Latest / The Diversity Career Podcast with Fexingo: Inclusion, Equity, and Underrepresented Professionals / How One Company Created a Career Ladder for First-Generation Professionals
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I came across a stat this week that stopped me cold. First-generation college graduates — meaning neither parent earned a bachelor's degree — are about 30 percent more likely to leave their job within the first two years than peers whose parents graduated college. Luna: That's a huge gap. And it's not about skills, right? These are people who already made it through college. Lucas: Exactly. It's not a capability issue. Research from both the Harvard Business Review and internal data at several large firms suggests the problem is something called 'cultural capital' — unwritten rules about how to navigate a professional environment, how to ask for a raise, how to find a mentor, even how to interpret feedback. Things that kids of college-educated parents absorb at the dinner table. Luna: So the question becomes — can an employer actually teach cultural capital? Or is it one of those things that just takes time? Lucas: Deloitte decided the answer is yes, you can teach it. And they built a program around that conviction. It's called the First Generation Access program — part of their broader inclusion efforts — and it launched in 2020 in the US, then expanded to the UK and Canada. The core idea is simple: first-generation professionals get a structured support system from day one. Luna: What does that structure look like? Because 'support system' can mean anything from a buddy to a full-blown career coach. Lucas: It's more than a buddy. Participants are placed into a mentorship circle with three to four other first-gen colleagues and a senior leader who is also first-gen. Then they're assigned an executive sponsor — someone at the partner or managing director level — whose job is to advocate for them in promotion conversations. And they get a dedicated career coach who meets with them monthly for the first two years. Luna: An executive sponsor is a big deal. That's the person who says your name in the room when you're not there. Lucas: Exactly. And the coach component is what makes it repeatable. The coach helps with things like preparing for performance reviews, networking internally, identifying stretch assignments. The kind of guidance that, if you didn't have a parent in a professional job, you might never think to ask for. Luna: Did Deloitte track whether it actually moved the needle on retention? Lucas: They did. After two years, participants in the program had a 40 percent lower turnover rate compared to first-gen employees who didn't participate. That's a massive effect. And the program cost — per participant — was about $3,500 per year, mostly in coaching fees and sponsor training. Compare that to the cost of replacing a consultant, which Deloitte estimates at 1.5 to 2 times annual salary. Luna: So the ROI is pretty clear. You spend $3,500 to save potentially six figures in recruiting and training costs. Lucas: Right. And that's the business case that got the program funded. But there's a subtlety here that I think matters. The program isn't designed to fix a deficit in the employee. It's designed to close a gap in the organization's ability to retain diverse talent. The framing is important — it's not 'you need fixing,' it's 'we need to build better bridges.' Luna: That's a really healthy reframe. Because a lot of programs aimed at underrepresented groups can feel remedial. This sounds more like providing the same insider knowledge that privileged hires get automatically. Lucas: And that's where the cultural capital piece comes in. One example the program uses is how to interpret a performance review rating. A 'meets expectations' rating — for a first-gen employee whose parents never worked in a corporate setting — might feel like a pass. But in a firm like Deloitte, that rating can actually signal you're on track for promotion, not that you're average. The coach explains that context. Luna: That's the kind of unwritten rule that can derail a career if you don't know it. I've seen people leave because they thought they were plateauing, when actually they were exactly where they needed to be. Lucas: Another piece of the program is what they call 'career mapping' — literally sitting down and drawing out the promotion timeline for the next five years, with milestones. For a first-gen employee who might be the first person in their family to have a 401k, let alone a corporate ladder, that visualization is powerful. Luna: It makes the abstract concrete. So who's eligible? Is it self-nominating, or does HR identify people? Lucas: It's a mix. Employees can self-nominate, and managers can also recommend. But the key criterion is that neither parent holds a bachelor's degree. They don't means-test for income. Because a first-gen student from a middle-class family still faces the same cultural capital gap. Luna: That's a good point. It's about information, not money. And it keeps the program focused. Lucas: Now, one thing that surprised me — Deloitte didn't start with a pilot in a single office. They launched it firm-wide in the US, which is unusual. Typically companies test programs in one region. But they argued that if you're serious about equity, you don't run an experiment on people's careers. You commit. Luna: That's a bold move. And it probably signals to employees that this isn't a flavor of the month initiative. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's been sustained for five years now. They've also published their playbook — which is rare. Most companies keep DEI program details internal. Deloitte actually put a guide online for other employers, including sample coaching agendas and sponsor training modules. Luna: If we've helped you think through a career move or decision, honestly, if today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a tiny way to keep this independent and ad-free. Lucas: Yeah, and we mean it — even one coffee helps us keep digging into programs like this. So if you're able, that's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Alright, back to Deloitte. Lucas, you mentioned the playbook. What's in it that's actually usable for a smaller company — say, a 200-person firm that can't afford executive sponsors for everyone? Lucas: Great question. The playbook includes a scaled version. For smaller firms, they recommend starting with a 'career circle' — a monthly peer group of four to six first-gen employees, facilitated by a trained manager. No executive sponsor, no dedicated coach. The cost is basically the facilitator's time. And they've seen retention improvements of about 20 percent from that model alone. Luna: Twenty percent from a peer group? That's impressive for something that costs almost nothing. Lucas: The key is the facilitation training. The facilitator learns to surface those unwritten rules — how to ask for a raise, how to build a relationship with a senior leader, how to recover from a mistake. The peer group normalizes the questions. A first-gen employee might feel embarrassed to ask their manager 'how do I ask for a raise?' but in a peer group, everyone has that question. Luna: So the magic isn't the structure alone — it's creating a safe space to ask the 'dumb' questions. Lucas: Exactly. And that's scalable. You don't need a huge budget. You need one trained facilitator and a commitment that the group meets consistently. Deloitte's playbook recommends monthly meetings for at least 12 months. Luna: I want to push back on one thing, though. A lot of these programs assume that the employee wants to stay and climb the ladder. But what if a first-gen employee decides they don't want the traditional partnership track? Is that framed as a failure of the program? Lucas: That's a really fair point. And Deloitte addresses it explicitly. They say the program's goal is not to force everyone onto the partner track — it's to ensure that first-gen employees have the same access to information and opportunities. If someone chooses a different path, that's a success of informed choice, not a failure of retention. They measure 'career satisfaction' as a secondary metric, not just retention. Luna: That's a more nuanced outcome. And probably more honest about what inclusion actually looks like. Lucas: Right. Inclusion isn't about everyone wanting the same thing. It's about everyone having the same shot at what they do want. Luna: So if a company wants to start something like this tomorrow, what's the first step? Lucas: Number one: collect the data. Do you know how many of your employees are first-gen? Most companies don't ask. You can add a voluntary question to your HR system. Then, look at your turnover data by that group. If you see a gap, you have your business case. Then, find one senior leader who is first-gen themselves — or who is willing to champion the program. That's often the hardest part, but it's critical. Luna: And if you can't find a senior leader who's first-gen? Lucas: Then you find an ally who's willing to learn. Deloitte's program actually trains sponsors who are not first-gen. The training covers what it means to be a first-gen professional, common challenges, and how to advocate effectively. So you don't need lived experience to be a good sponsor — you need humility and a willingness to listen. Luna: That's encouraging. Because a lot of companies say 'we don't have the representation to start a program,' but that's actually an argument to start one. Lucas: Exactly. And the final piece — start small. One circle, one cohort. Prove it works, then scale. Deloitte's program started with 200 participants in year one. Now it's over 2,000 globally. But they didn't try to serve everyone at once. Luna: So the takeaway for me is: the problem is real, the solution is cheaper than you think, and the first step is just asking the question. Lucas: I'd add one more. The first-gen professional in your company probably doesn't know they're part of a pattern. They think it's just them. A program like this says, 'You're not alone, and we're going to build a bridge together.' That message alone might be worth more than any coaching session.