Smoothing graduates’ transitions into corporate life

Client need

A global metals and mining organization sought a partner in enabling new graduates successfully transition into corporate life. Such a program would help recent graduates examine the organization’s culture, determine whether their own behaviors and values would mesh with it, and adjust accordingly.

The solution

The organization partnered with BTS to co-create the Global Graduate Excellence Program, streamlining new graduates’ transition to and development at the organization. Over a two-year span, the program:

• Explored the organization’s unspoken “rules” which made the difference between success and failure.
• Enabled participants to identify that which limited their potential.
• Provided the skills and tools these new graduates needed as a foundation for a promising career.

The program contained experiences that helped disrupt and shift the graduates’ mindsets, including:

• Virtual, personalized 1:1 coaching on topics such as employee engagement, building commitment and support, influencing, personal authority, speaking up, and challenging the status quo.
• Virtual webinars allowing graduates to experiment, collaborate, and role-play with a small group of peers, covering topics such as transitioning into the organization, creating a personal brand, and building the future.
• A Graduate Summit about supporting development through personal resilience, giving and receiving feedback, and collaboration; the summit integrated the entire journey with a celebration of achievements

These experiences combined all the mindsets and behaviors that were essential to establishing the right habits for recent graduates.

Results

BTS has delivered the Graduate Development Program to 549 graduates across five summits, 110 webinars, and 2,496 coaching sessions. Following program completion, the organization found:

• Increases in efficiency (40%), quality (17%), and retention of leadership talent (11%).
• That 97% of graduates reported experiencing change (51% experienced significant change), shifts in self-confidence (72%), forming productive relationships with people, action-orientation, and decision making. 98% of participants felt that the program met their expectations (exceeded expectations for 60%), and 92% met the program objectives (45% exceeded their objectives set).
• That 97% of participants would recommend the 1:1 coaching, and 94% would recommend the Summit experiences.

Client feedback

• “I have developed deeper relationships with my peers and leaders. This has improved teamwork/morale and lead to better efficiency for both myself, my team, and the company.”
• “The value that I have gained from the program has been enormous. I have been able to target development of key skills that were important to me, of which have significantly improved my personal and professional levels in the workplace.”