Butts In the Seats: Earlier this month, I read an interview with WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg about his company, Automattic’s, hiring process. The title of the interview, Hire by Audition, Not Resumes, is what caught my eye.
What Automattic does is pay potential hires to do short term work for them so they can get a real sense of the person they might be potentially working with long term. Mullenweg says they hire about 40% of those who tryout and have very low employee turnover.
2 comments:
This is a really interesting way to do things. Resumes and interviews will only show what the applicant wants the employers to see. If you have the person actually do work, then you get to see what they are actually capable of and not just a few of their most brilliant moments. It'd be really cool if all companies did this, though it would take a lot of organization and effort on the companies' part to get it all together.
I learned that most companies in Japan do this for their interviews as well. Japanese employers are looking for someone that will get along with the people they already have hired and can produce great work. Employees will be taken on as part-timers and then get hired later on if they are chosen for the position. The ability to get along with the people you are working with is very important to a cohesive company.
I read that article that Patti is commenting on, and I actually don't remember thinking about applying that system to hiring for a theater organization. I now realize, though, that I think it could be quite useful. Collaboration is (or should be) at the heart of everything we do in the performing arts, and having someone come in for a paid trial period before hiring them would ensure that the candidate is able to not only perform the work needed but also collaborate with and fit in with the other workers. Patti mentions a few problems that this type of hiring poses for arts organizations, but I think that the benefit of hiring someone who is truly right for the job and the organization outweighs the potential shortfalls of the system.
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