7 ways of calming early career turbulence

Posted by Anne Hamill

• 20% of graduates apply to jobs that don’t appeal to them, just to get into employment.
  
  
• 66% of graduates said that they regretted accepting the job soon after starting in roles.
  
  
• 25% of graduates plan to leave their first job within 12 months.

These figures are currently making waves – practically, what can we do about early career turbulence in the graduate market?

Some of these figures come from CEB, some from Highfliers, and some from the CIPD. As test publishers, CEB make a good case for a ‘Build and Buy’ strategy to tackle turbulence; that is, not trying to buy in the cream of the crop talent. Their research shows that you are 15 times more likely to get good talent that stays if you look outside the top universities, fish in less competitive waters and are prepared to develop people who don’t ‘have it all’.

But there’s another perspective on all this.

You might wonder why one source reports that 1 in 4 graduates plan to leave their organisation within 12 months, but the AGR reports that average retention of graduates is 94.8% after 1 year, and 79% after 3 years.

Perhaps what is actually going on is that graduates used to being successful in academia have an initial adverse reaction to the realities of work. They think it’s the organisation that is chaotic, turbulent, unclear and pressured, and that’s why they initially want to go elsewhere.

Research also shows that graduates are positive about their employer right through induction. It’s when reality strikes, that motivation drops.

What can you do to calm the turbulence and create graduate loyalty?

1. Don’t start them off with induction that is highly structured and creates graduate delight. It only makes the shock bigger. Instead, create situations where they have to handle this turbulence, eg question people to find out information; organise travel arrangements themselves; take a brief and ask questions to find out what success would look like before attempting a task; take on the role of host to any visitors, with all that this entails.
   
   
2. Make it an explicit challenge to step up and find ways to control the turbulence, right from Day 1 – in the first hour of welcoming them!
   
   
3. Consider not bringing graduates together for induction until 3 months in. You might get more bang for the buck if you find out what they are struggling with and put the resource you normally use on induction into 2-3 days helping them overcome problems that frustrate them.
   
   
4. Give them skills in Managing Ambiguity. We find this a very popular programme with graduates, as it gives them professional skills and a structure that enables them to create clarity and deliver success – even when this is challenging.
   
   
5. Make it clear to them early on that there are many career paths in an organisation, and that successful careers are built on strengths. Challenge them to try many different experiences to find out the kind of roles they really enjoy. Help them determine their strengths, and give them tools to actively drive their careers. Then they won’t think they should be leaving the organisation – instead they’ll focus on finding the right job with you, where they can contribute the maximum.
   
   
6. Stop thinking that you can predict what a 21 year old with no professional work experience will want to do when they are 26. Challenge and educate sponsors to understand this! Just because someone starts a career in Finance, doesn’t mean they’ll stay in Finance. But those skills will be invaluable in Project Management if that’s where they end up!
   
   
7. Get graduates paid from the centre. This will make (6) easier.