Post #12

Yesterday was my last day at the First Solar headquarters in Tempe. I spent most of the day just going to meetings with Sheila, but today we got a chance to talk a little bit more about HR with a broader lense. She basically broke down that within the HR wing, there are several subsects and subdivisions. The major ones are compensation and benefits, talent acquisition, org development and training, and information systems and payroll. Compensation and benefits is in charge of how much each member of the company is paid, and what benefits they get. With regards to benefits, they often to quarterly surveys to figure out what everyone wants. Talent acquisition is in charge of hiring new employees and figuring out what they're looking for in employees, along with refining their hiring strategies. Org development and training is primarily in charge of management and training. They also try to figure out if everyone is happy with their bosses and workplace environment. Sheila went into depth on how payment is determined. For every level position within the subdivision, there is a minimum and a maximum you can get paid. At First Solar, there is a certain classified percentage that the employees get paid more and more each year. Additionally, they get a bonus and that bonus is determined from an annual performance review where they can get 4 different ratings. They can get the following: Extraordinary contribution (EC), Impressive Contribution (IC), Solid Contribution (SC), and Needs Development (ND). ND is the only one where an employee would get no bonus. It was interesting to see that this system was pretty simplified. Obviously more things go into an employee's pay than that, but it was cool to see how the bonuses are determined. Before today, I didn't truly understand the scope of Sheila's job. HR information systems and payroll is in charge of keeping track of everyone's funds, resources, benefits, and in general everything about the company. There are different heads in charge of different regions around the globe, but Sheila heads all of those people. Her official title is head of global human resources information systems and payroll. Meaning she heads this subdivision around the entire world. This is huge, and her job has a lot of implications. She has to determine what system and software the company is using to keep track of everyone's data and has to oversee plenty of other workers. Most of it is confidential, but after teaching me all of that Sheila told me how she worked her way up the company, and how she became so successful in this sector. She basically found fantastic systems and coupled that with good delegation and control. She created new positions in other areas to make sure everything runs smoothly by itself in big traffic areas of First Solar like Vietnam. Overall, it was very impressive to see what she had done. I think I achieved my goals during this intensive. I definitely got more exposed to a professional, corporate environment while also learning more about how alternative energy works, and how the industry at large works. I look forward to manifesting my knowledge into my presentation at intensive fair.