OnePlusOne is a research and innovation charity that creates evidence-based early intervention resources to help parents and children build and maintain healthy relationships.

One of our business and management with psychology students, Sereena Vaja, has been completing her placement year with the organisation.

We caught up with Shannon Hirst, Senior Research Lead and Sereena’s line manager, to find out how Sereena has been getting on, and what value placements bring to OnePlusOne.

Why did you choose to recruit a student?

As a research and innovation charity, we think it’s important to work with students. It allows us to contribute to the learning and training of the next generation of relationship researchers, and it also keeps us up to date with the latest methods and thinking, as taught in their degrees. We have a commitment to the future of relationship research.

How have you found the recruitment process with Sheffield Hallam?

The recruitment process with Sheffield Hallam has been easy each year. They’re good at sending reminders for deadlines and it isn’t too arduous on the organisation. We usually recruit psychology students, but Sereena expressed interest in our work, and we happened to be working on a relationships in business project at the time so she was a perfect fit.  

What do students do within your business?

Psychology students in the past have worked on literature reviews, writing evidence-based articles for our parent-facing website, reviewing our interventions, analysing data, and contributing to the daily running of the organisation.  

What has Sereena brought to your business?

Being younger than most of our staff and still in the throes of learning and developing, Sereena has brought different insights and encouraged us all to think about our work from different angles. 

The next youngest person to Sereena at OnePlusOne is nearly a decade older than her, so having that insight from someone of a younger generation is helpful.

The meaning of relationships is ever changing and what committed relationships means to younger generations may be different to older generations. This means that bringing their insight into what relationships mean and how they have developed that understanding is valuable. 

It encourages us to reflect on whether our interventions and resources are relatable and applicable across a range of generations. We’ve also had two placement students complete reviews on the impact of cultural differences on relationships, based on their own lived experiences.

Hiring a placement student has also given us so much more capacity to work on projects that we haven’t been able to in the past. We’ve increased our knowledge base and can respond to requests much quicker. 

What about return on investment?

It’s worth the time and effort, especially in the case of Sereena. One of our research assistants who is doing her doctorate is leaving in September and we have already asked Sereena to stay on part-time to fill that role.

She understands the charity, she believes in our cause, and she knows what we do. We won’t have to spend ages onboarding a new person and are confident that we will have the right person already in post.  

What would you say to other businesses considering recruiting a placement student? 

We have loved having placement students, and even recruited one of them as an associate content producer. Don’t be put off thinking that you will need to hand-hold or that because they haven’t completed their degrees, they may not be able to keep up. 

It’s a great opportunity not just for them but also for your organisation. Every student we have worked with has been enthusiastic, engaged and knowledgeable, and brought such great energy and talents to the team. 

How have you found the support at Sheffield Hallam?

The support from the University has been really good too. The lecturers seem very engaged and enthusiastic about their student’s placement and the communications from the University have been great.