I had the pleasure of working with Cadent’s Early Talent population last week to help equip them with the skills, knowledge and behaviours to hit the ground running in their first week at work. The 50 strong group ranged from 16 to 30+ in age with a similarly broad range of work experience, from none whatsoever to starting on a second career.  

The discussions stretched far and wide around all things business readiness. For some it was more a case of refining skills and deepening understanding of team roles and preferences. For others it was the start of a steep learning curve that it’s not just what you know but how you go about things that are the determinants for success.

However, there was one big leveler amongst this diverse group, and that was how they felt about networking in a hybrid world.  The word cloud sums it up!

The overriding emotions towards it were ones of apprehension, uncertainty and mixed feelings. Confidence in their ability to elicit information, increase knowledge, know who to go to and how to raise their profiles in a hybrid environment was most definitely lacking. So what can be done to help this?

We explored this in-depth with the group and they were quick to identify that the onus rests not just on themselves as a new employee, but also with the line-manager/s and wider organisation.

For us the links to the University of Leeds research were laid bare - download our report. For this new working world to work well, for people to thrive and new talent/starters to successfully navigate a path through their first weeks/months the following needs due care and attention:

• Clarity around organization hybrid working policy & micro-team norms & expectations

• Line-manager support, regular contact time and feedback loops

• Planned contact time and exposure to wider team members

• Structured support with network mapping

• Honest conversations around preferences and accessibility requirements

• L&D engagement of wider business and profile raising of early talent cohorts

• Development opportunities for early talent to explore challenges and devise plans to overcome them.

Insurmountable? No, not at all. Just part of this new working world and what we need to be mindful of and put in place when bringing new talent into our organisations. And for the Cadent cohort, watch this space! Be fascinating to meet them for the next module, find out how they have progressed and how the word cloud has changed.