Give job applicants an insight into your agility
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Companies like to praise themselves as dynamic and agile. But how to show this agility to job applicants who, after all, have to prove themselves with credentials, certificates, personality tests and case studies? Portals like Glassdoor barely provide insight and buzzwords like squad, design thinking or Scrum might scare away potential employees. In view of the shortage of skilled workers, this is fatal, especially since a survey by Softgarden shows how important job interviews on equal footing are for German job applicants. Unfortunately they rarely experience them that way.
So if you work agile, provide real insights:
- Agile organizations are continuously improving. Therefore, explain to applicants what retrospective they would be attending regularly and how it works. Of course, these rituals are protected and confidential, but you might give a glimpse at old action plans. Also stating what techniques, such as Starfish, are used can convince applicants that these meetings lead to meaningful improvement.
- We spend most of our lives on the job. Don’t let professionals “buy a pig in a poke,” instead let them get to know potential new colleagues in advance. Subject to confidentiality compliance, attending a typical meeting can also give a good impression to applicants. Additionally making hiring decisions as a team or at least with several employees, shows that employee opinion is valued.
- According to a recent survey commissioned by Xing half of Germans would like to have further training, but lack time or money to do so. At this point applicants will appreciate to get a specific budget and time at their disposal for trainings of their choice. This needs to be substantiated in a written agreement. A faint “we take staff training seriously” doesn’t win applicants over.
- One of the most widely used agile tools is Jira. In job interviews Jira boards, dashboards and reports give the opportunity to look into the workflow and actual daily routine.
- Those who work with Scrum or scaled with Nexus, SAFe, etc. should show corresponding meeting appointments. I mean it! Open your laptop, start the calendar app and show past as well as future rituals! Use events such as a Sprint Review or PI-Planning to explain the process. All the better when you can show some pictures of employees gathering at these events.
- Many agile methods improve transparency about current work status of employees. However, this goes both ways, meaning it is also required for agile leaders. Therefore applicants need to see a board showing blockers, obstacles, and leaders’ progress of solving them. This especially visualizes the “service” that is lived through Servant Leadership.
These suggestions alone do not make an agile organization. However, they give potential employees an honest picture of your way of agile working. Applicants having a negative attitude towards agility might be willing to give it a/another try.
