Hiring

New core members in a paid capacity is a great way to expand LSF team, abilities, passion, bandwidth, and culture. In this page you can find information about the hiring process and how LSF does this a bit differently.

General

In LSF, recruitment is led by the team in need of a new member (specifically the Project Manager), not by Human Resources team (which only takes care of the practicalities). Conversations with candidates tend to center around three topics: fit with the position, fit with the organization, and fit with the purpose. The last two are often considered at least as important as the first to LSF’s long-term culture and mission alignment. Thus a prioritized list of topics is as follows:

  1. Fit with purpose

  2. Fit with organization

  3. Briefing about needs

  4. Defining the position to cover the needs

A fundamental question is asked for any prospective new core member in paid capacity:

Do we sense that we're meant to journey together?

This question can only be meaningfully answered when conversations are rooted in honesty and integrity, with a willingness to inquire deeply and openly.

Open positions

Each Project Manager with their respective peers identifies open positions for their projects in a regular cadence (some projects quarterly, others annually).

Every month a dedicated team meets to prioritize open positions across projects. The criteria for prioritization are project urgency, timelines, financial viability and other organization considerations.

The prioritized list of open positions is published on the LSF Jobs page, with an RSS feed for syndication. When a position is added or updated, it is promoted through the following channels:

  • LSF website and its jobs RSS feed

  • LSF social media accounts

  • LSF community forum announcement

  • The next LSF newsletter

Promotion is coordinated by the Communication team together with the Project Manager of the team in need of the position.

Process

  1. Prospective applicant reviews the list of open positions.

  2. Applicant reaches out to project managers as stated in the Projects portfolio, to discuss general fit for the positions of interest.

  3. Applicant sends an email to applications@libre.space with 4 key information:

    1. Positions interested in and how the applicant sees themselves fit in them (experience, motivations etc)

    2. Applicant self-assessment for Level (see Paid contributors)

    3. Applicant self-assessment for cultural fit in the organization

    4. Any additional ideas the applicant would like to bring forward

    The applications@libre.space address is the inbound GitLab Service Desk of the lsf-hr-applications project, a dedicated private repository for inbound applications kept separate from internal HR repositories. Each application email is automatically converted into a confidential issue, with the email body as the description and any CV or cover letter preserved as attachments. The applicant receives an automated acknowledgement and can reply to the thread to add information; replies are appended as comments on the same issue.

  4. The HR team triages the auto-created application issue in lsf-hr-applications, applies the appropriate position and stage labels, assigns a Hiring Manager, and applies the Interview template structure for the cultural fit interview.

  5. After the cultural fit interview, the issue is updated with notes and the applicant is directed (or not) to further interviews as needed with project managers or prospective peers.

  6. After each interview the issue is updated with notes.

  7. The Hiring Manager ensures that an offer can be made if the following are all true:

    1. Is the candidate a good organization fit?

    2. Is the candidate a good fit for the position applied for?

    3. Is the candidate a good fit for the organization purpose?

    4. Is there available budget from the Accounting team for the level specified?

  8. If the answer to all preceding is positive, the Hiring Manager opens a Hiring issue.

  9. An offer is made to the candidate by the Hiring Manager.

  10. If the offer is accepted, then the candidate creates a GitLab account and opens a hiring issue on the HR service desk by selecting the appropriate issue template based on the type of employment and their local legislative region. A list of available issue templates can be found here.

  11. After the hiring process is completed, the onboarding process can begin (see Core contributors).

Application tracking and retention

Stage labels

Application issues in lsf-hr-applications progress through the following stage labels:

  • stage::new, auto-applied on inbound; triage pending.

  • stage::screening, HR team has assigned a Hiring Manager.

  • stage::interview, cultural fit and other interviews scheduled.

  • stage::offer, Hiring issue opened and offer in progress.

  • stage::hired, offer accepted and onboarding started.

  • stage::declined, applicant withdrew or offer declined.

  • stage::rejected, application not progressing further.

Each transition is documented as a comment on the issue. The Hiring Manager is the issue assignee for the full pipeline; the HR team shares triage responsibilities.

Confidentiality and data retention

Application issues are created confidential by default and are visible only to members of the HR team and the assigned Hiring Manager.

Personal data submitted by applicants (CV, cover letter, email correspondence) is retained for 12 months from the issue closing date. After this period the issue and its attachments are permanently deleted, unless the applicant has given explicit written consent to a longer retention period for future consideration. Applicants may request earlier deletion of their data at any time by replying to their application thread.

A good fit?

Note

Many of the following information and LSF hiring practices can be found in Reinventing Organizations Wiki.

Fit for the position

Assessing the fit in terms of skills, experience, and expertise is an important component of the recruitment process, especially for positions requiring specific expertise. At LSF, however, the next two areas (fit with the organization and fit with the purpose) are often weighed at least as heavily, as contributors typically grow into adjacent responsibilities as their projects evolve.

Fit with the organization

A second area to explore in conversation is:

Will the person blossom in the organization?

Will they thrive in the organization's working environment?

Does the person feel aligned by the organization's values?

Do they "click" with the colleagues?

Fit with purpose

Note

LSF Manifesto can act as a perfect guide for purpose. πŸš€

Finally, is the person energized by the organizations’ purpose? Is there something in the person’s history that makes them resonate, makes them want to serve this purpose at this moment in their life? The discussion triggered by these questions can reach substantial depth and help both the candidate and the organization learn more about themselves. Recruitment becomes a process of self-inquiry as much as a process of mutual assessment.