This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
I really enjoyed my placement year and I feel it has been a really valuable part of my development. I have learnt so much and improved on my competencies greatly, which has allowed me to grow as a professional. My job role allowed me to liaise with different departments across the business which in turn has equipped me with good general knowledge of the business.
Everyone in the HR department is extremely friendly and approachable. They all welcome you to the team and treat you like a full time employee not just an undergraduate. All members of the team are open to answering your questions and support and guide you as much as possible. My work was valued by all and I feel like the team were grateful for my contributions. As well as full time employees, there is also a team of HR Undergraduates and Apprentices in the department. It's really nice to have a team of people in a similar situation to you as you can all support and help eachother.
Vauxhall have a performance review system which all undergraduates participate in. It involves setting goals at the beginning of your placement year and reviewing them in the middle and at the end of your placement year to see if you have achieved them. This was a great way to see how I was doing and what my manager thought of my work and effort. Every week I had one to one meetings with my manager to review current work assignments and discuss future tasks. These meetings were really good because it gave me the chance to ask my manager any questions I had and to get feedback on my daily tasks. Although these meetings only took place once a week, my manager was always available to answer any quieries I had on a day to day basis and if she was not available, I had a very supportive team around me who could help. As well as your manager and team, every undergraduate at Vauxhall is assigned a mentor who was outside of your department. This mentor is another source of support outside of your daily working enviornment.
The nature of my job role meant that the workload was not always consistent. There were slower periods and extremely busy periods. However, during slower periods, I asked for more work from my manager and over members of the team and I was always given something to do. This allowed me to develop my skills set further, as I got to be involved with other HR projects outside of my role. Further to this, our HR directors often set the HR Undergraduates projects to work on alongside their daily workload. Overall I was happy with my workload balance. The longer I was on placement the more my manager trusted my abilities and consequently she gave me more work at a harder difficulty level. My manager was very good at adapting the workload based on my ability and speed.
Any Undergraduate position in HR involves a lot of responsibility as you have to handle and work with confidential data. My role in particular had a lot of responsibility as it involved processing payroll transactions. I had access to the company payroll system and was trusted to process employee payroll transactions such as salary deductions, pay changes and terminations. Inputting payroll transactions was a big responsibility, as if they were not done correctly or on time, it would impact the pay of employees across the business. As well as this, I often had to manage whole projects independently. One example includes the Flu vaccination programme, which I ran independently for all of Vauxhall UK, start to finish. The amount of responsibility you get in this role depends on your working ability. If you work hard and prove yourself to your manager, then you will be giving more opportunities to work independently and allowed to use your initiative more.
My placement has really developed my soft transferable skills. Being in an office environment has allowed me to develop my professionalism, email and letter writing and people skills. Having a busy job role has allowed me to develop my organisation and time management and being in HR has really developed my communication ability. Overall, you can learn so much in this job role and you have the opportunity to communicate with lots of different stakeholders of the business. You definitely get out of this role what you put in.
The Company
The office environment in HR was generally quite quiet, but that was largely due to the fact that everyone was always so busy. Also as in HR we deal with private and confidential data, the office atmosphere could not be as laid back as some other departments. As expected, the atmosphere changed based on work load, so during busy periods it was very quiet and during slower periods it was louder and more energetic. However, although the office was quiet that did not mean that it was not relaxed. Everyone in the office was also open to answer questions and every member of the team was respectful of others, helpful and friendly. The office had the perfect balance and allowed you to successfully complete all your tasks without distraction.
The Vauxhall Undergraduate scheme has been running for 25 years, as a result it is a very well organised scheme. The managers who take on an Undergraduate, have more than likely had one before, so they know how to manage you and push you to develop and get the most out of your placement year. Before we started our placement year, we had a two day open day event. This event included a housing support meeting, which helped us to find houses for the year and number of tours and presentations, which welcomed us to the business. The first two weeks of our placement year was a handover period where the previous Undergraduates passed over their job role to the new Undergraduates. This was a very useful transition as you got taught the job role by someone who was of a similar age and who was in your exact position the previous year. Also during handover, there was a number of different work and social activities organised, which allowed us to get a good insight into Vauxhall as an organisation and permitted us to get to know our fellow Undergraduates. Throughout the placement year there has been regular feedback meetings where Undergraduates could get together and express any concerns they had about the scheme and the HR Undergraduate Programme representative was always available to talk to and confide in.
Throughout my time on placement I have attended a number of different training workshops. All Undergraduates received safe driver training, Excel training, graduate employability training and presentation skill training. Also specific to HR, all the Undergraduates received Interview training, which permitted us to help out in the new Undergraduate assessment centres. On top of this, all year we had access to an E-learning site, where we could enrol in different training courses and complete an online workshop.
Subsidised Canteen
Subsidised/Company Gym
Company Parties/Events
Staff Sales/Staff Shop
Unfortunately, Vauxhall do not have a large graduate scheme. As a result, they only take on a very small proportion of graduates every year. However, Vauxhall take their graduates from their Undergraduate population, therefore if you perform well you may be invited back to an assessment centre. Although Vauxhall do not have a large Graduate scheme, the skills that you learn during your placement year will extremely beneficial when applying for any graduate position.
The Culture
Vauxhall have around 75 Undergraduates and 50 apprentices working for them, so there is a good social scene. As there is so many of us, there is always a party or event going on.
Luton is not the liveliest of areas to live it, but it has a good enough bar and club scene for a night out and it is relatively cheap. The rent prices in Luton are reasonable and the area has lots of gyms, supermarkets and a good town centre of shops, so you have a choice of how much you send on food, clothes and fitness etc.
As mentioned, Luton does not have the best social scene, but its fine for a standard night out and as there is a big group of Undergraduates/Apprentices it is always a good night out. Luton is situated in a brilliant location as it is close to London, Watford and Milton Keynes. The train journey to any of these location is fast and cheap and all the areas have a good nightlife scene. Luton is also near Harpenden and St Albans, which both have lots of nice bars and restaurants which is perfect for a more chilled night out.
Vauxhall as an organisation are always promoting and running local events for employees to get involved in. Throughout the year Vauxhall has given Undergraduates the opportunity to participate in charity events such as the London to Brighton bike ride and the outdoor sleepover. As well as this, they are always promoting events such as theatre trips where Vauxhall arrange transport to and from work. Vauxhall also organise a regular charity quiz where you can get a team together and compete against over departments. There are a lot of opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work and these are regularly promoted by Vauxhalls communication department. It is up to you how much you take advantage of these offers.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
South East
May 2014