What's your job about?

Bunzl is a multinational Warehouse and Outsourcing company, and my work is within the HR Department.

Part of Bunzl’s growth strategy consists of acquiring different businesses, which is incredible in many ways, yet from an HR recruitment perspective, it presents a unique challenge, where Job descriptions could be inconsistent as it’s they have been written by different people. Most of my work so far has been working on an initiative to standardise the process of writing Position Descriptions, where I would look at the most needed roles in the business and work on having a Template for these roles.

An example would be a Receptionist Role, regardless of which location the receptionist work in, they tend to have similar responsibilities, so I would start by researching and looking for different receptionist roles, I would note any patterns or responsibilities that the different resources have in common, and I would start formulating a standard ‘Receptionist Position Description’ document. Once the document is finalised and reviewed, it becomes accessible to all Bunzl businesses and managers to use, whenever they would like to advertise for a receptionist job vacancy.

I think to put my job in its simplest terms, I read and research different resources, I understand them, I then utilise and summarise what I learnt to formulate a general template. I think anyone can do it, as long as they are open to learning, and have a genuine interest to understand the business and the different roles within it.

What's your background?

I grew up in multiple countries in the Middle East, as we used to move regularly due to my dad’s work. Looking back at it, I think the constant moving has strongly influenced my growing love for travelling and meeting new people.

In high school, It became apparent to me how much I liked both psychology and Business, and so Human Resources was a natural choice for me. I moved to Melbourne to start my degree and during my studies, I went as an exchange student to Canada. I then graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Business majoring in Human Resources.

I have been with Bunzl for around three months. I find the story of how I got this job quite interesting. After graduating, I naturally started applying for different Graduate Roles, and one company that stood out to me was Bunzl, its everyday impact on small and big businesses is truly admirable. However, as much as I loved the company’s vision, the graduate positions advertised at the time were mainly in sales, I was keen to try and learn different parts of the business, yet I still preferred human resources.

Nonetheless, I applied, the application process was truly a delight, the company was very responsive after each stage, and I admired how invested they were in the process ensuring that I was comfortable throughout. After the final stage, I was informed that I was not chosen as a sales graduate -no surprise there-, only to receive a phone call a week later, offering me a role to work in HR over the summer period! This has been an incredible surprise to me, and I genuinely think that this alone speaks volumes about the company’s culture, and how they care about the wellbeing of their people!  

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, I think so! In many jobs technical skills could be taught; it just depends on the attitude of the person learning it. I don’t think my job is different to that rule, so I genuinely think if someone is curious, willing to learn and challenge their way of thinking, they’ll do great!

What's the coolest thing about your job?

It's really difficult to only pick one, so I’ll summarise them in three points: The impact it has, the nature of the tasks, and the incredible support offered.

1. The impact: It's incredible to see how amazing this project is for the business and managers, and the time and effort it would save them.
2. Secondly, the nature of the task itself is unique, as it exposed me to almost all the departments in the business, e.g.: Finance, Sales, Operations, Logistics, Management, and more, and that was merely working on one project.
3. The third part is the support from my manager, where she is always happy to answer all my questions small and big, and she would take time out of her busy schedule to share some of her experiences and insights with me, I find that open communication invaluable.  

What are the limitations of your job?

I think something to be aware of is that many HR functions require a lot of administrative work, which means reading, writing, and editing documents. Naturally, the nature of these documents would change depending on their use, but that could be a limitation for someone that is looking for the constant thrill. Having said that, it also means that it could be quite flexible in the hours worked, and there is no need for weekend work.   

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

1. Go on a semester abroad, it’s the best thing you can ever do -and if you did it, then do more of it-!
2. Get involved with the social activities on campus, your best experiences would be from there!
3. You might have heard the advice ‘don’t worry about your grades too much and it is true in many ways, I’ll just add a small part to it, don’t worry about the grades too much, but use that time to enjoy and learn from your uni experience. Your lecturers and tutors, the students, are an invaluable resource, get to know them, ask them questions, engage with them, and you’ll be surprised by the things you learn!