Work Experience Placement Guide for Managers

A Work Experience Placement
Guide for Managers

Introduction

This document is to provide guidance to
Managers when welcoming individuals to their
business area for work experience in conjunction
with the Work Experience Policy.

We welcome the opportunity to showcase Tilney
as an employer and support individuals in
developing their career pathway.

Agreeing to a work experience placement is at a
Manager’s discretion however we advise that
work experience placements are given to friends
or family of our employees and key clients.

Whilst most tend to be under the age of 18 there
are certain aspects that must be considered
when welcoming young people in to the business
in order to safeguard Tilney and the young
person, of which this document will also provide
guidance.

Managers are responsible for co-ordinating and
managing the work experience placement with
support from HR, Facilities and IT.

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As the business area Manager you will be responsible for the co-ordination and safety of the individual
and/or young person whilst they are in your care and be the main point of contact for all parties involved

On receiving the request for a work experience placement from an employee gather the following
information:

 Name, address & age of the student
 Hours to be worked
 Dates of the placement
 Official contact (e.g. School Liaison Officer)
 Establish what information and paperwork is required from the school (if applicable)

Paperwork that could be requested by the school (if applicable):

1. School’s Employer Form & Agreement
2. Health and Safety Policy
3. Equal Opportunities Policy
4. Risk Assessment Policy
5. Employer's Liability Insurance Certificate

Checklist

Contact the Human Resources mailbox and your local Facilities Manager and provide them with:

 Information listed previously
 Type of placement available
 Office the student will be working in (there are additional risks with multiple locations)
 Business unit they will be working in (non disclosure forms may be required)
 That you will be the supervising manager
 Overview of the experience the individual will gain in your team

They will be able to provide the relevant information requested by the school and discuss any additional
considerations with you. HR will complete the School’s Employer Form & Agreement and send all
information to the School if this is applicable.

 Ensure the Work Experience Agreement which includes confidentiality declaration is signed by the
individual once work placement has been agreed/organised

IT Requirements:

 Contact IT to arrange relevant system access* and logins (you may be requested to complete a new
starter/entrant form online).

 Arrange a workspace and desktop if required
 If Evolve access is required please contact [email protected]

*system access will be dependent on the activities you want the student to complete

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Benjamin Franklin

This is a great opportunity for the student to  It is appropriate to allocate ‘mundane’
experience working life and you will also have or ‘repetitive’ activities such as scanning
an additional resource for a week so it’s and photocopying but try to intersperse
important to consider how best to support these with other tasks and projects.
this to the benefit of all involved.
 This is a great opportunity to test
When preparing for the work experience standard operating procedures and
placement consider the following: system guides – can the student follow
them and work through them easily?
 Prepare a schedule of activities well in How could they be improved?
advance
 Think about mini projects they could
 Be prepared to provide clear guidance complete for example reading through
and direction report templates and providing feedback
on the language used
 Brief the team and assign suitable
buddies  Where possible try to avoid shadowing
on a continuous basis, the student
 Do other business areas need to be should be actively completing practical
involved?* activities

 Where possible store up suitable work in
preparation

* You will need to disclose this at the checklist stage and discuss systems access with IT.

• Meet & greet the student • Walk through their work schedule for the week
• Introduce to the team and buddies • Show them their work station
• Provide a tour of the office • Assist with system login
• Provide Health & Safety briefing • Hand over to buddies
• Set expectations - working hours, lunch, dress • Debrief first day with student

code, office etiquette, use of mobile phones &

social media

• Debrief the week and complete the feedback survey
• You may wish to arrange an appropriate ‘send off’ gesture for the student

Human Resources
• Provide copies of relevant

Tilney policies

Facilities
• Provide copy of the risk

assessment policy
• Complete risk

assessment form
• Provide site induction

form to Manager

Duty of Care: Young person wellbeing

When agreeing to support a work experience placement it is important that you are aware of
the additional duty of care required when working with young people and children.

This may be their first experience in a working environment and particularly that of a
professional office. As with any new experience this can be a daunting prospect and
potentially emotionally challenging.

The student is likely to need more guidance and direction than a new starter so the more we
can do to prepare them the better. To this end we have created a Guide to Work Experience
Placement at Tilney that can be sent out to the student ahead of time.

Working hour guidance for young people can be found in the working hour’s directive for
young people: http://www.hse.gov.uk/youngpeople/law/

In line with the above we suggest that you ensure that the student is not working more than
an 8 hour day, is having an hour’s lunch break and regular short breaks. The normal start
and end times are 9am – 5pm.

For any queries, please contact [email protected]

Produced by HR Development, Training & Competency