Human Resources Graduate Associate Review

Overall, my experience at GXO has been positive. There have been ups and downs associated with changes to the scheme and company restructuring which has highlighted areas where communication could have been clearer and more timely. Site-level working has been overall very beneficial to my development.

ER-focused HR placement alongside data analytics and ethicspoint handling.
Employee engagement support and recognition programme management.
So far completed 1 out of 3 rotations and will be moving to GXO head office soon.
I have enjoy the engagement side the most as it allows for a break in what can be an extremely mentally taxing role when handling dismissals and ER caseload.

I think at site level and within a rotational scheme - it is difficult to find your footing and voice within pre-existing hierarchies and teams. Overall, the site does a good job of allowing for opportunities to support but oftentimes it can be difficult to see them manifest into actuality beyond just discussion.
Within the contest of the overall scheme and wider company - many opportunities have been afforded to us to allow us to highlight our experiences, thoughts and feedback.

I think that ultimately speaking, the salary we are given is not particular competitive within the wider "graduate scheme" market offerings. Especially considering the requirement to move locations every 8 months. Once relocation costs and basic expenses are deducted - it is not particularly easy to maintain a healthy lifestyle on the current salary. Given that other early career schemes are paid quite well relative to their experience and apprenticeship schemes - it can be a little disheartening to be doing the work that a full-time employee would be doing for significantly less.
Other benefits such as expenses for distance travel is useful but is somewhat standard within a company with as many locations as we do.

I think the scheme is doing quite a good job of preparing me for a future career especially if I was to continue within the company. GXO has allowed me many opportunities to develop hard and soft skills both at a site level and company level.
I think it is difficult as within this scheme, you do not necessarily get much opportunity to manage others which would be a key growth point for me but I think it may just be that I have yet to experience it.

I have been given 2 mentors as well as my graduate manager, apprenticeship manager and direct line manager. They have all endeavoured to drive my development in a multitude of ways but as we do not necessarily have clear goals set within the scheme - I have found it difficult to use their knowledge to its fullest potential.

Near the start of the scheme in Sept 2025 - it was extremely difficult as I work within a site of 800+ employees with only 4 HR team members including myself. Around peak (Sept-Dec) it was not easy to manage workload. This has eased with experience but as the scheme is rotational - it can be quite isolating to be in a new place with no support network.

In relation to GXO overall the culture is very conductive to positivity and inclusion however within a site-level context, it is highly varied as not every site promotes these organisational culture and values equally - whether that is by choice or due to other factors such as resource. I have been lucky enough to be on a site where there is a relatively strong push for these areas but it is not necessarily universally moderated.

Some areas of equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility are somewhat pushed more than others but overall they do a good job.

Yes

Overall, I think it is a good place to work and the fast-moving nature of the industry allows for consistent growth and learning.

Overall pretty accurate despite changes to the scheme after on-boarding.
May have somewhat left out each respective site's expectations but this is understandable to a certain degree as it is not easy to have complete visibility over so many people's roles.
However, I do think that the expectations of night work should have been more clearer during the process.