Meet Sam

Hi, I’m Sam, and I’m currently working as a Benefits Graduate in the HR team. As a Benefits Grad, I'm responsible for all sorts of things. Employees receive a range of benefits working at Cala and these need to be communicated properly, people need to be enrolled, questions need to be answered and data needs to be organised and distributed. There's a little bit of everything to get involved with.

I studied Psychology at Reading University and wanted to pursue a role in HR, mainly for my love of spreadsheets! My day to day role has a good amount of variety, I have trust and autonamy from my manager, and I am able to set aside time to pick up new skills and partake in work and projects that interests me, which is key to my development.

The grad programme at Cala gives me a chance to develop alongside other graduates, there is a group of us and we keep in regular contact throught he programme. We’re currently working on an ‘Apprentice’ style project together, where we have to come up with ideas to generate funds for Cala’s national charity partner, Samaritans.

As part of the Graduate Programme, I will also take part in two placements with other departments, allowing me to learn additional skills and understand how the wider business works. This gives me a chance to network and to develop the most important skills to progress within my role. At the moment (March 2022), I’m spending three months with the Communications team, learning about internal communications, PR and social media.

I’m enjoying my role at Cala, and the culture is warm and friendly. The grad roles are permanent roles that can be continued after the end of the programme, and I plan to keep going at Cala.

My work-life balance here is fantastic. In my role, I have the option to work from home most of the time, meaning I have no commute and plenty of time in the evening to see friends and unwind. I had much lower expectations moving into the world of work from uni, but if anything I seem to have more time.