The Unemployed Life

You’ve Got the Job! See You in Six Months

Is there such a thing as job security without a job? In this recession, anything’s possible.

To balance a strict hiring freeze with the need to secure talent, more and more employers are signing up new hires with delayed start dates, some as long as six to eight months away.

In a new CareerBuilder survey, one in ten of more than 2,500 hiring managers, HR managers and other recruiters said they’ve recently offered positions with postponed start dates. The move allows them to develop staff for the future, while keeping the current headcount down as the recession lingers.

Less than half of these recruiters said they provided a pay incentive to new hires who were willing to wait out the downturn, the survey found.

The new strategy comes as employers face the allure of a buyers’ market for talent at a time when few have the resources to take them on.

“You can see why some businesses might adopt this approach,” says Michael Alter, president of Chicago-based payroll services firm SurePayroll. “Where you’re seeing this is at bigger businesses.”

One in 10 hiring managers, HR managers and other recruiters said they’ve recently offered positions with postponed start dates.

That’s because higher-paying, executive-level jobseekers are more likely to have a financial cushion to go months without a paycheck. They’re also more willing to hold out for a long-term, career-building move.

The more coveted the job, the more likely the strategy is going to work, Alter says: “You can’t do this with a customer service position.”

Of course, most jobseekers these days need a paycheck yesterday, to cover next month’s rent, an upcoming mortgage payment, or to pay down a maxed-out credit card.

The gamble for employers who take this approach is that a new hire won’t find a better gig while waiting in the wings, putting the hiring process back to square one. Depending on the job, filling a vacancy—even a deferred vacancy—can cost employers as much as $10,000 in ads, interviews, paperwork and other resources, HR experts say.

Still others say it’s simply unfair to make a job applicant commit to a position down the road during tough times.

“It’s exciting for me to know there’s all this talent available out there,” says Rick Moore, the president of Ridgeland, Miss.-based Eyevox Film & Video Production. “But I just don’t have $20,000 right now to retain anyone, and as an employer I’m not going to lock anybody in. As a person, I owe it to them to let them keep looking.”

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Tags: employers, hiring, jobs, new job, unemployed