Helping your graduates flourish
The jump from the predictable and linear University environment to the more demanding and unpredictable workplace can be tough for even the brightest graduates. The University context provides frequent feedback, clear tasks and a multi-year pathway. The contemporary workplace brings daily challenges and a need to wrestle with ambiguity and adapt to organisational culture.
Our graduate development solutions equip participants with the skills that enable them to work well with others, think for themselves, work productively and maintain their psychological wellbeing while they grow as new professionals.
The challenges for graduates
Having left university, graduates are keen to get into the workplace but many find it difficult to adjust to the fluid nature of the workplace after the linear journey through university. What does ‘good’ look like? How do I get the information I need? Where do I go for help? Does my role make a difference?
Employers find that graduates need additional support to find their feet, learn how to work collaboratively and demonstrate resilience in the face of challenges.
The last thing employers want is to invest in graduates only for them to leave the organisation due to disillusionment, burnout or a failure to gel with their colleagues. Graduates want to get ahead and make a success of the role, but often find themselves adrift, realising that the approaches that helped them navigate University simply don’t work in the contemporary workplace.
Our graduate development solutions address all of these challenges, and more.
How we help
We can support organisations on a continuum of activity, including:
- Provision of one-to-one coaching for graduates as they engage with the existing graduate pathway
- Delivery of training courses on key productivity, interpersonal effectiveness and wellbeing topics
- Design and delivery of end-to-end graduate development programmes, combining coaching and group workshops, aligned against organisational competencies
- Strategic advice on the design and delivery of graduate programmes, including how to assess for organisational fit and potential, how to minimise unwanted turnover, and how to support graduates in their first year
How it works
When it comes to designing graduate development solutions, we can start from first principles, or work collaboratively with your existing programme and providers. We can work with you to design a completely new and bespoke programme, aligned against organisational talent frameworks and strategy. Alternatively, we can create a simple programme comprised of existing workshops. Or a mixture of the two.
Coaching and workshops can be delivered virtually, face-to-face or a mixture across the programme duration. We can augment the programme with regular drop in ‘Office hours’ sessions where grads can join an open video call for ad hoc support and accountability.
Our programmes can be hosted on our bespoke learning platform, allowing us to create multimedia learning experiences that compliment the in-person, live component.
Outcomes and benefits
- Graduates we support gain valuable skills for the modern work environment. They learn how to work well with others, speak up, take the initiative, prioritise workload, minimise procrastination and work towards stretch targets
- But they also learn how to do this sustainably, taking care of themselves and coping with challenges and setbacks in a way that will serve them for years to come
- Organisations benefit from expedited graduate development, addressing problems before them impact performance on the job, and from an end-to-end development solution that minimises administration and maximises impact
Examples of solutions
A typical module on a graduate programme will include a video introduction, an interactive workshop, provision of some additional digital resources, the application of skills back in the workplace, and some structured reflection. This multi-modal approach turns a series of one-off workshops into an impactful learning experience, with a duration that meets your organisational needs..
When it comes to themes and topics, we've designed and delivered productivity-focused workshops, teaching graduates how to prioritise their workload, how to maintain focus towards key goals, how to be proactive in the face of challenges, and avoid the temptation to procrastinate what's difficult or uncomfortable.
Our workshops on interpersonal skills have demonstrated the importance of intentional relationship management, of influencing their stakeholders, of collaboration and teamwork. Graduates learn how to speak up and request support, while also getting input and resources from colleagues that don't report to them.
Our wellbeing-focused workshops have helped graduates understand the common sources of job-related stress and what to do about them; on how to be intentional when it comes to self-care and coping with pressure; and how to properly disconnect from work and rest effectively.
We've taught graduates how to be more psychologically flexible as they navigate setbacks and difficulties and to be sustainably resilient when faces with challenges and demanding targets.
We've coached graduated to boost their self-confidence, their communication skills and their proactivity. We've helped them improve relationships with key stakeholders, work on implementing feedback from colleagues, and engage in relationship- and network-building.
There is a before and an after working with Richard. Once you embark on the coaching journey, be prepared for a tremendous positive change in your daily life. Thanks to his strong experience, focus, kindness and skills, Richard successfully and gently steers you towards personal breakthroughs and discoveries. The impact of having Richard as a coach has influenced me to sign up my leadership team for the same programme
Alvaro Duarte
Voodoo
WorkLifePsych have helped us successfully design from scratch a leadership programme which has been deployed across the Group which is now in its fourth year of delivery. It has been received extremely well, resulting in delegates making measurable change in their approach to leadership in their role and deployment into their teams.
Tammy Lillie
Spirax Sarco
We asked Richard and the WorkLifePsych team to assist in the start-up phase of our new business. As a new talent-based creative business, unencumbered from legacy ways of working we were determined to put in place the most contemporary and relevant people strategy. Richard worked closely with us to develop our people strategy, including how to clarify and communicate our organisation’s values, how to identify and nurture talent and how to create a sustainable people development strategy. Richard continues to support Untold Studios. He is insightful, attentive and challenging in all the right ways. He has been instrumental in our launch and remains a supportive and trusted advisor. I have no hesitation in recommending Richard to other startups - I’ve no doubt Richard and his team will have a huge positive impact on any new business.
Darren O’Kelly
Untold Studios
I worked with Richard as my coach across 2016/17 with my goal of being an “intrapreneur" who makes the business I’m taking care of sustainable. I want to innovate to surprise our audiences, foster people around a vision and multiply others’ talent. And in my business, there is a lot of passion and emotions, everything moves very fast and things change constantly. As I was gaining seniority, it was hard for me sometimes to keep a “cool head" when taking decisions. Thanks to Richard, I got way closer to achieving this goal! I became a better leader by clarifying my innate talent, managing my emotions better, understanding the complex system I’m working within and multiplying others to get their best. Richard provided me with tips and frameworks that help me navigate through this system better every day . There has been a before and after Richard for sure!
Delphine Sassi
King
We recently invited Richard to our first learning festival, to deliver a keynote as well as a workshop on the topic of psychological flexibility. Working in the public sector brings its own challenges and this is why it was really important to us to offer personal development opportunities centred on wellbeing, and practical tools for us to use on a daily basis when we may be feeling overwhelmed or experiencing anxiety. Feedback from those taking part was extremely positive and we are already looking at working with Richard on other initiatives.
Ruxandra Stewart
Essex Country Council
Richard has worked with DCC Group for over eight years within a variety of organisational contexts so we were delighted to invite him recently to present on the topic of “Coping with Change” to our employees in DCC Vital. Richard has a unique mix of broad experience, an ability to appropriately adapt a message to suit different audiences and is very practical. The feedback from our employees on his session was excellent and they appreciated the tools and techniques he shared through the session. Presenting virtually is a challenge to the best of us, but Richard makes it look easy! There was such a logical flow in his messaging that he hit the right note with our diverse workforce. We couldn’t recommend working with him more highly and we look forward to working with him on other projects going forward.
Orla Dempsey
DCC Vital
Find out more
Get in touch today to find out how we can support and develop your future leaders