Updating Results

Bunzl APAC

4.3
  • 1,000 - 50,000 employees

Nancy Xiao

As covid becomes a normal part of life, I also feel very proud to be a part of a company that truly cares for its employees and seeks to keep them safe in any way possible.

nancy sitting on her desk

What's your job about?

Wholesale and distribution. I work in the national HR team to assist mainly with recruitment and other administrative tasks relating to the employee lifecycle, changes to an employment contract, assist the manager with any questions relating to employees.

On a normal day, I would split my day up into 2 main goals: recruitment and then my personal and HR inbox. I will go through my emails as well as the HR inbox to respond to any urgent requests or quick queries from managers. Here I would process any termination paperwork, create letters for employees who have changes to their employment contract, and respond to Hiring Managers and their questions regarding recruitment. The second half of my day will then be spent focusing on recruitment. Because we recruit across all of Australia and New Zealand, it gets quite busy and I’m constantly shortlisting candidates, creating video interview assessments, organising in-person/Teams interviews, and creating offers and contracts for successful candidates. Throughout the week I also attend different meetings, some to do with recruitment, sometimes there are training sessions, and also meetings to update management on current COVID situations.

To explain my job in the simplest of words, I help the company to hire employees, as well as assist with any changes or help that is needed relating to the entire employee lifecycle including recruitment, onboarding, performance issues, and termination. My job involves a lot of communication with employees, managers and candidates!

What's your background?

I was born in Brisbane and grew up here so I’m very familiar with this city. I would say my life up until now has been quite…normal. I went to high school and university in the Brisbane CBD area, my previous retail jobs were in the city, and now I’m working near the city in Morningside! I was made redundant at my previous job at the start of 2020 due to the pandemic, and I started at Bunzl in January of 2021 so I’ve been here for just over half a year. I was applying for jobs all of 2020 and I’m glad I was quite picky because this role was exactly what I was looking for and I feel extremely lucky – I’ve had the opportunity to learn so much in this role in such a short period of time.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

I think a lot of people could work in HR, but only some will love and find it truly rewarding. Not to mention it involves a lot of administration, but also the opportunity to meet and communicate with so many people across the company.

I think for someone who wants to work at Bunzl, you need a drive and love for challenges and constantly looking to improve and learn. It’s a really supportive environment, even for me personally who came in as one of the first (if not first) graduates. There is always something new every day and I get exposure to so many different parts of the business.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The thing I love most about my job is the variety of tasks that I get to do. There is never a boring day and I get to talk to so many different types of people throughout the company. When I’m able to help a Hiring Manager recruit someone quickly and smoothly, being able to assist my HR team especially when each day is so jam-packed, or when candidates thank me personally and are appreciative of the way I kept them up to date throughout the process. As covid becomes a normal part of life, I also feel very proud to be a part of a company that truly cares for its employees and seeks to keep them safe in any way possible.

What are the limitations of your job?

There is always a lot of work to be done, but I personally love the feeling of a busy workplace. Because my job depends a lot on employee and candidate needs, the amount of work varies on a day-to-day basis. There is no weekend work required. A possible limitation might be that because this is a global business, and the HR team is national, we are all located in different states and it would be more difficult to learn directly from another manager or be able to be trained/mentored in person, in saying that, Microsoft Teams has become a crucial part of my role.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

  1. Study hard and try your best, but don’t stress too much about your grades. It won’t matter so much after you get into the real world. There is so much more to learn on the job.
  2. No one knows what they’re doing and not everyone has an exact plan for their life, so don’t worry about your own ‘timeline’, much easier said than done!
  3. I would also tell myself not to take everything personally, and always back myself. You will always be your own #1 supporter.