HR Administrator and Junior Business Partner Review

I have really enjoyed my placement with CDS and have learnt valuable skills that I will take forward for the rest of my future career. You are given a large range of responsibilities from the beginning, which grows throughout the 13 months. Everyone at Head Office is extremely welcoming and supportive.

You are quickly integrated into the HR team and the rest of the company, This is a real job, and far from the standard work experience. You are relied upon heavily to perform by your team as well as provide support to large sectors of the business.

The whole HR team are extremely supportive, allowing you to get involved in a number of HR activities, from all the administrative tasks, to supporting on disciplinaries. The team are very open to letting you get involved in different aspects of HR, including to develop your interests in topics such as Recruitment or Learning and Development. This placement is very much what you make of it and how motivated you are in learning as much as possible!

There was never a dull moment on this placement. There's a great deal of opportunity to get involved in a number of projects as well as your day-to-day tasks. The HR department is extremely fast-paced and there is always more work to be done!

Not only are you given administrative responsibilities, but the role allows you to assist on numerous HR Business Partner duties, especially in the Employee Relations aspect. This placement allows you to have full responsibility of running a complete recruitment process for finding the next placement student, where you are given sole responsibility of decision making and moving the project forward. I was also given the responsibility of working on a strategic document that would be used at an EMEA level of the business.

I have developed numerous skills whilst on placement with CDS, including how to take control of different situations and the importance of attention to detail when working with sensitive data. I will be using CDS as a case study for my dissertation.

With the Head Office being relatively small, there is a really great atmosphere, where you are able to get to know everyone across the different departments. Everyone is really friendly and welcoming which helps makes you feel quickly relaxed. The team are all really friendly and really make the placement extremely enjoyable. The HR team are really friendly and really make the placement enjoyable for the whole 13months.

From the beginning of the placement there a number of set objectives that clearly outlined. There is also a one month handover period with the previous intern, which really helps to set you up in being successful for the rest of the placements. You begin with the majority of your work focusing on the administrative tasks and then gradually introduce the Business Partner activities.

As previously mention, the one month handover period is a great way to start the placement. This one on one style of training is a great way to learn all of the administrative tasks that you will be performing on a daily basis. A lot of the training tends to be on the job, where you learn to deal with different situations as and when they come in. You are always supported in your learning by either the admin team or the Business Partners.

I have been lucky enough to be offered to return to CDS on completion of my degree. I will returning as a HR Graduate Trainee, where I will continue to consolidate my knowledge of HR practices and continue to conduct a mixture of administrative and Business Partner tasks.

As part of my placement I have been involved the events team for the head office. The team arranges all social activities, running charity events and organising the end of year party. This is a great way to get to know people on a more social level. You are also given the opportunity to get involved with the HPE and HPI interns, including their charity events and their social nights.

Reading/Berkshire is relatively expensive, however there are a number of student houses available, where are generally a bit cheaper. I live with two other interns, which helps to bring the cost down. In the first month you have the opportunity to live in Reading University Halls at a discounted price, which really helps when looking for housing for the rest of the year.

The Reading nightlife is good, with a few clubs and bars in the town centre. There are also great connections into London.

There are a few company events to get involved in and there is an opportunity to get involved in all the HP intern events as well. During the handover period there a number of different social events, helping you to get to know all the other placement students, this include an annual intern ball with both new and old interns.