Is Your Early Talent Program Actually a Strategy?
I've seen some really good early talent programs over the years.
I've also seen programs that look busy from the outside - career fairs, campus events, internship postings, student ambassadors - but don't necessarily have a clear strategy behind them.
And there's an important difference.
A program can be busy without being strategic.
Start with the "why"
One of the first questions I ask when looking at an early talent program is simple:
Why are you doing this?
The answer might be to build a pipeline. To support workforce planning. To develop future leaders. To bring new skills into the organization. To improve diversity in a particular talent population.
All of those can be good reasons.
But if the answer is simply "we've always hired interns", there's probably an opportunity to step back and look at the bigger picture.
Strategy connects activity to a business need
A strong early talent strategy should connect what you're doing today to where the organization is going.
That means understanding:
the roles and capabilities you'll need in the future
where early talent can realistically help
what populations and schools make sense for your organization
how you'll attract and select talent
how you'll develop and retain it
and what success truly looks like
Without those connections, it's easy to spend a lot of time doing things that don't necessarily move the needle.
More isn't always better
I've worked with organizations that were trying to expand their campus presence, when the real opportunity was to become more focused.
More schools.
More events.
More job postings.
More students.
None of those things automatically create a better program.
Sometimes the answer is doing fewer things but doing them in a more focused manner.
A focused strategy can help you determine where to invest your time and resources, and where you don't need to.
Your program should work for managers too
There's another piece that often gets overlooked: the people actually hiring and managing early talent.
A program might look great from a Talent Acquisition perspective, but if managers don't understand their role, don't know how to develop students or aren't clear on what happens after the internship, the experience can fall apart quickly. Managers feel that it's just another task on their already busy desk.
A good strategy considers the full system - not just the recruitment piece.
So, is your program a strategy?
I'd look at five things:
Is it connected to future workforce needs?
Do you know what you're trying to achieve?
Are your activities focused on those goals?
Are managers equipped to participate?
Are you measuring more than the number of people hired?
If the answer is yes to most of these, you're probably on the right track.
If not, that's not necessarily a problem.
It might simply mean it's time to take a fresh look at the program.
And sometimes that's the most valuable place to start.
Wondering where your early talent strategy stands?
Let's talk about it. Book a complimentary 30-minute Early Talent Readiness Conversation with Kimberley.
