My student trek experience: MSc HRM

Day 1

With a cool, breezy Edinburgh morning, we set out to depart from the Business School at 9am with views of sheep and windmills rotating against the clear skies on the way to our destination. After about 1.5 hours, we reached the New Lanark Mill Hotel, an extravagant heritage property surrounded by the mill buildings and workers' houses dating back to the 1800s!

We were provided with a guided tour of the entire campus where we learned about the rich, pioneering HR history of Scotland and how the Mill manager, Robert Owen, took care of his workers at the time. As HR students ourselves, it was indeed intriguing and fascinating to think about how employee engagement was achieved back then through the various perks and benefits that were offered to them.

After this, we had a delicious lunch arranged for us at the hotel café, where we chatted about anything and everything with our faculty, Lila and Rona, and external visitor, Vinzenz Ackermann.

The evening was scheduled for an in-depth yet amusing case study analysis for the financial firm AirPlus, a subsidiary of the Lufthansa group. For this, we were divided into groups and brainstormed on the implications of cross-border working on employees and management alike. Shortly after this, the day wrapped up with a three-course meal at the hotel and a gala night with our friends!

Day 2

The next morning after a wholesome breakfast and packed lunches, we started off our journey to the Amazon warehouse, which to our surprise was overwhelmingly huge and baffling! We were given a special tour of the entire warehouse where we got to witness the packaging and delivery setups of the facility, giving us an insight into how the logistics of Amazon are normally worked out. We also had the opportunity to listen to the inspiring work of their HR department and networked our way through the entire afternoon with their whole team.

Following the Amazon visit, we set out again for our bottling facility tour at Diageo, where we learned about their end-to-end bottling process and how they optimise their process to cater to lead times and daily timelines.

Finally, in the evening, we headed off to the Balbirnie House Hotel where we presented our AirPlus case study suggestions and solutions to their HR team lead, Vinzenz. We were given deep and enriching feedback on this, helping us gain newer perspectives and technical know-how on how to navigate cross-border working situations. After a laughter-filled dinner accompanied by meaningful conversations with our peers and professors, our company trek came to an end with memoried that shall be etched into our hearts for a long long time!