HELPING GRADUATES MAKE THE TRANSITION FROM ACADEMIA TO THE WORKPLACE

Joining the workplace for the first time can be overwhelming and stressful. Graduate Success, a uk based graduate recruitment company, has formulated an online development tool called F100 (The first 100 days), that successful candidates can access before they have even started in their new role.

The system helps graduates prepare for the workplace by encouraging them to develop the emotional intelligence and abilities needed to work alongside and manage people.
Simon Reichwald, managing director of Graduate Success, explains that the
programme has been developed as a result of feedback from businesses.

“Although line managers have the best intentions when recruiting graduates, planning to invest time in them and share the benefits of their experience, the reality of organisational time
pressures rarely allows for a productive level of mentoring.”

Increasingly, employers are expecting graduates to take more responsibility for their own career and development and this system helps to build the habits and behaviour required to
take on that responsibility. Four to six weeks before starting their new job, the programme begins to prepare them for their new role as well as thinking about their areas of concern and
how they can allay those fears.

While the toolkit is designed to lead the graduate’s induction process, it works well in tandem with in-house HR induction activities, and for the first three months the Graduate Success
support team provides telephone coaching and support.

The toolkit comprises online tutorials, key actions for the graduate following each section, and downloadable interactive forms and exercises. Amongst companies such as Bombardier, Dean Foods and Frontier Agriculture, Graduate Success has been working with
Blue Sheep, a UK database marketing and analysis businesses, for the last five years, and Tricia Samuel, HR director, says: "Blue Sheep's most recent intake of four graduates all used the F100 system, along with coaching supplied by Graduate Success. By having the support network in place and software to complement it, graduates adapt and begin to make a significant return for companies far more quickly than would otherwise be the case."

View full article here

* First published in the HRDIRECTOR magazine, Issue 38, Summer 07, Reproduced with permission.