has there already been experimentation with open hiring.
The idea of open hiring comes from New York, where the owner of a brownie factory gave former homeless people, among others, the chance to work, and thus to build a secure livelihood. In the Netherlands the concept was introduced in 2019.
Since its introduction, it hasn't exactly been booming among employers to introduce this form of recruitment and selection. In 2022 only 6 percent of employers used this method. Almost 80 percent of employers indicated they did not see this way of recruiting as an option. That means that there is potentially another 14 percent of employers who might consider this innovative approach.
Open hiring cannot be applied to sectors in which diplomas are a strict requirement. In healthcare, for example, in education or in the justice system a diploma is necessary. Also in many financial professions a diploma and registration are strict requirements.
For the sectors in which that is not the case, open hiring can be an interesting option. Especially now that shortages of labor are rapidly increasing. Research into open hiring by the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (VU), commissioned by the Start Foundation, shows that this method of recruitment uses labor market potential that was often not previously utilized: people who are distant from the labor market. Three quarters of those surveyed indicated that this way of applying had a positive effect on their self-confidence.
Employers who have not yet embraced the principle of open hiring would do well to look at what they can learn from this method. In a labor market where scarcity prevails, running a creative recruitment process is a must. Looking beyond the beaten path to find the right candidate pays off, as does bringing in an external party who can help think about candidates from unexpected quarters.
Research shows that there is also much to be gained from preparing for a job interview. Dr. Laetitia Mulder, senior lecturer at the University of Groningen (RUG), specializes in Human Resource Management & Organizational Behaviour, and advocates a different format for a job interview. According to her, too many questions are asked that do not answer the question of whether someone is suitable for the job.
An example of an irrelevant question that is not about the content of a job, according to her, is: “Why do you want to work for this organization?” The answer to this question would say nothing about how well someone can do the work. The solution is a structured way of interviewing, which allows information to be gathered effectively and assessed more accurately.
In a structured interview each candidate receives the same questions in the same order. The answers to those questions are used to determine whether a candidate meets the minimum requirements. A data analysis can also be helpful in answering the question about which qualities
must be looked at in order to properly fill a vacancy. Finally, anonymizing the applications minimizes bias.
Both in an open-hire setup and in a structured job interview, postponing judgment is an important factor. In an open-hire setup you have virtually no information about the candidate, and only the order of application counts. In a structured application procedure you try to postpone your judgment for as long as possible. That trend—trying to run an application process without bias—has been around for some time. Partly because there is increasing attention to labor market discrimination. But also because, due to pressure on the labor market, one must turn to candidates who may not surface first but who are very suitable.
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