Out-of-the-box thinking from Talent & Potential...

There’s hard evidence that most shortlisting methods have an impact on people from non-traditional backgrounds. This week we tackle a new way to approach shortlisting of both graduates (recruited externally) and high potentials (recruited internally). In our experience, ‘effort-based shortlisting’ can have a positive impact on both diversity and social mobility.

This week we tackle a wider strategic problem for society – a bit of HR futurology. What are the assumptions about work that we are so close to, that we now don’t see them anymore? What blinkers are we wearing that are limiting our vision of what can be achieved? If you’re interested in challenging the status quo – read on!

When I ask people about performance management for their graduates, people often tell me “Oh, the same way as we do our other members of staff”. In practice, this usually means assessing how well objectives have been met; and using the company’s standard competency framework. I hold pretty strong views on performance management, when it comes to graduates – especially if they are on a rotational scheme. If you use the normal corporate process, you could be wasting your chance to shape this key early talent into high fliers. This is because graduates on schemes are not ordinary members of staff.

It’s hard to pick out the most talented people in large organisations – especially in the early stages of their career. This applies when selecting people to join the organisation, and also when spotting internal talent for high potential schemes. The tools that HR have developed to assist in this process are Assessment Centres, manager assessments of potential, and (rarely) self-nomination. This article looks at why there’s a danger of choosing less talented people when using Assessment Centres.

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?