Internships are always fun, some say. Some say they are monotonous and herculean. Well, it is actually a fine blend of both combined with few learnings and everlasting memories to takeaway. If LIBA was one beautiful thing which happened to me in 2016, Danfoss would be the other in 2017. My association with Danfoss was one such cherishable experience which would hold a special place in my heart forever even after I pass out of this college. I happened to intern at Danfoss Industries Private Limited in the month of May 2017 for a period of 2 months in the HR domain primarily as a HR Generalist (predominantly HR Analytics) with a few other classmates of mine. The place, first up, is something which needs a special mention. Having been located in the outskirts of Chennai at Oragadam, known as the manufacturing hub of Chennai, its premises was nothing short of captivating and breathtaking. Encompassing 12 buildings or units, its sheer expanse was huge boasting of lush greenery and immaculate ambience.
Being a core Engineering company, manufacturing, assembling and supplying hardware components/ equipments for external vendors, it concentrated on eco-friendliness and energy efficient climate and energy solutions. It was visionary and futuristic and its practicality in its mission and vision statements could even be seen in its premises, which used solar cells and other green energy sources to reduce reliance on other non-renewable sources. The company operates predominantly in 4 business segments namely heating, cooling, drives and power solutions and functions in over a 100 countries. Headquartered in Denmark, the happiness quotient of its employees is very high around 78%. Beautiful, right? To love the work you do and work to love your workplace? Yes, that was Danfoss.
With 12 individual manufacturing sub-units housed in a linear fashion spaced few distance apart, there were min-cars provided for people on tours across the premises and cycles were also given to encourage people to be health conscious. Health and Fitness has been one of the major areas the company wants their employees to work on and for the same reason the company has recreational facilities in the campus which includes gym and play area and also a separate nursing room for children, in case some of the employees want to bring them along to office.
There are courtyards where you could sit, chit chat and talk in case you get bored or high with work. There are lounges where employees could sit and read papers or have petty talks. There are rooms for urgent or private conversations. There is a top-notch canteen which having incorporated a meal rotation plan provides non-recurring food for every two weeks, thrice a day. Add to it, the special DIET PLAN for those who wish to burn fat and carbo and stay trimmed. There are even green plates provided to signify the importance of eco-friendliness.
Coming to the main building where we worked in, it was a three storey with department divisions and meeting halls. Ours was the HR bay in the ground floor located straight opposite the MARKETING bay. Our bay was again divided into three functional departments- Learning and Development, Compensation and Talent Acquisition. We were in the talent acquisition team working alongside four other people, one of which happened to be our mentor and the head of Talent Acquisition for the company. My classmate and me were co-involved in a recruitment project named “RECRUITMENT ANALYTICS” wherein we were given the recruitment data for the first quarter January-June and we had to analyse the current performance of the recruitment team in terms of various quantifiable metrics or KPI’s and find out potential discrepancies/ inefficiencies and suggest possible ways of improvement.
Our mentor and our team were very friendly throughout the tenure of our project and showed no signs of authority or delegation. They gave us invaluable insights and suggestions and helped us get a hands-on experience in the field by even making us conduct GD’s for Engineer Trainee applicants who had come for their interviews. We made our observations based on the data given and gave our ideas at the end of our project tenure and some were also translated to the regional head and sales head. We were also requested to work on other minor works like working on global data and checking on the compensation data of the employees.
On the whole, there were a lot of learnings we had about the overall recruitment system of the company. We learnt as to how a recruitment process gets structured and how best it can be made to contribute to the quality of employees in an organisation which could also potentially bring down the attrition rate as well. If I have to sum this all up, Danfoss had one of the best work cultures that I have ever heard or seen where employees are continuously kept motivated, happy and self-driven, the policies flexible and less stringent, the atmosphere less stressful and more so personal/ informal and the workplace ethereal and lovely.
Vishnoo Prashanth
Batch 2016 – 18 | LIBA