Compensation and benefits advisor Review

Responsibility for employees core and flexible benefits. This could involve resolving employee complaints, implementing changes to benefit processes and reviewing market data to ensure the company are offering employees a competitive rewards package. I also manage the wellness program for the UK, organising online and in-office events focused on maintaining employee's physical, financial and emotional wellbeing.

I have certainly felt my ability to lead meetings has developed through being given responsibility over tasks, projects and programs. I am also now more comfortable presenting in calls and meetings to the rest of my team. Through the development of these two skills I have felt my confidence increase and I now feel more at ease when leading and/or presenting.

Most of the time I do enjoy the work and as I am continuously learning new skills and developing my knowledge it has made the apprenticeship an enjoyable experience. There is a great company culture at HPE and I am fortunate to be working in a great team where its easy to reach out for support.

My experience was a slight challenge when I first joined the company. As I joined after the majority of apprentices I had a regular employee introduction as supposed to an introduction to HPE with the other apprentices I found the experience a bit overwhelming having little work experience and knowledge of data storage/cloud services organisations. Some of the training hasn't been easy in my particular area either due to the lack of early careers/beginner level employees in my department. The company early career program is improving though, with more sessions being introduced to develop soft skills, knowledge of the organisation and maintain good wellbeing. My manager and team have always been a great support as well, with weekly catch-up calls and always being there more support when struggling with work, whether its a task I have little experience with or a too heavy workload.

My manager is a great support who frequently checks in with me on a weekly basis. If she's concerned that I'm stressed or struggling she actively reaches out. The rest of the team are really helpful as well and are always willing to provide support or offer guidance. The fact that it is a small team is my only issue, as when a couple of team members are on annual leave I can find it difficult getting help.

I have an advisor who checked in with me frequently and I was able to reach out to the tutors by email at any time or directly after class. They always provided a quick response and helped as much as they could. My advisor was also very accommodating and could fit in additional catch-up sessions if required.

A lot of what I learnt in the course I haven't been able to put into practice yet, as a lot of it involved other areas of HR whereas I'm based purely in Rewards. However, it gives me a great perspective of what HR role I might like to take on in the future. For Rewards, it gave me a great appreciation of the work I was doing and how my role supports the overall organisation objectives.

I take part in some social networking within the early careers team, which involves bi-weekly catch up calls where we can discuss anything inside or outside of work. It provides a great opportunity to meet other apprentices, interns or graduates who we would normally have little to none interaction with at work. I have also taken part at a voluntary initiative working at a local gardening plot for a homeless support charity. Other than that no other activities although I know the occasional event or volunteer activity does come about.

Yes

Great company culture where they try hard to make it an exciting and accommodating place to work. Employee wellbeing is always a number one priority within HPE. For early careers there is a great program now in place to ensure you settle comfortably within the organisation and feel supported always.

Show real enthusiasm for why you want the role at HPE and be prepared to work hard, as it can be a challenge balancing the work from your job with the coursework and studying required for your apprenticeship.