Good day, Riya Rajendra Menon. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Sure.

Go ahead.

Hi, my name is Freya. I'm a recent graduate from the Hunter University at Cronigan. I'm currently working as a research analyst at the Ally Venture here. It's mainly A recruitment rule and it's where I work with clients, international clients mainly in helping them create longer shortlist market maps, lead generation data. And basically helping them to scope talent for specific project.

Prior to this I was working at Peak Flow where I was a people and culture trainee. Over there I was supporting all HR back office operations by sourcing paid from, you know, end to end recruitment.

Managing employment contracts, payroll, all of those. Prior to that I was. I have had multiple internships at ECOM, which was based in Amsterdam. Over there I was mainly into.

Through policy development, employee engagement and training and development.

Thanks for sharing that!

Let's begin by discussing your academic background, specifically your Master’s degree in Human Resource Management and its relevance to this HR Executive position. Could you explain the key areas covered during your degree and how they have prepared you for this role?

During my master's degree in HRM, basically I was into sustainable HRM. My thesis was into retaining a multi generational workforce. Some of the courses that I took were body of knowledge which was about policies development, how you know companies are changing with changing times and how to take factor those these new changes into account when looking.

Into labor laws employ employee not engagement but more like employee maintaining employee records and things like that. Prior to that also my bachelor's was in HRM and international business. So there it was a lot about dealing with a multinational workforce, how to handle different cultural differences among.

Folks who are employed in a.

Firm also I think.

I think that's all that comes to mind right now.

Your focus on sustainable HRM and retaining a multi-generational workforce certainly seems valuable, particularly when dealing with diverse and culturally varied teams. You also mentioned labor laws and maintaining employee records during your studies. Could you give an example of how you’ve applied these concepts, perhaps during one of your internships?

I think they were most valid during my time at peak flow and at ecommerce industrial where I was seeing a lot of HR operational tasks. These courses definitely helped me when it came to policy development on During my time at ecom, I was developing not only group company level but also group levels and system multinational firm. Policies that were based in that were basically covering topics such as.

Diversity and inclusion, anti discrimination and harassment also.

I think child labor laws, I think those were some of the things that these courses really helped me to research, to understand what to research, to create wholesome and holistic policies that covered not only a singular issue, but a wide array of issues apart from that when it comes to. Understanding a multi generational workforce and the diversity in a workforce, I think that really helped me at peak flow since that.

Was also, uh, relatively multinational firm, but umm, it was also a remote atmosphere. So having to umm, deal with the like basically have to collaborate with employees who are from Indonesia, who are from different parts of the world, you know, China and Malaysia. It was these courses on communication and. Dealing with cultural differences really helped me out over there.

Being able to look into cultural nuances and how people of a certain area might not be so willing to share personal information, whereas other folks might be a lot more into, you know, getting to know people on a one to one basis. So yeah, these courses definitely help me out in these two experiences, mainly even at my current role. They come in handy, especially when I'm working with my clients that are based elsewhere.

You know, learning how to properly communicate with them definitely helps in understanding what their issue, what they're like. Problem is that I can help them solve understanding projects like what is their, what they're looking for and how I can best deliver it to them.

It’s clear that your academic training has provided you with a solid foundation, and you’ve effectively translated it into practical applications, particularly in policy development and cross-cultural collaboration. Let’s pivot slightly and discuss performance management. Can you walk me through a time when you were involved in evaluating or improving performance within a team or organization?

I haven't had a lot of hands on experience with that. I've had a bit of exposure to it during my time at peak flow where I was, but I was still a trainee over there. So it was more of an observational role rather than an active participant in performance management from. But from what I learned, the main important part of performance management is making sure that the employee goals. Their KPIs are clear and that they are able to.

Clarify any questions if they have regarding how exactly each action of theirs is affecting OK a specific KPI. I think making them completely measurable is highly important because any sort of ambiguity in goal setting would directly affect how.

How they perform. So I think that's one of the main things that one of the main takeaways that I had. Apart from that, I think as to HR, it's very important that you're clear.

In communicating if someone hasn't met, met their goals or been up to par. So I think making it.

Not a critic criticism of of of their performance, but rather you know.

Sort of.

How do I make sure I a bit more?

Like you're looking for them to grow in their role. That's, that's what's important. You're you're not supposed to. I think that's one of the main things that I took away from that. Yeah, that's all I can say.

Even with limited hands-on experience, your insights into performance management—such as the importance of setting clear, measurable KPIs and fostering a growth-oriented feedback environment—are well-considered. Let’s now shift focus to employee relations and engagement. Can you share an instance where you actively worked on improving engagement or resolving a pressing employee relation issue?

I think I can given it to give examples of employee engagement, especially during my time at peak flow I it was a remote setting. We were a relatively small company, but we were highly encouraged to Hros highly encouraged to ensure that we're fostering.

Environment of inclusivity, of getting to know each other, although we're like continent support and countries apart, so I think.

Uh, you know, being proactive is one of the main key.

Like requirements when it comes to HR.

Genuinely being passionate and understanding of where people are coming from, what their backgrounds are, how they, what they prefer. I know it's difficult to say that in a larger setting. Being able to, you know, customize or being able to. Tailor make certain things for each individual. But definitely looking into team team bonding activities.

Maybe trainings that are, you know, fun, but also something that they can take away at the end. Getting to know, just getting to understand like where the other person is coming from is super important. So I think, yeah, I've had experience organizing.

Also, you know, just having.

Online engagement activities, be it displaying an online game of hangman with your group of colleagues, but it's something to do together, it's something that employees can collaborate on and it's not related to work. So I think that's something that's really important in creating a cohesive work employment work environment.

Your emphasis on fostering inclusivity and organizing team bonding activities, especially in a remote setting, demonstrates a practical approach to employee engagement. Transitioning now to a related aspect, could you discuss how you have used data to inform decisions, identify trends, or measure the impact of HR initiatives?

I think for this I'll take an example from when I had to prepare training and development materials at e-commerce industry over there I was in charge of also.

Post preparing the policies and they were rolled out, I think it was important to ensure that the employees who are working at the firm are also informed of these policy changes, updations and basically making sure that they have a clear understanding of what is going on, what are the changes. So I was in charge of also preparing training and evaluation materials for these different.

Basically inform.

So you know policies and prior to training we would run a quick little test where we would check their understanding of these policies, if they understood the not only adjust of it, but the underlying reasons for why we've had these policies in place or why these specific updations have taken place. I think after running these tests and then running these tests after a few months.

To make sure that they're, you know, to, to even evaluate whether employees have been able to keep, you know, have actually absorbed the information. We were able to figure out that.

Unfortunately, not a large number of employees were kept, you know, in the long term kept these policies and these changes in mind. So what we decided to go ahead with was.

And is running like a monthly newsletter where we also. Like have a small section where you know, we would just give them a refresher about our core values and how these, you know, also option to run a little quiz about how our policies have changed our evolving. SO post that post implementing that we noticed that when we conducted a surprise perhaps evaluation of. These policies and what's going into them.

We noticed a much better response rate and overall better understanding across the board when it came to people's understanding.

That's a great example of using data to refine and improve an approach. Your initiative to monitor understanding through evaluations, identify gaps, and implement a newsletter with refreshers and quizzes demonstrates a solid ability to analyze trends and measure impact. Let’s now talk about your understanding of employment regulations and best practices. Could you outline a policy or initiative you’ve worked on that required strong knowledge of labor laws or compliance standards?

At my time in ECOM, I think one of the considering it's a commodities for one of the major policies that we were planning on revamping was the child labour and human trafficking law. Since a majority of their operations happen in Africa, it was very, very important that the company does not engage in any sort of sourcing from for example farmers that.

Meeting in child labor or, you know, trafficking or be it also not employing, you know, women, for example. So when it came to drafting up that policy, it definitely took a lot of deep diving into child labour laws, not only in considering. So the company is based in Europe, so European standards of child labour are.

Much more refined, much more set in stone. But when it came to understanding these laws in say Ghana or in Nigeria, these they were, they were a bit more vague. So having to really deep dive into understanding what the laws say in both countries, how to make it compliant to European standards because of course we're operating over there.

That that was something that really. Led me down the path into.

You know, compliance and governance and understanding how different laws are shaping policies in a completely different continent. So yeah, that's one example where I have had to really understand.

Here, basically human rights laws to a certain degree, yeah.

That example demonstrates a keen grasp of employment regulations and compliance standards across different regions, as well as a thoughtful approach to aligning policies with ethical standards and laws. Lastly, having reviewed your academic and professional experiences, I’d like to verify whether your Master’s degree has adequately equipped you for a strategic HR role. Could you share how your coursework or certifications—particularly in strategic management or sustainability—aligns with the demands of this HR Executive position?

A lot of people tend to think that HR is a pretty simple job or role that yeah, I mean, you're just hiring and firing people. Oh, you're just, you know.

Having happy hour organized, but it's a lot more. I think these courses that I've done definitely do help me equip have helped me to you know, not only. Have like a HR specific viewpoint to when it comes to problem solving. But also helps me with. I'm having a much more like holistic approach to problem solving. So it's you're not looking at it from one perspective but multiple perspectives and.

Having dealt with sustainability, I've had a very good exposure to make compliance to auditing to you know, just understanding how how different countries have worked. And similarly when it comes to my certificate in strategic management, I think although I don't haven't had a lot of experience with actually managing. Folks, I think I have a good understanding of at least theoretically.

How to be able to delegate issues effectively? Delegating work effectively, sorry. And being able to, yeah, look at a problem with, you know, wider lengths rather than just a narrow scope, yeah.

Your perspective on HR as a multifaceted discipline and your emphasis on holistic problem-solving resonate strongly with the wider responsibilities of an HR Executive. The theoretical grounding provided by your certifications and Master's degree clearly supports your readiness to address strategic challenges. Thank you for walking me through these details. All your competencies have been duly assessed.

Thank you.

Is there anything more?

Professor, to start, could you share which specific foundational HR topic you find most enjoyable to teach and why?

I don't think that question is interesting.

So they'll be leaving the call. Thank you so much.

I appreciate your time, Professor. Could you please confirm clearly if you want me to end the interview now?

Yes, please.