Early careers development programmes: do you really need one and how do you go about putting it in place?
In this post, Melissa Hewitt MCIPD, Head of HR Outsource, and Molly Bennett, Early Careers Consultant, discuss how a strategic and structured ECDP can be transformative for recruitment, retention and development of talent and advise on approaches to establishing a tailored programme or developing an existing one.
As British businesses struggle to fill their vacancies, stymied by a lack of skilled workers, early career development programs (ECDPs) have proved their worth as a valuable tool for recruiting, retaining, and nurturing top-notch talent. While the initial investment in these programmes can cause companies to drag their feet, the juice is certainly worth the squeeze, with multiple outcomes on the line, including business longevity.
The antidote to an ageing workforce
“The ageing workforce is a concern at the moment,” says Bennett. “Everybody is working later in life, so skills can become quite ‘top-heavy’ in businesses and the knowledge doesn’t seem to trickle down as much as it needs to. If you don’t attract people who are ready and willing to learn from those who have been in these industries and roles for a long time, it’s at a deficit to the business. A lot of training has gone into your highly experienced team members; if they can’t pass it on then it doesn’t contribute to the long-term trajectory of the company.”
But why the need for a programme specifically tailored to early careers development? As with so many things, success often hinges on a well-planned structure. “When you’re recruiting early years colleagues, you need a good structure in place to establish clear career pathways and deliver the right level of development,” comments Hewitt. “Even if the future of their career isn’t with your business, you’ve added value to their career journey – and that’s crucial for candidate attraction. It’s a very competitive market for graduates, especially in spaces like engineering, and lots of businesses have attractive propositions. A well-structured programme will help you differentiate yours.”
Starting from the end goal and working back
So, how should businesses approach the process of developing an early careers development programme? While it might be tempting to respond reactively to external factors, such as having access to an apprenticeship levy, Hewitt suggests that forward planning and strategic vision should, instead, take the driving seat. “The biggest piece is having an end goal in sight and working back from there,” she explains. “Thinking about where your competent resource is required in three-to-five years’ time shows you where you need to invest now. With an apprentice or graduate, the aim is to get them fully competent within that timeframe, ready to fill a gap you anticipated and planned for.”
Early careers is one of four core services offered by Morson’s HRO solution. The HRO model is created to sit alongside your internal HR, Talent or Learning and Development team to collaborate and create bespoke early careers solutions. These can range from company-wide reviews and consultation to the design and delivery of recruitment processes. The process begins with thorough scoping centred on in-depth conversations to identify your business needs, what arrangements are currently in place, and where they might look to improve. As part of this step relationships are built with managers who are ultimately being relied on to impart their knowledge.
Scoping allows businesses to make data-driven decisions about early careers development programmes, rather than making guesses about what might work. “It’s not about simply filling the role right now; it needs to be more than this,” says Bennett. “It’s about getting the right people in at the right time to do the right job, so that four or five years down the line you can look back and say, ‘Thank goodness we invested when we did’, because you don’t need to go back to the market every time a role comes up. Instead, you have a pool of employees you’ve been training to get to this very point.”
Meaningful programmes for maximum value
The process then moves on to design, which encompasses a range of touchpoints, from initial candidate attraction to the programme itself. “There are lots of factors to consider,” says Hewitt. “You need to think about where you will find the right candidates, including whether you’d benefit from partnerships with educational institutions or community partnerships, and what each early careers programme will entail. If you’re going to have a rotations process, for example, how are you going to make sure it is meaningful? Do you have the correct performance review processes in place? Have you identified suitable mentors within the business?” These are important questions, as the underlying principle when designing these programmes is finding the added value to both the managers, the graduates or apprentices, and the company.
For many businesses, the delivery of early careers development programmes can present the biggest challenge, not only because of the highly competitive nature of early careers recruitment, but also because of the high volume of applications they tend to receive. “Young people have it drilled into them that, when they are applying for opportunities, they need to apply to as many as possible. Businesses can end up with thousands of applications for a small number of roles. An HRO solution, like the one we offer at Morson, helps internal talent teams by alleviating that workload, facilitating the recruitment process and delivering a top-class candidate experience.” We know early careers applicants need a high frequency of engagement and support throughout the recruitment process, but in many cases companies don’t have the capacity for this. That’s the value of an HRO solution.
Getting out what you put in
Not all businesses are building their early careers development programme from scratch, however. Some simply need support with refinement. “When the apprenticeship levy was brought in, a lot of companies rushed to respond, and their approach wasn’t optimised,” explains Hewitt. “In these situations, it’s about taking a step back and looking at early careers holistically, as part of the overall business strategy, before refining it so to deliver more effectively on their ambitions.”
According to both Hewitt and Bennett, early careers development comes down to a simple saying: ‘You get out what you put in’. “When you do it well, the return on your investment is huge,” says Bennett. She’s not wrong. According to the ISE, on average, an employer retains 57% of its graduate intake after five years. “Early careers candidates are new to an industry and have an appetite for learning, so they are open to your values and ways of working, helping you build a great employee culture from Day one,” adds Hewitt.
With so many benefits on the line, there’s no doubt; an early careers development programme that blends business needs with the aspirations of emerging talent is well worth the investment.
For more information on early careers development programmes, visit Morson’s HRO hub.
