Job Offers Without a Job?

A relatively new shift among large companies and their HR departments is so-called program hiring, a process that brings new recruits into a company faster, even when no jobs exist for the hires once they sign on the dotted line. This complicated system aims to match a hire with a position in the future, sometimes after months of onboarding.

The idea is to hire first, and then figure out the job aspect later. The driving force behind program hiring includes a highly competitive marketplace for college graduates. Companies simply want to grab the best talent before a rival company scoops them up and places them in positions. Recruiters arrive on college campuses earlier in the spring, and some of these recruiters have authorization to hire people on the spot if they determine someone is a fit for a company's culture.

The benefit of program hiring is that more college students find jobs. Hiring managers and recruiters identify transferable talent, such as problem-solving skills and analytical abilities, that can work for various positions within a company. Businesses bring these people on board after graduation, and the new recruits go through training, mentoring and matchmaking for a future position. Part of the negotiations includes salary.

Software giant Intuit started program hiring in 2012, and the company brings in approximately 200 college graduates every year. Each person has a recruiter assigned to him, and the recruit has conversations with several managers in the company over the course of several months. Ideally, at the end of these conversations, the new hire fits into a department based on his skills and abilities. In one case, a new employee went through five months of conversations before getting her job assignment three weeks before her official start date.

At Anheuser-Busch InBev, program hiring started in 2015 with just 10 employees. The head of the beverage giant's innovation unit, Alex Nelson, says that the idea is to match new hires based on their raw talents and skills as opposed to job descriptions. Any recruit who mentions a job description automatically disqualifies himself from a position.

Online seller Zappos plans to move to a similar paradigm in 2016. This allows new recruits to create their own roles within the company, and it means Zappos can hire people more quickly and readily.

This new way to hire employees is part of a strong employment trend moving into 2016. Many firms try to find people who fit into a company culture and who can improve the overall brand of a business. Employers look to find qualified applicants that enjoy job satisfaction as a way to improve productivity and profits. This means some recruits may find a better fit at smaller businesses as opposed to larger firms.

This hiring process looks to gain further traction at other companies if the likes of Intuit, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Zappos prove successful with their newest recruits. If so, prospective candidates may also need to shift to matching their skills and talents with a company's mission rather than with a particular job description posted by an employer.

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