Experienced hire

Transcript

When you’re going into an office of the size of the office here, it can be quite intimidating when you begin, but, as I said, when you start as a graduate, you’ll start with a group of up to 40 or 50 other people who will be going through the same experiences that you’ll be going through. So, that in itself, I think, is a great support network. I think you learn as much from people in your intake as you do from seniors in your first couple of months in the office. Over the last year, I’ve been working on a buddy programme, so what we’ve been trying to do is when a new graduate joins the office, or an intern, or a co-op, we try and pair them with someone who’s a year ahead of them in the office, so that’s someone that they can go to if they’ve questions that they feel they can’t ask someone else. They’ll bring them round the office and introduce them to the main people in the department, their managers, their partners, even just show them round the office because on your first day, you don’t know where anything is. Introduce them to the printers and the filing, so I’m sure they’ll get to know them over the first couple of months. So, that’s what we have in place at the minute. We try to organise a breakfast morning when they all come in the first morning, so all the new graduates will meet their buddies and then they’ll be taken on a tour of the office and brought to where they’ll be sitting, introduced to the team they’re working with, their councillor, their manager, and then that person will be there for them for the first couple of months, or even beyond that. It doesn’t necessarily end at a certain time, but they’ll be there for them to answer any questions they have or any issues they may feel that they have and they’ll help them sort it out.