To Retain Young Professionals, Talk to Them

Dutch company ProRail recognized that to retain young professionals, it must engage with them to understand what motivates them to stay with the company and incorporate that feedback into its systems.

On Sunday, ProRail’s Evert Pruis and Aaron Wijnker presented their findings from five seasons, spanning from 2020 to 2025, of the company’s Young Talent Program, which offers participants a permanent contract. The initiative emphasizes that retention isn’t about the perks a company can offer; instead, it’s about creating a sense of belonging, purpose, and growth. One of the ways the one-year program achieves that is through reverse mentoring, where program recruits train managers.

“Around the third season of the program, I received reverse mentoring,” Pruis said. “That reverse mentoring blew my mind because of the perspective that young people can bring.”

Reverse mentoring and research taught the organization that managers are a key part of retention, and that managers must show humility to keep young talent. It’s worked for ProRail, as the program boasts a 90 percent retention rate.

Two other program components are trust and care. To demonstrate both, Pruis relayed why he dislikes asking prospective employees where they see themselves in five years. “I always say, ‘Why in the hell are you not fired for this question? It’s such a lazy question,” he said. “Turn it around. Why don’t you tell them where you see them in five years?”

Pruis and Wijnker concluded the session by outlining the differences between ProRail’s program and a traineeship program, noting that traineeships typically offer contracts for the initiative’s duration. In contrast, the Young Talent Program offers contracts that extend beyond the program.

“You ask a trainee, ‘Who are you going to go out to lunch with?’ The trainee will very often say, ‘With my trainee group,’” Pruis said. “If you ask a Young Talent, they will say, ‘With my colleagues.’”

Read more about ATD25 at conferencedaily.td.org.