By Toby Penford, HR Digital Transformation Advisor at City of London Corporation
BSc Pychology 2018
What do you do? What is a typical day/week like?
I have very recently started a new role at the City of London, but previously worked as a People Analyst for a global media agency. The agency was newly developing its People Analytics function and they were looking to develop someone relatively new to the field of analytics.
My daily tasks included monitoring our global turnover reporting suite, conducting AdHoc data collection and cleansing projects for senior stakeholders, and producing graphs and visualisations for global HR review meetings. I worked with the Global HR Function to align our HR reporting and improve our data collection processes, and so there were many ongoing data alignment projects underway.
When did you start thinking about applying for jobs in People Data Analytics?
Prior to my last role, I was a People Graduate at a Technology company, and then rolled off the scheme into a generalist HR Advisor role. The day-to-day in this role was providing Employee Relations advice to managers and managing a huge caseload of ER cases from start to finish. As a result of this, I was able to observe just how much data is involved in HR processes, and how common it is for HR functions in businesses to be ill equipped to manage such large-scale data of this kind. This led me to wanting to move into the People Analytics space, due to my interests in data analysis and process improvement.
What kind of work experience did you manage to gain if any as an undergraduate?
During my undergraduate studies, I didn’t partake in a huge amount of formal work experience! I spent a week or two shadowing someone in a comms department at a transport company, but nothing formal. What benefitted me most was being able to show that I was interested and engaged in extra-curricular activities and volunteering opportunities during my time at university. At its core, HR is all about supporting employees and improving the employee experience, and so any experiences where you can demonstrate a level of process improvement or people support would be hugely advantageous. During university, I volunteered for a local charity, helping to provide people struggling to find work with CV advice and interview skills. This is where I learnt about my interest in working with people, and was a great thing to talk about in my applications and interviews.
What advice would you give to students who are keen to work as an analyst in the future? What do you wish you had known?
If your course isn’t an analytical or data-focused one, consider doing some volunteering or work experience where you can get to grips with data cleansing and data handling, as this will be hugely advantageous when starting a junior analytics position. Don’t worry if your knowledge isn’t too sophisticated, many entry level positions will give you the opportunity to learn on the job, although any knowledge you already have is great!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toby-penford-ab7007132/