Dominic completed his fully funded Level 7 CIPD course with us and has developed his career by taking on opportunities and not being afraid to fail and start again.
You joined us on a graduate scheme, what was your graduate journey like?
My first two roles were as a HR Business Partner supporting Corporate Affairs, Regulatory Affairs and Legal before moving to BT Technology; supporting our 1,200 strong Field Engineer population working on large change and transformation projects.
I then moved into Reward, working in the central team supporting our annual pay and bonus review for 50,000 managers. One of the interesting things I had to do was work with leads based in all the countries we operate in and ensure our pay and bonus letters were all in the correct languages and made sense (sadly Google Translate didn’t cut it).
Finally, I worked in our Early Careers Recruitment team travelling across the country running assessment centres for all our Graduate, Apprentice and Industrial Placement applicants.
How has BT Group supported your career development and growth after the graduate scheme?
Alongside BT Group fully funding my CIPD Level 7 qualification, I’ve also been able to attend a number of courses and gain accreditations. As a result, from the experience, I’ve gained both during and after the graduate scheme I’ve been promoted to Manager level and now support one of our key Sales teams.
What are the key responsibilities of a HR Business Partner?
The role of a HR Business Partner is exactly in the name. Each of us are aligned to a particular area of the business and partner with the leadership team to drive our people strategy. The business area I support is our B2B Desk Sales and Retail estate in our Enterprise division.
What is your team culture like?
I’ve been in the same team since I finished the Graduate programme two years ago which I’d say is a testament to how much I truly enjoy it. My line manager started off as an Apprentice at BT and is now a HR Director so she’s very familiar with the career path and is a huge advocate for our Early Careers population.
Several of us in the team are Business Partners so we have the same challenges and opportunities. We support each other and bounce thoughts and ideas around – the team working environment is great as you really feel the comradery.
There’s absolutely an environment of trust in my team and I have a lot of autonomy over the business areas I support. It’s a culture of not being afraid to fail or take risks (that’s how we learn the most and become frontrunners in the spaces we operate in).
Why is diversity and inclusion important to BT Group and how do you support this in a HR world?
There are several reasons why Diversity & Inclusion is such an important focus at BT Group. We are a multinational company and in being so, need to reflect the customers we serve all over the world. Our differences make us stronger and by building a sense of belonging we allow all our colleagues to bring their best selves to work.
In HR, the aim is for us to embed Diversity & Inclusion in every aspect of the business – it’s not just an ‘add on’. Just some of the things we’ve been doing include:
- Re-looking at job descriptions and advertisements to promote inclusive language and remove barriers. We have also committed to diverse interview panels where possible.
- Hosting listening sessions to understand how colleagues from different backgrounds feel about working at BT and how these insights can inform our policies and procedures.
- Our talent programme for aspiring leaders with the potential to be our future Directors. The aim is to level the playing field and provide a core development path with additional tailored support for our female and ethnic minority talent.
