With retention up 85% and productivity soaring, the FNZ and Cappfinity award winning graduate programme proves that career acceleration isn’t a myth, it’s a measurable reality.
At fin-tech disruptor FNZ, career mobility isn’t a promise, it’s the foundation of the company’s culture.
With a non-hierarchical, opportunity-rich structure, employees shouldn’t need to leave to find their next challenge. A prime example is FNZ’s Group Head of Talent Management, who joined as a Business Analyst and, 16 years later, leads the company’s global talent strategy, from early careers through to executive leadership.
This ability to fast-track careers from entry level to leadership is what FNZ wanted to embed into its graduate development, ensuring every hire had the tools to carve out their own trajectory.
Turning potential into performance
FNZ needed an approach that mirrored its entrepreneurial DNA, ensuring graduates were empowered to think commercially, develop leadership potential, and make an impact early on.
Cappfinity was selected as FNZ’s strategic partner for its scientific, strengths-based approach to talent development and expertise in building high-impact, customised programmes. Together, we created a future-focused, strengths-led programme designed to:
- Unify FNZ’s graduate strategy globally, streamlining hiring, onboarding, and development
- Accelerate graduate growth, ensuring new hires contribute to business success faster
- Embed a growth mindset, enabling graduates to take ownership of their careers
Specifically, we set out to:
- Reduce reneges, boost retention
- Shift perceptions – showcasing graduates as there to learn, grow, and challenge thinking, not just ‘deliver’
- Accelerate in-role development
- Build globally consistent pipelines – developing talent across key markets
- Embed a strengths-based culture
FNZ’s hiring traditionally focused on narrow talent pools. Cappfinity transformed this by embedding strengths-based assessments, expanding into complementary STEM backgrounds to identify high-growth potential candidates.
Engaging pre-boarding
Leveraging cutting-edge assessments, we prioritised engagement and alignment, introducing immersive pre-boarding experiences:
- Strengths Profile: Personalised insights into key strengths and growth areas
- Digital Mentor: On-demand ‘Prepare for Work’ videos and podcasts
- Start Strong & Connect Workshop: Connect with fellow graduates in the cohort before you even join and get a head start preparing for day one
Self-insight led development journey
A structured nine-month onboarding and development journey focuses on fostering self-insight, technical capability, and leadership readiness. This is achieved through:
- Kick-off workshops, self-led Digital Toolkit and Onboarding report based on assessment results, linking FNZ’s strengths framework to individual growth plans, with 360-feedback.
- FNZ Academy: Training tailored to technical role requirements
- ‘Strengthen Your…’ Workshop Series: Building awareness, authenticity, agility, resilience, collaboration, communication, innovation, career activism and curiosity
- FNZ Business Pitch Challenge: Real-world problem solving and showcase ideas by pitching to senior stakeholders
- Reflect & Learn Sessions: Tracking success and career performance at key milestones
Recognising the demands on line-managers, Cappfinity supports FNZ’s Academy Advisors – offering regular touchpoints, coaching, and tailored support. This proactive structure has embedded a culture of care, professional growth, and long-term talent mobility, ensuring graduates don’t just adapt to FNZ’s high-performance culture, they thrive in it.
FNZ’s newly integrated approach ensures:
- Realistic job previews reducing misalignment
- Training translates into real business impact
- Data-led decision-making tracks graduate success
- Stakeholders actively support graduate growth
Sustained impact
Before partnering with Cappfinity, FNZ’s graduate programme lacked consistency, leaving new hires to sink or swim, resulting in high attrition and disengagement.
Now, FNZ’s globally consistent, data-driven, behavioural strengths-based approach has transformed its early careers programme:
- Attrition cut by 85%, to just 4%
- 92% of graduates retained beyond 18 months, compared to 65% previously
- Productivity up 89% post-programme completion, demonstrating rapid development
- Top 5% of graduates promoted beyond junior roles – accelerating careers by c.12 months
- Award-winning recognition in EU and APAC
Structured performance pathways
Graduates track progress at three key milestones, receiving 360-feedback against FNZ’s five core behaviours. Accompanying Reflect & Learn sessions serve as pivotal checkpoints, enabling graduates to evaluate performance, monitor improvements, and take ownership of their development.
The impact is clear: average feedback scores increased across all five FNZ strengths between the first and third 360 assessments, with growth observed across all reviewer groups.
Graduates use these insights in one-to-one coaching sessions with their Academy Advisors, identifying strengths, refining skills, and aligning their development with FNZ’s high-performance standards.
A true partnership
FNZ and Cappfinity’s partnership was built on seamless collaboration, shared accountability, and stakeholder engagement at every level. From senior leadership to line managers and graduate mentors, every stakeholder played a hands-on role in shaping and delivering a high-impact, future-fit early careers programme.
Cross-market alignment was critical. With FNZ operating in high-growth regions like India, China, and New Zealand, we established fortnightly check-ins and quarterly reviews, ensuring a globally consistent approach while allowing for local market adaptations. Stakeholders actively contributed insights, feedback, and regional needs, making the programme scalable and sustainable.
FNZ’s partnership with Cappfinity has set a new benchmark for graduate development in FinTech – delivering measurable impact, driving retention, and shaping the future of top-tier talent.
These results have been recognised externally in the industry, with FNZ and Cappfinity winning ‘Outstanding Employer and Solution Provider Development Partnership’ at the ISE Awards 2025.