Holacracy-style Hiring, Part II: A Collective Process of Roles

Holacracy doesn’t come with a predefined approach to hiring. Each self-organizing company develops their own custom approach. In this article, Anne Nynke shares a glimpse of the hiring that takes place at Springest — a Holacracy-driven organization based in the Netherlands. A couple of weeks ago, we shared how hiring works at Devhouse Spindle. Now you can see for yourself what the hiring processes might look like in a fully self-organizing environment that uses Holacracy as an overarching operating system.

When does hiring happen at Springest?

When we feel the need to build our internal capacity for the existing roles that are already filled by our people, but need more care and attention. Also when we sense [during the governance process] that there is a need for a brand new role and we don’t have the right person onboard already.

So once the sensing part is done, how does the hiring process begin?

We start in a very standard way, as I imagine the majority of companies do, by placing an advert about the vacancy. In one of my roles, I interview interesting candidates over the phone and present more about the opportunity at Springest. If the call goes well, we completely skip any face-to-face interviews and we invite the person to come and work for one day with us at Springest.

During this day, candidates work as if they were already energizing the role in question and the duration of this trial may vary. Particularly if we want to hire a new developer, a candidate would usually spend more than one day with us. During the trial day new folks get a feel for the work environment, self-organizing principles, and the roles that they may fill in our structure.

This is how we learn whether someone fits here and if they like the way we do things at Springest. After all, we are quite a unique company, being self-organizing using Holacracy and having a very strong culture. It’s very important for us that candidates really get to experience Springest properly.

Within this process, I currently hold the Learning Advisor Hiring role. This means that I write vacancies, review candidates, conduct phone interviews, invite applicants for a trial, and guide applicants during their trial day. But I am not the decision maker in this process, there are more roles involved.

The final hiring decision happens between the roles of Lead Link (who has a talk with a potential hire during the trial day in order to assess the role fit), the Happiness role (that has a short chat and assesses the cultural fit and level of initial happiness, connected to potential co-operation, felt on both sides), and the Contract & Salary role who takes it from there, negotiates terms and signs the agreement with a new hire.

What happens if the person is successful during their trial day?

If there is a clear ‘yes’ after this day and everyone is happy to proceed, we have an Onboarding role in our Smooth Operation Circle. This role has clear accountabilities for on-boarding newbies, including the self-organizing way of working.

We also have a very helpful internal helpdesk where a person can learn all about our structure, roles, circles, articles, and other related information. Everything is very transparent and approachable. I think that this is a key factor in getting newcomers up-to-speed effectively. With Holacracy, transparency is one of the key traits of an organization, hence we make the structure and processes easy for everyone to access, including the new hire.

Joining the Governance and Tactical Meetings as an observer is one of the first features of the onboarding phase. These meetings take place regularly and they are like a heartbeat for Springest. Both follow a rigid structure which we’re so used to that it’s hard for us to imagine having any meetings in a traditional form. We do have other ‘loose’ meetings in our tribe space, but in terms of evolving Springest and keeping all of us up-to-date with our progress, these Holacracy-style meetings bring an irreplaceable level of focus.

Our broadest circle, called Alignment Circle, has been here from the very beginning of our self-organization journey, and it consists of people who have already practiced Holacracy for some time now. So it’s kind of a role model! We invite a new person to experience the meetings of this circle and learn about the process.

These meeting are one of the first ‘ahas’ for a new hire. They are very different from conventional meetings, so as you can imagine, it is a big step and a bit of a surprise for a new person. It certainly was for me!

What happens as the new hire becomes more acquainted with Holacracy?

Roles change dynamically in Holacracy depending on organizational needs, and each person may energize multiple roles if she/he is willing to do so. However, when we hire a new team member, they are hired for a particular need which is captured in a well defined role and, at the outset, this role is the only focus for a new hire.

After some time, it could be weeks or months depending on how a person gets along with the role and the system, the Lead Link role may invite the person to take on a new role. This might be a role that a person has the skillset or an energy for. Everything depends on the alignment between the needs of both Springest and the person.

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Anne Nynke shares a few sentences about herself and her connection to Holacracy

I’m positive and highly energetic, unable to sit still for too long and always trying to energize and inspire others. Educated as an International Communication professional, I’m skilled and interested in many different fields and disciplines, including sales, marketing, events, and PR. Holacracy is the ideal structure for someone like me because it doesn’t limit me to just one job position, instead it enables me to fulfil multiple different roles. Next to roles related to hiring and onboarding, I also have roles for things like Office Design and Springest Team Events.