Employers share insights and advice to their award-winning early careers programmes.
ISE got together with our most recent award winners to find out what makes their early talent programme the best. As well as advice, they share how to overcome challenges and measuring success.
Taking part are:
What’s the single most important factor that makes your programme stand out?
Jenna Follet, LSEG
Our People Leader Upskilling Series - this multipart series is designed to support colleagues who will be managing graduates.
We view this as a crucial investment, as people leaders play a significant role in shaping the overall experience of graduates in the program. Recognising that Gen Z prioritizes a sense of purpose, regular feedback, psychological safety, wellbeing, and clarity and structure, these elements guide the content of our upskilling series.
Throughout the series, we focus on topics such as ‘How to Support your Graduate: Understanding Graduate Needs and Mindsets’, ‘How to Stretch Your Graduate: Coaching for Growth’ and ‘How to Strengthen Your Graduate: Preparing for Transition into Permanent Role’.
The sessions are crafted to provide practical skills that can be easily implemented. We invite a mix of executive sponsors and leaders with hands-on experience in managing graduates to share their insights in real time during the sessions.
The final component is the community created through this series, which offers a support network for the people leaders. This network enables leaders to share best practices and learn from one another, ultimately enhancing the graduates' experience and fostering self-development for the leaders involved.
Francis Reed, HSBC
Our Early Careers Community (ECC), which brings together grads, interns, industrial placements and degree apprentices to contribute towards the bigger picture of HSBCs culture. From social mobility and neurodiversity to sustainability, our ECC challenge us to drive positive change for customers, colleagues and communities.
Tor Jackson, Allianz
Our programme truly stands out because we are genuinely committed to supporting our apprentices' unique career aspirations.
We offer a holistic development approach through three key components: Learn, Develop, Thrive. ‘Learn’ involves formal education tied to their qualifications, ‘Develop’ focuses on enhancing the skills and knowledge common across our programmes, identified through Learning Needs Analysis (LNA), and ‘Thrive’ offers opportunities to build social capital, create meaningful connections within the business, and boost overall engagement with the company.
Roohi Nayak, DLA Piper
Our award-winning, end-to-end approach to skills development, which begins two years before graduates join us and continues well beyond qualification sets our programme apart.
When an offer is made, we invest in our future talent. Our graduates benefit from early exposure to legal work through client secondments, roles within our legal and business services teams, or work experience opportunities in our Responsible Business team.
Once on the programme, our graduates undergo a comprehensive induction, and a structured development journey aligned with our firm’s strategy and global best practice. This includes technical training, leadership development, and innovative initiatives such as Carbon Literacy accreditation. We’re also future-focused: we’re actively integrating AI literacy into our curriculum.
Our commitment doesn’t end at the end of the programme when our graduates become qualified lawyers. With initiatives like Career Development Day, Careers Week, and the Foundation Academy, we continue to support our alumni in building fulfilling, resilient, and impactful careers. Our programme doesn’t just prepare graduates to become solicitors - it builds a global community, nurtures aspirations, and changes lives.
What’s the biggest mistake organisations make when running early careers programmes – and how have you avoided it?
Jenna Follet, LSEG
One thing we are very aware of is not listening directly to graduates about their developmental experiences within the programme. While external insights can provide valuable direction, they lack the nuanced understanding of your internal culture. Graduates are individuals, and their experiences are crucial.
To address this, we regularly gather feedback through surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one sessions with both current graduates and alumni. This engagement helps us continuously evolve and improve our programmes based on real, firsthand experiences.
Francis Reed, HSBC
Investing more time attracting people rather than delivering on what has been promised. This creates challenges for development teams with expectations vs reality of being on programme, which can lead to disengagement.
Roohi Nayak, DLA Piper
From our experience, there are three critical mistakes organisations and early careers teams make when designing and delivering early careers programs:
1. Operational Focus Over Strategic Governance: Early careers teams often focus on running programmes rather than strategically governing them. This can lead to a single point of failure if excellence depends on specific individuals. To address this, we have adjusted the responsibilities of team members - from being individual contributors to strategic advisors. This enables collaboration with senior leaders in each office, who are key points of contact between the early careers team and the individual business areas. We regularly update them on strategic initiatives, challenges, and the experiences of our early careers cohorts. These leaders are responsible for the activities within the programme and support us in driving change in partnership.
2. Forward-Looking Design Only: Programmes often focus on closing the immediate skills gaps. Instead, they should be designed by working backwards, starting with future needs of the profession and sector. As an example, we encourage graduates and apprentices to undertake client secondments to learn about the sector and develop relevant skills. They also work with our resource management team to find tasks where they can build and apply new skills and feel continuously challenged.
3. Unrealistic Programme Experiences: Programmes that focus on meeting participant expectations rather than industry needs can disrupt the transition to working life. Organisations must balance support while managing expectations. We focus our efforts on collaboration and support while giving apprentices and graduates the ability to take ownership of their career management.
Tor Jackson, Allianz
Thinking about our programme, our biggest challenge a few years ago was a mismatch of expectations. We were hiring excellent candidates into unsuitable programmes. We've collaborated closely with the business and talent acquisition teams to ensure our apprentice programme is a win-win for all and supports our diversity broader objectives. This involved selecting the right roles, appropriate qualification levels, and providing the necessary support to help apprentices succeed.
How do you measure success — and what one metric matters most to you?
Jenna Follet, LSEG:
Right now - it’s measuring if participants on our graduate programmes will perform better and stay in the organisation longer compared to a junior hire who hasn’t completed the programme. This is helping inform our early careers and longer-term talent pipeline strategies. Additionally, this metric is highly requested by the business, underscoring its importance.
Francis Reed, HSBC:
Employee engagement data and where emerging talent that sits above the wider organisation’s results is a strong indicator of success. This is something we can directly influence and is universal across all our early careers programmes.
Roohi Nayak, DLA Piper
Retention rates are often considered the most important metric because they directly reflect the programme's ability to prepare participants for long-term success within the organisation.
However, we recently shifted towards a broader concept of programme success. We want our programme to develop junior lawyers who are not just attractive to our firm, but also to equip them with the knowledge, skills, and behaviours to thrive in the law – whatever path their career takes them on. Given that Gen Z and Millennials frequently change jobs, measuring programme success solely by retention is limiting.
With the challenges of basing success on retention rates alone, we are actively tracking a Net Promoter Score – based on individuals who choose to move on from the firm. We additionally track and review participant feedback to ensure the programme is inclusive and delivers the skills and experiences our cohorts want.
Tor Jackson, Allianz
We look at the career progression, pass rates, skill enhancement, and overall satisfaction of our apprentices. The most important metric to me personally is their pass rate. Were we able to deliver, and were they able to achieve the qualification they embarked on. I want them to be proud of what they achieved with us and a step closer to reaching their career ambitions - I think this is really important for our school leaver apprentices.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone designing a graduate programme today, what would it be?
Francis Reed, HSBC
Trust the process of trial and error, get comfortable with experimentation. Every idea for your programme must start somewhere and will go through different iterations before the finished article is spot on, where you would like it to be.
I was in the 2017 Graduate Cohort at HSBC. After rolling off in 2019 I was a Placement Manager in the business for four years before returning to the emerging talent world as a Programme Lead in 2023.
When I was a grad, the team created our development journey which was a pathway for supporting individuals from onboarding all the way through to end of programme, including elements such as ‘make me feel at home’, ‘help me learn’, ‘let me grow’ etc.
That journey is still in place today and has stood the test of time. However, we interchange what comes under each stage and we try new things based off feedback or industry insights. Some things land well, some things need more fine tuning, and we embed effective routines with feedback, debriefs and PIRs to learn from each other, be challenged and evolve our ideas. Sometimes we accept something doesn’t work and put it in the bin too, and that’s ok!
There are many ways you can support this process:
- Early careers community - Bring your early careers colleagues in to give their feedback and help with the design. They know what works for them and can often provide different, fresh perspectives.
- Be innovative – There’s often a misconception that we have limitless budget to put towards development initiatives, especially within large corporations, but that’s almost never the case. Consider how you can bring your ideas to life in house, connecting with the right people internally, having Early Careers Community Groups to help run and facilitate different initiatives. Things we do:
- Degree Apprenticeship Programme Consultants (DAPC) – A team of HSBC Degree Apprentices who work alongside me as consultants to enhance the overall DA Programme experience.
- Neurodiversity Working Group – A team of early careers members who collaborate with Emerging Talent and Employee Resource Groups to support those on our programmes who are neurodiverse, celebrating what they bring to HSBC.
Learn through failure – we tell the delegates of our programmes to embrace mistakes and learn from them, so we should take our own advice too.
It’s important to remember that the delegates on our programmes will likely always view their experience positively, so even if ideas aren’t fully formed yet, we receive positive feedback from our ECC for the developmental support we have provided and how much they have enjoyed their experience.
Speaking from my own personal experience of being a previous Graduate and Placement Manager, I look back fondly and can see how much I benefitted from Emerging Talent’s support and our programmes have evolved and enhanced so much since then due to effective trial and error.
Tor Jackson, Allianz
Ensure that the programme is flexible and adaptable to individual needs while aligning with strategic business goals. This balance will help create a programme that is both attractive to apprentices and beneficial to the business. This is was a lesson learnt!
Roohi Nayak, DLA Piper
Design your graduate programme as a holistic, long-term development journey - not just a training scheme.
Crucially, don’t stop at the end of the programme. Build in post-programme development that fosters career ownership, resilience, and continuous growth. When you design the full journey, you don’t just develop future leaders - you shape confident, capable professionals ready to drive your organisation forward.
Equally, ensure the programme experience reflects the realities of working life and the expectations within your firm. Design each element to be authentic and aligned with your organisational culture. And from the outset, agree on how your early careers team will govern the programme. A well-governed, realistic programme is not only more sustainable - it’s more impactful.
Graduates have high expectations. What’s one thing you’ve changed recently to better meet their needs?
Francis Reed, HSBC
Challenge their mindset around those expectations. It’s up to them to make the most of this experience and we positively challenge them to take the bull by the horns while they’re on programme. There are so many incredible opportunities available to them which other colleagues would not have access to, so highlighting that it’s within their grasp to take ownership is important.
Tor Jackson, Allianz
We’ve listened to the feedback of our early career participants and they really want to network beyond their local teams. We’re trying to do this by facilitating global networking opportunities through offsites, virtual events and collaboration platforms, enabling them to connect with peers worldwide.
We’re a global business so the opportunities for them post-programme aren’t limited to London. Our internal talent management processes recognise the benefits having experience working in different countries, so if we can help facilitate that global mobility piece, it’s good for them and the business.
Roohi Nayak, DLA Piper
A small but impactful change we made is introducing a rotations simulation exercise to help manage expectations around seat allocations.
In a rotational programme, assigning graduates to practice groups is a complex process that requires balancing individual aspirations with business needs. Historically, this led to mixed emotions after each rotation cycle—largely because graduates didn’t fully understand the intricacies behind the decisions.
To address this, we designed an interactive simulation where graduates step into the shoes of the Early Careers team. By tasking them with allocating rotations while navigating real-world constraints and evolving scenarios we have recorded a significant shift in mindset.
Graduates leave the session with a deeper appreciation for the complexity of the process and a more realistic understanding of how decisions are made. It’s helped foster empathy, transparency, and trust— while still encouraging ambition and ownership of their development journey.
How do you keep senior leadership genuinely engaged with your graduate programme?
Francis Reed, HSBC
Invite them to be part of events, inductions, projects and other initiatives. Feeling the energy in the room with our Early Careers Community and seeing firsthand what they bring to the organisation ensures our senior leaders have a strong connection with our emerging talent purpose and how our ECC can drive positive change for the customers of their business areas.
Tor Jackson, Allianz
We engage senior leadership by aligning the programme with our strategic priorities. We also involve them in practical aspects of the programme, ensuring their active participation in development activities such as fireside chats and mentorship initiatives like shadowing our Chief Underwriting Officer for the day.
Roohi Nayak, DLA Piper
By involving senior leaders into our programme, we ensure they remain engaged in the structure and success of the programme. Each office has nominated a Partner sponsor to act as a connector between the Early Careers team and the local practice groups. These sponsors are not symbolic - they are active participants in shaping the graduate experience.
Working closely with the Early Careers team and the Country or Office Managing Partner, sponsors help deliver an industry-leading recruitment, onboarding, and development journey. They ensure our graduates receive consistent guidance, support, and care throughout the programme. Because these sponsors are well-connected across practice groups, they bring both visibility and credibility to the programme. Their involvement fosters alignment between business goals and talent development, while also reinforcing a culture of accountability and care. This structure ensures that senior leadership doesn’t just support the programme - they help drive it.
Looking ahead, what’s the next big trend you’re preparing for in graduate development?
Francis Reed, HSBC
Future behavioural and cognitive skills development.
Tor Jackson, Allianz
We are preparing for a shift to increased personalisation within learning and development. For our early careers programme participants (and all employees) that’s about leveraging AI and data analytics to tailor learning experiences and career paths to individual strengths and aspirations. It’s early days, but we will be making adaptions to the development offering for the next intake.
Roohi Nayak, DLA Piper
Graduates want more than traditional training—they expect hands-on, real-world experiences to prepare them for a career in the legal sector. We already offer international and client secondments but are exploring new training and development processes, coupled with cross-functional projects that are both practical and impactful. These processes will accelerate confidence, deepen understanding, and build the adaptability needed in today’s fast-paced world.
At the same time, we’re embedding AI and digital literacy into our programme. With the rapid evolution of generative AI and legal tech, it’s essential that our graduates not only understand these tools but know how to use them responsibly and effectively.
We all talk about ‘developing talent’ — can you give us one practical example of how your programme truly accelerates graduate growth?
Tor Jackson, Allianz
Our programme accelerates growth of our early career folks by offering the holistic approach to development mentioned earlier. If I was to highlight one, it’s the cross-functional development opportunities that allow them to apply their learning in real-world scenarios. This immersive experience helps them gain confidence and competence quickly.
Roohi Nayak, DLA Piper
One standout example is our week-long technical skills development programme, which takes place just six months into the graduate journey. At this point, our graduates have real-world experience, and this intensive week is designed to build on their learnings.
What makes it so effective is its practical, contextualised approach. Graduates come together with our apprentices to learn applied legal technical skills directly relevant to the work they’re doing. We go beyond legal training and focus on essential professional skills like financial literacy, effective networking, and building resilience as a future lawyer.
This immersive experience not only sharpens the cohort's technical capabilities but also boosts their confidence, strengthens peer networks, and accelerates their readiness to take on more complex work. It’s a defining moment in their development - and one that consistently delivers measurable growth.
What would you say to someone thinking of entering an ISE Award?
Roohi Nayak, DLA Piper
Go for it - treat it as an essential part of recognising the impact and value of your early careers work. Award entries aren’t just about external validation; they’re a powerful opportunity to reflect on your achievements, highlight the difference you’re making, and elevate the visibility of your team within the organisation.
You and your programme deserve to be celebrated. As early careers professionals, we often underestimate the role we play in shaping careers and building the future of our organisations. So be bold, be proud, and tell your story.