Running A Career Acceleration Program With A Financial Services Organization

Our client is a publicly listed, multi-national banking and financial services organization. YSC Consulting’s role was to help the client create an internal, sustainable talent pipeline globally. This was achieved by supporting them to accelerate the careers of over 100 individuals globally per year.

The client sought to develop a sustainable, global talent pipeline across the company’s various business lines, spanning five continents. The aim was to accelerate the careers of individuals identified as having potential to take on senior leadership roles within the organization, with the objective being promotion or role expansion, and ultimately to appear on executive succession plans.

The solution was an innovative model within the industry, being both firmly outcome driven and customized to individuals’ development.

The program design was built around individual goals and circumstances rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach. The responsibility for success remained with the individual; building a two-way partnership that emphasizes expectations of the individual to drive their own development. YSC enabled individuals to build robust career plans, engage internal stakeholders and work through any immediate leadership development gaps and transitions.

The program was designed to run over a period of 12-18 months, taking a systemic approach to sustaining individual progress, with YSC and the client working in tandem to optimally accelerate participants’ development.

The program included an individual assessment and bespoke coaching package with development planning, complemented by line manager engagement and senior level visibility opportunities. Over the course of the program, two aggregate analyses were conducted to identify themes across the cohort and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention.

Over 70% of participants have progressed into a bigger role or promotion in 12-18 months.

Individuals have achieved over 75% of goals on their CDPs, as corroborated by 360 data.

Enhanced global mobility and cross-business exposure for participants, and in turn has led to better talent mobility in the organization.

Post program, a community of alumni was created and their career development continues to be actively managed.

The client gained deeper insight into current talent management trends such as barriers and facilitators to career progression and differences between regions and gender, which informs their wider talent strategy.

Feedback from both participants and managers has been exceptionally positive. Overall, participants improved across all of the company’s leadership capabilities and values during the program. Over half of participants rated the YSC coach as the most influential stakeholder throughout the program, indicating an effective partnership between the YSC coach and participants’ progression.