[Osmf-talk] Framework for the foundation's hiring practices

Sat May 9 18:19:50 UTC 2020

I think we should take a deeper look into how Wikimedia Foundation handles
this. They are based in the US but hire people globally. Having worked
remotely as a US citizen for a Swedish company, it seems fairly clear to me
that it's not a huge hurdle to simple register the organization in a couple
countries for employment purposes and hire people from around the world
without absolute location requirements. Others may feel very differently
but Wikimedia appears to accomplish this well, as do HOT and others.

On Sat, May 9, 2020, 19:56 Simon Poole <simon at poole.ch> wrote:

>
> Am 09.05.2020 um 01:32 schrieb Allan Mustard:
> >
> >
> > Simon,
> >
> > That's one of the questions we want the community to help us suss
> > out.  Direct-hire, contract, or third-party hire?  What does the
> > community suggest?
>
> Direct-hire is (too?) complex if the employees are not already there /
> or can be relocated to where ever your place of business is or can be
> employed by an in country subsidiary.  An additional complicating factor
> is that the OSMF is no longer domiciled in the EU/in a country with free
> movement with the EU. If it was, direct-hire would be far far more
> viable as it would be possible to relocate people at least within the EU
> with near zero red tape. The cynical approach to this is that the UK is
> going to be a cheap labour country going forward anyway, so we might as
> well stay there and employ locals.
>
> Contract (assuming full time employment/single employer) is legally not
> an option in a great number of countries (except if you want to leave
> the OSMF open to all kind of potential legal action and costs), and
> essentially boils down to only employing people from countries with none
> or little employee protection (which do exist naturally). Not to mention
> that shady employment practices may impact the OSMFs ability to raise
> the necessary funds to start with.
>
> I don't have a strong opinion on third-party hire, this is obviously
> possible, the commercial route might be a bit expensive, but assuming
> employing via local chapters that already have staff it might be viable.
>
> tl;dr version: there are reasons why real companies are typically not
> totally remote and virtual.
>
> Simon
>
> >
> > apm
> >
> > On 5/8/2020 6:01 PM, Simon Poole wrote:
> > > Tobias
> >
> > > Could you clarify if the board actual means "employee" when it is using
> > > the term or if the actual intent is to simply contract work out.
> >
> > > The legal issues with both variants are rather convoluted, but
> > different.
> >
> > > Simon
> >
> > > Am 06.05.2020 um 22:24 schrieb Tobias Knerr:
> > >> Hi all,
> > >>
> > >> the OSMF Board wants to think about a general framework to hire people
> > >> to fill in the gaps that volunteers can't fill. We believe that, given
> > >> good practices and firm boundaries, hiring people would be worthwhile.
> > >> It could ensure the continued stability of the OSM platform (servers,
> > >> integral software) among other things, and augment the currently
> > >> overworked volunteers and under resourced efforts in the face of
> > >> continued growth.
> > >>
> > >> We would like to gather your input on strategies to have the highest
> > >> possible positive impact at an acceptable cost, and with as few
> > negative
> > >> effects as possible.
> > >>
> > >> We had a brainstorm about this during the screen2screen, and these are
> > >> some things we all agree on:
> > >>
> > >> * We strongly prefer not to hire when there are adequate volunteer
> > >> options. In particular, we are not going to engage in paid mapping.
> > >> * We need to define criteria for when we -canвЂ™t- wait for
> > volunteers to
> > >> step up.
> > >> * We do not want to grow an army of employees. We do not envision 20
> > >> employees within 5 years, let alone 200!
> > >> * We want to make employees cooperate remotely, and through the same
> > >> platforms that volunteer contributors to that project also use.
> > >> * We should make sure all employees are treated equitably.
> > >> * People with an OSM volunteer background should be preferred (because
> > >> it demonstrates qualifications, added trustworthiness, and is the
> right
> > >> thing to do), but we don't agree to which degree.
> > >> * We want to avoid paid leadership or decision-making positions
> > >> * We want people to work for the community, not for the Board. But we
> > >> also do not want employees to have 10,000 bosses - that's a recipe for
> > >> burnout.
> > >>
> > >> Some of the risks we hope the community can help address include the
> > >> following:
> > >> * Paid work can have a chilling effect on volunteering.
> > >> * Paid staff has other incentives than volunteers.
> > >> * Paid staff has more power to set direction of the project than a
> > >> volunteer, if only because of the amount of time they have.
> > >> * Paid staff hired from outside the community may lack an
> understanding
> > >> and appreciation for the way the community works.
> > >> * A direct link between organizations providing funding and a job
> being
> > >> done might give those organizations undue power.
> > >> * The organization that decides what gets worked on becomes quite
> > >> powerful, which risks losing the benefits of do-ocracy.
> > >>
> > >> We know there are many issues with hiring people, but we hope that we
> > >> can install meaningful guardrails against the risks. Your input will
> > >> help us devise a strategy that makes sure we define the right jobs and
> > >> hire the right people for them.
> > >>
> > >> Feel free to share your ideas here or send them to
> > board at osmfoundation.org
> > >>
> > >> Tobias
> > >> (for the OSMF board)
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> osmf-talk mailing list
> > >> osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
> > >> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/osmf-talk
> >
> >
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> >
> >
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>
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