1. Workplaces
NEED A WAY TO
better support graduates new to work
BECAUSE
workplaces can be very different to expectations
Do the basics
• Make sure newbies have access to
systems
• Manager has conversations with them
• CE introduces themselves
• Introduced to team and other staff
Offer internships
• Internships could help graduates
experience work life
• Offer RJPs (realistic job previews)
Value the expertise they bring
• Pick strengths from the graduates study
experience and identify how it will be used
• Match their work programme to their skills
• Identify their style and work with it e.g. ‘chuck
in the deep end’ vs ‘nurture’
• Give them some control over their own work
programme
• Have team meetings in which you’re
encouraged to challenge ‘the way we do things
around here’
• Implement learning sessions where everybody
shares something they’ve learned that week
• Have graduates teach their colleagues a new
skills
Clarify expectations
• Part of career counselling could be
providing realistic expectations of
the workplace
Encourage connections to the team
• Have the graduate fill out a survey to find
out about their interests and personality
• Get the team to do the same and share it
with them
• Provide a variety of activites for their first
week – don’t leave them reading!
• Do activities such as ‘tell us about one
thing you’ve loved this week’
• Use social media to connect
• Provide training to management
around the needs and
capabilities of new graduates
• Provide graduates with a car and
carparking to enable them to get
to work on time.
Provide graduates with
apartments to live in near work
Pay graduates much higher
salaries to make up for the
mismatch with expectations
Change the way we work.
Graduates contract and so
chooses how & when they work
Create an ‘alternative senior
management team’ made
up of graduates
Graduates get all the fun work

2. My 3 ideas
The most practical idea
• My interviewee noted that she did not feel like part of the team and was left alone for her first day. Assigning a buddy or
mentor to all graduates new to the workplace. Many workplaces already do this but they just don’t do it well. it will be
important to provide training to the mentor and perhaps an induction pack for them. It will also be important to free up
some of this employees time to show the value of the role they are doing.
The most disruptive idea
• My interviewee suggested that the rigidity of a workplace made the transition more difficult. Increasing the flexibility of the
workplace will help it meet the needs and expectations of new graduates, rather than forcing new graduates to fit within a
rigid structure. This could include giving greater choice around which hours are worked and when e.g. work the hours
necessary to complete the work.
My favourite idea
• My interviewee suggested that the transition to a job was made more difficult through not valuing graduate expertise and
experience. Workplaces could have an ‘alternative senior management team’ that was made up of new graduates. This
could allow them to work on problems they see in the company, suggest better ways of doing things or simple offer new
ideas. It would be imperative that management took this group and its ideas seriously for this to work.