We do this during an introduction day. During this day, a candidate walks with our team to see if this person fits the organization and the people, and vice versa. I highly recommend this for anyone joining a new organization. It is pleasant for both the candidate and the organization, because you really get to know each other.Īs with Amazon, we ask everyone involved in the process, the selection team filled with people the candidate will work with, to write a summary of their experience throughout the day. We do this without mutual consultation, that way colleagues cannot influence each other’s opinion. Written feedback should be thorough, detailed and specific.

We have not yet added this bar raiser to our hiring process, but we do have a way to test whether candidates fit our aforementioned principles. As with Amazon, we use a lot of STAR questions in the process:

Hiring new people is a big part of the book. What Amazon does is add a person who really lives the principles to the hiring process. This person’s job is to raise the bar of the people who come into the organization. This colleague also helps teams to hire the right people. An independent third party lowers the risk of someone being hired ‘because we really need reinforcements’.

Raise the bar when recruiting new colleagues Putting your principles on paper is helpful because it creates clear expectations. You can test not only the behavior of your colleagues, but also your own behaviour. This is useful for existing colleagues and when hiring new people. What exactly do you record when you put your principles on paper? For me, the culture of an organization equals its behavior. At Voys, this behavior stems from our values and the fact that we work in a self-directed way, which requires different behavior. Our principles are therefore based on our culture, our values and the fact that we are self-managed. Principles describe the behavior you expect from your colleagues and from yourself. Where Working Backwards talks about leadership principles, I think everyone is a leader in the work they do within an organization. At Voys, we believe that our principles apply to everyone in the organization.īut of course it doesn’t work that way for every company. Organizations such as Philips have a short list of principles that apply to the entire organization. That list is supplemented with leadership principles for management.

Working backwards amazon book