Mobile talent
the modern, mobile graduate, and how you can articulate this offering. It is something Kuehne + Nagel has acknowledged.
The company recognises that not only does it need a more globally mobile pool, but that graduates themselves expect this from a global organisation. It is in the throes of revitalising its approach to graduate recruitment by introducing an emerging leader talent programme specifically for graduates’ postgraduate programme with an international placement module. “There is a growing realisation that we need to build a talent pool from emerging leader right the way through, working across the 100 plus countries we operate in and bringing a global mobility mindset to a much earlier talent group,” says Stockton. “If we really want to do this, we need individuals who have a global placement, because they need to understand how trade operates in different ways. This, coupled with a robust development programme aligned to the global leadership programmes, will begin to build talent pools at every level of the organisation.”
Creating opportunity It is an approach embedded in Merlin Entertainments’ graduate programme, which sees recruits carry out three six month placements, including overseas stints. The company currently has 104 attractions in 22 countries and views a mobile, flexible workforce as key to its success. “For the first six months, graduates need to work in their home country as they have never worked for Merlin before, but for second and third placements we find it really valuable for them to have that overseas experience,” says Holly Foot, Global Graduate Manager, Merlin Entertainments. “This year for example, our Australian graduates did their first six months in Australia and their second and third six month placements will be here in the UK. We are all for mobilising graduates and moving them around the business.”
Foot believes it really helps the graduates’ self-development too. “We sort out their visas and help with relocation expenses but we don’t spoon feed them – they do it all themselves, so that life lesson is really valuable. We develop the whole individual– personally and professionally.” As the company grows it increasingly needs to be able to relocate or second them to different attractions for six month periods, something which the international graduate experience enables. “We have many examples where graduates complete their placements overseas and after the programme have had the opportunity to relocate internationally. We need flexible people and graduates work very well in that situation – they love that challenge and the chance to travel for work.”
Attraction and retention Merlin receives in the region of 5,000 applications annually for a very small number of vacancies: last year the company hired 16 graduates; this year’s intake is 18. The thinking is that keeping it small enables better retention, enabling each one to take on a key position on completion of the 18 month fast track programme. “We make sure they progress into pivotal roles – management-type roles – within the business,” says Foot. “If we had a higher number maintaining the quality experience, for both Merlin and the graduate, would be more challenging. At Merlin, we’re passionate about providing memorable experiences and we do the same for our graduates. We don’t have a problem retaining them after the programme. It is all about providing life-long career development to support business strategy and succession planning.”
It is this goal that is in part driving Kuehne + Nagel’s new approach, and as Stockton says, being able to outline a graduate’s career path will boost retention. It is something she calls a ‘career line of sight’: “It is about being
able to talk to these grads so they know why they should come and work for you. The devil is in the detail. Of course we can say we offer these opportunities all round the world but what is in it for them? We have to be able as organisations, to articulate that five year career path so they can see how their career could pan out.”
Team training Creating the right opportunities to attract and retain the best graduates is one thing, but implementing a training programme that will prepare them for a global workplace is also a challenge. Microsoft UK currently employs over 1,100 graduates globally and this number is set to increase by at least 70% by 2020. The increase is prompted by the rapidly evolving technological landscape, and the opportunities - and challenges - facing companies in this sector. “We need to bring in digi-natives and millennials more as they have a really instinctive understanding of new technology,” says Lucy Saunders, University Staff Lead, Microsoft. “There is lot of talk about having this ‘hacker’ mentality – we want a lack of hierarchy; to be flat and have more people coming in with ideas from every generation. This is what’s driving the company into the next era.”
It is this collaborative mentality which has in part informed Microsoft’s approach to training, which sees its global graduates brought together. “They might all go out to Amsterdam for example, and they will be there with French and Spanish and Indian grads, and they all get mixed up. Not only does it allow them to build a global network but they get to understand how things work in different cultures and it gives them a wider sense of the organisation and the size and operational breadth of it.”
It is left to the graduates’ own initiative to mastermind possible moves or collaborations internationally within the company. Saunders cites the example of
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