Traditionally, interviewees put a lot of energy into standing out from other job candidates. They update their resumes, try to crack jokes to connect with interviewers and stress over what to wear to the interview.
But what if you arrive for the interview and are told not to stand out?
“Cluster hiring,” where companies hire a team of people instead of individuals, isn’t a new concept, although it is one companies are increasingly considering in an effort to increase collaboration, employee retention and diversity, reports The Wall Street Journal.
In 2018, the Boyce Thompson Institute, a prestigious independent research outfit in Ithaca, New York, invited to its offices more than a dozen scientists who had applied for open positions.
Unlike a traditional interview, the candidates were supposed to get to know one another, form groups among themselves and prepare proposals for projects they’d like to collaborate on. Ultimately, the team or teams that showed the most collaborative potential would be onboarded onto the company.
The concept of hiring teams rather than individuals isn’t new to academia. In 1998, the University of Wisconsin adopted a practice called “cluster hiring,” where several key faculty appointments are made at once, often across disciplines.
In business, companies sometimes hire entire teams, too, especially when an incoming chief executive decides to clean house. In recent years, new bosses at Uber, Chipotle, Borden and Bed Bath & Beyond, among others, have hired groups rather than individuals. Read the full story.
