Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

Regional HR Business Partner to OVO's Retail sales and Field Force engineer client groups, partnering closely with Heads of Department and their leadership teams, to deliver strategic and operational people interventions in order to enhance business performance.
● Delivering high-impact service, support and coaching to client groups to foster true engagement, both at management and employee level;
● Driving Field Force's ambitious growth plans (from 40, to 150+ engineers) by shaping the organisational structure and actively managing talent across the business;
● Working with, and coaching, managers to enhance their leadership capability and equip them with the right skills to lead their teams through growth and change;
● Managing performance proactively across client groups by upskilling leaders to identify and appropriately manage underperformance and high potentials across the business;
● Implement and drive the performance review process for Retail and Field Force, ensuring consistency of approach;
● Lead the implementation of people initiatives that drive high employee engagement and positively impact employee NPS scores;
● Employee Relations Lead for HR team, regularly attending external ER forums and proactively assessing the impact of ER changes to OVO and its policies.

I’m not sure there is a typical day in HR!
I usually start the day with a catch up with either the HR team or one of my client groups. I spend the day in meetings to move various projects forward (such as a new commission structure for our Retail team, or ensuring our compliance processes are sufficient for our engineers).
On top of that I will sometimes be out of the office at employment law seminars, ensuring that our policies and processes are as up to date as they can be. I then spend other time on the road visiting our Retail Ambassadors and Field Force engineers – busy-busy!

It sounds cliched, but it really is the people. When you’ve got a great team to work with it make every day interesting and enjoyable.

When you’re dealing with people, the job can be quite reactive. You can start out with a plan for your day and that could all change by 9:30!

The variety, the contact with people and the impact I can have on an employee’s experience of working for a company.

I’m working towards my CIPD but there’s also lots of other qualifications you can gain. Mostly these are in quite specialist areas of HR, such as: Reward, Training, Learning and Development, etc.

September 2016 - April 2016: GlaxoSmithKline: HR Future Leaders Programme.
May 2016 - Present: OVO Energy: Regional HR Business Partner.
Currently working towards my CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) qualification.

I’d love to continue progressing in my career and would like to see myself in a HR Director role in years to come. As I progress in my career I also want to make sure I continue to give back and mentor current students in order to help them make the right choices to start their careers on a positive note!

I’m working towards my CIPD at the moment. I also receive lots of training at work with courses such as: handling difficult conversations; cracking coaching; and managing your reputation.

Do not underestimate the importance of extracurricular activities during your time at University! They really make you stand out of the crowd and allow you to demonstrate additional skills and leadership qualities that employers want to see. If you’re looking to go into HR then a strong HR generalist foundation is incredibly important. After a couple of year in this type of role you can specialise (if you wish) or develop your generalist career to a more senior level. Take every opportunity you can to learn more about the function - it’s far more than what first meets the eye!

HR is an incredibly varied, enjoyable and challenging career choice - no day is ever the same.