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A day in the life of a People Partner on the HR Graduate Programme at Unilever

What is your role and how long have you been with Unilever?

People Partner UKI (HR UFL), I have been here for one year.

Farah Hanif

What inspired you to apply?

The HR UFL Programme offers a fully paid for Level 7 CIPD qualification, which is a Masters’ level HR-specific qualification. I really wanted to complete this as the next step of my education and felt great that a company was willing to invest this much in a graduate. I also really appreciate the rotational structure of the programme, so I can try different aspects of HR without the commitment.

What does a normal day look like for you?

  • Start off with a team meeting
  • Spend some focus time working on projects, such as creating Power BI dashboards, making resources, training colleagues and supporting my team
  • Meet with stakeholders such as HRBPs and Line Managers to discuss specific employee cases
  • Lunch time with team members
  • Meeting with my managers
  • Some more focus time or stakeholder meetings
  • Plan for the next day

What do you find most interesting?

I love understanding the best way to help people as much as possible. I work well with data, HR software and Excel and I find satisfaction in helping employees – I like to find ways that I can use my skills to make peoples’ lives easier. I am also really interested in employment law, so I enjoy reading up on legislation and using our company resources to find the best possible solution for an employee within the law.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learnt so far?

You will never enjoy what you do if you don’t find your purpose in it. My purpose is to give whatever I have to help those who I can – when I’m in a role where I don’t feel I am making a difference, I don’t enjoy it. I have learned from Unilever that purpose in a career is as important as purpose in life.