????達里爾?湯普森是風險管理及再保險公司怡安（Aon）的會計高管，工作在曼哈頓，安家在紐約州白原市郊，每天都要往返于兩地之間，糜費時日，苦不堪言。“沒時間多陪陪8歲的兒子，我很難過，”湯普森說。“我想在時間安排方面擁有更多的自主權。”

????到了2010年，他從在保誠集團（Prudential）工作的朋友那里得知，該公司從前一年就已經(jīng)開始使用一種獨特的招聘方式。該計劃名為職業(yè)發(fā)展項目（Career Development Program，簡稱CDP），求職者可以在保持現(xiàn)有工作的同時參加為期6個月以在線方式為主的培訓，還可以自行調(diào)整進度，目的是獲得認證壽險代理和財務顧問所需的專業(yè)資質(zhì)。

????湯普森決定試一試，最終他在2011年4月離開怡安，成為保誠的全職員工。作為資深的財產(chǎn)及意外險經(jīng)紀人，又擁有金融學的MBA學位，湯普森看似在培訓人員中高人一籌，但他自己并不這么認為。他說：“項目里的很多同伴原來從事文科工作，比如教師和樂手。”那么新的工作是否稱心如意呢？“絕對的。其實現(xiàn)在工作時間更長了，但靈活性大得多，”他說。“我就是后悔沒有早點跳槽。”

????2009年的時候，“職業(yè)發(fā)展項目”一開始只是小規(guī)模的實驗，但效果實在太好了，現(xiàn)在已成為保誠招聘財務專家的唯一方式，截至目前已有約3,400人完成了培訓。卡羅琳?菲尼是保誠主管代理分銷的新任總裁，她說：“我們之前的招聘方式非常傳統(tǒng)，就是面試、錄用、培訓的流程。”

????“經(jīng)理們非常喜歡現(xiàn)在的方式，因為這讓他們在入職前就能觀察到每個求職者投入和盡職的程度，”她進一步說。“通過整體的培訓過程，可以清楚地分辨出哪些人積極投入，哪些人真正‘明了’銷售業(yè)務，哪些人充滿工作熱情。從中得到的信息比任何面試都多得多。”

????但是，中途退出者所占的比例也高達60%，因為保誠所要求（并支付費用）的培訓包括課程學習、考試、評估和練習，絕不輕松。“我們雙方都可以在某個時刻做出決定，不再繼續(xù)，”菲尼說。“通過這種方式，我們能提早發(fā)現(xiàn)問題，免得不合適的人入職之后要么辭職，要么被炒。”“職業(yè)發(fā)展項目”其實就是在求職者入職之前，給公司和求職者雙方一個互相適應的機會，菲尼稱這個項目的雇傭成本比公司的傳統(tǒng)雇傭方式低得多，主要原因就是員工流動率減少了約40%.

????對于也想嘗試這類招聘方式的公司，菲尼有什么建議呢？“我們學到的一個經(jīng)驗就是不要跳過任何步驟，”她說。“我們列出了一個詳細的清單，規(guī)定求職者必須完成的任務。然后嚴令主事的分部經(jīng)理不得放過任何一項，因為每一步都有各自的作用。”

????對于順利通過考核的求職者，保誠還會提供培訓、營銷手段及其它資源，幫助新員工開設代理辦事處。麥克?潘在兩年前完成了“職業(yè)發(fā)展項目”培訓，在布魯克林中國城附近的多元化社區(qū)開設了一個保誠辦事處。這位以前的餐館老板認為這是（獨立性和公司支持）兩方面的完美結合。他說：“自己給自己當老板，但同時又能得到很多支持，比完全獨立強得多。”

????“不用朝九晚五地工作。自己掌握時間，甚至能自己控制自己的收入潛力，”他進一步說。“要想多賺錢，只需更努力地工作。”

????As an account executive at risk management and reinsurance firm Aon, Darryl Thompson made a time-consuming daily trek between Manhattan and his home in suburban White Plains, N.Y. "I was unhappy about not spending enough time with my eight-year-old son," Thompson says. "I wanted more control over my own schedule."

????Then, in 2010, a friend who worked for Prudential told him about an unusual recruiting method the company had launched the year before. Called the CDP, for Career Development Program, it allows people to stay in their current jobs throughout six months of training -- mostly online, and at the candidates' own pace -- to earn the professional designations required to become a certified life insurance agent and financial advisor.

????Thompson decided to give it a try, and ended up quitting Aon (AON) to join Prudential (PRU) full-time in April 2011. As a seasoned property-and-casualty broker with an MBA in finance, Thompson might seem to have an edge over most who take Prudential's training, but he says not. "Many of my colleagues in the program were liberal-arts types like teachers and musicians," he says. Has the career change worked out the way he hoped? "Absolutely. I work even longer hours now, but I have much more flexibility," he says. "I wish I could have done this years ago."

????Prudential launched the CDP in 2009 as a small-scale experiment, but it's worked so well that it's now the only way the company hires new financial professionals, some 3,400 of whom have done the training so far. "The way we used to hire people was much more the traditional method of interviewing them, hiring them, and then training them," says Caroline Feeney, Prudential's newly appointed president of agency distribution.

????"Our managers like this approach a lot better, because it shows them clearly how committed and conscientious each candidate is before that person is hired," she adds. "As candidates go through the training, you can see very clearly who's committed and motivated, who really 'gets' the sales aspect of the business, who's enthusiastic and who isn't. It tells you volumes more than any job interview can."

????The dropout rate is high. Roughly 60% of candidates don't make it through the demanding combination of course work, exams, assessments, and exercises Prudential requires (and pays for). "Either they decide somewhere along the way, or we do, that it just isn't going to work out," Feeney says. "But this way, we find out early, before we bring them on board and they end up quitting or being fired." By letting the company test-drive candidates, and vice versa, before they're added to the payroll, Feeney says the CDP costs much less than the company's old hiring method -- largely because it has chopped turnover by about 40%.

????What advice can Feeney offer any other employer who might want to try a similar approach? "One thing we've learned since we started this is that it's important not to skip any steps," she says. "We've put together a detailed checklist of things candidates have to do, and we urge the managers who run the program in our branch offices not to compromise on any of them, because each step matters."

????For those who make the cut, Prudential provides coaching, marketing expertise, and other resources to help newbies get their agencies up and running. Former restaurateur Mike Pan sees that as the best of two worlds. "You're running your own business, but with a lot more support than just being out there on your own," says Pan, who started up a Prudential office in a diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn's Chinatown after completing the CDP two years ago.

????"It's not a 9-to-5 job. You control your own hours, and also your own income potential," he adds. "If you want to make more money, you just work harder."