INTERIM INTERNAL AUDIT REPORT Graduate Schemes (IA 14 137) Tricia Riley, HR Director Audit Conclusion: Well Controlled and Audit Closed 31 July 2015 TfL RESTRICTED
CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY... 3 APPENDIX 1 DISTRIBUTION LIST... 6 Audit information Draft versions issued Fieldwork started 29 April 2015 Fieldwork completed 30 July 2015 Draft report issued 24 July 2015 Auditor Mark Cowper Audit Manager Joe Palfreeman Director of Internal Audit Clive Walker TfL RESTRICTED Page 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction and background Each year TfL recruits graduates to train as managers or technical specialists. In 2014 117 graduates were recruited by TfL. Graduates are recruited for 19 different roles including accountants, architects, civil engineers, project managers, R&U and Surface Transport managers, software engineers, and transport planners. They are recruited by the Recruitment section of HR Services Capability Development Schemes Team. Once recruited, graduates develop their skills and capabilities in a number of ways including through rotational work placements, professional training, higher educational courses and shorter soft skills and technical training courses. Schemes Advisors within the Capability and Development Schemes Team manage the various graduate schemes. Managers within the business areas act as sponsors. Sponsors provide technical advice to the schemes and line manage graduates, eg conducting their performance reviews. Other managers act as placement managers managing the graduates day to day work. TfL s Learning and Development team organise graduates training courses once they have been approved by Capability Development Schemes staff or sponsors. Once graduates complete their training they are placed into permanent positions in TfL. Capability Development Schemes have just introduced a new Career Launch process to allocate graduates to positions and to prepare them for their careers once they have left their scheme. Objective This audit reviewed the procedures and key controls around TfL s graduate schemes. Scope The audit focused on the following key risk areas: Recruitment Placements Training Roll Off Retention and progression The audit excluded the Year in Industry and Summer Placement schemes, and the performance review process which is currently being transitioned to the Success Factors system. It also excluded resource planning which will be TfL RESTRICTED Page 3
covered by our upcoming audit of Demand Planning. The audit reviewed only graduate specific training courses rather than general courses graduates attend with other staff. Summary of findings All the scope areas were examined during the audit through the review of five graduate schemes: Project Management Civil Engineering R&U Management Road Space Management Commercial Procurement There are recruitment processes in place to ensure that business area experts and recruitment specialists identify the skills and behaviours necessary for graduate trainees. Annual pay reviews are conducted to ensure that graduate trainee salaries are competitive enough to attract high quality candidates. HR have put in place selection procedures which test whether applicants have the necessary skills and behaviours. For a sample of five candidates, recruitment records were found that justified their selection or rejection. Also, for a sample of five candidates, there was documentary evidence that referencing, qualification checks, identity checks, medical examinations, right to work checks and basic disclosure checks had all been conducted as per TfL guidelines with one exception. Although photocopies of documents to prove candidates right to work in the UK had been taken, there was no record of when the originals had been checked, a requirement of Home Office guidance. The Home Office advises that this requirement can be met by annotating the photocopies with the date when the original documents were checked. This issue is being addressed under a management action from our Payroll audit. Graduate trainees undertake work placements within TfL to develop their skills through work experience. Processes are in place to ensure work placements provide the experience necessary to meet the requirements of professional qualifications, including providing graduates with external placements where necessary. Audit testing confirmed a sample of five external work placements had been correctly approved by graduate sponsors and Capability Development Schemes staff. A sample of 10 graduates had all undertaken FLEx placements to learn about TfL s operations. One issue raised by sponsors and graduates was that rather than having a common two week length to most FLEx placements, the length of placements should be varied according to the amount of learning opportunities each provides. Presently this is hard to implement due to TfL RESTRICTED Page 4
deficiencies within the FLEx placement booking system. However, Development Schemes are working on a new IT tool to improve the administration of FLEx. Processes for administering training courses for graduates were found to be satisfactory. Audit testing on a sample basis confirmed that applications for financial support for professional training / educational courses were correctly approved. It also confirmed that a sample of five payments to educational institutes for professional training were correctly approved and accurately paid. Learning and Development had a process to monitor the academic performance of graduates so action could be taken if there were performance issues. Training needs assessments were also conducted to identify the training needs of individual graduates. For a sample of TfL courses it was confirmed that attendance was monitored, and that course feedback was gained. Capability Development Schemes staff have conducted analysis of the retention rates, performance review ratings and progression through the hierarchy of graduates employed since 2006. The findings were reported in The Graduate Development End of Year Report: 2014-15. The report found that TfL has a higher than average retention rate of graduate trainees, and that graduates have better average performance review ratings than non-graduate staff. However, it also reported that they have low promotion rates. Since 2006 only 3.5% of former graduates have been promoted two grades, and no former graduates have achieved a Band 5 position. HR are taking action to address this issue. A new Career Launch process is being implemented to transition graduates from their training schemes to permanent TfL positions. Career Launch includes assessing TfL-wide business needs and opportunities, assessing each graduate s potential and then matching up the graduates to the opportunities. It is planned to allocate high potential graduates to positions in key projects to enhance their development. Also there are various other initiatives to improve promotion rates including 360 feedback to assess former graduates development needs, and Drive Your Career development events to provide advice to final year graduates on how to manage their careers. In addition, there is a proposal to establish a TfL Graduate and Apprentice Board to determine TfL s strategy and approach to managing graduate trainees in order to maximise the value obtained from them. Conclusion Based upon the audit findings, we have concluded that Graduate Schemes are well controlled. There are no management actions arising from this audit and accordingly the audit is closed. We would like to thank all those who were involved in and contributed to this audit. TfL RESTRICTED Page 5
APPENDIX 1 Distribution list This report was sent to Tricia Riley, HR Director, by Clive Walker, Director of Internal Audit, and copied to: Karen Wallbridge Capability Development Schemes Manager Kim Travers Head of HR Service Delivery Rob Woolf Recruitment Account Manager Caroline Kelly Process Improvement Manager Nigel Blore Head of Group Insurance Andrea Clarke Director of TfL Legal Andrew Pollins Interim Chief Finance Officer Howard Carter General Counsel Karl Havers EY TfL RESTRICTED Page 6