Internships are fun, some say. Others claim that they are monotonous and difficult. In reality, an ideal internship experience is a fine blend of both, peppered with a few learnings and good memories.
If LIBA was one meaningful thing that happened to me in 2016, my internship at Danfoss in 2017 is the other. My association with the company was a cherishable experience.
Stepping in as an HR
I interned at Danfoss Industries Pvt Ltd in May for two months in the HR domain as a HR Generalist (predominantly HR Analytics). A few other classmates too joined me.
The place, first up, is something which needs a special mention. Located on the outskirts of Chennai at Oragadam (known as the city’s manufacturing hub), its campus is breathtaking. Consisting of 12 buildings or units, its vast green expanse is awe inducing.
A core engineering company that manufactures, assembles and supplies hardware components or equipment to external vendors, Danfoss concentrates on being eco-friendly, and on energy efficient climate and energy solutions. The company clearly walks the talk of its mission and vision statements. That can be seen on the premises, with the usage of solar cells and other green energy sources.
Headquartered in Denmark and operating in over a 100 countries, the happiness quotient of its employees is very high — at around 78 per cent!
Employee wellbeing
Employees here are encouraged to be health conscious and the company has recreational facilities in the campus, which includes gym and a play area.
There are courtyards where you could sit and chat when you take a break.
The main building we worked out of was three-storeyed, with department divisions and meeting halls. The HR bay was divided into three functional departments — learning and development, compensation, and talent acquisition. We were in the talent acquisition team, working alongside four other people, one of whom happened to be our mentor — and the head of talent acquisition for the company.
Analysing data
My classmate and I were co-involved in a recruitment project called ‘Recruitment Analytics’, where we were given recruitment data for the first quarter January-June, and had to analyse the current performance of the recruitment team against various quantifiable metrics or KPIs. We were expected to find out potential discrepancies or inefficiencies and suggest possible improvements.
Our mentor and the team were very friendly and approachable. They gave us invaluable insights and suggestions and helped us get a hands-on experience by making us conduct GDs for Engineer Trainee applicants.
As we made our observations and gave our ideas at the end of our project, some of these were conveyed to the regional and sales heads. We also worked on a few other projects, like global data and checking the compensation data of employees.
Overall learning
Overall, we learnt a lot about the recruitment system of the company, the structuring of the recruitment process and how best it can be used to improve the quality of employees in an organisation, while bringing down the attrition rate.
To sum it up, Danfoss has one of the best work cultures I have seen, where employees are motivated, happy and self-driven. The company’s policies are flexible and less stringent, and the atmosphere, stress-free and informal.
(The writer is a student of Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai.)