Business Reality
Students think HR is the department that processes them
They meet HR twice — at a placement drive and on joining — and generalise from that. An HR leader describes what the function actually owns: who gets hired, how performance is judged, why people leave, and what it costs the business when they do.
The function students meet at their worst moment for understanding it.
A student's entire experience of HR is being processed by it. From that, they conclude it is administration. The people who run it are making decisions about who a company hires, how it judges performance, what behaviour it tolerates and why its best people leave.
That is a business function with a cost attached to every mistake, and it employs a great many management graduates.
What HR actually owns
22 topics across 4 areas. Five parts of the job.
HiringHow hiring actually happens.6
- How a role gets opened
- Where candidates come from
- How interviews are structured
- Who actually decides
- How offers are made
- What makes a hire fail
Onboarding and Early PerformanceThe first ninety days, from the other side.5
- Employee documentation
- Setting expectations
- How new joiners are supported
- How early performance is judged
- What managers are asked to do
Performance and DevelopmentHow people are judged and grown.5
- Performance reviews
- Setting expectations and accountability
- Handling poor performance
- Developing managers
- Building leadership capacity
Culture, Conflict and RetentionThe part with the largest business cost.6
- Building workplace culture
- Managing conflict
- Why employee turnover rises
- Retaining good people
- What leaving actually costs the business
- Employee issues and how they are handled
Questions students get to ask
- What actually decides between two similar candidates?
- Why do good people leave?
- What does HR get blamed for unfairly?
- How do you handle a manager who is the problem?
- What does culture mean operationally?
- What do HR graduates misunderstand?
- What is the hardest conversation you have had?
How the session runs
An HR leader walks through a real hire from the request to the offer, and a real departure from the first warning sign to the exit. Students then work a short scenario — a team with rising turnover — and put questions to the practitioner.
What your students leave with
- What HR is actually responsible for inside a business
- How hiring decisions really get made
- How performance is judged and poor performance handled
- Why people leave, and what it costs
- Whether this is a career worth preparing for
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Students meet HR at the moment least likely to explain it.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.