To achieve their vision of a graduate programme that actively champions social mobility, Cognizant's early careers team realised they had to challenge traditional recruitment methods…
Cognizant is a global leader in technology and business transformation. In 2022, they made a bold move to transform their own UK graduate programme - not just to recruit top talent, but to make a meaningful impact on social mobility and diversity.
Under the leadership of Vanessa Soames, early talent director (now social value director), the goal was clear: create a graduate scheme that would give students from all backgrounds an equal chance to succeed - a huge task for any HR team, but even more so for Cognizant's early careers team of two people.
A graduate programme underpinned by social mobility
To achieve Cognizant's vision - to build a graduate programme that actively championed social mobility - meant challenging traditional recruitment methods.
To remove barriers to entry, they scrapped the requirement for CVs and application forms, opening the door for students from non-technical disciplines to apply for technical roles. The focus shifted from academic background to potential and mindset - a significant shift that placed a real emphasis on the development of an inclusive onboarding experience that would ensure all graduates had the tools and support they needed to thrive.
Cognizant's social mobility-led approach to recruitment had already delivered from a candidate perspective, Bridge Group stating that the equality they observed in the application and hiring data was unprecedented from a socio-economic perspective.
Given the diversity of the cohort and the range of technical knowledge among the graduates, the onboarding experience needed to bridge knowledge gaps while fostering confidence.
The critical role of onboarding
Cognizant recognised that effective onboarding would be key to the programme's success. Given the diversity of the cohort and the range of technical knowledge among the graduates, the onboarding experience needed to bridge knowledge gaps while fostering confidence and a sense of belonging.
This wasn't just about delivering training - it was about creating a consistent, personalised experience that would support graduates from the moment they accepted their offer through to their first client assignment. The onboarding experience would be instrumental in helping graduates develop the skills, mindset, and resilience needed to succeed in a fast-paced, client-focused environment.
The onboarding experience
To deliver this experience, Cognizant partnered with Eli Onboarding. The graduate journey begins the moment they receive their offer, with a personal call from a development manager—the same person who supported them during the assessment process.
From that point, the experience is managed and delivered through a responsive, personalised portal designed to ease the transition from study to work. The portal offers interactive tools, pre-learning content, and social features to create a sense of belonging and reduce anxiety before day one. Graduates can connect with peers, their line manager, buddy, and development manager via instant messaging and a social wall, which fosters a sense of community from the outset.
The onboarding journey
Cognizant's onboarding portal underpins their onboarding journey post day one too, ensuring a consistent, inclusive and supportive experience for each graduate. The portal even tracks wellbeing, alerting an individual's development manager if they are feeling down. This allows the early careers team to reach out, take positive action and offer additional support where required.
The onboarding programme, which lasts ten weeks, kicks off with an immersive, five-day in-person induction covering everything from client interaction and business communication to mindfulness and stakeholder management. Technical training, 121 coaching, job shadowing and weekly catch-ups with their development manager follow, as well as a meeting with the UK CEO. Cognizant track every stage, offering more support to those who require it. The grads then become billable at week ten.
This collaborative approach to onboarding, with many stakeholders managing different aspects of the onboarding programme, enables the organisation's small early careers team to welcome two large cohorts a year, Eli helping to reduce admin, manage process and ensure a consistently great experience for all.
High levels of engagement are reflected in a low reneging rate of 8% which is 12% below the industry benchmark.
Data-driven insight and continuous improvement
Cognizant's data-driven approach ensures the onboarding programme is constantly monitored and refined. Their portal tracks engagement throughout, with cohorts visiting their tailored portal 40+ times on average during onboarding. Hundreds of conversations build real connections within cohorts and with the Cognizant early careers team, and significant interaction on the social wall creates a real sense of community, as well as helping grads to make friends and even find flatmates. These high levels of engagement are reflected in a low reneging rate of 8% which is 12% below the industry benchmark.
Checklist completion is closely monitored, the portal not only ensuring grads complete their tasks on time, but also those supporting the process, such as line managers and buddies. Pulse checks and weekly wellbeing sessions ensure only 1% of graduates have reported negative wellbeing in 2024.
Performance data has been equally strong and seven cohorts and three years later Cognizant has seen significant return in terms of early performance.
UK graduates achieve an average training score of 85% - outperforming the global Cognizant average of 80%. 100% of graduates have completed the six-week technical training and started client work on schedule. This is a real testament to the onboarding programme which has just welcomed its sixth cohort in three years.
A proven return on investment
The onboarding experience delivers measurable results - not just in engagement and performance, but in building a more diverse, resilient, and productive graduate workforce. Graduates are happy with the experience, with 88.5% satisfied with their learning journey and 91% recommending the programme to others.
Importantly, 100% of graduates are billable by week 10, with (during 2024) an average of 78% of their time dedicated to client work. Since the programme's launch, only one graduate has left—an outstanding retention rate that underscores the strength of the onboarding strategy.
Redefining graduate success
Cognizant’s experience-led programme has set a new benchmark for early careers onboarding. By removing traditional barriers to entry and investing in a structured, supportive onboarding experience, Cognizant has created a programme where talent and potential - not background -define success.
This isn't just a win for Cognizant. It's a win for every graduate who’s now thriving in their career, proving that the right support at the start can unlock limitless potential.
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