Investing in keep warm and onboarding strategies has been key to E.ON achieving consistently low retraction for degree apprenticeships.

In today’s competitive job market, we recognise that having strong onboarding and keep warm strategies is crucial for keeping candidates engaged and ensuring they stay with the company.

Over the past six years, E.ON UK has achieved a consistently low retraction rate in our degree apprenticeship programmes, demonstrating the success of our strategies.

Keep warm activities

We know it’s important to keep candidates engaged after they’ve accepted the job offer, especially as the period between accepting offer and starting on programme is around five months – we confirm conditional offers in April and candidates begin their roles the first week in September.

To maintain a high-level of engagement between offer and starting role, we offer a range of keep warm activities. These include personalised communication, regular updates on company progress and future plans, and Teams meetings hosted by our current degree apprentices, covering topics such as relocation, Q&A sessions, and university expectations.

We also host a welcome day where new hires can meet each other, talk about programme expectations, and connect with other apprentices ahead of their September start.

We also run fun activities, like an escape room, which candidates enjoy. By keeping candidates excited about joining us, we reduce the chances of them dropping out of the process.

Comprehensive onboarding programme

Our onboarding programme helps new hires settle into the company and feel part of the team. It includes a structured orientation, mentorship, and regular check-ins to make sure employees feel supported from day one.

This approach helps reduce any anxiety or uncertainty that new hires might feel. We also provide a single point of contact from the assessment centre through to hiring, ensuring a smooth and consistent experience for new employees.

To make the onboarding experience even better, we have developed a few key parts:

• Structured orientation: New hires go through a full-week orientation programme that covers the company’s history, mission, values, and how the company is structured. This helps them understand their role and how they fit into the bigger picture.
• Mentorship: Each new hire is paired with a mentor who guides them throughout their journey at the company. This helps them adjust and build connections within the organisation. They will keep their mentor throughout their journey as a degree apprentice.
• Regular check-ins: We schedule regular check-ins with new hires to see how they’re doing and address any concerns. This also gives them a chance to feedback and ensures they’re settling in well. We also offer pastoral care to help them adjust from education to work life.
• Training and development: We offer a range of training to help new employees develop the skills they need for their roles. This includes on-the-job training and formal programmes.
• Integration activities: To help new hires feel more at home, we organise team-building activities, social events, and company-wide meetings.
• Work readiness: We cover practical topics like time management and budgeting to ensure new hires are ready to succeed in their roles.

By including these elements in our onboarding programme, we aim to create a positive and supportive environment that sets new employees up for long-term success at the company.

Personalised communication

A key part of our onboarding and keep warm strategy is personalised communication, where we have one main point of contact for every candidate and new hire. This ensures that all interactions are tailored to their individual needs and preferences. This personal approach helps create a strong connection between the candidate and the company, making them feel valued and loyal.

This personal communication begins before the candidate attends the assessment centres, so throughout their whole recruitment and onboarding journey, they have the personalised communication to support them.

Year-on-year evolution

Our strategies have improved every year, thanks to the feedback we get from new hires once they join.

We ask them about their experience during the hiring process and what could have been better. We also want to know what made us stand out compared to other companies, especially if they had multiple offers.

This feedback helps us understand what works and what needs to be improved. For example, many new hires have told us they chose E.ON UK because of the clear communication and personal touch we offer during the recruitment process. They also mentioned that our regular check-ins and integration activities made them feel more connected to the company, which helped them decide to accept our offer over others.

By listening to our new employees, we can continually improve our strategies and ensure that we are meeting their needs. Their feedback also helps us understand why top talent chooses us over other companies.

Results and impact

Our strategies have been highly successful, as shown by our low retraction rate. By investing in effective onboarding and keep warm activities, we have been able to retain top talent and reduce the number of candidates withdrawing from the process.

This approach benefits both the company and the candidates, ensuring that we have a steady flow of engaged and committed employees. We hope our experience provides useful insights and ideas for others looking to improve their recruitment processes.

Here are some comments from our degree apprentices who have experienced the onboarding process:

Alice Hedley-Fern joined E.ON’s degree apprenticeship programme in September 2024, “The keeping warm activities, such as the welcome day we all attended in July, were a fantastic opportunity to meet the other apprentices for the first time and gave us the opportunity to bond as a group before we began on the programme.

“The personal communication from the E.ON team and the WhatsApp group were also very useful, as they provided a platform to communicate with each other before starting our placements, allowing us to ask any questions we had and share how we were all feeling and preparing for the role.”

Sid Metcalfe also joined E.ON’s degree apprenticeship programme in September 2024. He said, “The group chat with all the current E.ON degree apprentices was very helpful, as they understand how we were feeling and the position that we were in, and they answered any immediate questions we had. The welcome day helped to give us an idea of where we would be staying/working while also being able to meet our colleagues in person and put names to faces.

“A week or two later, we had online calls with the apprenticeship team to address any questions we may have had. It was a very personal and encouraging approach to the new starters that made us feel very welcomed!”

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