Laura Stevens undertook her placement at Towers Watson. The outstanding contribution made by Laura during her placement, led her employer to nominate Laura for the best placement student in her cohort, which Laura won.

 Her employer commented: “Laura has created a legacy which will be used by subsequent members of my team for many years to come. Laura’s key contribution centred around her involvement in our strategy to offshore training administration support globally to our India Service Centre based in Delhi.”

“One of my main contributions to my placement was my attention to detail and thorough documentation. I created two comprehensive process guides for future HR employees, plus scheduled and administered over 70 Professional Development programmes. I also created a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation with detailed speaker notes as a training guide to support the off-shore movement of my role to Delhi. I have received very positive feedback from my line manager and the Delhi associates regarding how useful the PowerPoint slides have been towards learning in their new roles and my training materials now form the process bible for the new offshore operation.

My approach to learning is ‘knowledge is power’ and I learnt a huge amount on placement. I took a proactive approach to learning and my enthusiasm to take on new challenges was supported by my line manager; she believes in a hands-off management approach to encourage employee development.

Regular project requests from a demanding client group posed challenges for me as a single resource within Learning & Development. I applied my critical thinking skills and judgement to help assess the feasibility and potential impact of rapidly incoming work.

I demonstrated clear communication skills with my line manager and flexibility towards the changing needs of the business. In addition, I developed assertiveness skills as some push back and prioritisation was also required. My range of problem-solving skills has improved since commencing placement. My application of these skills has been highly beneficial towards managing the regular challenges that I faced within a small team.

There were also considerable time challenges working within a global company, for example, during my training with the Delhi associates I had to ensure a 1-day turnaround for test setting, briefing the team and marking each individual paper. I applied my organisational and time management skills, supported by my in-depth preparation on the project and ability to multi-task effectively.

My organisational skills and ability to prioritise my workload were instrumental in completing a high volume of tasks efficiently. My interpersonal skills were fundamental to working effectively within a global organisation (as the Training Administrator for EMEA). I was heavily relied on by the Global Learning & Development Consultant, managing and implementing a Personal Strengths project for 190+ associates.”

By Laura Stevens, BA (Hons) Business Studies with Human Resource Management

Originally posted on the Business School Blog