Thursday, May 25, 2017

SPD Welcomes Intern Kennedy Walter!

Throughout this past week I have started my experience as an Indiana State Personnel Department (INSPD) intern. I am greatly looking forward to all this internship has to offer and how much I will learn and grow over the weeks to come. In the fall, I  start my senior year at Indiana University where I am majoring in Human Resource Management and minoring in Marketing. I truly think the education and leadership experiences I have had at Indiana University will help make this internship very successful. I am also hoping to apply some of the skills I gained during my internship last summer to this experience as well. Throughout my time here I am working alongside the Talent Acquisition team as well as other state agencies where I am assisting them with numerous assigned projects. I hope to gain exposure in the various areas of Human Resources and have the opportunity to gain new skills that will help me prepare for my future career. 
During my first few days I have been able to get to know the Talent Acquisition team by shadowing each member and learning more about their position and specific responsibilities. This has been extremely interesting and I am looking forward to being able to work alongside them this summer. Learning about how sourcing and screening works as well as how each Recruitment Consultant assists different agencies throughout the state was great to learn.  Throughout the weeks to come I am shadowing other Human Resource departments such as Employee Relations and Benefits.
One project I will begin assisting Cortney Garfield and Heather Whitaker on is the upcoming job fair for the Indiana School of the Blind and Visually Impaired. I, as well as the other SPD intern, Taylor Pharr, will be helping with the marketing and promotions for this event. I am also excited to get a jump start on one of the other main projects we will be working on throughout the summer, which is creating and implementing a strategic recruitment plan for the incoming INSPD fall intern. We hope to come up with innovative ideas on how to attract a strong candidate who will essentially be coming in to the position we currently have.


So far this internship is off to a great start, and I am looking forward to all this internship has to offer and the experience and skills I will gain along the way! 

5/26/2017

Week two with the Indiana State Personnel Department has been very exciting. Throughout the week we had the privilege of meeting and talking to numerous INSPD directors and executives. Each individual had great stories and advice for me and Taylor and our future careers. We also officially started our recruitment efforts for the fall semester internship program. We began marketing and posting on school career websites around the state. We have been continuously screening resumes throughout the week so we can move forward to the next step in the process. Raeanne has been preparing us for the interviews we are holding in the near future.
Later in the week we spent a day with the Employee Relations team and learned about their day to day responsibilities and what it takes to be successful in their individual roles. We also attended a soft skills session on listening. It ultimately made me more aware of how often I truly am not listening, and what it takes to be a better listener. I had fun hearing numerous stories from each person in Employee Relations and I sparked an interest in investigations once the job shadowing was complete. Gaining exposure in the numerous HR areas has been great because it allows me to grasp a better understanding of what I want to do post-graduation.

6/1/2017
During week three we had the opportunity to shadow INSPD’s Benefits division. It was great being able to learn more about this division and what the benefits specialist position entails. We were able to shadow them during one of their busier times, which allowed us to see how the specialists handled numerous situations with employees around the state.
In addition, we continued our recruiting efforts for a fall intern and worked on marketing strategies for the School for the Blind and Visually Impaired career fair. As the end of this week approaches we are able to start wrapping up screening for the fall INSPD intern and start scheduling interviews. It’s hard to believe our first three weeks with INSPD are already over. Next Monday we begin working with the Department of Revenue. 


7/3/2017
Throughout the past month we have been working on projects for the Department of Revenue as well as the Department of Child Services. Both of these agencies gave us exposure to different aspects of Human Resources. At the Department of Revenue we worked on updating and auditing a 600 person personnel file filing system. On the other hand, at the Department of Child Services we were able to shadow the employee relations specialist and see how to handle employee relation disputes. This experience also allowed us to see the legal side of employee relations, which was extremely interesting. We learn about employment law in school, however, it was great to see how it is used in real world situations. I really have enjoyed how this rotational internship program allows us to go to different state agencies because we get to know the different HR teams at each agency and see how they operate.







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