Open Source Recruiting
By now, you've probably heard about the open source movement among software developers. Its proponents reject the traditional "closed" model of development in which the owner controls all aspect of a product's design, implementation and use. Whether it's Microsoft coding software or the Encyclopedia Britannica creating content, the open sourcers believe the process involved is inefficient and produces suboptimal results. A better alternative, they argue, is a collaborative model where anyone with the appropriate expertise can make a contribution and is actually encouraged to do so. This open source approach has produced Linux, a computer operating system, and Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, both of which, the open sourcers contend, are more robust and have fewer errors than their competitors produced the old fashioned way.
Regardless of where you come out on that debate, however, I think the open source concept can be a worthwhile way of rethinking our recruitment strategy. It has a number of features which can improve the quality of our yield and the productivity with which we work. They are:
- Inclusiveness. The open source approach does not limit the accomplishment of work objectives to a fixed set of individuals, but instead taps into the talent of everyone who can make a contribution.
- Collaboration. The open source approach does not create stove pipes of activity, but instead seeks to establish a cooperative and integrated vision for reaching key goals.
- Shared rewards. The open source approach does not channel all of an activity's rewards to a single source, but instead makes them available to the community at large.
Open source recruiting has the same basic attributes. They are tailored, of course, to reflect the unique challenges of sourcing and recruiting top talent.
Open source recruiting is inclusive. It envisions recruiting not as a function assigned solely to the HR Department, but instead, as a core responsibility of everyone in the organization. In other words, bringing new talent into the organization is as much a part of the job description of the CEO and other executives and hiring managers and the employees who work for them as it is the role of recruiters. And, to make that assignment real, it must be modeled by senior leaders in the organization and included in each and every person's performance appraisal, to include the CEO and hiring managers.
Open source recruiting is collaborative. It does not encourage employees to recruit their friends and former colleagues-the implicit design of most current employee referral systems-but instead, enlists them in identifying and recruiting the best talent in their field. The organization's employment brand is the foundation for such a collaborative effort. Every employee must know it, believe it, and be able to articulate it persuasively. To achieve such cooperation among its workers, the organization must invest both in correcting any deficiency identified in its value proposition as an employer and in ongoing training to enhance workers' ability to express, explain and ultimately sell its brand effectively.
Open source recruiting offers shared rewards. It works best when recruitment and retention results are viewed as a key indicator of individual performance, and therefore a factor in determining each person's compensation. If an employee excels at their job of bringing top talent into an organization, they should be rewarded for their performance, regardless of whether they are an hourly employee, a senior staff person, a contract employee or an executive. Moreover, their reward should be more than a handshake and a pat on the back; it should involve a meaningful financial bonus. The only way to implement such a system, of course, is with metrics. And, the best metrics for measuring open source recruiting results are team-based and include number of new hires sourced by unit, quality of new hires sourced by unit, and the attrition of current employees by unit.
Some may worry that the broad-base of open source recruiting undermines the role of recruiters in staffing. Actually, exactly the opposite is true. With so many people performing recruiting tasks, it's critically important that there be consistent and knowledgeable leadership. That leadership dimension moves recruiters beyond today's over-commitment to administrative tasks and places them directly at the center of a major organization-wide strategy. It repositions recruiters as internal experts with the knowledge and experience necessary to train and support line units in accomplishing their tasks. And, it changes the dynamic of recruiting from a staff function buried in the HR Department to a core business activity which requires the participation of the entire organization.
Now, I know that it's much easier to propose than to implement such a tectonic shift in the view of recruitment in today's corporate enterprise. However, as more and more organizations begin to realize the extraordinary challenge they face in the War for the Best Talent, the leaders of those organizations are likely to show a greater willingness to consider new ideas. From now on, therefore, a key aspect of our job is to be ready to offer them, and open source recruiting is one idea you may want to consider.
Thanks for reading,
Peter
Who is Peter Weddle? Peter Weddle is a recruiter, HR consultant and business CEO turned author and commentator. Described by The Washington Post as "... a man filled with ingenious ideas," he has earned an international reputation, pioneering concepts in Human Resource leadership and employment. He has authored or edited over two dozen books and been a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, The National Business Employment Weekly and CNN.com. Today, he writes two newsletters that are distributed worldwide and oversees WEDDLE's LLC, a print publisher specializing in the field of human resources. WEDDLE's annual Guides and Directory to job boards are recognized for their accuracy and helpfulness, leading the American Staffing Association to call Weddle the "Zagat of the online employment industry."
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