The challenge
M&S has one of the UK’s most respected graduate schemes, built on a long-standing reputation for attracting exceptional talent. However, the team recognised that the expectations of graduates entering the workplace had changed significantly.
Whilst the scheme continued to attract high-calibre candidates, retaining early-career talent was becoming an increasing challenge. M&S wanted to ensure the graduate experience reflected the needs of today’s workforce, whilst protecting the prestige and reputation that made the scheme so sought after in the first place.
Organisation
Marks & Spencer
Industry
Retail
Organisation size
65,000
Solution
Graduate leadership development
As their CEO put it, the ambition was to “protect the magic and modernise the rest.”
The brief
Ivy House was tasked with designing and delivering a development experience that would sit alongside M&S’s technical learning and support graduates throughout their two-year programme.
The ambition was to equip graduates with the self-awareness, resilience and confidence needed to thrive early in their careers, whilst creating a learning journey that felt relevant, engaging and aligned to the needs of a new generation of talent. The programme needed to align with M&S’s core skills framework, build on the strength of their graduate brand and deliver an experience that felt distinctly M&S.
Recognising the critical role line managers play in shaping the graduate experience, M&S also wanted to ensure managers were equipped to effectively support, develop and retain early-career talent throughout the programme.
The solution
We knew that this audience required a fundamentally different approach to development than more experienced leadership populations.
Working in partnership with M&S, we designed a two-year development journey that sat alongside the graduate scheme. The programme combined a number of core components, each designed to address the specific challenges graduates face as they transition into the workplace:
Experiential learning masterclasses: Many graduates were navigating their first professional role and had limited workplace experience to connect learning with. To ensure development felt relevant and practical, the programme was built around real workplace challenges, combining immersive classroom experiences with opportunities to immediately apply learning on the job.
On-demand learning support: Workshops were reinforced with on-demand resources that enabled graduates to access learning in the flow of work, at the moment of need, helping them tackle challenges as they arose.
Wellbeing, resilience and self-awareness: Recognising the importance of confidence, resilience and self-awareness during the transition into working life, we placed these themes at the heart of the curriculum. Particular emphasis was placed on proactive wellbeing and resilience, helping graduates develop the habits and behaviours needed to sustain performance and navigate the inevitable challenges of the early stages of their careers.
1:1 coaching: Many graduates arrive in the workplace having progressed through highly competitive educational environments and can be reluctant to openly discuss challenges, ask for feedback or demonstrate vulnerability. One-to-one coaching therefore formed a core part of the solution, providing a confidential space for reflection, challenge and support between workshops. This enabled graduates to explore real workplace situations, build confidence and accelerate their development.
Senior leader exposure and career insight: We created opportunities for graduates to connect with senior leaders across the organisation, giving them access to different perspectives, experiences and career stories. By increasing visibility of potential career pathways and role models within M&S, these interactions helped graduates build ambition, confidence and a clearer understanding of how to navigate their future development and progression.
Line manager development: We delivered development sessions for line managers, equipping them with a deeper understanding of the motivations, challenges and support needs of this population. This helped create a stronger learning and support environment around the graduates.
Peer connection: The programme was intentionally designed to create meaningful opportunities for connection, helping graduates build relationships with peers, strengthen their sense of identity within M&S and develop the networks that would support them throughout their careers.
The impact
78% rated the programme 5/5, “amazing”
92% felt more confident as leaders
83% felt ready and motivated to perform at their best
70% built relationships across the business that support them in their role
78% developed a greater ability to adapt their communication style to meet the needs of others
78% felt more equipped to navigate change
82% felt more confident giving and receiving feedback
The programme gave M&S a graduate development experience that better reflected the needs of today’s early-career talent, while preserving the quality, reputation and prestige of its graduate scheme.
Following its success, Ivy House’s work expanded to support three distinct talent populations across the organisation, helping to strengthen capability at every stage of the leadership journey.
The insights gained continue to shape how we design development experiences for early-career talent, influencing programmes delivered for some of the world’s most recognised employers, including Lidl, Swiss Re and NatWest.
“Working with the Ivy House team on our graduate development programme has been incredible. They’re absolute experts at what they do and have worked with us to shape a solution that has been truly transformative for our grads.
As a partner they have been superb. We’ve worked together from day one to ensure the interventions land at the right time, and they’ve added huge insight and value to our business on how we support and develop our grads, beyond the programme. The team live and breathe the Ivy House values and are a pleasure to work with.”
Lindsay Rowe, Early Careers Talent Manager, M&S
Want to hear the delegate perspective? Read a case study from Nicky who completed the M&S BUILD programme.