Human resources (HR) is one of the most unsexy parts of any organization, but no matter the size or company age it’s a necessary component to operating properly. Companies need to recruit, hire, retain, and keep people happy, but the industry is a bit out-of-date, and typically follow certification programs that don’t cater to the largest growing workforce: Millennials. A new initiative, HR Open Source – created by Amplify Talent’s Lars Schmidt and Duo Security’s Ambrosia Vertesi – is looking to change all of this and then some.
Taking a page from the developer world, HR Open Source is a movement, community, and collection of HR and recruiting professionals sharing their insight with one another. One of the most powerful parts of their efforts comes down to the shared case studies, which are really more of a detailed look into well known brands and how they recruit or retain top talent. From the likes of Oracle, Hootsuite, Dell, and OPower, each dig into issues that affect HR professionals of today.
Ultimately, HR Open Source wants to create a knowledge bank of case studies and best practices across every industry and organizational size. The byproduct of their goal will be the fostered collaboration around the innovative approaches HR and talent teams will be implementing. Each of their available case studies reveals just a taste of a brand’s secret sauce, and brings out the what, why, how, results, failures, and key takeaways. Schmidt put emphasis on failures, as it’s important to know not just went right, but what could also go wrong.
Interview: Lars Schmidt of HR Open Source
Past and Present
Prior to launching HR Open Source, the initiative was incubated within Hootsuite, where Vertesi led the talent program. At the time, Schmidt also contributed to NPR’s talent acquisition leadership team and has since launched his own organization. In October 2015, it officially launched out of LinkedIn Talent Connect.
Since launch, they have amassed more than 500 members across 5 continents, received more than 30,000 views on their case studies, and have created a community with more than 1000 HR professionals. Looking towards the future, they plan to add case studies from brands like Spotify, Whole Foods, Eventbrite, Sonos and more; and will be making the rounds at various industry conferences to get even more people involved and engaged with the initiative.
