Blog

One of the things you notice every year in recruitment is that the first 2 weeks of December is a bit mad, but then it calms down. “no one recruits over the holidays” people assure you.

We don’t do things like that at O2.

Apart from keeping our stores stocked with our brilliant Advisors and Gurus so you can get your O2 Christmas fix, across the business this year we are going flat out to make sure we have the best possible people everywhere to make us do what we do best, serve you the customer.

Here is a quick idea of what we are doing right now, we are recruiting a huge amount of roles in Marketing so we can use our data better to give you the products you want. We are looking for people in Devices so you can get the most out of your O2 phone. We are recruiting for people in our New Businesses like M2M so we stay ahead of the game. And we are planning a huge push for the new Telefónica Digital business to go live in the next few weeks.

We are looking for people coming from all sorts of backgrounds, to be our future leaders, so we want people joining our stores to move up the ranks, we want new people joining finance to be looking to be our CFO in 10 years time, we are looking for people for the future and right now is an incredibly exciting time to join us.

So, check our job boards over the next few weeks www.o2careers.co.uk, there could be something on there for you

And Happy Holidays everyone, hope you have a good one

As the year draws to an end, so does my time with the people policy team. And so I will write this blog  with the intention of divulging my experiences, whilst also giving myself the time and opportunity for some self-reflection.
Like most businesses in today’s recession, Telefonica has been changing its structure to work to be really efficient. And the policy team has been working hard to do the same. This has meant it’s been very busy for a team who do much more than my original expectations of policy refreshes and case management. This fast pace and ever-evolving motion of Telefonica, and the teams it’s made up of, quickly showed me why it’s such an innovative company and pioneering the way in telecommunications of the future. It is, without a doubt, an exciting company to work with. But, as with athletes who strive to be the best, it isn’t done without a lot of hard work and commitment.
The policy team were inspiring in these aspects throughout the five months I was with them. They were devoted to the highest standard of work in everything they took on and I learnt the importance of accurate and thorough attention to detail. A very new thing to me, as when I was at University, I wasn’t one to even reread an essay once I had written it (and now I am on version six of the adoption policy).
I also learnt how to communicate and plan a little better in the clear, bold, trusted and open way that Telefonica loves. As an athlete, I have had to plan my time and adjust from an earlier age to most of my peers at school and University, which again, is not something that comes naturally to me. But Telefonica is certainly much quicker in its pace than the British Fencing Association and I can see how the core values allow the changes to take place in an effective and smooth way.
As well as carrying out my responsibilities as an athlete, such as presentations on motivation, and blogs, I have also had responsibilities in the policy team that are drawing to an end. I created a policy library so that an archive of the policies can be stored in case they’re needed at Employment Tribunals; I’ve refreshed some of the policies via feedback from unions and people forums; I’ve gained an understanding of case management through note-taking for a variety of cases and recently was able to support a manager myself. From having no history or prior knowledge in human resources, the policy team have given me a firm foundation in this, and of Telefonica’s culture and values as a whole. I’m now really looking forward to taking this with me for my time in the Resourcing Team which I begin in January. I’ll let you know how I get on, but for now, Merry Christmas.

Hannah

Being one of Telefónica’s Finance Grads isn’t all fun and games, we have to work hard and we also have our exams!!! So as I am travelling back from another set of exams I’ve decided to use a train journey to do something productive instead of watching films I’ve downloaded!

Exams are the end result of all the money, time and effort that is given to us in our training. But however bad or stressful they can be are incredibly worthwhile (though I may not have said that Tuesday evening worrying about the fact that I could not remember anything I had revised!) Plus if I pass these ones I’ve only got one more year of them to go, which seemed a distant prospect when I started.

Anyway, I finished my last blog promising to write about what I’ve been up to recently. So here goes;

A few months ago I moved from doing accounting in the core mobile business to supporting one of our new business areas O2 Money. It’s been a brilliant place to work as there is a buzz working on something that is new, not only to this business but to the market as we are launching a mobile wallet and other services to buy things via your mobile.

It’s been a huge learning curve to understand these new products and services but also everything that goes with setting up the finance function for something like this. I’ve been able to get involved setting up the business and writing the agreements that govern it, in addition to seeing how the FSA and other regulations affect businesses like these. I’ve also been able to set up how we review the performance of the business and how we in finance can help influence or shape the strategy of products or services. I’ve got involved with brand new products, understanding how we identify opportunities and bring those ideas to life.

Outside of the day job I’ve been working on two other projects. One to improve business expenses and another to launch an internship and sandwich placement course in UK Finance. I even found time to go back to my old Uni (Durham) and put in an appearance for the Old Boy’s team (see the pics)   .

The business expenses work has been fascinating, it affects the whole company and something we spend millions of pounds on each year. It’s enabled me to look at what we do and how to make it better.

I’ll talk more about the placement stuff we’re doing in my next blog, as hopefully by then I’ll be able to talk about when to apply and when it will begin!

Thanks for reading

Mat