Guest Lecture Sheds Light on Practical Aspects of Human Resource Management

25.02.2024

Lecture delivered by Maike Nuyken to group of IBA students

A group of Wittenborg bachelor’s students had the opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of the complexities of Human Resources on 16 January, when the school’s HR Manager Maike Nuyken delivered a guest lecture on this theme.

Titled ‘Practical Insights into Human Resource Management’, the activity focused on topics such as the responsibilities of an HR professional and what daily operations in this field are like. Additionally, Nuyken provided examples of how to handle HR challenges and discussed the differences between working in Human Resources for an SME and for a big corporation.

“Lectures and textbooks tend to focus on the aspects of HR concerned with Recruitment & Selection and Training & Development. On the other hand, it is not so common for students to learn about the day-to-day and perhaps less flashy aspects, such as compensation, health & safety and legal. So, I invited them to think about how different it is to work in HR in a big corporation, where your role is likely very specialised, compared to an SME, where you’ll probably be an all-rounder/generalist, covering all aspects of HR,” she commented.

Nuyken also invited participants to reflect on the challenges inherent to the HR function, which is somewhat located between the interests of different stakeholders, such as the management/organisation, the employees and the legal environment. The lecture also addressed the particularities of Human Resource management in the Netherlands.

The HR manager highlighted that she felt honoured to have the opportunity to speak to students and enjoyed it very much.

“I was lucky to have a nice group of students who were very engaged and interested. They asked me a lot of questions and it was great to exchange ideas and insights with them. Some of the questions had to do with discrimination, for instance, during the hiring process or the appraisal process. This seems to be a topic that is important to students, and it was good to see that there is a lot of awareness surrounding this. I sought to give them valuable information, to ensure that they will contribute to make any type of discriminatory behaviour a thing of the past.”

IBA student Elaheh Mosallanejad, specialising in Economics & Management, said that she really enjoyed the workshop due to the insightful and practical nature of the information that was offered to participants.

“I have attended many guest lectures; however, my favourite ones are those that provide students with practical and real-life perspectives, rather than theoretical approaches. As a professional with many years of experience in HR, Maike gave us a good insight into what is happening in real working environments, rather than what we read in books.”

Oluwasanmi Afolabi, also pursuing an IBA degree in Economics & Management, described the workshop as informative and engaging, adding that Nuyken’s knowledge and expertise impacted him and his colleagues. “Activities like this help to enlighten students, especially when the information is coming from an expert like Maike, with years of experience in the field,” he pointed out.