn . The automotive industry is also very fast paced and people want answers quickly. Present a can-do attitude and show confidence within the interview and follow up your interview answers with examples. You will be given lots of autonomy in your role so you need to have confidence in making executive decisions.