Are you authentic?
Posted by Rick Ellis on April 11, 2008
One of the biggest challenges of growing a company is maintaining your authenticity as you move beyond the small founding team.
We’ve been trying to fill a couple new job openings at EllisLab. As I sift through several dozen applications, what I find most glaring is that very few of the candidates are currently part of our community or culture. Some do have experience with our products, and they possess the necessary qualifications, but without that integration they feel like outsiders to me.
Historically, people from our community have emerged to fill new roles with us. It’s been a very organic process, where we get to know someone on a personal and professional level well before we ever consider them for a job. Unfortunately, that process won’t scale, so we must recruit candidates in a more traditional way as we grow.
In order to maintain our authenticity and core values, must all new candidates come to us already integrated into our culture? Ideally, yes, recruits should already be part of our family, as it makes the process much more seamless and natural, just as a Harley rider is a better candidate to work at Harley Davidson then someone who doesn’t ride.
Unfortunately that’s not always realistic, so the challenge becomes how to best integrate new employees. Harvard Business Review asks a similar question in a fictional case study called Authenticity: Is It Real or Is It Marketing?.
Dude, you read Harvard Business Review… whoa-a, I’m not sure you’re cut out for the company
Interesting article, stay true, right.
The Harley analogy brings someone to mind not sure his scooters got the stuff though.
Finally Friday, thanks for sharing your thoughts Rick.
Posted by ty from Ohio, USA on Friday, April 11, 2008