How can we rethink recruitment?

Rethinking recruitment

Question # 1 What happens when people work on platforms / social media?

New employment models evolve to include platforms, projects, gigs, freelancers, contests, contracts, tours of duty, and part-timers.

https://hbr.org/2016/03/work-in-the-future-will-fall-into-these-4-categories

Sources http://www.gigwalk.com/ https://www.thumbtack.com/ https://www.upwork.com/

Sources https://www.agorize.com https://www.atizo.com http://www.brainfloor.com https://www.jovoto.com https://tongal.com/

Sources https://www.topcoder.com/ https://www.workmarket.com/

Sources http://www.rentarentner.ch http://www.swissvolunteers.ch

Sources https://99designs.com https://www.etsy.com

What if we break a single job into many assignments.

https://hbr.org/video/2226612737001/the-future-of-work-20

What if many tasks currently done by large companies were done instead by temporary combinations of small companies and independent contractors?

Malone, Thomas W.: The Future of Work, p. 74.

2-4 year tour of duties works.

Reasons 1. Many companies today work in environments that change.

2. The tour of duty can promote relationships that last beyond the tour of duty.

3. People don’t want an employer / employer for life.

4. People don’t want to work alone all the time. https://hbr.org/2013/06/tours-of-duty-the-new-employer-employee-compact

Question # 2 What if skills and interest matter more than diplomas?

We recently hired two people and we didn’t even know what their degrees were, if they even had degrees.

We hired them because of the work they did on the computer science platform on https://www.khanacademy.org/.

Salman Khan

http://blog.ted.com/2014/01/28/in-conversation-salman-khan-sebastian-thrun-talk-online-education/

More and more people are being hired on their work samples, on the projects they’ve done, the type of portfolios they’ve developed.

Sebastian Thrun

http://blog.ted.com/2014/01/28/in-conversation-salman-khan-sebastian-thrun-talk-online-education/

Sir Ken Robinson: You’re better off having a degree, but it’s not a guarantee of a good job anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

CVs have led recruiters to focus too much on grades, university reputations, and prior work experience.

The problem with these hiring criteria is that they’re biased toward applicants from more wealthy backgrounds.

https://hbr.org/2014/07/resumes-are-messing-up-hiring/

Position, title and academic degrees – none of the usual status differentiators carry much weight online.

On the web, what counts is not your resume, but what you can contribute. http://opensource.com/business/10/9/facebook-generation-vs-fortune-500

Research shows that focusing on individual strengths and what is unique about people is a much better strategy than trying to make people conform.

Results: People become more motivated, work more efficiently, and make fewer errors. https://hbr.org/daily-stat/2013/07/dont-make-new-hires-conform-in.html

Whether contributing to a blog, working on an open source project, or sharing advice in a forum, people choose to work on things that interest them.

Everyone is an independent contractor.

Gary Hamel

http://opensource.com/business/10/9/facebook-generation-vs-fortune-500

http://bigthink.com/ideas/16151 http://thehypertextual.com/2010/04/08/gary-hamels-pyramid-of-human-capabilities/ http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/2010/04/employee-traits-hierarchy-for-creative.htm

Question # 3 What happens when you involve people who are different than you are?

People tend to recruit candidates just like themselves. We do this because we are affected by subjective biases, and in particular by the similar-attraction effect.

Johansson, Frans: The Medici Effect, p. 82.

Managers who dislike conflict - or value only their own approach - actively avoid the clash of ideas.

They hire and reward people of a particular stripe, usually people like themselves. http://hbr.org/1997/07/putting-your-companys-whole-brain-to-work/ar/1

Even if we want to create an innovative environment with different types of

people, we face millions of years of evolution that work against such desires.

Johansson, Frans: The Medici Effect, p. 82.

4 kinds of diversity 1. Gender diversity.

2. Nationality diversity.

3. Age diversity.

4. Value diversity.

Adapted from http://www.heidrick.com/~/media/Publications%20and%20Reports/HS_EuropeanCorpGovRpt2011.pdf

Over the coming years, the workforce is set to become far more diverse, reflecting trends towards an ageing population, greater ethnic diversity and more women taking up positions in paid work. http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Recruitment%202020%20-%20web.pdf

Further inspiration

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-diverse-is-the-group-2005865

Question # 4 What happens when you involve people who have no experience?

www.airbnb.com use freelance employment models.

These employment models have enormous implications for the educational needs of the global population.

http://mckinseyonsociety.com/sebastian-thrun-udacity-credentials-that-work/

We’re an industry that needs to change and reexamine almost every facet of how we do business.

So people who have been trained and reinforced in the traditional ways of running hospitals and health system departments often don’t look at doing things in new and creative ways. They don’t challenge everything and ask tough questions. Instead they are locked into the old paradigms. So the last thing we need is someone with that kind of ”experience.” https://hbr.org/2011/05/job-available-no-experience-pr.html

The clearest signal of a learner is curiosity.

Curious people love to learn.

While experts talk about what they know, the curious talk about what they don’t know. https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-hire-34f4ded5f176#.811m54wm9

Further inspiration https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Learning-strategies-1487708