Four ways to improve your early careers program

Every year, college graduates world-wide enter the workforce, many having never been exposed to a professional environment. Venturing into this unknown territory requires application, patience, and a dedication to learn if they are to progress and succeed in their new roles.

While the learning environment for these new recruits is different, the principles of graduate hiring remain the same.

In this article, we detail some of the critical aspects of an early career program many organizations neglect or ignore.

The early careers program experience

A business cannot ensure buy-in, retention, or productivity from their annual intern intake, but providing an effective early careers program can increase the chances of successful integration. By providing a program optimized for the effective integration of new hires, a company minimizes the chances of organizational issues, including:

1. Higher than average employee turnover
2. Departmental misalignment
3. Longer than average times to proficiency

Statistics indicate effective integration can improve employee retention by 82 percent (Glassdoor) while other statistics around this area include:

1. 88 percent of organizations do not integrate new hires well according to employees (Gallup)
2. Most organizations only focus on week 1 of a new hire’s integration, rather than an extended period (HCI)
3. A negative integration experience results in new hires being twice as likely to look for other opportunities (Digitate)

Four ways to improve your early careers program

Improving your early careers program requires thoughtful planning in order to stay competitive and attract desired talent.

When developing your early careers program, consider introducing/improving the following elements:

1 Pre-boarding

Integration starts before new hires begin the early careers program.

Preboarding is the period of waiting from an employee’s acceptance of a position to the day they start.

Many organizations will focus pre-boarding activities around legal/administrative requirements such as contracts and payment details. This can be taken a step further and used as a period of communication between the company and new hire. Familiarizing the intern with basic company knowledge, brand principles, and supporting resources instils confidence in the individual when they start their role. The combination of these factors creates momentum when the intern officially starts their new position.

Practical Application

If you are using a knowledge library to induct new hires which has built-in diagnostic tools, you can start assessing the competence of core concepts prior to a new hire’s first day. This allows skills gaps to be addressed and knowledge to be level–set before new hires begin their role.

An organized structure should be implemented for the pre-boarding and onboarding stages, such as creating an onboarding workflow and checklist to ensure new hires have the tools, documents, resources and information they need to hit the ground running.

2 Utilize culture, stories and people

Use the human aspect of your organization to communicate brand values, attitudes, and behaviors.

The integration of a new hire is the first chance for your organization to communicate high-level company principles such as brand values, attitudes, and behaviors.

While work-processes, skills–training, and organizational knowledge play their part in the development of an employee, they are all underpinned by broader principles. When intangible aspects of a company (such as culture) are communicated through real stories, rather than sent out in integration packs, they resonate strongly with the fresh intake.

Practical application

If you use a learning portal, this presents an early opportunity to embed company values into new recruits. Induction materials accessible during the pre-boarding stage equipped with learning content specific to your organization (which is configured to your company’s brand and encapsulates the softer aspects of the firm) facilitates these high-level elements.

By hosting and administering content using stories and people, a stronger message is communicated.

3 Introduce career journeys

Young workers want opportunity and growth.

Guiding employees toward a specific path via the development of new skills shows the company’s dedication to the career growth of its employees. Many of today’s interns fall into Generation Z who grew up during a time of economic uncertainty. As a result, their worldview is different to older generations.

Gen Z want security, stability and opportunities to progress. Employers who can show these new hires a path toward specific career goals will inspire and motivate, all within the first few weeks of the early careers program.

Practical application

As new recruits begin transitioning from learning to doing, access to online learning is vital. This training helps interns execute tasks with confidence and autonomy, contributing toward their career journey. Intuition recommends online training resources be made available in this situation. This allows interns to enhance or refine their skills and begin contributing to projects in a more meaningful way.

4 Engage recent new hires

Showcase your success stories.

Integrating success-stories of current employees into your hiring program shows new hires their potential to develop. Seeing the growth of an intern from a junior role to an important player in the organization’s strategic plays is both inspiring and motivating.

Practical application

Delivering an inspiring experience for interns can be done with custom-developed sessions, focusing on success stories and career journeys.