An article focusing on the recruitment and dismissal process at Sipgate has recently been published on the Business Insider Deutschland website. It explains that teams are fully in charge of deciding who will work in them. Teams themselves decide whether they need to hire or say goodbye to someone.
"The notion that I would be someone opening the door on a team and saying, here, you don't know them, but here’s your new colleague, is kind of absurd," said Tim Mois, the company's director.
Teams hire
When a team thinks a reinforcement is needed, they create and publish a job offer. One member appointed by the team then, in cooperation with the afore-mentioned HR workers, goes through the applications every day. Rejected candidates always receive a message with the exact reason for the rejection.
Initial interviews with selected candidates are led by the team independently, without any involvement of their managers. The HR workers can assist but they don't decide on the final choice. The goal of this process is to find candidates who best fit in the team.
Successful candidates are offered an opportunity to work on trial projects. During their probation period, they go through two rounds of feedback - after one and four months.
Teams fire
Together with hiring, teams are also responsible for firing employees. If a new employee doesn't acquit themselves well, the same colleagues who hired them must deliver the verdict. Proving successful during the probationary period does not, however, mean that the team may not fire the employee later.
Even a good worker might sometimes not fit in or stop performing well. Then it is again up to the team to solve the problem. If the team does not succeed in their efforts to help and the worker does not improve, the team will ask the person concerned to start looking for a job elsewhere.
The HR workers help prepare teams for the firing process and can also participate in interviews with employees being fired if required. Nevertheless, communication with employees being dismissed is primarily the task of those who hired them, namely the team.
What do you think: would the same practice work in your organisation?
-kk-