Jem D’jelal: Are recruiters too dumb to learn agile?
Quote Posted on
Reblogged with permission from Jem D'jelal, the original author of this content, as a contributor to blogagility.com. Originally published on LinkedIn December 15, 2016.
Jem D’jelal Coaching individuals & teams to find “better” ways of working.
You can be the judge of that.
Because we REALLY put that question to the test.
And now we have some results which we think would be good to share with the community.
After just 10 weeks of training recruiters on agile & scrum here is what we found:
We saw recruiters develop the knowledge & confidence to stop 17 dodgy agile roles hitting the UK Job Market.
The majority of that number (17) was “ScrumMaster/Product Owner” roles & the remainder ” ScrumMaster/Technical Lead” roles.
Let’s actually play this out.
Recruiters, on the phone, face 2 face with clients – not taking on dodgy agile roles.
This means really understanding what the client’s needs are.
Why does the client want this dodgy ScrumMaster/Product Owner role?
What needs would this one combined dodgy agile role solve, or rather *think* it would solve?
And by the way, recruiters reading scripts, guides or manifestos – just wasn’t going to cut it.
We had to do better than:
“Hey Client Bob, sorry I can’t take on this dodgy role because it is not in the Scrum guide”.
Hardly a compelling & powerful way to engage the client.
We knew our recruitment learners needed to be able to explore client needs for such dodgy roles with questions & guidance that seeks to understand & also illuminates potential trouble…
“Why do you want to use Scrum for a team so small?”
“The responsibilities of the ScrumMaster role are x amount – by combining it with the Product Owner role it’s going to be very hard for someone to be available to do both ..”
“Even if they are super human to do both roles physically, what are your thoughts on having the same person help create sustainable pace & own the Return on Investment?”
In 25 cases, recruiters were able to help the clients find alternative options than hiring for the ScrumMaster/Product Owner & ScrumMaster/Technical Lead.
In 8 of the cases our recruiters were not able to stop the above roles going out.
And it’s not because anyone is dumb.
It’s because sh*t happens.
-Was the knowledge you had not cutting it with the client?
-Did the client threaten to go elsewhere if you didn’t “just fill the role”?
-Was it “that” client who you couldn’t say no to because they’re an important customer?
-Bad month & you had to hit your target?
A lack of knowledge, business pressures & personal incentives effect us all.
“Just like agile coaches can’t act in the perfect way & at times have to make crappy exceptions – so do recruiters”
If failure is made acceptable, it gifts us with learning opportunities.
Fail away.
We made sure recruiters knew whether they advertised dodgy agile roles or not – we would not hold it against them.
We’re not using fear as a driver to create success.
Instead we wanted stories.
Transparency.
Share with us what happened for those dodgy agile roles to go out.
Tell us about your challenges.
We want to help recruiters do things “better”, we’ll listen with curiosity & put the judgement on ice.
Dumb? Nah – just need support.
We have empirically proven that we can reduce anti-pattern roles in the UK Market through educating & coaching recruiters.
If you speak to any recruiter who hires for agile roles they’ll tell you its in their interest to understand agile.
Granted not all recruiters will want to make the commitment it takes to develop a good understanding of agile or scrum – there are people who just want to turn up to work.
Just like there are agile coaches & ScrumMasters who are there to get a pay check.
Overcoming our pre-judging of recruiters helped us switch on our empathy switch.
And because of that we have some wonderful recruiters who can hold up a real conversation with a client.
Confident to discuss their needs & guide them away from creating a role which is more likely to be ineffective & detrimental to the person, business & customer.
Recruiters can help us transform the world of work.
But they need help.
They to can be change agents – and that journey could be made much easier with the support of people like you & me.
We’re taking on new recruiters to teach.
If you’re able to meet once a week in London, can handle 1 hours worth of self study & are willing to capture your interactions with clients for all of our learning – I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks,
Jem.
Check us out on http://www.agilearecruiter.com
