The document discusses key factors for a great graduate scheme according to graduates, including career progression, responsibility, and training and support. It provides insights from graduates on their experiences and expectations around career progression and responsibility, highlighting best practices like clear progression pathways, early responsibility, ownership, and exposure to senior leaders. The document also includes case studies from employers like Sky and Credo on how they approach career progression and providing responsibility to graduates.

1. WHAT MAKES
- A GREAT -
GRADUATE SCHEME?
ACCORDING TO GRADUATES

2. AIM:
To highlight and share best
practice in graduate schemes

3. THROUGH:
1. Employee Insights
- TheJobCrowd Best Practice Report
2. Employer Case Studies
3. Group Sharing

4. THROUGH:
1. Employee Insights
2. Employers Case Studies
- Credo, Microsoft, Sky
3. Group Sharing

5. THROUGH:
1. Employee Insights
2. Employer Case Studies
3. Group Sharing
- Further examples

6. THIS SESSION:
- Career Progression
- Responsibility
- Training & Support

7. Career Progression

8. Career Progression
No.1 most important factor to new graduates choosing a graduate
job

9. Difference Between the Importance of a factor to Career Progression
New Graduates and the Satisfaction Levels
Experienced by Graduate Employees

10. Difference between the top and bottom rated Career Progression
employers for Career Progression and Overall
+1.44 +0.75

11. Career Progression
Best Practice:
Career Progression needs to be:

12. Career Progression
Best Practice:
Career Progression needs to be:
• Clear & Transparent
• Demonstrable
• Graduate-Led/Employer Supported
• Meritocratic
• Rapid
• Varied

13. Career Progression
Best Practice:
Career Progression needs to be:
Clear & Transparent: in structure and in
communication
“Career progression has a clear structure and is well established and
publicised”.
Graduate Surveyor, Planning, Savills UK
“The downside to being a small-medium company with very little hierarchy
and bureaucracy is that the career progression is somewhat unclear”.
Test Engineer, Mid-Sized IT Company

14. Career Progression
Best Practice:
Career Progression needs to be:
Progress is Meritocratic
“There is a clear career progression and the opportunity to move up the
ranks once you reach the required level of performance. There is no
waiting for your boss to retire in order to get promoted!”
Graduate Trainee, Financial Services IT Advisory, KPMG
“Career progression is slow unless you network effectively”.
Project Manager, Large Retailer

15. Career Progression
Best Practice:
Career Progression needs to be:
Progress is Rapid
“The career progression is excellent with the potential to move to a
management grade within 3 years”.
Strategy Analyst, Asset Strategy, National Grid
“You are expected to put a great deal of work into your position in the 6
months you have at each attraction, but once those expectations have
been met you are put in a position to manage your own attraction within 4
years”.
Graduate, Merlin Entertainments Group

16. Career Progression
Best Practice:
Career Progression needs to be:
There are a range of career paths
“The opportunity to work internationally and the opportunity to move within
the business means lots of career progression and opportunities”.
Customer Management Leadership Graduate, Rolls-Royce
“GE are very flexible about where each employee wants to go. If someone
has the drive to do something different, the company will support them. No
other company I know of would support an engineer moving into a finance
or HR role”.
Software Engineer, Aviation Systems, GE

17. Career Progression
- Sky Case Study

18. Career Progression at Sky
Conrad Langworthy
Head of Software Engineering Academy
Head of Software Engineering Community

19. Opportunity

20. Taking control of your career development

21. Ensuring People have an exciting career with us!

22. Having the right support for our people

23. Things that matter …..
• Relevance
• Maximise skill sets
• Confidence
• Empowerment
• Responsibility
• Reward & recognition
• Adding value

24. Career Progression
- Further Examples?

25. Responsibility

26. % Of Reviewers Who Rated Category 5/5 Responsibility

27. Responsibility
Gap between expectations and reality:
“When I was at university I had a massive sense of
entitlement; I expected to walk out and straight into a mid to
senior-level management position. I pictured myself as a
high-flying business woman! But of course it didn’t happen
and at first I had a massive chip on my shoulder about it”.
AUDITOR, FINANCE TEAM, LEADING INSURANCE WEBSITE

28. Difference Between the Importance of a factor to New Responsibility
Graduates and the Satisfaction Levels Experienced by
Graduate Employees

29. Responsibility
Best Practice:
Responsibility needs to include:

30. Responsibility
Best Practice:
Responsibility needs to include:
• Ownership & Autonomy
• High Profile Projects
• Early Responsibility
• Senior Exposure
• External Exposure
• Trust
• Support
• Responsiveness

31. Responsibility
Best Practice:
Responsibility needs to include:
Ownership & Autonomy
“You have huge responsibility and power over the day to day activities
within your branch”.
DEPARTMENT MANAGER, FOOD, WAITROSE
“The main positive to working here is the freedom that is given to you. The
space that you get to shape your own projects and drive your ideas
through is incredible”.
FINANCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME, MARS

32. Responsibility
Best Practice:
Responsibility needs to include:
Early Responsibility
“I had no idea how quickly I would be given responsibility. Within ten
minutes of coming back from graduate training I was heading out to client
site to start. It was a great start”.
ANALYST, PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRACTICE, PA CONSULTING
“I was managing 16 people within 3 months of joining the business, I can’t
think of many other companies who give that level of responsibility so
early”.
SUPPLY CHAIN, JORDAN’S RIVITA, ASSOCIATED BRITISH FOODS

33. Responsibility
Best Practice:
Responsibility needs to include:
Senior Exposure
“I generally interact with the core decision makers within the business such
as the Sector Directors, the Executive Board and PLC board. This gives
me significant exposure to the core members of the business at an early
stage of my career”.
STRATEGY ANALYST, CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT, COSTAIN

34. Responsibility
Best Practice:
Responsibility needs to include:
Support
“The role gives a lot of responsibility from an early stage, you are expected
to work independently and guide your own learning, however there is a
strong support network if help is required”.
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT TRAINEE, HSBC BANK PLC
“The worst thing about the job is the huge amounts of responsibility from
the start, even when you don’t have a clue what you’re doing for the first
month”.
GRADUATE, INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE

35. Responsibility
- Credo Case Study

36. Responsibility:
The Credo approach
14th March 2013

37. Credo: Introduction & context
Services
Corporate strategy
Clients
Transaction services Blue-chip
• Other corporates
Performance
Strategy
improvement Private equity
consulting firm,
founded 1999 Size & footprint
35 staff (32 consultants)
UK-based, but global
reach
• Mature, small company
• Short, intensive project work
Context
• High client expectations
• High graduate expectations of responsibility
Ref: Responsibility
140313
Page 37

38. TheJobCrowd has outlined key ingredients for providing early
responsibility to graduates
1. Ownership & autonomy
2. Early responsibility
3. Trust
We will briefly examine
4. Support
Credo’s approach in each
5. Senior exposure area
6. External exposure
7. Be responsive
8. High profile projects
Ref: Responsibility
140313
Page 38

39. 1. Ownership & autonomy
Workstreams with end-to-end Culture of broader business
ownership (not standalone tasks) ‘ownership’
Transparency:
Analysi
Research s
Insight Report – Revenue & pipeline
– Profitability
– Fixed salary scale
not – Company-wide shared bonus
– Credo corporate strategy
Research Report
Research Report
Clear progression and ‚route to
or
Research Report partnership‛
Research Report
We know where we’re going and feel
we’re ‚all in this together‛
Ref: Responsibility
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Page 39

40. 2. Early responsibility
Meaningful internal responsibilities
‘Real’ work from week 2
for associates
Trainin
Weeks Recruitme g
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 nt
Marketing
Data
Training
Training
source Knowledge
Project mgmt
Project work s
work
Company
meetings
not
Social
Intrane
events
t
Training Project work Website
Ref: Responsibility
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Page 40

41. 3. Trust
Set high expectations; treat associates as adult professionals and trust them to
deliver…
‘Get’ things when (clearly)
Be smart explained
Understand how concepts fit
together
Work hard when needed
Be proactive
Be professional Good quality work, delivered on
time
Flag issues so ‘no surprises’
Build on strengths; fill in gaps
Learn quickly Work increasingly efficiently
Find solutions to problems
Ref: Responsibility
140313
Page 41

42. 4. Support
…but support and coach them to make the grade
Coach; don’t ‘do it for them’
In-project Regular check-ins
support – Every day for junior resources
– Weekly wash-ups & ‘answer’
sessions
Quarterly internal training days;
Training
some external
Coach & Six-monthly lunches with each
mentor Senior manager advocating for your
system project allocations & wider
development
Regular Immediate post-project reviews
feedback Six-monthly performance reviews
Ref: Responsibility
140313
Page 42

43. 5. Senior exposure
Significant interaction (both formal and informal) between partners and
associates
Formal Informal
P A
Weekly ‘what’s the
Project answer?’ sessions A A
work Weekly project ‘wash-ups’
A A P
A P
Monthly company
not
meetings
Corporate
Quarterly feedback
P A A
sessions
Annual Away weekend A A
A A
Ref: Responsibility
140313
Page 43

44. 6. External exposure
Increasing client exposure is the goal (once we have a base level of confidence)
Target first client exposure in early
weeks
– Client meetings
– Direct contact (e.g. calls) with
junior/ mid-level clients
Must achieve professional ‘baseline’ first
– Appearance
– Manner
Ref: Responsibility
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Page 44

45. 7. Be responsive
Listen to associates and respond promptly Promote quickly when
and genuinely to their concerns deserved
Six-monthly promotion
Upwards Associates feed back on manager
opportunities
evaluation performance
– Requires robust review
process
Weekly What is/ isn’t working in this
wash-ups project?
High performers move very
How can we solve these issues? quickly up the firm
Quarterly How can we improve the firm
Partner more broadly?
feedback Are past improvement initiatives
sessions working? If not, why not?
Ref: Responsibility
140313
Page 45

46. Responsibility
- Further Examples?

47. Training & Support

48. Top and Bottom Companies (within Top 100) For Training & Support
Training & Support
LOWEST RATED COMPANY IN TRAINING & SUPPORT

49. Training & Support
Best Practice:
Training & Support needs to include:

50. Training & Support
Best Practice:
Training & Support needs to include:
• Focus on the Individual
• High Quality Courses
• Investment in Training
• Management Support Training
• Regular & Continued Training
• Training from Day One
• Wide Range
• Buddy System
• Feedback Culture
• Mentoring Support
• Support For Study
• Whole Company Availability

51. Training & Support
Best Practice:
Training & Support needs to include:
Management Support
“Training can fall by the way-side as the work load increases”.
ANALYST, PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYER

52. Training & Support
Best Practice:
Training & Support needs to include:
Mentoring
“I have been given a mentor who sits on the Board and I do not believe I
would get this one to one training in any other company”.
COMPANY SECRETARIAT GRADUATE, BARRATT DEVELOPMENTS

53. Training & Support
Best Practice:
Training & Support needs to include:
Buddy System
“You are assigned a graduate buddy that will have been through the same
experience as you a year before. This is an invaluable resource and the
business will also pay for a meal every quarter for you and your buddy”.
GRADUATE FINANCE PROJECTS OFFICER, THE CO-OPERATIVE

54. Training & Support
Best Practice:
Training & Support needs to include:
Feedback
“The feedback is fantastic. It takes you by surprise at first, but Newton’s
feedback system facilitates progression and personal improvement. I’ve
not worked for another company who have been anywhere close at getting
this right - it makes a huge difference”. CONSULTANT, NEWTON
EUROPE

55. Training & Support
- Microsoft Case Study

56. Mission:
To contribute to the pipeline of future key talent by providing a
recognized brand to attract and retain university talent and
structured programming to build skills, assimilate into the workplace
and MSFT, and create a lasting network of peers and colleagues.
Start Strong:
Build a foundation for how Microsoft works, build core skills to deliver
results and strengthen your ability to work effectively with others to increase
your impact.
Build your Network:
Connect to a global community of over 3,000 peers in over 60 countries.
Learn from the brightest in the industry and build diverse relationships to
navigate successfully within Microsoft.
Drive Your Career:
Maximize the unique experiences, connections and resources available to
grow your career. Gain exposure to leaders committed to your growth and
long term career.

57. Start Strong Skill Up Accelerate Results
First 30 Days 1-7 months 8-12 months
Build the right work Deliver results quickly Demonstrate your
habits from day one to and work effectively knowledge and build
accelerate your time to with others through cross-profession skills
productivity knowledge and skill to drive impact in your
building business
Increase Impact Alumni
12 + Months
Experience
Drive your performance
and impact by being Execute and excel in
your best self; role and grow your
managing perceptions career and network at
leading and influencing Microsoft
at any level

60. Training & Support
- Further Examples?

61. info@thejobcrowd.com