Hiring process and considerations

The process outline:

• Identify a hiring need
• Develop a recruitment strategy
• Create a job description
• Tips and tricks

Identify a hiring need

Early discussions

Anyone may identify a possible need for us to hire. They should first take this need to the most appropriate circle. For example, if we lack certain developer skills, or the team of existing developers routinely has more work than it can handle, then the first port of call is the Tech Circle. If the potential new hire covers more than one circle, then the circles should liaise.

Assuming the relevant Circle(s) think there is merit in the idea, then proceed to the next stage. Communicate this to Members and/or General Circle, who may raise concerns at this point.

Run a discovery phase

We will typically be hiring because we have identified a lack of a particular skill, function or role in the company, or insufficient capacity in our current workforce. The cause of this may be a shift in company strategy, growth, contraction, or staff turnover.

In order to identify a hiring need, you might do some or all of the following, focused on skills or functions needed to deliver our Mission or company OKRs:

• A strategy or tactical session with Members
• Employee consultation via a survey
• Consultation with relevant Circles
• Analysing Harvest to see if that offers info about the resources we are replacing or supplementing

Define the goal

Articulate the goal in a sentence, eg "To increase capacity in support and on projects so that current team members can develop their own skills, spend time on company improvements and be less overworked."

At this point, you may decide not to hire after all!

Develop a recruitment strategy

Firstly, set up a temporary Circle to lead the process. Three people is ideal. At key milestones in the process, feed back to the General and/or Members Circle; they may well be able to help with input that affects the next stage.

Consider working with outside organisations or our networks to help us with the process. You may consider opening discussions with people in eg OxDug, CoTech before running a more formal process.

Note that going through a formal process may help uncover unexpected talent. There are some helpful recruitment firms (we previously used Collaborative Futures but they no longer offer this service). If their values are aligned with ours they may well have access to a wider candidate pool and have ideas we hadn't thought of.

Set a timeframe on the process.

Agree the steps, eg:

• Create a job description (see below)
• Advertise the position by posting the job description to job boards, various social media channels, and other valuable places job seekers frequently visit. Think creatively: where will the best cooperators come from? Think about school-leavers, university and college graduates, CoTech, Drupal forums, OxDug, contractors, sector-specific Slack channels, Twitter and other communities.
• Acknowledge receipt of applications, and ensure we have a list of applicants.
• Review the obtained applications and make a shortlist.
  • If there are lots of good candidates, have a short phone call in order to talk through their application. This may help reduce the list.
• Contact the shortlisted candidates and ask them to complete a task. Set up 60-minute interviews.
• Tasks. If candidates progress, we will ask them to complete a task. Design tasks might be to see how they respond to a small brief (eg a layout and/or design for a 1-page campaign site). Dev tasks might be code-writing or architecting solutions. In all cases we suggest tasks that should take no more than 3 hours and we pay for that time. We normally give people at least 2 days to complete this, but longer if their circumstances require it.
• Interview process:
  • Online
  • At least 2 people from AC in each interview
  • Record the interviews, with permission
  • Talk through the task and the statements
  • Ask about potential start date
  • AC members to complete a spreadsheet on the task and the interview, then share results
• Background check and reference check (if we feel it's necessary).
• Decision-making. This is done by the Working Group. Consensus may emerge through discussion, but if not then the person working most closely can make a proposal that will be run using sociocratic methods.
• Share the results of the interview process with the Members. Consulting them for consent is not normally required at this stage (as you already have consent).
• Phone the top candidate to tell them that we are about to send them a job offer and why we're making the offer, and ask them to phone you back with any questions.
  • Send the job offer, including a draft contract. At this point Wellbeing Team and Finance Team must be engaged to assist with the process.
  • Discuss any questions with the candidate, negotiate if required (this normally means going back to the Members, so you will have to set this up ahead of time, in order to move fast).
• Email unsuccessful candidates, offering the opportunity to give feedback to them on a call.
• Hand off to Wellbeing Team and Finance Team to administrate and start the onboarding process:
  • Wellbeing Team starts to populate information we need, and arrange things that need to happen in advance.
  • Wellbeing Team plan onboarding.

Create a job description

Develop your goal into a job description. Bear in mind that we are almost always recruiting for a dual role (specialist and member of the coop), so those requirements, and the unusual length of probation, need to be explained. In addition, we are looking for the following competencies:

• Good communication skills, including the ability to speak directly, make and respond to requests
• Ability to fulfil different roles in a team (leader, collaborator, facilitator)
• Excellent at self-management and taking the initiative (not needing a line manager)
• An interest in democratic decision-making and problem-solving

The description should include:

• Job title
• Short description of the role. If it is a Member pathway job you should be explicit that this is a combined role (with management responsibilities). Include location.
• Short description of Agile Collective
• Pay bracket, pay progression model
• Company benefits
• On-job training and CPD
• Details about the process, including deadline.
• Key requirements. These are delivered in the form of personal statements and a task-based exercise.
  • We normally ask for two statements: one about why they would be a good fit for the role, and the other about why they are interested in being a part of Agile Collective.
  • We typically do not ask for a CV, as this can subconsciously lead us to imagine the person or be too swayed by their experience, when what we are looking for is potential and core competencies. However there will be times when experience is key.
  • We typically do not ask for a portfolio, as this can be misleading, irrelevant or out-of-date. It can also penalise less experienced applicants.
• Longer description of the role, who they will be working with, what a typical day will look like, the sorts of clients they will be working with.
• Longer description of the company and our vision.

Tips and tricks

• Designers: can probably ask for more, as we received more applicants, so would help reduce quantity to review.
• Developers: probably need to ask for less, and try to use known networks more.
• Easier to get junior people and train them up.

Last updated: 8:13am, 30th April 2026