HR Intern Review

I am really enjoying my HR placement! I believe Phase Eight have organised a great placement opportunity, allowing me to experience all areas of HR, in a very supportive and encouraging manner.

The Phase Eight head office is a lovely team of under a 100 colleagues, within a month I knew them all on first name terms and enjoyed regular chats over the coffee machine. I was welcomed from day one not only within the HR team, but within the whole of head office, making it a fun friendly enviroment to work in. The HR team value my contributions and effort and show their trust through the responsibility they give me.

My line manager and the rest of the HR team are always on hand to offer support and guidance in anyway they can. At the beginning I always felt like I was asking too many questions, but they were never to busy to stop and help me. Now as I gain more experience, my line manager is always supporting me to improve and develop.

Phase Eight is a growing company, with a small HR team. The internship is a busy role, but one that keeps you on your feet and has improved my time managerment and prioritising methods. Skills which will definately come in useful for my final year of university and future careers. There is never a dull moment.

This internship placed me in charge of many tasks and projects which I was solely responsible for, including recruitment, and the managing of employee references, contracts and eligibility to work, which are intergral to the running of business. Each week I knew my responsibilies and therefore I was in charge of planning my own schedule and meeting deadlines.

I am on a Sandwich Degree studying HR, therefore this experience has been extremely useful not only to assist in my Degree, but also in deciding my future career path. I now know I want to go into HR due to the fantastic experience I have had with Phase Eight. During my placement I have developed skills not only in HR, learning about employee engagement, disciplinary and grievance, training and development, performance management and absence management. But also life skills including time management, communication both oral and written, leadership and team work.

Fun and friendly. The office is on two floors and mainly open plan, allowing everyone to mix with one another.

I am the second HR intern Phase Eight has employed, however you would think they had been using interns for years. My induction was well organised, with the previous intern spending a week introducing me to all my main responsibilities. Since this induction there has always been support from my line manager and the HR team, who are always encouraginging me to learn more and allowing me to take on new responsibilities.

Throughout my placement I have been invited to training sessions, assessment centres and employment law seminars all improving my knowledge of HR and allowing me to gain the best experience from my year in industry.

I would love to gain a Job after my internship, however with the HR team being quite a small team it would be dependent on a whether a position became available when I have finished university.

In the office there are lots of different groups who socialise outside of work. However with whole office activities being hard to organise, these were quite a rarity. But very fun when they did happen! Birthdays were always celebrated with the whole office attending a sing song and some cake, great way to liven up the office.

I chose to live within walking distance of the head office in Fulham, this was very expensive, however was my personal choice and therefore living costs could be cheaper if living elsewhere.

There are some very popular bars in Parson Green where the head office is based, and great clubs in the chelsea fulham area about 10/20 minute walk away. - Great for some celeb spotting!

Unfortunately Phase Eight did not host any sports teams which would of been great fun, and if I did gain employment after my placement, I would love to set up a netball team to compete in the local tournament every wednesday near by.