As part of my reading list, I stumbled on to a post that talks about a bakery that gives a job to anyone who applies – no interview, no background checks, no drug tests, nothing. You enrol on a list and whenever an opening arises, the person at the top of the list is offered that job. Simple. They start as an apprentice for a 10 month period, post which they get an entry level job at the bakery. They practice Open Hiring.
This made me think. {I know ?}. I can already think of a 100 different reasons that we can come up to decide that this strategy will not work in our industry, that this bakery is an aberration and the model cant be replicated in any other industry and in any other conditions.
However, I am reminded of a conversation I had with Porus Munshi a long time back and something that he said has stayed with me forever.
“Process beats talent. Every time!”
– Porus Munshi
You can listen to the entire conversation with him on my podcast here.
In the conversation, he shares how he has worked with teams that have been struggling to produce any kind of results can transform into high performance teams, when given the right conditions and the right process. Under certain conditions, the teams flourish. This is the prototypical underdog story.
We have seen the reverse happen all the time as well. Organisations put together stellar teams, full of high performing individuals in a highly visible project, one that everyone believes to be a sure bet and eventually the project goes no where and ends up a miserable failure.
I believe both of these to be true. I have been part of teams that have transformed from far worse to great and vice versa. So, it is not too much of a stretch for me to imagine that this approach to hiring might have a chance to succeed at any organisation.
Further, I don’t think most organisations are very good at hiring for the right fit or for that matter the right skillsets. If organisations were good at hiring well, we would not have an epidemic of unhappy, unengaged employees.
Also, I think this strategy of hiring anyone who applies, when combined with a few more strategies, can present us with significant benefits.
- Low cost: The recruitment costs are extremely low or negligible. The expenses thus saved can then be deployed on training those that we hire.
- Empathy: By allowing all new hires to go through a period of apprenticeship across the company, we are helping them build empathy for all the different functions that are being performed within the business.
- Engagement: Once the apprenticeship is complete, the new hires could be given an option to list the teams or functions that they would like to join according to their interest. We can then try our best to match the hire to the function of his/her interest. This is the best way to ensure that employees are engaged at their work.
- Diversity: This could also potentially create the most diverse workforce that we can come up with. By hiring everyone who applies, we eliminate all kinds of hiring biases that we bring to the table. It can so happen that we might end up with a very similar kind of workforce, but is also quite possible to end up with a pretty diverse workforce.
- Lower Attrition: If we are able to match people to their passions or interest areas, I believe that we will end up lowering the overall attrition.
In Conclusion:
The more I think about this, the more convinced I get that this strategy is well worth a try. Even if it is just on an experimental basis for a small team for a small period of time.
If we are too sceptical, do this for just internal transfers. Whenever you open up a position, hire the first internal candidate to apply. Do this for 10-15 positions and track their performance.
See if there is any dip in the overall performance of the team or of the individual. I am sure you will be surprised.
