My friend told me an interesting story about a recent job interview she had gone to. The position hirefirewas entry level, just about the lowest position you could get in the company. The position only required a high school graduate level education. Considering that, my friend was very overqualified since she has an associates degree, several certifications in the field, and a few years experience. During the interview the recruiter for this company said some thing along these lines. That they promote a lot from within the company since finding the right people is difficult. The job takes a special kind of person and not every one has the stomach for it. In fact the main reason why they are constantly filling this position is that most people move up from here. The recruiter even started in the same position before working his way up, getting his degree and eventually being promoted to recruiter!

They have come to realize that the average time spent in this position is between 8 months to 2 years before the employee moves up to a different position. They have found that if they hire better people for this position and pay better, they will have better employees when those employees move up to other positions. This concept isn’t that unique, a lot of companies do this. And why not? The benefits from promoting from within is that you know the employee. But there was some thing different about this place. They actually encourage their employees to go to school to get a degree, get more certifications, explore other positions, and move up in the company. They do tuition reimbursement. They allow job shadowing and will even send you to other company locations that do different things. It was part of their company culture and frowned upon if you didn’t take advantage of it. They want their employees to be hungry for more and push themselves to be better.

The end result is this: overall turn over is low, the average employee has worked for the company for 14 years. The employees are happier and productivity is always at a good level. Rather interesting, don’t you think?