Guardian Life Insurance actively works on building a pipeline of future technology talent and seizes the opportunity to transform its interns into full-time colleagues via its LEAP (Learn, Engage, Apply, Perform) program. This homegrown three-year rotational program allows participants to spend one year each in three different technology sectors.
The company commits to a three-year investment in training, learning, and exploration to enhance new talent’s skills. This helps Guardian to find the best role within the organization where colleagues can be the most productive, make a significant positive impact, and enjoy their work. In the face of rapidly evolving technology, the LEAP program ensures Guardian’s workforce stays relevant and meets anticipated business demands.
Program Details
The LEAP program specifically targets recent graduates from computer science or other relevant technical certification programs. By offering challenging assignments, formal training, and mentorship, LEAP develops colleagues’ technical, leadership, and business skills. Colleagues gain a wide range of experiences by rotating through different technology areas.
Program features include:
- Rotations: Colleagues participate in significant projects in various sectors of Guardian’s Technology organization.
- Mentors: Each colleague has a mentor to help establish company-wide relationships and guide them in work situations.
- Lunch with Leaders Speaker Series: Leaders from different sectors host Lunch & Learn sessions for colleagues, discussing everything from personal career journeys to crucial business initiatives and necessary skills for their organizations.
- Focused Learning & Development Curriculum: A curriculum of courses and activities is designed to develop colleagues’ leadership, business, and technical skills. Some examples include a half-day DiSC session, Agile training, Emotional Intelligence, feedback, and individual licenses to technology learning platform Plural Sight.
- Collaboration Project: This is a full-term venture that last the duration of the colleagues’ program. Colleagues work together to build a production-ready prototype to solve a problem of their choice. This offers them the chance to learn essential skills for future success by designing and building a system from scratch. They also have the opportunity to present to the leadership team.
- Events: Colleagues can attend teambuilding activities, join Guardian’s employee resource groups and community philanthropic events, and participate in workshops and training on a variety of technology and business-related topics.
To stay in the program, colleagues must uphold a certain performance management rating. They receive performance ratings in the middle and at the end of the year. Additionally, they need to actively engage in program activities.
Results
Guardian leaders are not only observing professional growth and increased expertise as a result of LEAP but also recognizing the immediate value these colleagues can add to the team. This recognition has led to early recruitment from the program into full-time roles, a testament to the program’s design and the caliber of talent being nurtured. So far, 21 colleagues have been recruited early from the program (before the completion of the stated three-year program length). Exceeding the program goals, 18 percent of interns have transitioned to full-time hires, and Guardian has onboarded 63 LEAP colleagues.
