{"id":63259,"date":"2022-03-17T13:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T17:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=63259"},"modified":"2022-03-29T09:31:03","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T13:31:03","slug":"education-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/education-pipeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Zappos’s Education Pipeline: How It Rewards Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is Zappos’s education pipeline system? How can it be used to encourage employees to continue their education within your company?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being rewarded for hard work is always a satisfying feeling. The clothing retail store Zappos has an “education pipeline” system of training that rewards its workers during different phases of their employment, and it also benefits the company’s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s how Zappos uses its education pipeline system and why you should implement this strategy in your company’s training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Zappos Encourages Continuing Education<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zappos encourages continuing education through its \u201ceducational pipeline\u201d system of training. Hsieh says Zappos\u2019s pipeline operates on a merit badge system: People who fulfill certain training requirements earn promotions and pay raises.<\/strong> The first, basic elements of training are mandatory, but after those elements are completed, people can select which merit badges they want to earn and which skills to specialize in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: This merit badge system works because it offers employees a choice<\/em> in what to train in, and even minor choices engage intrinsic motivation<\/a>. This theory of intrinsic motivation<\/a> also operates in traditional education: College students who select their own courses turn in better work more consistently because they\u2019re motivated to work harder. By applying these proven theories of educational motivation to its programs of continuing education, Zappos encourages its employees to find fulfillment and happiness in their training.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The education pipeline starts with entry-level workers, Hsieh explains. Zappos prioritizes finding new talent because it knows its pipeline will give these individuals the experience and training they currently lack. <\/strong>Most companies without this focus on continuing education can\u2019t trust their training to provide this experience, so they focus on hiring the most experienced individuals they can find. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone starts at an entry-level position in the education pipeline, and Zappos consistently adds new employees to the pipeline. This results in a long train of hires, each one more trained and experienced than the last.<\/strong> As discussed, this means Zappos never struggles to fill a role when an employee leaves or is promoted, Hsieh says. Instead, there\u2019s another employee ready to take the next step in their training and take over the missing employee\u2019s role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While adding employees to the pipeline at the entry-employee level is effective, Zappos plans to expand its education pipeline to reach college students as well.<\/strong> Hsieh believes that if you start building relationships with freshmen in college, you can offer them internships and determine if they\u2019re a good fit to hire after graduation, thus making the transition to employee easier and the pipeline even more effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diversifying Your Hiring Pipeline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zappos’s interest in hiring entry-level employees and college students who may lack experience, rather than hiring candidates with set experience, highlights an important principle in modern hiring practices: hiring people with a diversity of (potentially unconventional) experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many businesses hire within a very narrow range of experience\u2014for example, they require employees to have experience with a specific computer program or to have worked for many years in a particular field. These companies likely wouldn\u2019t hire entry-level and college-level workers as Hsieh suggests because they don\u2019t want to invest in training new hires: They want hires to have the required experience now<\/em>, and they see having this experience as essential to success in the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, experts argue that focusing on potential<\/em> is more important than focusing on specific qualities when hiring:<\/a> They recommend taking a chance on hires who have experience that\u2019s not traditionally associated with the role or have unconventional backgrounds, but have the potential<\/em> to succeed within the education pipeline. This aligns with Hsieh\u2019s argument to hire entry-level and college-level workers, who may lack specific skills in a certain field due to their lack of work experience but have great potential<\/em> to develop and succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiring employees with unconventional backgrounds means they can use their unconventional experience to bring a diversity of thinking to your team and solve problems in new and innovative ways. For example, if you hire a psychology major for an HR position, they can use their knowledge of psychology to solve interpersonal disputes and brainstorm ways to better engage employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is Zappos’s education pipeline system? How can it be used to encourage employees to continue their education within your company? Being rewarded for hard work is always a satisfying feeling. The clothing retail store Zappos has an “education pipeline” system of training that rewards its workers during different phases of their employment, and it also benefits the company’s future. Here’s how Zappos uses its education pipeline system and why you should implement this strategy in your company’s training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":49899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,29,15],"tags":[594],"class_list":["post-63259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-career","category-education","tag-delivering-happiness","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nZappos's Education Pipeline: How It Rewards Workers - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An education pipeline offers many rewards for workers within their company. These include promotions and salary raises. 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