Human Resources Internship Report Thesis

Anh Ngo

Bachelor‘s / Master‘s Thesis

Degree Programme in BBA
2019
 Abstract

Date 22 August 2019

Author
Anh Ngo
Degree programme
International Business
Report/thesis title Number of pages and reference pages
Human Resources Internship Report 68 + 3
Thesis Internship Company: InterNations
GmbH
This is a Bachelor‘s thesis written as a report-based paper or diary-based
thesis. It de- scribes my internship activities and key reflections on what I
learned during a three-month internship (18 February 2019 – 17 May 2019)
at InterNations GmbH in Munich, Germany. I worked at InterNations GmbH as
a Human Resources intern. My responsibilities ranged from attracting
candidates to onboarding/off-boarding interns. Apart from interns‘ recruit-
ment and selection, I helped with preparation of on-site workshops, and
participated in interview round for full-time candidates.

This paper consists of four chapters. In the introduction chapter, I familiarize

readers with the diary-based thesis concept, explain why I chose this type of
thesis and introduce the company and internship descriptions. The second
chapter is theory on recruitment and selection. In this section, I explain the
importance of recruitment, selection and induction theories before going into
the details of recruitment and selection methods. To attract right candidates to
apply, the company needs to have suitable methods for recruitment and
selection. Then key activities will be discussed on a weekly basis through 13
weeks of internship in chapter three. Based on internship task report, I give my
reflections upon my tasks and give suggestions for development. I conclude my
personal insights of my learn- ing and suggestions for company improvement in
the last chapter.

During my internship, I learnt about recruitment and selection procedures, as

well as on- boarding and off-boarding employees. I had a chance to take part in
interview rounds and coordinate interviews with candidates. InterNations has
been doing recruitment proce- dures transparently and smoothly. They apply
suitable recruitment and selection methods for the company. An improvement
would be proper induction plan for new employees, with
a view to better integrating them into company‘s culture.
Keywords
Recruitment, Selection, Hiring, Interns, Internship
Table of contents

1 Introduction.................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Thesis Objectives.................................................................................... 1
1.2 Company Introduction............................................................................. 2
1.3 Internship Description.............................................................................3
2 Recruitment, Selection and Induction.............................................................5
2.1 Recruitment............................................................................................. 5
2.1.1 Definition of Recruitment...............................................................6
2.1.2 Recruitment Methods....................................................................6
2.1.3 Recruitment Channels on Social Media..........................................8
2.2 Selection................................................................................................ 12
2.2.1 Definition of Selection..................................................................12
2.2.2 Application Forms........................................................................12
2.2.3 Shortlisting................................................................................... 13
2.2.4 Shortlisting Methods....................................................................13
2.2.5 Most Popular Selection Methods..................................................18
2.2.6 Job Offer........................................................................................ 4
2.3 Induction................................................................................................. 4
2.3.1 Definition of Induction...................................................................4
2.3.2 Induction Methods.........................................................................5
3 Reflecting and Developing Work Through Diary Process................................6
3.1 Calendar Week 8, 2019...........................................................................6
3.1.1 Reporting on Work Activities.........................................................7
3.1.2 Reflecting and Developing Work..................................................13
3.2 Calendar Week 9, 2019.........................................................................15
3.2.1 Reporting on Work Activities.......................................................15
3.2.2 Reflecting and Developing Work..................................................20
3.3 Calendar Week 10, 2019.......................................................................21
3.3.1 Reporting on Work Activities.......................................................21
3.3.2 Reflecting and Developing Work..................................................24
3.4 Calendar Week 11, 2019.......................................................................25
3.4.1 Reporting on Work Activities.......................................................25
3.4.2 Reflecting and Developing Work..................................................26
3.5 Calendar Week 12, 2019.......................................................................27
3.5.1 Reporting on Work Activities.......................................................28
3.5.2 Reflecting and Developing Work..................................................29
3.6 Calendar Week 13, 2019.......................................................................30
 3.6.1 Reporting on Work Activities.......................................................30
3.6.2 Reflecting and Developing Work..................................................32
3.7 Calendar Week 14, 2019.......................................................................32
3.7.1 Reporting on Work Activities.......................................................32
3.7.2 Reflecting and Developing Work..................................................33
3.8 Calendar Week 15, 2019.......................................................................33
3.8.1 Reporting on Work Activities.......................................................33
3.8.2 Reflecting and Developing Work..................................................34
3.9 Calendar Week 16, 2019.......................................................................35
3.9.1 Reflecting and Developing Work..................................................36
3.10Calendar Week 17, 2019.......................................................................36
3.10.1...........................................................Reporting on Work Activities37
3.10.2.....................................................Reflecting and Developing Work39
3.11Calendar Week 18, 2019.......................................................................39
3.11.1...........................................................Reporting on Work Activities39
3.11.2.....................................................Reflecting and Developing Work41
3.12Calendar Week 19, 2019.......................................................................42
3.12.1...........................................................Reporting on Work Activities42
3.12.2.....................................................Reflecting and Developing Work43
3.13Calendar Week 20, 2019.......................................................................44
3.13.1...........................................................Reporting on Work Activities44
3.13.2.....................................................Reflecting and Developing Work45
4 Conclusion.................................................................................................... 47
4.1 Key Insights on Personal Development.................................................47
4.2 Key Insights on Company Development................................................48
References........................................................................................................ 50
 1 Introduction

In this chapter, thesis objectives and company introduction will be discussed to

give read- ers an understanding of diary-based thesis concept, reasons why I
chose to write my the- sis with this type. Moreover, the company introduction
and internship description will be demonstrated.

1.1 Thesis Objectives

The paper is written as a diary-based thesis, reflecting on my three-month

internship at InterNations GmbH in Munich, Germany. It describes my weekly
tasks and responsibili- ties. My tasks mainly included recruitment and
selection for interns to make sure InterNa- tions have a smooth circulation of
interns every half a year. Based on given task report, I give my personal
feedback and suggest changes to improve InterNations‘ recruitment and
selection process.

Diary-based thesis is a report to display progress of a task. It solely reports

activities to readers from an unbiased viewpoint. Based on the report of tasks,
the writer analyses key points and suggests improvements.

I chose diary-based thesis because it gives me freedom to speak out personal

thoughts and feedback, while other traditional research methods tend to seek
for facts and focus more on theories. Diary based thesis requires me to
observe and analyse to improve eve- ry activity during my internship. It also
allows me to concentrate on fulfilling internship tasks at work, without
worrying to carry out interviews and analyse data. Thanks to diary- based
thesis type, I could finish my internship with flying colours and learnt to the
full.

The thesis includes four chapters as followed:

- Introduction: this chapter includes introduction of diary-based thesis,
the company, and internship tasks
- Recruitment and Selection Theory: in this theory chapter, definitions of
recruitment and selection will be explained. After understanding the
concepts and the im- portance of theory from business viewpoint,
recruitment and selection methods are analyzed

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- Reflections and Developments Through Diary: Key activities will be
discussed on weekly basis. Then, based on internship tasks, I give my
reflections upon my tasks and give suggestions for development.
- Conclusion: through 13-week report, I summarize my personal
developments and developments for InterNations.

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 1.2 Company Introduction

InterNations is the biggest community founded in 2007 by Malte Zeeck, Philipp

von Plato, and Christian Leifeld for expats all around the world to connect and
exchange information. InterNations spreads its community in 420 countries
with 3,2 million members. People moving to foreign countries to live, study or
work certainly face difficulties in getting accus- tomed to new culture, new life
and new environment. To this end, InterNations was founded to become a
trusted platform where people from all walks of life can meet up and share
experiences, thus making lives in foreign countries much easier.

As the largest international community for people who live and work abroad,
InterNations of- fers global networking opportunities, local events and expat-
relevant information. At around 3,500 monthly events and activities, expats get
to meet fellow internationals in their city, while forums and destination guides
provide valuable tips and information. (InterNations 2018.)

In 2016, InterNations launched a mobile app for members to keep in touch and
register for upcoming events. At the end of the year 2016, InterNations
employed 110 employees with 2,4 million registered members, along with 1
500 000 attendees at official events and ac- tivities. (InterNations 2018.)
Expats from different communities on the flatform can con- nect with one
another in events and share expat-related information.

InterNations has a flat hierarchy where managers and interns sit in the same
room, which makes communication run smoothly and efficiently. The company
has a clear organiza- tional structure and divide responsibilities among
employees. Therefore, I, as a HR intern, have specific tasks and particular
expectations I need to pursue.

There are two offices: one in Munich, Germany and the other in Porto, Portugal.
InterNa- tions sets their head quarter in Munich, Germany. Munich office
includes technical de- partment, HR, Content and Communications, and
Business Solutions department. In Por- to office, staff deals with relocation
services for expats.

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Apart from full time workers in charge of manager positions, the company
operates vastly on interns. InterNations offers a myriad of internship positions
for students to experience hands-on work and fulfil work placement credits
from their home university. This on one hand helps students gain hands-on
experiences at an actual work place and at the same

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time brings new cultures and nationalities for the company because
InterNations takes pride in their vast diversity of nationalities in the company.

Internships are offered only for students who are required to complete
mandatory intern- ships within their curriculum for at least six months.
Internations recruits interns in various departments such as Social Media,
Public Relations, Business Solutions (Sales), Online Marketing and Community
Support. Department description and number of interns in spe- cific teams will
be explained in-depth in the chapter three (Reflecting and Developing Work
Through Diary Process). Interns play a crucial part in company success
because they actually share tasks with full-time employees and take
ownership of work quality. For example, Business Solutions (Sales) interns are
responsible for contacting enterprises and persuading them into InterNations‘s
customers. Moreover, Public Relations interns write the company‘s press
releases and contact the press. Therefore, interns act as the company contact
point with customers. Interns are the company‘s ambassadors who rep- resent
and sell the company.

Interns at InterNations get financial compensation monthly of 400 EUROS. It is

believed that unpaid internships are ―unbeneficial‖ and ―exploitative‖
because students devote time and energy into the work without being
compensated with anything (NACE 2016). Moreo- ver, unpaid internships may
send out misleading message that interns‘ jobs are not as important as others,
thus not worth being rewarded (Workable 2017).

1.3 Internship Description

I worked at InterNations as a Human Resources intern for three months (18

February 2019 – 17 May 2019). Candidates applying for this Human
Resources internship or any internship at InterNations should fulfil the
following requirements:
- Are Bachelor‘s or master‘s students who are enrolled during the entire
internship period
- Have to complete mandatory internships
- Have experience with MS-Office and Internet applications
- Are fascinate to learn Web 2.0 applications
- Have good social skills and reliability
- Possess good organization and calm
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 traits (InterNations 2018.)

Moreover, Human Resources intern specifically need to:

- sustain ongoing correspondence with applicants through all stages of the
recruitment pro- cess

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- schedule and coordinate interviews and calls
- create overviews of candidates for the purpose of recruitment planning
- maintain job portals for the purpose of intern recruiting
- post recruitment advertisements on various portals
- stay in continual contact with partners and universities
- prepare onboarding plans for new team members
- prepare off-boarding documents for leaving
interns (InterNations 2018.)

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 2 Recruitment, Selection and Induction

Recruitment and selection process flow will be presented in this chapter. Gómez-
Mejía, Balkin & Cardi (2012, 200) suggested ―getting and keeping the best
not only makes sense in terms of treatment of employees as customers of the
management process, but it also makes economic sense‖. Unmotivated,
unqualified employees will lead to poor work per- formance, thus affecting the
whole organization in the long term. That is to say, wise re- cruitment and
selection decisions are of great necessities. (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi,
2012, 200.)

Not only recruitment and selection are crucial for the company success, but
induction phase also plays an essential role in associating new employees with
new workplace. In induction, or so called socialization, newbies are shown
where things are placed, who to ask when needed, how everything is
processed in the company, so as to help them work more efficiently later on.
Another purpose of induction is that new employees have a chance to learn
more about companies‘ mission, vision, health and safety, and general
matters. In the induction phase, companies and new hires have an opportunity
to sit down exchanging expectations from both sides, for instance what
companies expect them to do and what expectations new employees cherish
to pursue while working at the firm. (Derek, Laura, Stephen & Carol 2011,
216.) Leaving new hires uncared after selection will result in them being
discouraged and leaving the company. Socialization plays a neces- sary role in
embracing company‘s culture in new comers and reducing ―the risk of
change‖ (Bernard & Stanley 2013, 273.)

2.1 Recruitment

Recruitment acts as a communicational bridge between companies and

people. It in- volves finding consensus and generating trust and
relationship between one another, which eventually results to selection.
(Belton 2014, 12.)

The following list is an overview of included subchapters under recruitment:

- Definition of Recruitment: here I break down recruitment definition
- Recruitment Methods: this section will only include popular methods

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 that work for InterNations specifically such as internal recruiting,
employees‘ referrals, online re- cruitment and recruiting through
colleges and internships
- Job posting channels: job posting channels will cover only social media
channels that InterNations heavily relies on when posting job ads.
Other job posting chan-

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 nels or methods like newspapers advertisements, customers and agency
recruit- ment are still effectively working for different companies.

2.1.1 Definition of Recruitment

Recruitment is defined as a process in which companies create job vacancies for

specific positions in order to select appropriate candidates. This includes
establishing job posts on different websites and appealing candidates who are
qualified and suitable to apply for the positions. (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi
2012, 194.)

2.1.2 Recruitment Methods

Recruitment methods are of great importance to companies because suitable

recruitment methods result in right applicants and vice versa.

The following are methods to help recruitment successful. Companies often use a
combi- nation of different methods, rather than relying on one. This list of
methods includes inter- nal recruiting, employees‘ referrals, college/internship
recruitment, and online recruitment. Under each category, definition,
advantages and disadvantages of the method are ex- plained thoroughly.

Internal Recruiting

Internal recruiting means companies hire current employees from one

department for an- other. With internal recruiting, companies have a chance to
save a large amount of money in recruitment agencies and job
advertisements. A job vacancy can be mentioned in staff channel or in
company newsletter. (Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson 2008, 49.) Moreover,
organizations give their employees opportunities to climb up the ladder, thus
stimulating their passion for better work performance and professional career
develop- ment. (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi 2012, 202; Torrington, Hall,
Taylor & Atkinson 2008, 50.)

Giving preference to internal recruits, particularly for promotions, has the

great ad- vantage of providing existing employees with an incentive to
work hard, demonstrate their commitment and stay with the organisation
when they might otherwise consider looking for alternative employment.
The practice sends a strong signal from man- agement that existing

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employees are valued and that attractive career development
opportunities are available to them. Failing to recruit internally may thus
serve to put off good candidates with potential from applying for the more
junior positions in an organization.‖ (Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson
2011, 161.)

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Another advantage is that existing employees already have ground knowledge
of compa- ny culture and policies, thus taking much less time to adapt to new
working environment and less effort in induction (SHRM 2008; Dessler 2017,
173; Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson 2008, 49). For vacant positions that
are hard to recruit, internal recruiting ap- pears to be advantageous because
companies can retain talents. Study by CIPD 2017 proved that internal
recruitment was a good choice in the event that vacant positions lack
appropriate applicants. SHRM also indicated that higher-level jobs will be filled
easier with promotion (SHRM 2008).

Then again, this kind of recruiting automatically opens up a new position which
needs filling in. Moreover, limited number of people applying for the positions
may cause trouble. Even though good enough people are employed, best fit
candidates are not taken into consideration. (Torrington, Hall, Taylor &
Atkinson 2011, 162; Beardwell & Claydon 2007, 196; Torrington, Hall, Taylor &
Atkinson 2008, 50.) What‘s more, companies lose its chance of adopting new
ideas and creativity which only benefits from new comers rather than existing
employees (SHRM 2008).

Recruiting internally is an effective and efficient way that InterNations has

been applying. In order to keep employees within the company, InterNations
offers them positions in dif- ferent departments so that they have a sense of
challenge and personal development.

Employees’ Referrals

Employees‘ referrals mean that companies recruit new people through

recommendation of current employees. It was studied that people hired via
employees‘ referrals tend to work at the company for longer period of time
and express better loyalty than those hired by different methods. Referrals
from current employees work so well because they al- ready have a sense of
how it is like to work at certain organization. Therefore, people they refer to
will most likely share similar characteristics that organizations are looking for,
thus staying longer at the job. (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi 2012, 202.)

Conversely, there are certain downsides towards this kind of recruitment.

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Recruiting new employees through word-of-mouth seems to create
discrimination and lack of diversity of workplace (SHRM 2008).

Recruiting through colleges/internships

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Companies have a chance of recruiting suitable, potential employees from
college stu- dents. Students are the ones constantly seeking for job
opportunities. Therefore, it is time saving and wise to turn to schools for future
hires. (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi 2012, 204.)

Another way to enter a large pool of job seekers is via career fairs at colleges
and univer- sities. Making companies available and open for new talents
suggests students to apply for the company. Besides, recruiters can even
scan CVs on the spot to look for potentials and attract more people by giving
all benefits of working at the organization (Pritchard 2006, 60.)

Furthermore, offering internships to students also counts as a way of filling

vacant posi- tions. Training interns will probably benefits companies in the
long run since after gradua- tion, they have a higher chance of coming back to
internship companies to work full-time. (Pollitt 2007, 8.) By this, companies
have got a trial period of interns‘ work performance before offering permanent
job offer. (SHRM 2008).

Online Recruitment

Online Recruitment means that companies recruit via online channels.

Corporates can post job vacancies economically on different websites such as
Monster, LinkedIn, Top Jobs, Net Jobs, etc. and on social media in order to find
suitable candidates with little money spent. Online recruitment has been
recently utilized for cost-free effective recruit- ment method. (Torrignton,
Hall,Taylor & Atkinson 2011, 168; Pilbeam & Corbridge 2006, 154.) Employers
can view applicants‘ job application details online and CV can be at- tached to
the application email. Thus the application process is converted electronically.
(Pilbeam & Corbridge 2006, 154; Pilbeam & Corbridge 2010, 168.)

Recruiting via social media, companies have an upper hand on checking

candidates‘ backgrounds online, thus giving a pre-idea of their personalities
and living styles. In this sense, organizations shorten their recruitment
process. (Forbes 2018.)

2.1.3 Recruitment Channels on Social Media

Posting job vacancies on social media means building a social relationship with
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your po- tential candidates by engaging them with topics the companies are
discussing about.
Once they get connected with your employer brand, they will turn into your
applicants. (Belton 2014, 12.)

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Print and radio advertisements could be used for recruiting. However, as
technology ad- vances and most candidates are available on social media.
Also, speaking from InterNa- tions‘s viewpoint, candidates engage better to job
ads on social media. Therefore, job advertisements on social media, career
sites work more effectively. Social media include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
LinkedIn and any other kinds of media that companies are active on. Walters
(2012, 4) showed that employers and job seekers has come to consen- sus on
LinkedIn as a professional site to look for jobs and research about companies
and applicants meanwhile Twitter and Facebook serve a more personal
purpose.

Companies use their company website as a career portal, apart from other
social media channels (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi 2012, 203). The following
table (Table 1) explains reasons for candidates to check companies‘ social
media when applying for a job. Though the majority of job seekers look for
company culture and information on their social media, there are a rising
number of job seekers who visit companies‘ social media to look for ca- reer
opportunities (54.1%). (Table 1)

Table 1. Reasons for checking companies‘ social media when applying for a job
(Walters, 2012, 4)

Although Table 1 indicates that a large percentage of candidates turn into

applicants via social media, table 2 below which is a survey about effective
attraction methods carried out by CIPD in 2017 demonstrates that job
advertising on companies‘ websites is more efficient. CIPD 2017 presented
that job advertising on companies‘ own website accounts for nearly three
fourths of all respondents (74%), followed by professional networking sites
such as LinkedIn (60%) in all sectors. It turned out to be quite of a surprise
that even though social media has been the hub where job seekers turn to

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when looking for jobs, social networking sites like Facebook held not even
nearly to half of all respondents (40%). (Table 2)

Table 2. Effective attraction methods, by sector (% by respondents) (CIPD 2017)

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Job advertisements should include company name and brief introduction, job
title and main responsibilities, required competencies, salary, benefits,
application method, oppor- tunities and possible challenges and statement of
essential matters like opportunity equal- ity. (Foot & Hook 2011, 176).

Company name and swift introduction of what the company is and what kind
of benefits it can bring as an employer play an important role since people
need to know which organi- zation they are applying for. Good employer
branding can become a strong selling factor. (Foot & Hook 2011, 176.)

Job title and main responsibilities are necessary to mention in job

advertisements so that candidates have a brief idea of what the job involves.
(Foot & Hook 2011, 176.)

Companies need to include required competencies because they act as a pre-

selection phase. Based on competencies the job requests, candidates can
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determine whether they are a good fit for the position or not. Thus,
mentioning skill requirement in good detail

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benefits hiring process tremendously in term of cost efficiency and time
management. (Foot & Hook 2011, 177.)

Opportunities and challenges can be included to give candidates a head-up of

what the position requires. For instance, the job involves traveling to different
regions, which may become a hindrance for some people. In other cases, the
job appears to be more attrac- tive if the job brings opportunity to achieve
something or a challenge to overcome. (Foot & Hook 2011, 177.)

Application method is especially emphasized so that people know who and

how to sign up for the position. Different organizations have distinct ways for
job application such as con- tacting specific person, sending email with
application form and CV, and showing up for a certain interview event. (Foot &
Hook 2011, 178.)

In job advertisements, it is of great importance to underline how beneficial to

work at par- ticular companies and what core value the company acts on.
―Recruitment is your oppor- tunity to highlight what your organization has to
offer. What is your brand as an employer? Has your company been recognized
for being a positive place in which to work?‖. (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi
2012, 202.)

Research by Insight series revealed that job advertising quality had a major
influence on whether job seekers would apply for the role or not (Insight series
2012). The research findings are displayed in Table 3 below. Almost all
respondents stated that job description (99%) was the most influencing factor
while viewing job advertisements, followed by sala- ry/benefits and company
description (98% and 92% consecutively). (Table 3.)

Table 3. ―Factors influencing job seekers when viewing job adverts‖ (Walters 2012, 3)

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 2.2 Selection

After posting job vacancies and attracting applicants, suitable selection

methods cannot be left out. Based on certain nature of the jobs, companies
decide appropriate selection methods. This chapter includes definition of
selection, application forms, application screening, selection methods and job
offer. Details of each section will be presented in- depth under each category.

There are many steps calculated in selection process. When applications land
in talent pool, shortlisting or application screening begins. Different methods
of shortlisting will be presented below. Only mostly used shortlisting methods
are explained as they work better at InterNations. Then, there comes job offer
section. After evaluation tests and a couple of interview rounds, InterNations
are ready to make final offer to suitable candidates.

2.2.1 Definition of Selection

Selection is a procedure in which employers decide to employ or not employ

any appli- cants. This decision can be made based on candidates‘ test result,
interview performance and based on analysing their characteristics against job
requirement. This decision can be made based on candidates‘ test result,
interview performance and based on analysing their characteristics against job
requirement. (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi 2012, 194.)

2.2.2 Application Forms

Companies also use application forms as a tool for candidate assessment.

Application forms scan candidates‘ applications to elect applicants with
suitable work experiences, background, and education. They ensure that
applicants pass the minimum job require- ments. (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi
2012, 209.)

Depending on the length and difficulty of application forms companies give out
determines the number of application returns. In the markets where labour is
in shortage, too lengthy or difficult application forms will deter applicants to fill
in their submission. (Pilbeam & Cor- bridge 2006, 177.)

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Application forms should be well-structured and carefully designed so that
they avoid sen- sitive issues. For instance, application forms are designed to
be age neutral and mention issues such as data protection, proper assistance
for disadvantaged people, equality and diversity management and some other
legal matters. (Foot & Hook 2011, 182.)

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InterNations collect applications via application forms online which are concise
and fo- cused. Application forms consists of personal information such as
name, email address and phone number. Candidates are able to attach CVs
and relevant documents like refer- ence letters and cover letters in the
application forms. Online applications land on InterNa- tions‘s talent pool
which will be presented extensively in the chapter Reflecting and De- veloping
Work Through Diary Process.

2.2.3 Shortlisting

Once application forms land in companies‘ talent pools, companies start

screening or shortlisting applications. Shortlisting appears to be challenging in
the event of a large pool of applicants or too small number of applicants. There
are three approaches to shortlist a pile of applications.
The first way requires HR managers to sort out applications themselves and
pick out a few best candidates, then discuss with one another to come to
agreement. They need to decide on which criteria more important than
others, then score applicants‘ CV and appli- cation forms based on those
criteria. (Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson 2011, 174.) The second
approach refers to hiring a scoring system ―as advocated by Roberts (1997)
and Wood and Payne (1998)‖ (Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson 2011, 174).
The third one suggests making use of software system to shortlist candidates.
When peo- ple apply online, companies‘ systems will automatically scan key
words in their application forms. This kind of approach turns to be of great
significance in the event that application forms contain multiple choice
questions instead of open ended ones, where criteria are precisely defined.
(Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson 2011, 174.)

2.2.4 Shortlisting Methods

Different types of tests are as well applied to evaluate candidates, such as

cognitive ability test, physical tests, personality tests, honesty tests and so
forth. Under each method, def- inition and purposes of the method will be
discussed. The list below will not present every selection method but only
focuses on the ones which work for InterNations. Of course companies use
various tests to evaluate suitability of candidates such as personality tests,
honest tests, drug tests and so on. However, attainment tests and ability tests
are effi- ciently used along with interviews at InterNations.
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Cognitive ability tests

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Cognitive ability tests are the tests that aim at determining one‘s capability
on particular field based on job requirements. These tests‘ purpose is to
assess candidates based on job-specific tasks. For instance, people applying
for IT position have to pass a math test. These tests aim at testing mental
capabilities of candidates and evaluating how well can- didates perform
specific job requirements. (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi 2012, 209.)

Attainment tests

Attainment tests are the tests to check what candidates already have
knowledge on. To illustrate, in some companies, interviewers ask their
applicants to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and present in the interview.
(Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson 2011, 191.)

Interviews
As far as it is concerned, interviews are the most common tool to assess
applicants. There are different types of interviews like individual interviews,
panel interviews and group interviews. The following individual interview is
called structured interview. Struc- tured interviews are concentrated on job
requirements and job analysis so that interview- ers assess job abilities of
candidates instead of picking up on personal questions. (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin
& Cardi 2012, 211.)

A structured interview which is directly built on job study should be carried out
in order to determine best suitable candidates. In structured interview, three
types of questions are typically applied:
- ―Situational questions‖: candidates must answer to specific work
related situations given by interviewers (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi
2012, 213).
- :Job knowledge questions‖: determine whether candidates have
a ground knowhow of the job (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi
2012, 213).
- ―Worker requirements questions‖: evaluate whether candidates are
willing enough to fulfil tasks under general job environments. (Gómez-
Mejía, Balkin & Cardi, 213).

Structured interview helps interviewers to follow a consistent track, thus

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assessing candi- dates more accurately (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin & Cardi, 213).
Sometimes interview ques- tions range from structured to unstructured ones
which allow candidates to express their minds freely and interviewers hold
little control. The combination between these two kinds of questions should
balance well so that testers take control over the interview questions while
give interviewees certain freedom to speak their minds (Bratton & Gold 2007,
258). There are some topics which interviewers should not mention in the
interview such as children related questions, age, mental or physical
incapability, height/weight, maiden

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names, citizenship, criminal records, smoking, and HIV positive. (Gómez-Mejía,
Balkin & Cardi, 213).

The number of interview stages applicants think is appropriate for selection is

presented in the figure below. According to Robert Walters‘ research survey,
the majority of job seek- ers expect companies to implement ideally two
interviews (64%). More than one fourth of all respondents stated three
interview rounds were reasonable before a job offer (28%). (Figure 1)

Figure 1. Number of interview stages job seekers think is reasonable for an

employer to undertake (Robert 2012)

Having said that, number of interview rounds also depend on how much
information and how well candidates exchange their experiences with
recruiters. Table 4 below presents factors that influences job interviews. From
job seekers‘ viewpoints, receiving enough in- formation about the role plays a
tremendously important role in the interview (81%) while the most imperative
factor according to employers is the opportunity to explain experience
properly (86%). (Table 4)

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Table 4. Factors influencing in job interviews (by % of respondents) (Robert 2012)

Interviews can be carried out in form of one-on-one, panel or in groups. In the

event of one-on-one interviews, one interviewee will be questioned by one
interviewer. This type of interviews appears to be less stressful for candidates.
However, it raises the controversy whether the decision given by one
interviewer is valid and unbiased enough. Therefore, companies adopt panel
interviews where one interviewee is interviewed by several mem- bers of
recruitment team. In this sense, the decision made by a collective of people
rather than one person in charge; however, it can be an oppressive factor
from candidate‘s viewpoint. (Pilbeam & Corbridge 2006, 181.) Panel interviews
are also applied at InterNa- tions to gain more insights of interviewers over
candidates. More often, two hiring manag- ers interview candidates and
decide together.

More often, to save time and maximize the chance of choosing best fit
candidate, compa- nies apply group interviews in which contestants together
perform a task and based on it employers evaluate their ability in teamwork,
leadership, confidence, sociability and com- petitiveness. Group interviews are
suitably used in situation that companies have a large number of applicants
but such short period of time to select people. Interviewees express their
anxiety, stress over this type of interview since they have to on one hand show
their worth to employers and at the same time compete with fellow applicants,
which more or less affect their performance in the interview. (Pilbeam &
Corbridge 2006, 181.)

Telephone interviewing

Telephone interviewing are often used by companies in the occasion they

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need to speed up the selection process and interviewing in person takes too
much time and geograph- ically inconvenient. (Torrington, Hall, Taylor &
Atkinson 2011, 185). Phone interviewing should be well structured and fairly
monitored like face-to-face interview. It is supposed to evaluate candidates,
not simply a chat on the phone. (Foot & Hook 2011, 199.) More of-

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ten, this appears to be the phase before interview-in-person. From candidates‘
point of view, phone interviewing seems intimidating since they do not have
experiences with those. (Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson 2011, 185.)
Recruiters ask about applicants‘ background, experiences, and job
qualifications to measure whether they are a right fit for the job or not.

Telephone interviewing is not applied at InterNations. However, on the

occasion of poor internet connection or Skype disconnection, interviews are
conducted by phone.

Group methods

Group methods cannot be left out when considering selection methods.

Studies indicate that group methods are effective to measure one‘s ability to
get along with others, com- municate well, make an impact on others‘ work,
analyse things in a logical way, determine their roles in group work, and apply
their past experiences in solving new issues. While those tests mentioned
above assess a candidate individually, group tests can assess them
collectively. Based on situation given out for the group, each group has
different scenarios and solve problems in different ways. Each aspirant needs
to expose them- selves in a way that can best express their abilities as well as
work in harmony with oth- ers. (Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson 2011, 193.)

Recommendation letters

Letters of recommendation are considered to be a tool of selection. They are

written by previous employers. Companies often use recommendation letters
to look back on candi- dates‘ former employment record as a proof to predict
future success. Recommendation letters tends to speak out on behalf of
applicants who they are, what personalities they possess and how their work
performance in previous experience. They act as a plus point in candidates‘
applications, which helps employers to select applicants easier. (Gómez- Mejía,
Balkin & Cardi 2012, 209.)

Work sampling/portfolios

Work samples or work portfolios are pieces of work which represent

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candidates‘ capabili- ties. Work sampling or portfolios can be accepted as a
selection tool, especially for job positions in art and photography. Employers
expect interviewees hand over their portfolios during interviews. It goes
without saying that people polish their portfolios with a view to having higher
chance of getting hired. (Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson 2011, 195.) For

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example, when InterNations hires for Public Relations position, hiring
managers want to look at candidates‘ writing samples to evaluate written
communication skills.

Assessment centres

Assessment centres are one of selection methods in which they assess

aspirants‘ abilities collectively combing different selection methods.
Companies can conduct assessment centres in-house or outsource them. All
the recruitment and selection methods listed above can be implemented at
assessment centres. Based on job requirements and a col- lection of
competencies listed, assessment centres evaluate potential job seekers‘ capa-
bilities. Companies establish a matrix as to display the connection between
required ap- propriateness and practical activities. Assessors are necessary for
such assessment cen- tres to work sufficiently. They evaluate contestants
closely and then give a consensus on singular applicant‘s scores from which
chosen candidates are picked. (Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson 2011, 194.)
In order for this method to work out, applicant specification should be outlined
clearly and selection techniques match well with job competencies and
assessment process. (Rashmi 2010, 147.)

2.2.5 Most Popular Selection Methods

CIPD, 2017 carried out two surveys with results displayed below. Figure 2
below shows that competency-based interviews have been used the most to
select candidates with the percentage of 78%. Application form/CV based
interviews come second in the list with 74%. (Figure 2) Research showed that
the result in 2017 shared similar pattern with pre- vious years‘ results with two
types of interviews took the majority of percentages, followed by specific skill
tests and general ability tests. (Table 5) Accounting for more than 50% is
specific skill tests (53%). In 2017, study showed that tools to enable self-
selection, gamifi- cation, and analytical algorithms to match people to roles
were not popular as selection methods, contributing 6% all together. (Figure 2
& Table 5)

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Figure 2. Methods used to select applicants (%) (CIPD 2017)

Table 5. Selection method, by survey year (% by respondents) (CIPD 2017)

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Glassdoor survey (2015,12) studied that nowadays job applicants have to go
through more job screenings than before since employers want to guarantee
that they hire best fit candidates for their vacancies. Throughout selection
process, they combine different methods together such as interviews and
tests to have a thorough assessment.

According to Glassdoor research on US market (2015), one-on-one interviews

scored the most percentage and maintained its popularity throughout a four-
year period (2010- 2014), followed by phone interviewing which took more
than half of the percentage. Back- ground check and different kinds of tests
namely personality test, ability test, drug test have become more prominent
through time. (Figure 3)

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Figure 3. Popularity of different selection methods practiced by employers
(Glassdoor 2015 with permission)

Economists analyze the selection methods patterns that companies want to

pick out best suitable candidates for the positions meanwhile also have the
urge to fill vacant positions as quickly as possible to cover losses caused by
unfilled positions. Thus, interviewing appears to be the most effective way to
achieve their goals. (Glassdoor 2015, 13.)

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2.2.6 Job Offer

HR department will handle job offers with chosen candidates via phone, email
or directly in person. Candidates will have a chance to discuss and negotiate
salaries and benefits to come up with mutual consensus. Candidates will be
given a deadline when they need to get back to the company with their
decision. (SHRM 2008.)

Those candidates who didn‘t get chosen should also receive a proper rejection
for them not to feel left out of the recruitment process. Also it is vital for
companies to show their professionalism in rejection letter by not hurting
them verbally and communicating well about appropriate time for rejections.
(Rashmi 2010, 136.)

Contracts at InterNations are compiled in both English and German as

InterNations is a German company. In the contracts, contractual issues and
clauses such as position and place of work; work period; salary; vacation days;
sick leave days; termination terms; trav- el and other expenses; working
hours; confidentiality; side activities; and company securi- ty. At the end of
any contracts, signatures of both parties are signed.

2.3 Induction

After being selected, induction cannot be left out in the procedure. In this
subchapter, def- inition of induction and induction methods will be discussed.
Under definition of induction, a brief introduction of Onboarding and
Orientation, and distinction between induction and the other two terms are
drawn to give readers an understanding of all three defini- tions.

2.3.1 Definition of Induction

―Employee induction is the act of installing a new employee into a position

within an or- ganization. It can refer to anything from a ten-minute ―welcome
abroad‖ speech to a three- day training programme.‖ (El-Shamy 2003, 3.)

Induction can be used as orientation with the same meaning. However,

orientation refers to more job-oriented and to making sure new employees are

4
capable of performing the job well. Orientation is a short activity to help new
employees to know more about the compa- ny and the job.

5
Induction can take a few days to a few weeks depending on how companies
decide on the length. Meanwhile, on-boarding begins much earlier before
employee joins the company and lasts longer than induction. Onboarding
occurs during recruitment and selection pro- cess. (Derek, Laura, Stephen &
Carol 2011, 216.)

2.3.2 Induction Methods

In new employees‘ induction, there includes a few following things:

- Introduction to the company, its mission, vision, organizational
structure and guid- ing principles.
- Greetings from colleagues
- Job description and performance expectation
- Safety practices and security introduction
- IT introduction and cyber security
- Meeting other department colleagues
- Lunch with the team
- Necessary contact details
- A buddy to shadow work for new person
- The company‘s tool introduction
- Regular team meetings
(O‘Meara & Petzall, 2013,
271.)

Each company carries out induction differently and there are more activities
added in in- duction session. However, the list above consists of induction
activities that InterNations covers. These activities are implemented on the
first day of new employees. Some are done with department team and
supervisor. Some are carried out by HR team such as IT introduction and
safety practices.

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3 Reflecting and Developing Work Through Diary Process

This chapter focuses on reporting weekly activities I performed during my

internship. It consists of 13-week report (18 February 2019 – 17 May 2019).
After listing key activities on weekly basis, I will give personal thoughts and
suggestions to develop InterNations‘s recruitment process.

My main task that covers throughout my internship was checking emails and
Personio for candidates‘ updates and messages. Personio introduction is
mentioned below under cal- endar week eight. Personio talent pool contains all
open job vacancies. Since my role on Personio was HR Responsible; thus, I was
only able to view internship positions, not full- time positions. There were at
least five internship vacancies open on Personio in depart- ments: Online
Marketing, Public Relations, Human Resources, Social Media, Community
Support and Business Solutions. Steps of recruitment for each department will
be listed below. I started my work day by checking Outlook email, going to
Personio to reply to candidates‘ messages. If applicants were qualified, I
moved them to the next bucket in the talent pool, scheduled written
evaluation tests, scheduled interviews and also sent intern- ship offer email to
them.

Details of each department recruitment and recruitment procedures are

explained through diary weeks below. My first two weeks (calendar week 8
and 9) were induction weeks where I got shadowed and supervised by the
former HR intern. From the third week on (calendar week 10), I was on my own
to perform tasks. In this diary report, I only pick the most important thing of
each week to explain. I will not go into detail of Personio‘s posi- tions and
candidates‘ message reply as it was my every day work routine.

A few things which are covered in this diary report include interns‘ projects,
training ses- sions, on-site workshops, candidates‘ interviews, the company‘s
meetings and Happy Helper.

3.1 Calendar Week 8, 2019

During my first week of internship, I was introduced to InterNations‘s tools,

necessary documents and interns‘ recruitment process. The recruitment

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process involves screening candidates in talent portal, evaluation written tests
and interview setup.

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3.1.1 Reporting on Work Activities

My internship started on 18 February 2019 at 9:00 (German time). Every

Monday morn- ing, the whole company has breakfast together in a conference
room. The purpose of the weekly breakfast is to get to know other colleagues
better and introduce new full-time em- ployees or new interns. As new
employees always start on a Monday of the month, they have a chance to
know their colleagues before jumping into work. The same applies for interns.
It is nice to be greeted by fellow interns when joining InterNations.

After breakfast, I headed to Human Resources (HR) office to get my computer

set up and sign some paper work with HR Team Lead. The HR Team Lead
explained about company security rules, and scanned my insurance and
passport for monthly wages.
For my first two weeks of internship, the previous HR intern handed tasks
over to me. I had introduction of Confluence — company‘s notice board,
Jira — project management tool and Personio – HR tool to manage
employees. Details of the handover are presented below under different
categories.

Department introduction

Departments which have interns consist of Human Resources, Social Media,

Public Rela- tions, Editorial Office, Online Marketing, Business Solutions, and
Community Support.
Public Relations, Editorial Office and Social Media belong to a bigger
department called Content and Communications.

Editorial Office team takes care of reviewing articles, edit articles according to
InterNa- tions‘s guidelines, write articles on InterNations‘s platforms and grade
all candidates‘ writ- ten tests. Editorial Office team includes two managers and
one intern.

Public Relations (PR) team is in charge of writing press releases, carrying out
annual sur- veys, contacting the press and posting articles on Confluence
page. This team has one Senior PR Manager and four PR interns.

Social Media (SM) cares for all social media channels of InterNations such as
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Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. There are only two members in
this team: one Senior Social Media Manager and one SM intern. They also
write articles on InterNations‘s plat- form, help with creating employer
branding videos and create video contents.

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―Online Marketing Department is responsible for attracting new members
from around the world via desktop and mobile campaigns on the main paid
online marketing channels (e.g. Facebook, SEA, Display) as well as through
organic traffic (e.g. SEO).‖ (InterNations 2018.) Online Marketing team has one
Senior Manager and one intern.

―Business Solutions is our newly founded business division that is developing

B2B tools to offer our core product to corporate clients. This will enable them
to help their expat em- ployees settle in better and faster in their new host
location‖ (InterNations 2018.)

Community Support (CS) team checks requests on InterNations‘s platform and

keeps platform clean and healthy against spams and misused purposes. They
also help users with their problems like forgotten passwords or a bug on the
site. (InterNations 2018.) Community Support belongs to Community
Management team which deals with more users-related issues like payment
and membership cancelation. Community Support team has one Team Lead,
three full-time managers and three interns.

Recruitment process

Recruitment procedures were covered during induction week. InterNations is

proud of concise and transparent intern recruitment and selection process.
The following is flowchart of InterNations recruitment process. (Figure 4)

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Figure 4. InterNations‘ recruitment steps (InterNations 2018)

When applications land in Personio — InterNations‘ HR tool to keep track of

candidates and employees, InterNations needs to contact applicants within 2
weeks. In the occasion that candidates‘ applications land in InterNations‘
email, HR interns forward their CV and their email address to Personio email
(internations-jobs(at)m.personio.de). HR managers will process and move
them to Personio page.

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Since internships at InterNations are all mandatory internships, it is required to
ask for university attendance paper to confirm that students and need to fulfil
mandatory intern- ships for at least 6 months.

If candidates are studying at German universities regardless of their

nationality, their at- tendance papers from universities are enough to confirm
their status. Students at other universities will need to provide a certificate
which states that this is mandatory internship certificate for at least 6 months.
The certificate needs to be signed and stamped by their university.

A complete application includes CV, cover letter and mandatory internship

certificate. In the occasion that any of these documents is missing,
InterNations cannot proceed with their applications.

After assuring their studying status, CVs and cover letters should be taken into
considera- tion. Since the main language at work is English, all candidates
need to pursue proficiency in English in order to perform daily tasks. By
looking at their CVs and cover letters, the company decides which candidates
are qualified enough to carry on. Internship positions such as Public Relations
or Social Media require higher proficiency in English, if not native speakers,
due to their work nature to write professional articles, and press releases.
Online Marketing job mainly involves researching data and monitor ads‘ and
campaigns‘ performance by analyzing the relevant data and KPIs; thus,
applicants need to have soft- ware skills.

After confirming their internship requirement matches, candidates‘ availability

was checked to see whether their time matches company‘s need. If all criteria
match, written tests are scheduled.

Written tests

Once applicants are shortlisted to proceed, InterNations uses role specific

written tests as selection method.

Different positions require different kinds of tests. All tests can be completed
virtually at candidates‘ comfortable environments and be sent back on time.

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Online Marketing intern positions include managing numbers and campaigns
on Face- book and Display for InterNations‘ ads to appear on specifically
targeted groups. There-

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fore, Online Marketing test is an Excel test to evaluate candidates‘ analytical
skills. Mean- while, tests for other departments are written tests to evaluate
written communication skills.

Public Relations and Social Media intern positions require to fulfil 2 tests: one
is the Eng- lish test and the other is role-specific test. English tests are sent to
evaluate candidates‘ English skills. When candidates pass English tests, they
will complete the second test.
The nature of Public Relations and Social Media jobs is to write press release
and articles, the second test evaluates their job-related written communication
skills.

HR intern sends test invitation to candidates with suggested time and date.
Once candi- dates confirm test date, HR intern adds test reminder to Personio
calendar which is linked to Outlook calendar and will be reminded. The test
reminder includes HR manager and Senior HR Manager so that they can send
the tests in case HR intern is absent.

The first writing task applicants need to complete is English test, also called
Important Decision. English test applies to Social Media, Public Relations and
Community Support. Except for Online Marketing which has an excel test
evaluated by Online Marketing man- ager, the rest of written tests are
evaluated by Editorial Office team.

Once HR intern receives the test back from candidates, HR intern creates a Jira
ticket for Editorial Office team. Then Head of Content and Communications
Department, will assign person to grade tests. Usually, tests are graded by
Senior Editorial Office Manager. Tests are graded from 1 to 5 in spelling,
grammar and style in which 1 is excellent and 5 is un- satisfactory. HR intern
uploads the test on InterNations Jira as a word document, and re- moves
candidates‘ names. The file‘ name should include department where the test is
for and date when candidates complete them. Once HR intern creates a Jira
ticket, the per- son should add two HR managers as watchers.

When Editorial Office team has graded tests, HR intern downloads the test,
saves it with candidate‘s name and department and uploads graded test back
on Personio as a pdf file. If the tests come out above 3 (acceptable), HR intern

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requests review from department managers to look at that candidates‘ tests
and schedules interviews. Hiring managers of those departments will review
applicants‘ profiles and test results to decide whether they want to interview
those applicants or not. The following table (Table 6) indicates grading table
for interns at InterNations (InterNations 2018).

Table 6. Candidate grading chart (InterNations 2018)

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Min. Grade Requirement Spell Grammar Style

MR 3.0 3.0 3.0

Changemakers 2.0 3.0 3.0

HR 2.0 2.5 2.0

EO 1.5 2.5 2.0

PR 1.5 2.5 2.0

SM 1.5 2.5 2.0

OM 2.0 3.5 3.5

BI 3.5 3.0 3.0

Interviews

Once hiring managers review candidates‘ tests and want to proceed with their
applica- tions, HR intern schedules Skype interviews for candidates and adds
hiring managers in interview reminder on Personio.

Before setting up the interview, HR intern sends interview invitation to

candidates with Team Factsheet as attachment. The Team Factsheet
document includes information about InterNations‘s mission and vision; team
setup and work culture. When setting up interview on Personio, hiring
managers and HR managers are included in the interview reminder.

Department hiring managers are responsible for adding candidates on Skype

and write feedback for HR department once the interview is done.

Internship Offer

Hiring managers are happy with candidates and want to offer them internship
offer, HR intern sends out email to inform candidates of their interview result,
along with manuals for new comers as attachment. The Manuals include
German cultures and norms; living in Germany; finding accommodation;

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transportation; and festivals in Germany.

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Senior Human Resources Manager sends out contracts to interns, along with
newcomer information which candidates fill out and send back to HR
department. Newcomer Infor- mation document consists of new interns‘
personal details, bank accounts, and emergen- cy contacts.

In the occasion that the candidate pauses on the offer, recruitment for the
position is still open for other candidates. If the hiring manager is happy with
another candidate, first candidate will be given a deadline to sign the contract.
Otherwise, the offer goes to the second chosen one.

Induction

Once job contract is signed, candidates will be moved to induction phase. The
company will prepare for their induction by assisting with internship working
visa, providing travel discounts, confirming Erasmus grants.

3.1.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

The idea of Monday breakfast is helpful and beneficial as staff from different
departments can meet and catch up. Also, interns bond better after weekly
breakfast as they know more about each other‘s interests and personalities.
As an HR intern, I felt the responsibil- ity to take care of new interns.
Therefore, I made sure interns show up in the breakfast to greet newbies. On
my first day at work, I was integrated well into company‘s work culture thanks
to Monday breakfast. This nice and friendly culture should be maintained
through HR interns especially. However, more often, Monday breakfast turned
into interns‘ break- fast as full-time employees only came to pick up pastries.
This results negatively into the company‘s culture in a way that employees
become distant from one department to an- other. This is the small activity to
bond within the company that staff needs to spend 30 minutes of their
morning to say ―hi‖ to their colleagues. Moreover, not attending Monday
breakfast affects negatively on new employees joining the company as they
show up in an empty breakfast and do not feel welcomed by fellow colleagues.
As an improvement, In- terNations should make it compulsory for employees
to attend Monday breakfast – a small act of bonding.

Admin session with HR Team Lead went effectively and smoothly as she
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explained to me the importance of a secure password and raised my
awareness of cyber security. I had a friendly encounter with her and nice
greetings from the rest of HR team. As a result, I un-

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derstood the essence of creating a strong password for my computer and thus
protecting the company‘s cyber security. Admin session is implemented on
the first day of new em- ployees. Therefore, new employees have a chance to
meet HR team, get introduced to the company‘s system and the team. During
admin session, HR Team Lead explains next steps new employees should do if
they move to Germany from another country. HR Team Lead raised the crucial
part of address registration in order to get tax card and gets new employees‘
acquainted with German culture and German system of charging tax. New
employees, including me, feel warm welcome from her and get aware of
administrative work.

What InterNations has been doing great is two week handover from old interns
to new ones. There interns can be more responsible for what they learn and
practice teaching skills when shadowing new interns. This way, managers will
not have divided attention from their regular tasks and add things up on their
plates. When I started my direct super- visor was on vacation. Therefore, I got
taught by previous HR intern, who is an experi- enced person in HR field
already. I wrote down process of recruitment and selection, from what to do if
applications do not land on tracking pipeline to how to reply to candidates in
an appropriate way. It was a large amount of information at hand to digest.
Having said that, I felt that two week handover was such a lengthy time as I
learnt quickly in the first week. Orientation weeks should be shortened to a
week.

InterNations has been doing a great job in keeping recruitment efficient and
transparent. Maximum waiting time for processing applications is two weeks
while in other companies, process can take months. Communication among
departments is efficient. As a result, I have no suggestions regarding
InterNations‘s recruitment procedures.

I got introduced briefly about company structure, tools, and recruitment

process. It would be more effective if there were any hand-outs or written
documents to check upon. It took me a long while to sort out my notes and
organize them in order not to miss out any steps. Another issue I faced was a
lack of necessary documents as everything stayed in the computer of previous
intern. I could not get accessed to those documents till the last day she left.
Confluence is the internal noticeboard where all documents and updates are

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1
kept. I failed to realize the importance of Confluence and how to search for
suitable doc- uments there. As an improvement, leaving interns should well
inform new interns of the importance of Confluence and actually spend time
researching and reading Confluence.

With regards to written tests, I had trouble remembering which department

needs which tests as there are so many tests. When sending out emails of
tests, I needed to remember

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2
adding correct time for the tests and test requirements. To memorize this
better, I created a Word document writing down each department test and
time.

3.2 Calendar Week 9, 2019

This week was my second week of orientation. Job posting channels, on-
boarding docu- ments and procedures were introduced to me. In on-boarding
procedures, as a HR intern, I took care of interns‘ university papers, sent
emails informing their internship schedules and helped them with visa
application if needed.

3.2.1 Reporting on Work Activities

Job posting

Job posting and all recruiting channels were handed over to me. InterNations
officially advertises their job vacancies on the website. XING, the biggest job
seeking tool, is the umbrella company of InterNations. Therefore, InterNations
also posts job vacancies on XING.

Moreover, the company also reaches out to different universities in Germany

as well as in European countries. InterNations puts together a list of
universities to contact and post job offers.

Since InterNations runs based on memberships and events, it is recommended

to post job vacancies on university portals free of charge. Some universities
prefer to be contacted by emails for job vacancies while others allow
companies to post their internship offers direct- ly on their website.

InterNations manages all applications via Personio which is a user-friendly and

fast pro- cessing HR tool. Personio is used for not only keeping track of
candidates‘ applications and messages, but also for keeping employees‘ files
and updates. Employees can re- quest sick leave or remote work on Personio
by themselves. Requests are granted by the supervisors.

If candidates apply on InterNations‘ website, their profile will land

automatically on Per- sonio. If candidates apply via universities‘ portals, their
applications will land in internship email of InterNations. Those applications will
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3
be moved to Personio in order to be pro- ceeded. I was advised not to reply to
candidates via email, only on Personio, with the aim of keeping track of full
conversations.

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Recruitment process in flowchart

The whole process to recruit candidates is complicated and involves small

steps. There- fore, one of the previous HR interns visualized interns‘
recruitment process with flowchart. (Figure 5 and Figure 6)

Figure 5. Interns‘ recruitment procedures at InterNations (1)

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Figure 6. InterNations Recruiting Mindmap (2)

Visa application process

ZAV application process was presented. ZAV which stands for Zentrale
Auslands- und Fachvermittlung is a work permit for students who are
required to complete mandatory internships in Germany.

For Non-EU citizens, InterNations helps candidates with visa application. In

order for HR intern to apply for ZAV, candidates need to provide formal
obligation paper which states that salary from InterNations is not enough and
candidates should have a secure financial source.

Non-EU citizens need to have ZAV paper which legalizes working in Germany.
ZAV will be applied by InterNations and takes roughly a month to come.

ZAV application includes formal obligation, passport scan, and certificate of

enrollment, internship plan which supervisors will fill out, ZAV application form
and university recogni- tion by Anabin. Anabin is a German system which
consists of all German-recognized uni- versities in the world.
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Team introduction

Before candidates start their internships, they are for a short introduction, T-
short size and their picture in order to post on internal InterNations page —
Confluence. Introductions and pictures can be forwarded to HR Manager to
post on Confluence and T-shirt size to Feel Good Manager who is in charge of
ordering employees‘ shirts and welcome packag- es.

First day at InterNations

‗First day‘ emails are sent to candidates a few days before they start their
internship via Career email address which is managed by the whole HR team
(ca- reer(at)internations.org). In the email, personal schedule, MVG paper and
InterNations direction are attached.

Last days at InterNations

A week before interns leave, ‗last days‘ emails are sent via career email
address. In the email, deregistration and registration paper are attached. HR
intern makes sure to change recipients‘ names and the length of Albatross
membership offer. If interns stay up to 6 months, InterNations offers 6 months
free membership. If interns stay more than 9 months, the company offers 12-
month membership.

Newcomers’ Day

Newcomers‘ Day is to introduce new team members to the company, including

both full time employees and interns. Newcomers‘ Day is usually set up a
month in advance by HR intern.

Due to different sessions hosted by different managers, it is necessary to

follow strictly the timeline scheduled for each session. The following list is
Newcomers‘ Day timeline:
9-9:30: Team breakfast at
Lodge 9:30-10:00: Office
tour

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10:00-11:00: Meet the Co-CEO
11:00-11:30: Confluence Intro
11:30-11:45: Break
11:45-13:00: Brand and Style Guide

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13:00-14:00: Lunch
14:00-15:00: Portal Tour
15:00-15:45: Working at
InterNations 15:45-16:00: Break
16:00-17:00: Guiding Principles
17:00-17:45: IT Intro

For each session in Newcomers‘ Day, Outlook calendar reminders are created,
adding all involved people and informing them of participant list. In Outlook
calendar reminder, con- ference room for each session is booked and included.

Welcome guide

On interns‘ second day, a ‗welcome guide‘ email is sent from Career email
address. HR intern should remember to change new comers‘ names. In case
there is more than 1 newcomer, the email‘s recipient can be internship email
and add all new comers‘ emails in
―Bcc‖ so that they will not see each other. After sending the email, HR intern
update in onboarding checklist.

IT setup and Admin session

IT setup is to create new interns‘ accounts and get them familiarized with the
computer. Admin session is carried out by HR Team Lead to sign contracts in
person, scan pass- ports and insurance for monthly wages, sign InterNations‘s
security regulations.

Calendar reminders for the two sessions are set up by HR intern at the same
time as making interns‘ personal schedules. HR Team Lead and IT team are
added to the re- minders. Usually new interns have their computers and seats
ready when they start. Only for HR interns, new intern needs to use laptop for
first two weeks until previous intern leaves.

Photoshoot day for new comers

New interns get their pictures taken on the first Wednesday of the month,
after Newcom- ers‘ Day. There are two pictures taken: one picture is formal,

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meant for public uses; an- other is polaroid picture which is used to hang up in
the office hallway. Each intern has 3 minutes for one picture. Videographer is
the one taking photos and editing them.

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Two conference rooms are booked for the photoshoot. Calendar reminders are
created for the videographer and HR managers to keep them up-to-date.

3.2.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

Instructions to post job ads were clear. There is a list of Excel sheet consisting
of all uni- versity partners and websites to post job vacancies. The list is
detailed and well-informed of universities‘ names, contact person, link to post
ads. InterNations has a good system with colour coded list to distinguish
internship channels and full-time job ads. However, the list itself seems
lengthy to scroll through and also confusing to identify sometimes. Not to
mention, in case the person who is in charge of posting was colour blind, this
list would not make sense. Therefore, I sorted all internship channels to a new
tab under the same file and named it ―Internship universities partners‖ and
separated other colour-coded channels for full-time job offers. This helped to
focus solely on internship sites without messing up with full time channels.
Next to each university, I added notes to keep HR team updated with
universities I posted job ads. On the occasion of failure to post job ads on
certain universities, notes helped to remind for next time posting ads.

Although there are a good number of university partners to post job ads, only a
few certain universities from which candidates apply. There is a pattern of
more popular universities which generate more successful applicants. As a
result, I focused on posting job ads on those universities, rather than going
through the list. I also updated job ads more often on universities in the United
Kingdom to look for Public Relations or Social Media interns as interns in these
departments needed to have a good level of English to fulfil the job. There is
one university in London which InterNations keeps personal contact with for a
large pool of adequate students. Students at this university are mostly English;
thus, their English levels are sufficient. I found it convenient and efficient to
contact this university directly when we needed to fill an internship fast.

Recruiting mindmap that one of previous interns made was concise and
compacted. It might help to visualize the whole process. Bracket of test list
plays a beneficial role in re- membering names of tests and departments. It
includes all abbreviations for each de- partment, which helps new interns to
remember internship offers for each department.

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Although the mindmap is nicely created and in such detail, I found it hard to
interpret all information presented. For development, I created a word
documents with details of each steps and how to correspond to all possible
situations. The word document was more word-based and detailed so that HR
interns would visualize them as they read.

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InterNations communicates actively with both candidates and accepted
employees to help them with visa process and accommodation search. ―First
day‖ and ―last days‖ emails from InterNations are well-informed and helpful
for newbies to get more information of how their first days will be and also for
leaving team members to be aware of deregistra- tion. The only trouble I
faced when preparing for ―first day‖ email was to prepare personal schedule.
Personal schedules mainly rely on department supervisors to plan and fill in
with dates and time. Without supervisors‘ inputs, I could not send out First day
email and complete personal schedules. With some specific supervisors such
as Public Relations and Social Media, communication and efficiency were swift
and smooth. They got back with final personal schedules after a few days.
However, for some others like Community Support, it took longer to get
personal schedules. Therefore, after a few weeks of familiar- izing with
structure and people, I learnt to send personal schedules to supervisors two
weeks in advance and remind them after a week. Constant communication
was the key to make productivity and perform my job well.

When preparing for Newcomers‘ Day and Photoshoot day, recipient list always
changed. Every time small details needed to be changed, reminder email on
Outlook calendar au- tomatically sent to all recipients again. It caused a lot of
confusion because people re- ceived many emails at once, especially if
information on email title did not align with in- formation presented in email
body. What I created to minimize sending out multiple emails and improving
precision of email reminder was to book conference rooms a month in ad-
vance to ensure there would be a room for Newcomers‘ Day. Two weeks
before New- comers‘ Day, I added recipients, body text and sent out. This
helped me significantly to improve productivity and erase confusion.

3.3 Calendar Week 10, 2019

In this week, I prepared reference letters and leadership certificates for a

leaving intern. I prepared documents for Team Meeting and Management
Board Meeting.

3.3.1 Reporting on Work Activities

Reference letters

Once interns have finished their internship, reference letters are prepared by
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HR intern with feedback input from interns‘ supervisors. An email is sent to
supervisors along with evaluation form and list of task previous intern
performs. The date in the reference letter should be the end date of their
internship. Evaluation list is an Excel list of criteria to as- sess interns‘
performances on. The list is evaluated from excellent, good to satisfactory

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and poor. Supervisors of the interns need to tick on the right column.
InterNations uses templates for evaluation. There are different texts
suitable for ―excellent‖, ―good‘ and
―poor‖ performance. Even if interns‘ performances were poor, it would not
be allowed to use negative words in reference letters according to German
law.

One PR intern was leaving at the end of the week; thus, I prepared her
reference letter based on her supervisor‘s evaluation on her performance.

Leadership certificate

Interns host any interns‘ project will get a leadership certificate at the end of
their intern- ship. The certificate is prepared by HR intern. The certificate
includes intern‘s full name, month of the project the intern leads, signatures
of both CEOs (Malte and Philip).

As the leaving PR intern led an interns‘ project, I needed to prepare her a

leadership cer- tificate as well.

Interns’ projects

Interns work together on a project every month. Topics of projects are

suggested by full time employees. Interns have meetings to discuss about the
project every Tuesday after- noon. When I joined, the current project was to
come up with quizzes for Social Media about Expat Insider, one of the world‘s
largest and most comprehensive surveys on life abroad. I created the meeting
reminder on calendar, added all interns and supervisors as recipients and
conference room. The reason to add supervisors in reminder email is to inform
them of their interns‘ activities. I also was charge of keeping track of
attendance and added attendance list on Confluence – internal portal –
under the correct project.

Team Meeting and Management Board Meeting

Every Wednesday of the month, the company has staff meeting for two hours
in the morn- ing. Team Meeting is set up by Malte – InterNations‘ CEO. In the

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meeting, CEO and Heads of each department present their department
updates and company news. Also new employees and interns have a chance
to introduce themselves to the whole employ- ees. Porto team joins the
company meeting as well so that everyone is on the same page of what
happens to each department and what will happen next.

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A few days before Team Meeting, Management Board has a meeting to go
through com- pany‘s news and align with management decision before
announcing them to staff in Team Meeting.

I needed to prepare PowerPoint slides for MBM (Management Board Meeting)

and Team meeting. PowerPoint slides should follow InterNations‘s guidelines
and formats. I was in charge of adding HR news into PowerPoint slides,
informing of leaving members, new team members and joining team
members. Each section follows certain styles and anima- tions. Blocks for
leaving team members should appear on the slide at the same time and be
arranged in ascending order of time. New team members and joining
members can be divided into different segments if there are so many.
Segments are divided as Community Core, Business Solutions and
InterNations Go!. InterNations Go is the name of Porto team. It is important to
always make sure that the person‘s face is visible and easy to rec- ognize in
the picture.

Training sessions for interns

Interns get interns‘ dedicated training session every month. Intern training
sessions hap- pen every third Thursday afternoon of the month. Hosts of
interns‘ training sessions are full-time employees working at InterNations.
Topics are decided by hosts. Training ses- sion on the same topic can be
implemented again once every 6 months to a year. Interns can also suggest
topics that benefit their professional development and work life. I created
reminder email on Outlook for interns, supervisors and the trainer. In the email
body, I informed interns of the trainer and the topic. If any trainers had specific
requirements or pre-training preparations for interns, I would include them in
the email message as well.
After creating email reminder, I updated on Confluence about date of training
session, topic and training host.

I prepared topics for training sessions a month prior to implementing dates. I

sent email to potential host for the following month to ask if they have time to
facilitate interns‘ training session. It usually took me a couple of trials until
someone agreed to host as everyone was busy with their regular tasks.

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Feedback talk

InterNations is proud of their feedback culture. Feedback talks are carried out
by interns‘ supervisors and interns. Interns have two feedback talks with their
supervisors: one in the middle of their internship; the other at the end of their
internship when they are about to

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finish. Middle-term feedback talk is to get to know intern‘s performance and
opinions. In case supervisors are not happy with specific things, feedback talk
is a chance to tell in- terns and vice versa. If interns want to have
improvement on particular subjects, they can bring the topic up during
feedback talk. Feedback talk is to find mutual voice in perfor- mance standards
and personal opinions. If mid-term feedback talks aim at improving per-
formance, final term feedback talks focus on reviewing performance and
future sugges- tions. This is time for supervisors to tell interns their
impressions on interns‘ performances over internship period. Interns can also
give feedback to supervisors on areas of devel- opments which they think
necessary and important for InterNations. Of course interns cannot benefit
much from final feedback talks but they can make an impact on future in- tern
generations.

There are two forms interns fill out before each feedback talk: one form about
personal findings and suggestions; the other for evaluating leadership skills of
the supervisors. In the first form, interns fill out personal developments
through internship and areas they want to change or improve on. These areas
will be discussed during feedback talks with supervisors.

I set calendar reminders for supervisors to schedule feedback talks with their
interns. Feedback talk reminder is only meant for supervisors to remember
scheduling a date. In the reminder, I added my HR supervisor so that she was
informed.

3.3.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

Team Meeting and Management Board meeting occur once every month. I had
to prepare PowerPoint slides for each meeting separately. Team meeting is
informed to all employ- ees around a month in advance. However,
Management Board Meeting does not have a specific date. I was a bit passive
to wait for the CEO to inform me of MBM date and create slides. More often,
the CEO informed me a few hours before the meeting took place. I had to
move my schedules and prioritize MBM slide preparation. I learnt to give
myself an ap- proximate date that MBM occurs and prepare slides a month in
advance. When the CEO asked, I only needed to double check if everything
was displayed in right formats, and correct.

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I found feedback talk culture at InterNations helpful as it showed supervisors
care for in- terns‘ performance and personal development. Feedback talks
serve both interns and supervisors well. If supervisors need interns to change
or improve on something specific, they can bring it up during feedback talk
and vice versa. If interns want to particularly im-

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prove something, feedback talk is a chance to speak up. I found my feedback
talk useful because I could take over more tasks as I requested my supervisor.

Projects for interns are nice to implement and helpful for interns from different
cultural backgrounds to work together and solve problems together. With
appropriate supervision and leadership, projects can be implemented
successfully and generate positive out- comes. However, I felt like meetings
were excuse for interns to hang out and small talk. We discussed the topic for
first ten minutes of an hour meeting and spent the rest of the time talking.
Moreover, I joined in the middle of a project; therefore, there was not much
for me to do as the project was coming to an end. Although I was briefed
about the project topic before the meeting, I did not feel integrated into it. I
did not understand the topic well enough to contribute ideas. Adding to that, I
was new to the interns‘ group, so everyone was curious of my personal
backgrounds and stories. As a result, I got carried away in conversations and
forgot about the project. Furthermore, project‘s leader was talking sim-
ultaneously with misleading conversation the rest of the team had. Therefore,
no one lis- tened to what the leader had to present and project‘s outcome was
not successful. To improve this issue, I believe it was responsibility of project‘s
leader to pull team members back on track by acting firm and calling out on
bad examples.

3.4 Calendar Week 11, 2019

I participated Newcomers‘ Day, prepared departmental exchange session and

posted job ad for Community Support Working Student position.

3.4.1 Reporting on Work Activities

I had a Newcomers‘ introduction day on Monday, 4 March where I got

introduced to com- pany‘s guidelines, tools and had a chance to meet the CEO.
09:00 – 09:30 Team Breakfast (Lodge)
09:30 – 10:00 Office Tour
10:00 – 11:00 Meet the Founder, Co-CEO (Malte –
Lodge) 11:00 – 11:30Confluence Intro (Franziska –
Albatross) 11:30 – 11:45 Break
11:45 – 13:00 Brand & Style Guide (Lenore –
Albatross) 13:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
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14:00 – 15:00 Portal Tour (Nichelle & Samantha –
Albatross) 15:00 – 15:45 Working at InterNations (Ira & Sarah –
Albatross) 15:45 – 16:00 Break

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16:00 – 17:00 Guiding Principles (Daniela & Dani / Miriam &
Laurabel – Lodge)
17:00 – 17:45 IT Intro (Lars – Albatross)

Every Tuesday of the week, interns have interns‘ meetings to work on a

project together. Projects vary monthly and full-time employees usually pick
topics for next projects. The purpose of interns‘ projects is to get interns work
together as a team. It is nice to have a project to work on besides day-to-day
tasks. The current project was to come up with ide- as of how to appreciate
and acknowledge team members' efforts more and foster an ap- preciative
culture at InterNations. The topic was given by HR Team Lead and lasts for a
month. In every project, one intern volunteers or is picked to be project leader.

On Wednesday, I had a cross-departmental exchange session which is held

every Wednesday of the month and hosted by one department. During
department exchange session, an intern or interns introduce their department
to other interns and explain their daily tasks and responsibilities. This month‘s
session was hosted by Public Relations.
There are four interns in the team. Therefore, they are allowed to host one
session to- gether.

One Customer Service working student was about to graduate; thus, could not
continue working as a working student. I needed to find a replacement for him.
I opened job offer on our website and posted job ad on different pages such as
on university channels, XING, and Smart Recruiters. Smart Recruiters is the
most effective channel and most candidates apply from Smart Recruiters.
However, applications from Smart Recruiters have mixed qualities: some are
good and qualified candidates, some are totally out of consideration. When
candidates apply on Smart Recruiters, applications land in Internship email
which needs to be transferred to Personio.

One intern in Public Relations is finishing her internship at the end of the
month. Thus, I sent email to ask her supervisor to evaluate her. From
supervisor‘s evaluation, I put words together and printed out reference letter.

3.4.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

Newcomers‘ Day is a plus point for InterNations. It helps new employees

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understand more about the company structure, company‘s guiding principles
and communication standard. This is also a chance for the CEO to personally
meet new employees and get to know them individually. From my viewpoint,
Newcomer‘s Day is well structured and informative.

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It takes full 8 hours but employees get well informed. As I joined in the middle
of the month, I had to start working before my Newcomers‖ Day. Therefore, I
was a bit lost for the first week as I did not know about how appropriate I
emailed candidates or which text format to use. As for improvement, I
suggest to carry out a mini Newcomer‘s Day to get employees who start in
the middle of the month to get familiarized and informed.
InterNations takes pride in developing a good circulation of interns and
coming up with interns‘ projects to help interns develop individually and
professionally. However, interns‘ meetings were poorly conducted and hardly
saw any results. Meetings were set up for interns to come and have a chat
with one another.

My suggestion to this issue is that project facilitator should come by meetings

once in a while to check on progress so that interns do not feel neglected by
full-time employees. Also, project leader should take control and lead the
project. Interns divided in groups to have personal chats. Therefore, assigning
tasks individually will help them feel responsi- ble and involved in the project.

As a daily routine, I checked my emails and checked Personio for candidates‘

emails. I replied to all emails before moving on new tasks. I generated my own
routine to fit with my schedule. I was mainly in charge of interns‘ recruitment,
so I had to ensure smooth com- munication with candidates and secure a new
intern when one was leaving. Each position had its own difficulty when
recruiting. For instance, Community Support interns need to qualify specific
requirements before evaluating written communication skills. Most of the time,
candidates applied to job portal were either graduates or did not meet
requirements. I had trouble maintaining a stable candidate flow as not a single
suitable candidate ap- plied. To overcome this problem, I tried to post job ads
on social media, especially on in- ternational pages that I knew would attract
attention. I posted Community Support Intern- ship on a Facebook page for
Vietnamese students in Finland as I knew for a fact, all most all bachelors‘
students needed to complete mandatory internships. As they studied in Fin-
land, the process would not be lengthy to go through. I also personally
contacted some close university partners to ask them push notifications of
Community Support internship. As a result, three candidates qualified to take
the internship. I not only maintained good flow of candidates, but also found 3
new interns to replace existing ones.

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 3.5 Calendar Week 12, 2019

I prepared training session, attended HR meeting and set up on-boarding for a new
intern.

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3.5.1 Reporting on Work Activities

Interns only department exchange

Interns in different departments have a cross departmental exchange

meeting where in- terns in one department explain what they do in their
department to other interns. The purpose of departmental exchange
meetings is for interns to know about responsibilities of different departments
and understand other teams better.

This month‘s session was hosted by Editorial Office intern. I set up reminder
on Outlook calendar and invited all interns and their supervisors in recipients‘
list. In the message body, I informed interns about host of the session and
department they work in. Hosts were free to decide format of the presentation
and relevant activities. Sessions last for an hour or less depending on how
much hosts present and how man activities generated.
The most common way of presentation is PowerPoint slides to explain
department work and a few job-related activities adding on top to better
visualize tasks and responsibilities.

On-boarding preparation

I prepared on-boarding for two new interns in April: one in Editorial Office and
the other in Public Relations. I set up IT setup and Admin Session on calendar,
put these sessions in their personal schedule plan and sent the plan to their
supervisors to fill in department- related tasks. Also, I created transportation
discount paper for them. Once supervisors sent back interns‘ personal
schedules, I sent them their ―first day at InterNations‖ email including
personal schedule, MVG paper, and instructions to the office.

Training session

I had Interns‘ Training Session on Thursday hosted by a full-time employee with the
topic:
―ARA-Approach: Authenticity, Responsibility and Awareness in Personal and
Professional Contexts‖. There interns worked in pairs to talk about best and
worst experiences when they first came to Germany. And then, on the second
pair work, the trainer asked us to talk simultaneously to describe our first
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experiences in Germany.

HR team meeting

HR team has a weekly meeting every Friday to catch up with each other‘s
work updates, inform of vacant positions and brainstorm a topic together. In
this meeting, HR Team Lead

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had an idea to organize workshops for hiring managers about important
social skills for hiring process. As a team, HR came up with a list of social
skills that we considered im- portant for all candidates applying for
InterNations. Based on the list of social skills, two follow-up workshops were
carried out for all leadership positions. The aim of two work- shops was to
find mutual voice in candidates‘ social skills when hiring. It would be signifi-
cantly essential for HR team as we became more involved with interviewing
process.
Some positions which used to be interviewed by department hiring managers
now trans- ferred to HR team to handle. Therefore, understanding general
important social skills played a crucial part in selection. Of course it was not
easy to agree totally with any skills but leaders‘ opinions should draw a
pattern for HR to generate results.

3.5.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

I had trouble looking for a host for training session. I asked Head of Public
Relations and Human Resources Manager but they were too busy to facilitate a
session. It was a tough call till I emailed global mailing list to ask if anyone
would like to host interns‘ training ses- sion. One person working in Community
Management accepted my invitation. The training session was really helpful
and interesting for me. It taught me about projection method.
The idea behind this method was to reflect and think twice before criticizing
others. Pair work was also interesting to see how conflicting the
conversation turned out to be if two people spoke at the same time.

I found the idea of regular HR meetings helpful to catch up with each other‘s
updates. Even though HR sit in a room together every day for eight hours, the
team is not always physically available for updates and news. Sometimes a
person is on vacation, another works from home or the other gets sick. Of
course not a 100% the full team showed up in weekly meetings due to
vacations, sickness. On those occasions, meetings would be postponed till the
week after to wait for the full team. Therefore, an agreed date of meeting was
a wise idea for people to resolve personal issues and attend meetings as much
as they could. During the meeting, I also had a chance to know more about
other vacant po- sitions and company‘s updates. I learnt more about visa
process for non-European candi- dates by listening to my managers‘
discussion. Moreover, I played a part in the meeting as well since I presented
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my updates on vacant internships and potential candidates. My managers
gave me complete autonomy to work at my own pace as long as they saw
productivity out of my performance. I did not usually share updates as we
worked through the days but when there was HR wrap-up meeting, I keep
others posted of what I was doing.

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I felt lost during my first HR meeting as I was not briefed about my roles in the
meeting or current projects HR was working on and all company‘s information I
had no clue about.
Then after a few weeks, conversations got clearer and I even had contribution
to some topics discussed.

3.6 Calendar Week 13, 2019

This week interns kicked off a new project and I spent most of my hours
preparing for the project. The rest of the time I spent on replying to
candidates on Personio and set up writ- ten tests

3.6.1 Reporting on Work Activities

Interns’ project

Interns had a new project called ―Charity Program‖ in which interns needed
to raise mon- ey for Senegalese community via activities. The project was
suggested by a full-time em- ployee who worked in Community Management
and worked for this charity project in Gra- nada. He found this project idea
meaningful and would like to develop it in the company as an internal project.
The original project in Granada was called Teranga. Each month Teranga
chose a country to help and raise awareness. The month we started this
project was in Senegal. We, interns, decided to organize an event monthly to
raise awareness of Senegal and raise fund for the charity. In order to do that,
we made African snacks, went floor by floor and introduced the project and
asked for donations. We had a small budget saved from weekly office snacks
and Monday breakfasts. We cooked all snacks our- selves, fresh and hot. The
activity went smoothly. We introduced project topic, project‘s purposes. As a
result, interns raised a good deal of money. All money was sent to the charity
program in Granada.

Training session

Along with the activity, we had training sessions on top of regular monthly
sessions to focus on volunteering and communication. Training sessions serve
as learning activities where interns spoke out what skills they wanted to
develop. We set up training sessions on top of regular training sessions which
took place monthly. Therefore, we had another training session called
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―Intercultural Communication‖. This is an extra training session hosted by
Research and Development Manager. She had psychology backgrounds and
followed up with a master‘s degree. She participated in a few company‘s
projects and helped with Community Management team setup. Before the
session, she asked interns

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to do a small survey related to personalities. The survey asked multiple choice
situational questions such as working alone vs. working in a team; open
communication vs. reading between the lines, etc. In the end, the system
patterned up answers and produced points for four evaluating types. Four
types included Contexts, Environment, Risks, and Collec- tivism. During the
session, the trainer asked participants to do activity first before explain- ing
theory behind it. She asked us to write down words related to cultures: what
factors makes cultures different. As we were writing ideas down, she posted
them on a white board. There was a picture of an iceberg with one thirds on
above sea level and two thirds under sea level. She compared an iceberg with
cultures. There are things we recognize by observing cultures but there are
also things only understood by living them. Ideas we came up with were
posted according to our perception. For instance, food, drinks and clothes are
things we can touch and taste, which are easily differentiated from one culture
to another. Japanese Kimonos are different from Korean Hanboks, both of
which are tradi- tional dresses. On the other hand, beliefs, mindsets, and
religions cannot be easily distin- guished, but we can feel them. Those factors
are the ones affecting communication prob- lems even if we can still converse
orally. In some cultures, it is common to be straightfor- ward and speak up
opinions without hard feelings. Meanwhile, in some others, it is defi- nitely rude
to be straightforward. They tend to refer to things with high contexts and re-
quire perceivers to read between the lines. That is the reason why
misunderstanding hap- pens, especially in an international company. This
training session taught us how to stay aware of those hidden iceberg parts and
find mutual grounds to agree on. At the end of the session, the trainer
revealed results of the questionnaire but nicely put together in a chart. There
we could all see where we stood in intercultural communication.

Personio and job posting

I checked Personio to reply to candidates every day. At the moment, there

were a few internship positions open such as Social Media, Community
Support, Business Solutions and Public Relations. PR and Community Support
are two positions I never closed as their teams included three and four
interns. Moreover, as one PR intern terminated her contract earlier, I had to
find replacement as soon as possible. Thus, I posted job ads on university
channels and emailed personally to an UK university that InterNations had di-

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rect contact with. This university usually saved us with finding immediate
replacements in case of emergencies. I sent a few tests out for candidates in
Social Media and Community Support. For Business Solutions, I had issue with
getting visa for an intern as she could not find an appointment in France for
her visa application. From the company‘s side, we needed someone to start as
soon as possible as the team was under staffed. I was wait- ing for her ZAV to
come to the office and she tried to book an appointment.

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3.6.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

Interns‘ meetings were better structured and more effective after intervention
from super- visors. Leaders of the project took control and assigned tasks
specifically to individuals. This way they commit more to the project. Project
facilitator was also active in checking on progress of the project by coming by
meetings from time to time. When I set up reminder for meetings, I included
project facilitator so that he felt welcomed and involved with the project. As he
was incredibly motivated and passionate about this project, he spread his
positivity to interns and we produced better work results.

I very much enjoyed the training session about Intercultural Communication as

it opened my perception of cultural differences. The method the trainer used
in the session was tre- mendously effective by asking participants for pre-
preparation. She had an effective way to catch attention by creating activities
before explaining theory as she recognized theory part would be rough and
dry to digest on its own. The activity did its magic and shaped our attention
towards cultures and communication. I loved the questionnaire she asked to
do and how she placed every answer in one sheet to compare. There we did
see the dif- ferences in how we all perceive and work. I leaned towards
working independently more than working in a team. I enjoyed no context
environment in a way that I felt free to speak my opinions and looked for
transparency. I preferred to be on the safe side of preparation rather than
taking risks. Through a small activity, I had a chance to confirm my working
and communication styles. All in all, it was an excellent, well-designed session
to attend. Training sessions should always reach this standard of quality. The
trainer had a particu- lar coaching style to draw people‘s attention and
generate positive outcomes. This ses- sion was also practical and relatable to
real life, both professional and personal contexts. I felt like I could apply the
findings here in my work and my personal life to improve com- munication
among colleagues and international friends.

3.7 Calendar Week 14, 2019

In this week, I followed up on situation of Business Solutions intern and sent

out tests to candidates on Personio.

3.7.1 Reporting on Work Activities

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Business Solutions intern

Last week I had issue with getting work visa for a Business Solutions intern.
She man- aged to book an appointment in France. However, as she went to
submit her documents, they declined to give her six-month internship visa as
her ZAV lasted only three months.

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She called me to rush for a new ZAV. Having said that, it was impossible to
get a new ZAV fast as ZAV was dependent on her certificate of enrolment at
university which would expire in three months. In order to get her ZAV
extended, she needed to submit a new certificate of enrolment. ZAV usually
took two weeks to process and was sent to InterNa- tions office. This meant
that she could not start as soon as we expected her to. Process might take
months to pursue.

Personio candidates

I moved applications on emails to Personio and screened candidates on

Personio for PR positions. I checked if they were students and had to
complete mandatory internships be- fore asking for certificate of enrolment. A
couple of PR candidates who already submitted their enrolment papers were
scheduled to do English tests.

3.7.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

This week went smoothly and relaxingly. Other than replying to candidates on
Personio and dealing with Business Solutions situation, I did not have much to
do.
The situation with Business Solutions intern was unfortunate and procedures
to get her started were tiresome and lengthy. At some point I was not sure if I
could get her started as visa application seemed to be more difficult for her
than others. It was not easy to han- dle paper work. Part of this issue came
from my fault. When I screened her documents, I should have realized
certificate of enrolment lasted only for three months. I did not check it
carefully enough to spot the problem. I was more focused on filling the
position as soon as possible to maintain work flow in Business Solutions. I got
rushed from different par- ties, but in the end, all we could do was to wait.
There was no number to call ZAV office and fix the problem efficiently by
phone. They only worked via emails and written re- quests. To improve or
avoid the situation in the future, I should check documents more carefully,
especially with candidates who needed work visa.

3.8 Calendar Week 15, 2019

I worked on interns‘ project and personal on-boarding session for new interns
as some interns had feedback on poor integration of interns‘ package.
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3.8.1 Reporting on Work Activities

Interns’ projects

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Followed by the success of our first activity which was to introduce interns‘
project by of- fering snacks, interns came up with another idea to inform of
the project to the rest of em- ployees who did not have a chance to listen to
presentation the last time. This time, we thought of organizing an after-work
party. In the party, we also prepared African snacks like last time and added a
couple of new dishes. We asked for leftover money from office snacks and
Monday breakfast to buy ingredients and cook them during lunch hours. As
people enjoyed snacks very much the last time, we hoped this time we could
keep up with high expectations. While people enjoyed food and drinks, interns
had a small presentation to introduce our project idea and purposes. We
prepared a short video of the project activ- ities in Senegal where volunteers
interacted with children there. Interns had to ask for permission to throw such
a party after work. We were thinking of getting people finish work an hour
earlier and joined the party. The party invitation was sent out by me to all
employees at InterNations. Based on number of people accepting invitation
email, we calculated how much snacks we should make for the party.

HR regular meeting

HR had weekly meeting on Friday. HR Team Lead informed me of feedback

other interns had regarding to on-boarding new interns. Some said they were
not informed well of cur- rent projects and understood the idea of such
projects. Then HR team discussed how to improve interns on-boarding better.
Therefore, I came up with the idea of organizing an interns‘ on-boarding
session separately with regular Newcomers‘ Day. The sessions were only
aimed at introducing interns‘ package to new interns and answering queries
they might have.

3.8.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

The idea to throw a party introducing the project was brilliant. However, party
was poorly organized and inconsistent. We divided the presentation into parts
so that everyone had a role in the final presentation. However, when
colleagues gathered to listen to the presen- tation, no interns showed up in the
stage to carry out the presentation together. As scripts for presentation were
prepared last minute, I only had time to go over my lines and relied on the rest
to perform their parts well. No interns showed proactive approach in
presenting and left me standing on the stage. In the end there was another
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intern joining me in the presentation and saved it.

For the presentation, we invited Porto team to join us digitally. We agreed to

present at 17:00 which was 16:00 in Porto, at which time we did not present as
there were hardly

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anyone attending the presentation in Munich office. Therefore, we pushed the
schedule an hour later and by the time we presented, Porto team was no
longer available to listen. It was a big failure to bridge the gap between two
far-away offices.

Another disappointing thing was the number of participants. When we counted

people to make snacks, we made for 30 people. However, in the end, only 10
people showed up. Organization failed hard with regards to engaging
employees.
Above all disappointing factors, interns managed to generate a good sum of
money for charity.
When it came to improvements, I expected each intern to take the lead and
be proactive in doing things. It was the effort of the whole team, instead of
the effort of one person.

3.9 Calendar Week 16, 2019

Happy helpers

It is one of interns‘ responsibilities to help out with buying snacks and Monday
breakfast, which is called Happy Helpers. Offices get snacks every Tuesday of
the week and Mon- day breakfast for the company. Each week there are two
interns picked to buy snacks and breakfast. Feel Good Manager chooses
weekly interns and sends them email a week be- fore their session. One round
begins with buying snacks on Tuesday and breakfast for the following Monday.
Money will be given by Feel Good Manager who organizes company‘s events,
takes care of offices, orders supplies and calls maintenance if needed. In her
email, she instructs carefully of things to buy and quantity. There are two
office buildings on the same street, so happy helpers need to buy snacks for
both buildings on each floor. Snacks include cookies, vegan cookies, chocolate
without nuts in case people are aller- gic, candies, healthy nuts. In the
summer, ice-creams are also included. Breakfast con- sists of pastries like
croissants, donuts, and plain bread; and juices (orange and apple).
After happy helpers finish their round, they bring back receipts and shopping
bags to Feel Good Manager.
I was a happy helper last week with a new PR intern. I also needed to instruct
the new intern what to buy and how many kitchens to cover.
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Personal on-boarding

As HR team discussed last week, this week I facilitated my first personal on-
boarding talk with a new Community Support intern. I set up Outlook calendar
reminder and added her

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in to remind of the meeting. In the meeting, I personally introduced her to
interns‘ projects, the purpose of interns‘ project, interns‘ department
exchange and training sessions. I made sure she was well-informed of all
interns‘ packages. After the on-boarding session, I sent her emails of interns‘
packages including upcoming training sessions and meetings. The reason I
sent extra email after the session was to help new interns remember key
points of the discussion. It was a short half an hour session to explain and
answer ques- tions.

3.9.1 Reflecting and Developing Work

Happy helper idea was useful for the company to use extra help from interns.
It was not a heavy task to complete and anyone would get familiar with what
to buy after doing it once or twice. I found it hard to please everyone as we all
have different tastes. People com- plained every single time about snacks
whether they were too little, or had nothing people liked. I did not feel like it
was interns‘ responsibility to satisfy everyone‘s tastes. We simply did what we
were asked to complete. To improve this situation, Feel Good Manager should
send out survey for all the staff to fill out, regarding their special diets and
favourite snacks. Then, in the happy helper email, she could list names of
specific snacks to buy, instead of giving interns total freedom to decide.

I felt positive about personal on-boarding session. When I joined InterNations, I

was lost with interns‘ projects and training sessions. I failed to understand the
idea behind them and my roles in those meetings. Moreover, I jumped in the
middle of a running project; thus, catching up with what others had done was
difficult. When HR team had the discus- sion of how to integrate interns better
to the interns‘ package and InterNations‘ offer, I was thinking of a personal
session to explain to new interns about all projects. From my per- spectives, as
a HR person, I felt the responsibility to on-board newbies carefully. Personal
on-boarding sessions were short, concise and helpful though loads of
information was given to newbies. I put my feet in newbies‘ shoes and realized
that information I gave though helpful and important would come in one ear
and come out the other. As a matter of fact, new people will not remember
much about the details of interns‘ projects. There- fore, after meetings, I sent
an email wrapping up everything I touched on.

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 3.10 Calendar Week 17, 2019

Interns had monthly training session this week. I prepared on-boarding for
new HR intern. As I had more capacity in my work hours, I asked to participate
in a few interviews with HR managers.

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3.10.1 Reporting on Work Activities

HR intern’s on-boarding

As a new HR intern would start in a couple of weeks, I prepared her personal

schedule, MVG paper and sent her ―first day‖ email. I edited a Word
document which contained de- tails of recruitment procedures, visa
application, and other tasks HR intern needed to fulfil. I wanted to prepare my
new intern better for the internship. Therefore, I made her person- al schedule
which used to be Senior HR Manager‘s responsibility.

Training session

I participated in interns‘ training session called ―Project Management‖. The

trainer is Sen- ior HR Manager. After HR meeting about interns‘ integration
and project productivity, she decided to facilitate a training session about
project management particularly designed for interns and their current issues.
In the training session, the trainer explained definition and steps of project
management. After theory part, we moved on to practice part where the
trainer gave all participants some post-it notes to reflect on the current
interns‘ project and write down improvements which would make projects‘
progress better and more effective. Then, each participant posted their notes
on a board and presented the idea they came up with. Many interns had
similar development suggestions, such as assigning tasks to individuals,
carrying out feedback or evaluation talk after each project and attending the
meetings with a good purpose of contribution. Other ideas that we thought
about were:
- Starting meetings off with a solid plan
- Discussing meeting rules and regulations
- Following up on the task completion
- Breaking down tasks
- Involving everyone
- Respecting the meetings
- Not taking personally
- Doing team building exercises
- Reminding of previous meetings‘ notes and ideas
- Taking meeting minutes
- Listening to everyone‘s ideas
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 - Staying open to every opinion

Engineering interviews

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Internship vacancies had been filled, so I had free time in my working hours. I
asked my HR managers to join some interviews for IT positions. Therefore, I
sat in three interviews this week with my supervisor (Senior HR Manager). She
added me to the position on Per- sonio so that I could see interviewing
candidates. HR conducted first calls for Engineering to justify their skills,
personality fit, and introduce the company and team setup. The pur- pose of
first calls was to get to know candidates and confirmed if they had knowledge
to perform the tasks well.

Before the first interview, I prepared myself by searching for IT languages and
programs‘ names in order to understand the interview better. The position was
Backend Developer, so I looked for Backend languages and checked
InterNations‘s requirements for this posi- tion.

During the interview, I did not sit in front of the camera as I did not feel ready
to be seen. Thus, I sat opposite of the laptop taking notes. I wrote down
interview questions my su- pervisor asked and her introduction to the
company. I tried to note down names of IT lan- guages as the candidate spoke,
but names slipped my mind as I jolted down.

After the interview, I handed over my notes which contained my impression of

the candi- date to my supervisor. Notes would be reviewed by IT hiring
managers and CTO – Chief Technical Officer. Once they reviewed candidates‘
applications and notes, they would inform us to proceed and send tests to
candidates.

After first interview, HR manager sent tests to approved candidates. The test
was a cod- ing challenge in which candidates had a week to solve and send
back the test. Coding challenge was a mini exercise aiming at evaluating
candidates‘ skills of coding.
Once the coding challenge was accepted by CTO and IT hiring managers, HR
manager set up second interview, but only this interview took place in Munich
office. For candidates who did not live in Munich, InterNations would book
flight ticket and accommodation so that they could come for on-site interview.
In case visa process to enter Germany took too long to acquire, InterNations
agreed to conduct online interview like the first interview. In the interview,
candidates walked CTO and IT hiring managers through their coding solu-

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tions and explained their answers. The second interview took half a day as
after running through codes and interviews, candidates had a chance to meet
the team and went for lunch.

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I got familiar with interview process and questions after a couple of
interviews. There was always a set of fixed questions HR managers needed to
make sure from candidates such as visa process, salary range, and necessary
skills.

3.10.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

The training session finished off great as it made us contemplate and reflect
on our cur- rent project. Interns came up with pretty solid ideas which
afterwards were put in practice. The training session could have been planned
and implemented differently to wake partic- ipants up with a call to action. The
first half of the session focused only on theory in a way that trainer read
PowerPoint slides to participants. It could have been done better by com- ing
up with a practice game before giving out theory. My suggestion is to give
participants a project and asked them to implement the project step by step.
Then trainer could ask them to generate project management definition. After
the game, trainer concluded defini- tion and steps of project management.

Training sessions took place in late afternoons always; therefore, it is

understandable for both trainer and participants to feel exhausted lose focus.
The best way to avoid dozing off would be practice games.

I was proud to take initiatives in suggesting more tasks for personal

development. Partici- pating in IT interviews broadened my knowledge of IT
and interviewing skills. In order to understand interviews thoroughly, I spent
lots of time researching IT programs and lan- guages. I stepped out of my
comfort zone to learn something new and beneficial.

From personal perspectives, engineering recruitment process was well

designed. Before sending tests to candidates, InterNations created first
contacts to give applicants a feeling of personal recognition and understanding
of the company. After the test, applicants had a chance to meet the team in
person and performed tasks on the spot. This revealed candi- dates‘ skills and
team player factor.

3.11 Calendar Week 18, 2019

I joined a couple of interviews with an Engineering Team Lead and took over a
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full-time position as my supervisor was on vacation.

3.11.1 Reporting on Work Activities

Interviews with Engineering Team Lead

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After sitting in a few interviews with HR manager to understand first
introduction call for IT positions, I asked my HR managers to join Engineering
Team Lead in his interviews with the aim of understand interviewing process
from IT sides. I wanted to develop a round and full experience from HR point of
view and IT point of view. Interviews with Engineering Team Lead were
conducted differently from HR managers. As he is a technical team lead, his
questions sounded more technical and revolved around hypothetical
situations. He also aimed at figuring out candidates‘ match to the team
through technical questions which required candidates‘ understanding of the
field, job and practical experiences. His interviews sometimes took an hour to
conduct as he touched many aspects.

HR meeting

On Friday, HR team had their regular team meetings so that everyone

informed others of their current work and updates. My supervisor went on
vacation for a couple of weeks; thus, vacant IT positions that she was in
charge of were taken over by another HR man- ager. My supervisor asked me
to take over full-time Junior PR Manager position from screening candidates to
coordinating interviews. After the HR meeting, I was added to that position on
Personio as HR Responsible. I started off by reading comments of HR man-
ager and PR hiring manager on current candidates, checking candidates who
matched requirements and moved them to interview phase. The recruitment
procedure for this Jun- ior PR Manager position would be to first screen
applicants to make sure they had Ger- man work permit and agreed with the
company‘s salary range. Candidates should have at least half a year of
experience in PR field. As PR deals with press and writes press re- leases,
candidates should possess decent English skills, both written and spoken.
After all requirements were checked off, candidates would be moved to first
interview which was carried by a HR person. The purpose of this initial call was
to get to know candidates, fig- ure out their motivation to apply for
InterNations and checking if their social skills fitted with the company‘s
guiding principles.
InterNations has eight guiding principles:
- Embrace differences
- Listen and say what you mean

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- Nobody stands alone
- The ball‘s in your court
- Move forward, keep learning
- Be data-informed
- Go the extra mile and recognize when others do
- Leave your comfort zone

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 (InterNations 2018.)

In the first interview, I also introduced the company to candidates, presented

team setup and responsibilities and informed of further steps of recruitment
process. After the inter- view, I wrote down some notes to give PR hiring
manager.

When she approved to move forward with particular candidates, I sent them
written test with which applicants had a week to complete. The test included
two mini tasks: one was to generate strategy and tactics for a PR campaign;
the other was to write press release for the campaign. Once candidates sent
back their tests, they would be graded by Editori- al Office team. PR hiring
manager reviewed graded tests and candidates‘ profiles before informing me
if she wanted to proceed.

Followed was a second interview with PR hiring managers. Senior PR Manager and
Head of Content and Communications department joined the second interview
to assess candi- dates‘ skills. The reason for two interviewers evaluating
applicants was to avoid biased opinions and assess candidates more
thoroughly.

After the second interview, hiring managers would decide whether to offer a
candidate the position, when the person would start, and how much would be
the salary. HR Team Lead would sent contract out and took care of
administrative papers.

3.11.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

Sitting in technical interviews was tough for me to understand to the full of IT

knowledge and skills. I tried to note down questions asked and Team Lead‘s
answers for my personal development. However, as a HR person, it was
difficult, not to mention impossible, to mimic such interviews. Engineering
Team Lead had an intense and blunt way of interview- ing candidates that
made them anxious and scared. Personally speaking, I would prefer him to
respect candidates and ask questions nicely, in a less attacking way.

Taking over a full-time position was a big step for me. When I was assigned to
Junior PR Manager position, I was not sure if I could handle the position well. It
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would not be the first time I was in charge of a full-time position. Previous
times I participated in the interviews with HR mangers as a role of observer.
However, this time I had to be responsible for it on my own. I tried to force
myself out of comfort zone and handle the position with extra care. I was
worried if my knowledge of PR was not enough or my understanding of the
compa-

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ny was not concrete. Thanks to the preparation of previous positions I
participated and interviews I sat in, I understood recruitment process better
and faster.

3.12 Calendar Week 19, 2019

I supervised new HR intern and took care of Junior PR Manager position from
screening to interviewing.

3.12.1 Reporting on Work Activities

Junior PR Manager position on Personio

I screened PR candidates in the talent pool and moved them to suitable

buckets. I sched- uled two first interviews during this week. Candidates had
relevant PR experiences, good profiles, agreed with the company‘s salary
range and had work permit.
In the interview, I asked candidates to walk me through their CVs and
highlighted relevant PR experiences. After that, I focused on the most related
experience or current work to ask more questions. I concentrated on finding
out their motivation to apply, their personali- ties, and social skills. Therefore,
focusing on one specific experience, I asked how they handled conflicts, how
their team and working culture went, what steps they took to solve
disagreements and what challenges they faced during their work. Through
people- oriented questions, I picked up their characteristics via their tone of
voice and their ap- proaches to issues. If candidates already had ―manager‖
title and managed a team of their own, my questions revolved around what
leadership styles they pursued and how their team mates talked about them.
The one crucial point in InterNations‘s work culture is feedback and open
communication. Candidates should have experiences or good positive
approach to feedback, especially constructive criticism. When a problem
arises, the company encourages everyone to speak up their minds and
communicate openly in order to keep a healthy and positive work
environment.

Supervision of new intern

New HR intern joined this week. I would supervise her for two weeks before I
left. I intro- duced her InterNations‘s organizational structure, the importance
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of checking Confluence dashboard and get familiar with Confluence as it
contains all updates and important doc- uments. Followed was introduction to
Personio and recruitment process. I sent her a Word document consisting of
every little detail of recruitment steps. She found the document so

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helpful and detailed that she could turn to the document whenever she felt
lost and forgot something in the process.

3.12.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

It was tough to juggle between on-boarding new intern and taking care of
vacant positions and carrying out interviews. I felt like my attention was
divided and left with a mess in mind. It took me half a day or even a day to
screen candidates on Personio and still need- ed to supervise new intern‘s
work. To improve new HR intern‘s integration into tasks, I created a Word
document writing down in detail of recruitment process and every task HR
intern should accomplish. I found my list effective, detailed and easy to follow
as I used more words to explain steps rather than diagrams and pictures.

Though it was a tough week, I fortunately managed well during that busy
week. As I intro- duced new intern to recruitment process of interns, she was
in charge of them since. This spared time for me to take care of full-time
position. This week was a great example of workload that I imagined to fulfil
during my internship. I suggest InterNations to give HR interns more tasks to
fulfil and test boundaries.

I had anxious feelings before my first interview in life. It acted as a blocking

stone to my career. Once I lifted that stone up, I saw myself moving forward
and getting more experi- enced. My interviews went well. I developed an
interviewing routine to review candidates‘ profiles before interviews, write
down their experiences and my expected questions. After candidates‘
answers, I built my question system around.

I questioned about practicality of the first HR interview with applicants. I only

interviewed candidates whose applications PR hiring managers already
reviewed and proceeded with. With or without first HR call, those candidates
would have tickets to move forward and I sent them the tests. My concerns
affected interview quality. At some point, I ran out of questions as they spoke
and left an empty silence in between. My solution to this issue was to leave
candidates good first impression on the company before they continued to
complete written tests. During interviews, I tried to give facts and information
of the com- pany and team setup, as well as work culture and employee
benefits. I focused more on their social skills to ensure their match to the
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company‘s culture.
I found it hard to jolt down, ask questions and listen simultaneously. I often
got distracted with what candidates presented and forgot my points to write.
I improved this problem by separating my paper sheet in two parts. Left part
was spared to write down impressions

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and right part was to write down questions in mind. In this way, I would not
lose track of what candidates were talking about.

After the interview, I spent 5 minutes to gather my thoughts about the

candidates and posted my notes on Personio for hiring managers to review. I
tried to note as detailed as possible with the focus on candidates‘ personalities
and social skills. I backed my opinions with facts and evidence I gathered from
interviews‘ answers and impressions.

3.13 Calendar Week 20, 2019

I helped with preparation of on-site workshops and had final feedback talk with
my super- visor regarding my performance during internship.

3.13.1 Reporting on Work Activities

On-site workshops

During my last week of internship, I helped with preparing for on-site

workshops for all hiring managers and leaders. The topic of workshops was
―Social Skills for Hiring Pro- cess‖. Hiring managers and leaders were divided
into two groups. Each group attended the workshop separately. The first
group to attend workshop consisted of Business Core leaders such as Content
and Communications, Business Solutions, and Community Man- agement. The
second group mainly included IT leaders. Each workshop lasted half a day (4
hours). HR Team gathered a list of social skills which were collected by HR
team and the rest of the staff. Besides technical skills which are important to
perform the job well, leaders of each department sat down together and
aligned with three top social skills which all candidates must have to go
through recruitment process.

As job requirements and mind-sets of each leadership groups differentiated,

results came out a little different. With Business Core leaders, it was a fast
discussion to align with three top skills as they leaned towards people
orientation. Candidates must have good communication skills, become good
team player and come across as a proactive person. However, it was a tough
call for Engineering team to find mutual voice. The discussion went on longer
than scheduled but they did not seem to be happy with their chosen skills.
They grouped different skills from various groups together and renamed
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group names. IT leaders required more from their team members, rather
specifically. Team members should not take things too personally and strictly,
should definitely have a good sense of humour and understand the
importance of the company‘s products.

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After two workshops, three top social skills leaders from both workshops
agreed with were:
- Communication skills
- Open-minded team player
- Proactive approach

Final hand-over session with new HR intern

The purpose of this meeting was to make sure new HR intern get
everything under her control and understanding. In this session, she walked
me through recruitment process and other task details, which helped her to
visualize and remember them.

Final feedback talk with my supervisor

I had final feedback talk with my supervisor. In the talk, I had a chance to
speak up from my experience what I think should be improved, also listened
to my supervisor‘s feedback on my performance and development. I
suggested to change two week of handover to new interns to one week as two
weeks was too lengthy. However, it should not be changed as different people
perceived and absorbed information differently. When I joined, it took me a
few days to handle all tasks well. Meanwhile, another intern could take more
than two weeks to stand on their feet. I also recommended giving HR interns
more tasks as current responsibility would not take up eight hours a day. But
then again, it de- pended on how much time a person picked up the pace and
worked independently.

3.13.2 Reflecting and Developing Work

My last week went really fast with handing tasks over fully to new HR
intern, attending workshops and having feedback talk with my supervisor.

Workshops were well planned and implemented. Through them, I gathered

useful skills for my professional backpack. Participants in those workshops
were all hiring managers; therefore, I had a chance to listen to their opinions in
selecting candidates. I actively helped with preparing workshop documents,
and gathering leaders‘ ideas into a docu- ment. By doing this, I learnt the most
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important skills companies look for in candidates and what kind of answers
interviewers expected from applicants. I also collected a few more interview
questions to ask candidates through sorting out workshops‘ results.

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InterNations cares about employee feedback and constantly improves for
staff, which is one of plus points that makes InterNations stands out from
other companies. I loved the idea of carrying two feedback talks: one in the
middle of internship and the other at the end of the internship. Open feedback
is the most efficient way to understand what em- ployees think of the
company and workload. Moreover, it is a way to appreciate employ- ees‘ good
work. I felt like my work served as an important part of the company and I
was valued and appreciated by my good performance.

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4 Conclusion

Through 13 weeks of internship, I have grown tremendously in a professional

way. In this chapter, my key findings for personal development will be
discussed with the aim of help- ing myself to see my strengths and
development areas for future improvement. Also, key findings for InterNations
to improve their business management structure will be interpret- ed.

4.1 Key Insights on Personal Development

During my internship at InterNations, the nature of the job in HR field and the
company has taught me significantly. I went extra mile to discover my talents
in talent acquisition side of HR by being responsible for all internship
vacancies, guaranteeing a smooth circu- lation of interns in the company and
also by taking over a few more tasks to get out of my comfort zone.

I discovered a new horizon of IT recruiting which would be my focus area in

the future. Participating in IT interviews requires me to understand IT terms
and meanings with a view to asking in-depth questions to candidates. This is
my development area to research on. For my personal development, I wish to
pursue courses in IT to understand how all technical programs harmoniously
work together in order to recruit best suitable persons for suitable positions.

I had a chance to be in charge of the whole recruitment steps for a full-time

position in PR, which served as a crucial advancement in my professional path.
I learnt a great deal of interviewing experiences and handling candidates.
Observing interviews and coordinating interviews are totally different. I
appreciated that I did not pass an opportunity to experi- ence both.

I took ownership of my tasks and took care of them from start to finish. I
handled different tasks at the same time and turned stressful situations to
memorable ones. I realized my talents to work more productively under stress.

Apart from aspects I have grown in HR field, active sourcing is my focal area
but did not have a chance to practice and learn during my internship.
Nowadays, not only candidates find suitable companies, but also the other way
around. Companies actively search for suitable matches. With the help of
technology and targeted tools, I believe I will familiarize with outbound hunting

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techniques.

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 4.2 Key Insights on Company Development

When it comes to recruitment and selection procedures, InterNations has been

performing very well and effectivelyInterNations always keeps communication
transparent with candi- dates and keeps waiting time as low as possible. The
company has defined clearly what they look for in candidates by sketching
important skills and requirements. They under- stand the company‘s culture
and their employees. Therefore, in this topic, I do not have any suggestions.

Moreover, InterNations has been doing great in appreciating employees, giving

interns certain space to develop and freedom to get creative with their jobs. I
valued that InterNa- tions has feedback culture to five open constructive
feedbacks with a view to helping in- terns improve their performance.
Feedback talk is also a way to verbally appreciate in- terns of their hard work
and contribution. Managers and supervisors at InterNations are helpful and
open to suggestions of new tasks and responsibilities as long as interns can
handle them with good quality standard.

InterNations needs to develop a more thorough and consistent induction for

new employ- ees. More specifically, HR team should have a more consistent
way of on-boarding new HR interns. Apart from leaving interns handing over
tasks to new ones, HR managers should also explain current HR projects,
purpose of weekly meetings, and expectations from HR interns. It is good to
have two week handover to go through procedures‘ details and prepare new
interns to work on their own. It will be more beneficial for new interns to know
managers‘ expectations from them and standard of performance. After a
week of getting to know tasks, HR supervisor or HR Team Lead should
conduct a personal, one- on-one talk with the new intern to make sure the
person get integrated well. In the meet- ing, HR managers can introduce
other managers‘ tasks and responsibilities, current pro- jects, regular
meetings and their purposes. This meeting is a good idea to align both par-
ties‘ expectations. Some interns might be happy with only interns‘
recruitment process; meanwhile others might need to have more tasks at
hand.

Furthermore, InterNations can improve induction by creating a mini

NewComers‘ Day for employees who join in the middle of the month.
NewComers‘ Day should be the first day for new employees and interns to get
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introduced about InterNations‘s mission, vision and guidelines. New
employees who join at the beginning of the month participate in New- comers‘
Day on their first day at work. However, for those who start their job and
intern- ship at the middle of the month, they need to start working two weeks
before they get in- troduction day. For full-time employees who have already
been working in companies,

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they have an idea of how professional formats should look like. Meanwhile, for
interns who just start their first job at a company, they will have trouble fixing
fonts and writing styles regarding a simple thing like writing date and time.
Therefore, I suggest InterNa- tions to organize a mini orientation day for
employees and interns joining in the middle of the month. Orientation day
should include sessions in official Newcomers‘ day such as meeting CEO,
Confluence introduction, brand and styles, guiding principles and IT intro-
duction. On the occasion of only one new employee joining, it is responsibility
of specific department to conduct orientation day.

When it comes to Monday breakfast, InterNations should make it a culture to

attend breakfast, especially when a new employee or intern joins. At the
moment, mainly interns attend breakfast on Mondays. Full-time employees
come to pick up pastries and leave for work. More often, a new full-time
employee was left in the breakfast with a couple of in- terns. It was hard for
interns to generate conversations as responsibilities differ and in- terns did
not know all departments in the company. After the breakfast, the new person
felt lost as no one came to instruct her where to go and where her
department sits.
As a solution, employees should definitely show up in the breakfast, or at least
a few peo- ple from the same department attend to show appreciation and
welcome.

Adding to induction of new employees, InterNations should introduce the

company‘s cul- ture, mission and vision during recruitment phase, with a view
to get candidates familiar- ized themselves with the company. For all
recruiting positions, there should be a short introduction call implemented by
HR team or specifically HR intern. This call plays a bene- ficial and crucial part
in embracing the company‘s employer brand and broadenin HR in- tern‘s
interviewing experience. First of all, during first introduction call, candidates
should be well-informed of the company‘s mission, vision and work culture.
After the call, candi- dates need to sign up on the platform as an user and test
InterNations‘s products person- ally before moving forward with selection
phase. Secondly, when candidates sign the con- tract either in person or
virtually, InterNations should include the introduction of company and
department setup. By this, new employees will not be completely lost on their
first day at work. Lastly, this initial call benefits HR intern in a way that he/she

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gains experience to interview applicants. Interviewing is not one of HR interns‘
responsibilities. Therefore, hav- ing first calls with candidates can broaden
their task circle and prepare themselves for future career path. All in all, with
all the benefits of first introduction call listed above, new employees will truly
be integrated into the company‘s work culture fast and efficiently.

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