A Candidate Day In The Life of an HR Administrator

My name is Charlee, and I am the HR Administrator for the European Medical Journal. We travel across Europe to attend congresses and review the latest news and developments across 16 therapeutic areas.

I am based in our London, Moorgate branch but we also have an office based in Chelmsford, Essex.

08.30

I always like to start the day with a nice cup of tea, but immediately after I will send off the daily HR report. This is a report to the CEO outlining all booked annual leave and appointments for the day, any sick leave, lateness, and information on who may be traveling to Europe to attend Congress that day.

I manage a shared company calendar, and I will update this as well to make sure all departments are aware of who is in/out of the office – communication is key!

09.00

As the only HR Admin in the company, I process all HR forms. Annual Leave, Expense and Return to Work forms end up on my desk, and I will check them against our policies, authorise, process, file, and do whatever needs to be done.

As a growing business, we have a number of employees who have recently been made line managers – when they are unsure of how to proceed with certain procedures, I will advise them on HR best practice.

10.00

I try and devote some time each morning to any projects that I’m working on. These projects vary daily/weekly/monthly but are usually aimed at increasing employee engagement and satisfaction, with a special focus on personal development.

At the moment I am working on improvements to our on-boarding programme (e.g. introducing company merchandise, DITS with other departments [Day In The Shoes], welcome socials, and access to additional training).

11.00

As part of my internship, I created a company ‘Careers’ Facebook page. Since then, I have been aiming to update the page 3 times a week, working on documenting progress within the company and building our employer brand.

This means that throughout the week I will research relevant news stories in our field, photograph company events, interview employees about their role, and advertise current opportunities, all in the hope of attracting new talent to our growing team.

12.00

Lunch! An hour a day to catch up with colleagues in other departments and stretch our legs – maybe with a lap around St Paul’s or a sit down by the Roman ruins on a nice day.

13.00

Our focus this months is ‘employee engagement’. As part of this (and part of our long-term employee engagement plan), we have introduced OfficeVibe, a way for staff to voice any suggestions, praise or recommendations.

I am in charge of monitoring the comments, escalating them to the relevant managers/departments, and sending our prompt responses, letting staff know that we are taking their comments onboard.

14.00

A colleague and I recently planned and implemented the EMJ Mentorship Programme. Anyone who is interested in getting involved with the programme (either as a mentor or a mentee) will get in touch with us, and we will then match people based on their skills and what they are looking to gain from the programme.

Once matched, we mostly leave the pairs to it, but we check in and document all feedback to monitor progress and see where improvements can be made. It has been great to see the positive impact the programme has had so far, and I am currently collecting the data to present at our next quarterly planning session.

15.00

We are always recruiting for new roles. Towards the end of the day I assist our in-house Recruiter with the process by lead sourcing candidates from LinkedIn based on our criteria, monitoring our recruitment inbox, and occasionally sitting in on interviews.

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