<aside> 💡 This page is a little bit of a special one to us at Open Org, but we hope that as many companies as possible take it upon themselves to adopt a mindset of being more open with applicants around whether they should or shouldn’t apply to work for you.
Our Ask Make efforts to build some authenticity into your hiring playbook and employer brand by being honest about why someone might not thrive in your environment and culture. Ideally you weave this intentionally into other pages (e.g. culture ) but having a specific section of your handbook that addresses this with candidates is potentially very powerful, honest and builds a lot of trust, which presumably is why you are reading this template right now.
The issue this will fix Making efforts to help some candidates self-select out of applying to you will save time on both sides, relieve unnecessary pressure on Talent & People teams when reviewing mountains of CVs, and will improve candidate experience; not just because you have more time to respond to people but also because you haven’t wasted their time.
Our Tips Take some time to understand what it is about your particular culture and business that sometimes leads to failure and an inability to thrive. It might be that you are fully remote, and some people struggle with that. It might be that you are asynchronous and some people just can’t cope. It might be that you operate using a first principle mindset, or that you have a zero-meetings policy.
Being upfront and honest about how you work, but also about what that might mean for someone and spelling it out clearly is something that builds real trust.
The below sections are just hypothetical examples for clarity, but hopefully serve as inspiration and guidance on how you could approach crafting this page.
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[EXAMPLE] Time has shown us that historically there have been patterns to why certain people may struggle in our working environment, and we want to be upfront about what those patterns look like to help you decide whether you will thrive here or not.
First Principle Mindset We operate rigidly to a first principle mindset. Some people thrive working like this, and others simply struggle. If you’re unsure what that means, then you can read more about that to make an informed decision here. What it means in reality here though is that […]
Zero Meeting Policy We know some people love meetings, but we have found it incredibly vital to our success as a team over the years to minimise meeting’s where possible, to the point where we have a zero meeting philosophy in our company. They do happen, sometimes, but we work hard to be intentional on understanding whether they need to happen, and some people have struggled with this approach previously, so we feel it’s important to share upfront.
Fully Remote We have no office, and intend to continue like that. Whilst many people want freedom and flexibility to not be office-bound 5 days a week, time has told us that many also struggle with zero IRL interaction whatsoever. We meet once a year as a team, but that is all. We want to make sure people take this into full consideration before they apply. Whilst this is a huge benefit to many, it is also a struggle for many.
[EXAMPLE] Long Hours, Deliver at All Costs We’re big on freedom and flexibility here day to day but also as a team have a collective understanding that there are certain situations that overrule that from time to time. in 2022 we had one specific example where we had to re-write a proposal for a client from scratch that had to be with them for 9am the next morning. We were only told at 4pm the day before.
Many of our team worked incredibly late into the night, to ensure that happened.
We didn’t win the pitch either.
It a tough moment, but for every tough moment that hasn’t gone our way, over time we have had many more wins, and we believe in this approach as a team that has shared a lot of success together.
If you join us, there will be times where you are asked to work like this, but we’ve built up enough trust with our team to the point where they know we will reward, recognise and find ways of giving them back time when those tough moments have passed.
[EXAMPLE] We think it’s unfair for companies to approach hiring as if everything at work is going to be sunshine and rainbows. We believe we have created an environment and culture here where certain people will thrive and get so much from it, However we want to be clear also on that fact that we know there are trade-offs to that as well
What we can offer
✅ You’ll work with the greatest minds in our industry fixing the biggest problem on our planet ✅ You’ll be paid in the 90th percentile, the highest of any of our industry competitors ✅ You’ll have the chance to work where you want ✅ We co-create a lot. You’ll be involved in our business decisions, rather than hearing about them after the face
What we need back
✅ We work long hours, longer than most. We don’t have official hours but we do what we need to. ✅ You’ll likely have less of a social life because of this - but we tend to attract those who are ok with that. ✅ We ask a lot of you outside of a traditional role description. You have to be ok with contributing outside of your comfort zone. ✅ We don’t connect in-person much and minimise meetings, so we need people to be ok with fully remote environments that could make you feel isolated at times.