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Internship Essay Getting an opportunity to work with Crown Global Consulting, LLC as an intern was a great accomplishment for me owing to the great value the internship has afforded me. Contrary to what I had expected, the company, located in Lincoln, offers me with the opportunity to interact with other organizations and to virtually do all that is in line with human resource management, employee relations, and career development. I started off with a formal interview with the company’s human resources manager; and having applied for the internship via the internet I was a bit surprised when the interview centered on my personal as well as professional skills. Specifically, the company needed an intern capable of leading, deciding, informing, advising, managing problems and evaluating results. In my opinion, my military and international travel experience is what convinced the manager to take me on board. Discussion I started my internship in May 2010 and I hope to finish it in December 2010. As part of my learning objects, I will be involved in supporting the HR manager in employee recognition programs and career development. To achieve this, I work closely with the HR manager and so get to learn a lot about the different ways through which companies reward their employees. In most cases, the employees are rewarded for their outstanding performance, excellent attendance records each year, participation in activities sponsored by the company, and volunteering their service for the agencies that the company is involved with. As part of career development, employees are encouraged to further their education and training. The costs thereof are covered by the company. Serving as a liaison officer with the communities and/or outside agencies regarding their human resource programs, I have had the chance to work with the American Heart Association (AHA); specifically working with local AHA personnel in submitting an award application for the company. I have had to gather information on what the company does to promote healthy living. The vendors we have worked with provide us with healthy food options and we had exercise programs available for the employees to take part in. I had to go through past records to find out how many employees had participated in the health screening program that was provided by the company. This helped me to understand what the company’s past practices were. I also got to work with several food vendors that offered catering services at the company’s luncheons. I have also been involved in providing guidance in matters of employment law. I got to research on some of the grievances that were filed against the company; and did research on the historical actions the company took whenever employees filed grievances against it. I had to search past records and ascertain how each situation was handled, the most important thing being to understand why the decision was made in that manner. I have come to understand that the greatest challenges that face the company and which need human resource representatives in the company to work on are the annual and family medical leaves. I have to admit that I found this to be the hardest part to learn. There were many rules and laws that could be applied to situations and I had to look at every situation differently and from different angles before making any decision. It was made clear to me never to make any decision without the full knowledge of the case as it could end up in court. I identified a few FMLA cases where employees had gone for long periods of time without proper notification from the relevant health practitioners. Part of my duties during the internship has been to promote healthy lifestyles and the project I have worked on is to promote a walking program which entailed walking from Lincoln, NE to Hawaii. I have had to keep track of the number of miles covered, the number of people that took part in the program, and determine the amount of money that had to be spent on prizes. For prizes, we obtained baseball tickets to a local game, gift cards, and/or Hawaiian-themed prizes. This was the most rewarding part of my internship for it was an ideal avenue for me to meet people including the employees. The hardest part of working in human relations has been ensuring that I am well versed with the standards of the Affirmative Actions (AA) plan. Each year we have the Department of Labor officials coming and assessing the type of employees that we have working in the company. They consider the diversity of Lincoln and require that businesses have the same type of diversity in their workforce. After the evaluation, we get a proposal indicating where we are meeting the requirements and the areas we need to improve on. The majority of our employees are White Americans, indicating that our diversity is not enough. My concern was how recruitment has to be done in order to balance between diversity and qualification but I came to understand that although the most qualified people ought to be employed, the company has to strive to meet the AA requirements. I also learned that the company has to keep good records of all the applicants and be able to offer the reasons for selecting the ones that got hired. One of the most interesting things about my internship was that I worked with a union that was responsible for the protection of the employees. The union files grievances if the employees are being treated unfairly. However, in my own opinion, there was no need for such a union because there are enough laws in place to protect workers. This is especially so because to be members employees have to pay a monthly fee. Conclusion My internship has been a most fulfilling experience. On the whole, I have learned a lot regarding dealing with different people in different situations. This has been a lesson that is so invaluable for me. I have also been able to learn good communication skills and have become a team player. On a general note, I think I have had much to learn about the real business world. For me, therefore, my internship at Crown Global Consulting, LLC has offered me valuable learning experience.