Human Resources

Hiring

• Different from recruiting new contributors
  • Though what you do once someone is hired may be very similar
• People do lots of simple things wrong Behroozi2020
• Ask Human Resources for mentoring
• Always post positions
  • One person's "I know a guy" is another's "I wasn't even invited"

1. Legal requirements

• Every jurisdiction has rules about hiring people
• Institutions often have union agreements or contractual obligations
• Jess talks to Aaron in Human Resources before doing anything else
  • Even if you've gone through this before, rules can change

2. Contact

• Pay attention to details
  • Do they have or need work authorization?
  • Are they willing to relocate?
  • Do they actually have the right skills for this job?

• Responsiveness
  • Acknowledge all communication
  • Give them timelines (and updates when timelines change)

3. Preparation

• Interview scheduling
  • Use Calendly or a similar service
  • If you have to reschedule, give candidates several days' notice
  • If you have to reschedule twice, you're telling them you don't want them
• Hiring criteria
  • Describe the process and the kinds of questions they'll be asked
• Automattic is a good model
• Canonical is not

4. Interviews

• Make sure interviewers stick to the advertised process
  • Role-play a practice interview if you can
• Interviewers' knowledge
  • If you don't know enough to judge the candidate, find someone who can
• Make sure they pay attention (rather than answering email)

5. Hearing back

• Status updates
  • Give candidates a timeline and regular updates
  • Don't try to hide the fact that you're interviewing other people
• Give feedback if the interviewee asks for it
  • "You're on the right track, but need to have more experience with time series data"

6. Offer and negotiation

• Let Human Resources handle this

• You did publish a salary band, right?

Firing

• Sometimes people have good reasons for poor performance
• Sometimes they don't
• This is the hardest part of leading a project
• But keeping someone on the team who shouldn't be there is bad for morale as well as productivity

1. Legal Requirements

• Every jurisdiction has rules about firing people, too
• Again, talk to someone in Human Resources before doing anything else

1. "Legal" Requirements

• Governance of every well-run open project spells out:
  • Criteria for being a project member
  • Who gets to decide when that privilege is revoked
• You can't wait until you need these to write them
• Review them before going any further

2. Check With Someone

• Hard to work with someone you dislike
  • But not liking someone isn't sufficient reason to fire them
• Talk to someone outside the project
  • More likely to be objective
  • Less likely to let something slip
  • Less likely to feel pressured to take your side because you're the boss

3. Create a Transition Plan

• It's awkward to fire the only person who knows the password to the production server
  • And risky as well
• Suddenly asking someone to document their work is a give-away
• Better to ask everyone to do it all the time
  • Which helps keep roles and responsibilities up to date

3. Create a Transition Plan

• Write out the steps you'll take immediately after breaking the news
  • Change passwords on servers
  • Remove from GitHub group
  • Remove from mailing list
  • Return loaned hardware
• All of this needs to be done when someone leaves voluntarily
  • And helps you realize just how much "stuff" your project has

4. No Surprises

• If someone is surprised they're being fired, you have made a mistake
• If it's for poor behavior:
  • They should know what's in the Code of Conduct
  • And you should have given them warnings for minor violations
• If it's for poor performance:
  • You should have told them that they weren't meeting expectations…
  • …given them a chance to explain…
  • …and given them an opportunity to improve
• You will feel pretty bad if they've been missing deadlines because of a family illness

5. Delivery

• Write out what you're going to say
  • Keep it short
• Practice it a few times
• Then get straight to the point
• Don't get drawn into discussion of "what if"
• Stick to the practical matters you identified in the transition plan

6. Tell the Team

• Make sure the team hears the news from you
  • Before rumors start to circulate
• Keep statement brief and to the point
• Do not discuss details
  • The person you fired has a right to privacy
  • And you don't want other team members worrying that you'll say something about them some day

7. Keep a Record

• It's hard for people to think clearly when you're angry or hurt
  • And they may not act in good faith
• Communicate by email
• If they insist on a call:
  • Ask to record it and give them permission to do the same
  • Or have a third party present

It's OK to Cry

• This is the hardest part of management
• Many of the other things we've discussed are to prevent it being necessary
• "You can't save everyone."

In Between

• Regular performance reviews
  • At which you bring up salary
• Career development plans
  • "Where do you want to be in two years?"
  • "How can I help you get there?"

Giving Feedback

• Structure makes difficult conversations less difficult

How to Be Fired

1. Read over https://third-bit.com/rules/#being-fired.
2. Which of these things are you doing right now?
3. What does that tell you about your job?