Associate Programs: How Amazon And Meta Find Employees

Employee retention is one of companies’ biggest concerns in the period after The Great Reshuffle. Now, millions of people have left their jobs, searching for more fulfilling roles and greater flexibility. 

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that a majority of employees who quit a job in 2021 say low pay (63%), no opportunities for advancement (63%), and feeling disrespected at work (57%) were reasons they quit.

Is it really the entrepreneur’s job to care for employees’ career path, life and work balance,  skills building and talent support? Possibly not. But ignoring it would be shortsighted because every organization’s management plans contain goals that come to life only with the work of employees.

In this article, we will show how big companiescreateopportunities for young talent and tenured employees. You will learn about associate programs, mentorship, rotations within the team, L&D benefits and find fresh ideas to foster staff development in your own projects.

Associated Programs Help Bring Talent To Your Team

Many job seekers choose future work not only by salary rate or benefits, or even interesting work. Young people want to be sure that the company will help them develop skills so they can progress to the next level in their careers. Associate programs help prepare the next generation of professionals loyal to the company and help them master new skills and choose a career.

Here are some examples of leading companies’ associate programs designed to grow and hire grads across various disciplines. 

Amazon Associate Programs

Amazon is in second place in the world by employee count in 2022. Their Career Choice program begins with an educational partner school network across 14 countries, and then it splits into three directions.

Foundations. The program offers employees high school diplomas, GED certificates, English as a Second Language (ESL) proficiency certifications and computer and learning skills certifications.

Pathways. Includes education and job training within in-demand disciplines to help associates find a job at Amazon or elsewhere and develop skills for a lifetime.

College. The program covers full tuition for the associates who want to start or continue a degree and work in Amazon after graduation.

The program also provides funding for learning disciplines like aircraft mechanics, welding, medical billing, nursing, management and other fields.

Tesla Interns and START Programs

Tesla is a world-leading manufacturer of electric vehicles. The company revenue has reached $53.8 billion. Tesla’s leaders show that associate programs are not only great for early-career job seekers, but they’re also good for business.

Tesla interns program. Tesla associates are treated as full-time employees for three months. The associate program includes mentorship, interactive events and weekly seminars with experts. The best way to gain skills is to learn from the best.

Tesla START is an immersive 12-week capstone program where undergraduates develop technical expertise. Associates earn certifications through in-class theory, hands-on labs, and self-paced learning. The disciplines to choose among are automotive, collision, and manufacturing.

Meta Associate Programs

The demand for young minds in engineering disciplines, computer sciences, as well as accounting, economics and management in IT companies grew 20 to 60 percent in 2020 according to New York Times interviews. Talent managers and HR leaders in the IT field competitively recruit students. Meta has several associate programs to lure the up-and-coming talent to win this race.

Meta Interns. Associates work 1:1 with mentors and get support from management. Most interns deliver code or contribute to real projects in their first week. Interns have fun outside of work with community connections, events with Meta leaders and other activities besides work. Future employees also learn to build project plans and the basics of product marketing.

Meta University. This immersive program enables students from underrepresented communities to get to know Meta’s people, organization and technologies and develop competitive skills.

Engineering Bootcamp. A training program lasts approximately six weeks. Associates gain insight into the range of engineering work happening across Meta. Bootcamp helps to match passions and strengths to a team where students will have more opportunities and impact.

How to Help Your People Grow

Big companies have already invested significant time and energy into associate programs and have developed effective structures to make them work. Whenever you look for an associate program as a grad or want to implement one in your business, it’s helpful to know the puzzle pieces for it.

Mentors

A mentor is someone who teaches and gives help or advice to an associate or an intern. This is usually a senior specialist who will show their mentee around the office and organization structure, answer newbie questions, help with job issues and make suggestions to project plans or even their career path.

Beginners usually need guidance in tactical tasks that are needed for any project or product. Therefore organizations see communication with managers or product marketing managers as a part of associate programs.

For example, associates in Atlassian learn to create project plans, check customer-facing materials, collect input data from stakeholders and learn the basics of management through practice.

Guest presenters

These professionals from outside the company have more expertise in their area. They come to share their broad experience and get to practice their presentation and communication skills. Newcomers absorb deep understanding from tenured colleagues. This way, such events benefit both parties.

For example, Atlassian’s Associate Product Marketing Manager program invites guest speakers in marketing, analytics, management and SEO. And Global Logic is proud of events with thought leaders in digital design and engineering.

Employees rotations

Some associate programs ensure the opportunity for rotation through various departments. This helps employeesdevelopskills and explore new areas without leaving the company.

A good example is a Meta Engineering Bootcamp, where associates can identify their strongest skills and align them to a team for the most productive collaboration.

Chats and conferencing

Leading organizations often have powerful online platforms for work that allow associates not only to type questions but to attend virtual sessions with leaders worldwide, participate in creating project plans or upgrade skills by learning online.

Although online business platforms are highly sophisticated and expensive products, numerous affordable collaboration software options, including FuseBase (formerly Nimbus), give an overview of how it works.

Community life

Another attraction for student job seekers is to be a part of the community and contribute to something large and significant. Associates get to learn about the product, people and spirit of the company in community events, which are part of the corporate culture. Although these events may consist of cultural celebrations, kickball tournaments or volunteer opportunities at a local food bank, they help build human connections.

Career path webinars

Students in the last year of study actively search for information about careers and professions. The project IT WakeUp from Global Logic Ukraine addresses young people through their native channel – Youtube. In short videos, IT specialists in different fields talk about their routines, pros & cons of their work and education opportunities. The project also tells about recruiters and managers’ positions.

Altogether educational webinars are valuable products that drive positive attention to the company name.

Disciplines

Early job seekers should also note what type of associate programs a company offers.

Many tech companies focus on growing engineering talent and less on other business functions. Still, IT products need product marketing as any other service. Therefore technological businesses also need to raise future product managers, marketers and analysts.

Sustainable Business Concepts and Budgets

Associated programs are a part of a bigger progressive paradigm of Learning and Development in Business (L&D).

L&D is the continuous process of improving your employee’s knowledge, competencies and skills to raise their productivity and job satisfaction while reducing turnover. This includes development opportunities like:

• global rotation
• relocation
• apprenticeships & certifications programs for skills development
• promotion policies with hiring from within as often as possible
• veteran programs
• free access to the company learning database

Sustainable companies not only bring a new sense of care and humanity to employee well-being but also benefit from:

• improved retention
• boosts in morale
• staff engagement
• reduced recruitment costs

According to the LinkedIn report, nearly half of L&D leaders expect their budgets to increase this year.

Is there any better indicator of a priority than investment dollars?

Investors and stakeholders might think that it`s lavish to spend money training young people. There is a danger that they will leave elsewhere with all their freshly baked skills.

Nevertheless, a more far-sighted worry could be, “What if you don’t train them and they stay?” 

Businesses implementing associate programs build a growing pipeline of talent that flows through the organization. This way, both company and employees win in the long-term. 

FuseBase Might Be Your Way to Lure Up-and-Coming Talent

It’s not just associate programs that indicate how much a company values its employees. Every improvement that creates opportunities for personal growth can become a part of your business L&D strategy.

54% of L&D pros agree that internal mobility has become a priority at their organization since COVID-19. FuseBase (formerly Nimbus) perfectly fits remote, in-house and hybrid work. It can also serve as a knowledge management system for your team to store notes, ideas, important documents or inspiring articles from the web, and add various content types: plain text, to-do lists, tables, databases, images, videos, embeds from other sites and attached files of any format. Learn how FuseBase can help you with building up your perfect knowledge base here.

Working with FuseBase is a signal to job seekers that your company treasures their intelligence, hard work, dedication and talent. Try it free — make the next step to building the right  L&D program.

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