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

Mon May 11 14:27:26 UTC 2020

+1

Am Mo., 11. Mai 2020 um 15:17 Uhr schrieb severin.menard via osmf-talk <
osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org>:

> English below
>
> Il y a quatre ans [1] le board de l’OSMF, suite à de longues discussions
> (voir les liens dans [1]) lançait le recrutement d’un contrat à temps
> partiel dédié spécifiquement en soutien du board concernant différentes
> tâches administratives, de communication et d’organisation. Il demeurait
> néanmoins des réticences au sein des membres actifs de la communauté dans
> les activités de la Fondation de voir s’instaurer un premier cas de travail
> non bénévole au sein de l’OSMF.
>
> Maintenant, le board communique sur la volonté de mettre en place un cadre
> de contractualisation, sans aucunement indiquer les besoins à remplir
> (seulement ceux que les volontaires n’accompliraient pas) ou les postes qui
> seraient créés, en indiquant quelques cadres et limites, parfois très
> vagues (moins de 20 employés en 5 ans).
>
> Mais surtout, la question posée à la communauté n’est plus SI cette
> approche est la bonne, mais COMMENT la mettre en place. Comment un tel
> changement d’approche a-t-il pu survenir en cinq ans ?
>
> Certes, la seule expérience jusqu’ici de contractualisation de l’OSMF a
> donné entière satisfaction, mais cela tient sans doute autant aux tâches
> spécifiques de la fonction qu’à la personne qui a été engagée. Vouloir
> répliquer cette expérience en changeant cette fois complètement d’échelle
> aura nécessairement des répercussions, et je rejoins totalement Frederik
> dans son analyse sur les dangers inhérents à faire appel à de nombreux
> contractuels. Avec ses fonds actuels, l’OSMF aurait nettement plus intérêt
> à assurer sur le long terme le fonctionnement mince actuel avant que de
> s’engager sur une augmentation de ses dépenses qui ne fera que pérenniser
> un besoin croissant de fonds, d’autant plus au moment où le monde va entrer
> dans la crise économique la plus profonde et globale de son histoire.
>
> Quels sont les besoins non accomplis par les volontaires et comment
> sont-ils définis ?
>
> S’agit-il de couvrir des besoins essentiels sans aucun temps volontaire
> disponible, ou bien ces besoins rejoignent une volonté de meilleure
> efficience ? Vouloir par exemple être capables s’assurer une continuité de
> service 24/7 (ou même de quelques heures) va évidemment au-delà de ce que
> des volontaires peuvent assurer, mais est-ce vraiment ce que la Fondation a
> besoin de mettre en place, au vu des contraintes et conséquences que cela
> imposerait ?
>
> Par ailleurs, revient comme souvent dans la discussion le mantra de
> s’inspirer de ce que des structures professionnelles mettent en place,
> quitte de risquer d’en modifier son essence. OSM a réussi là où tous les
> acteurs économiques avaient échoué par le passé et échouent encore
> aujourd’hui à répliquer. Le mantra devrait au contraire de ne PAS chercher
> à intégrer ce qui pourrait tordre l’essence même de ce qu’est OSM.
>
>
> [1]
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/2016-April/003712.html
>
> Severin
>
> ------------------------
>
> Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
>
> Four years ago [1] the OSMF board, after long discussions (see links in
> [1]) launched the recruitment of a dedicated part-time contract
> specifically to support the board in various administrative, communication
> and organizational tasks. Nevertheless, there was still reluctance among
> active members of the community in the Foundation's activities to see a
> first case of non-volunteer work within the OSMF.
> Now, the board is communicating on the desire to put in place a
> contractualization framework, without in any way indicating the needs to be
> met (only those that the volunteers would not fulfil) or the positions that
> would be created, indicating a few frameworks and limits, sometimes very
> vague (less than 20 employees in 5 years).
> Most importantly, the question asked to the community is no longer IF this
> approach is the right one, but HOW to implement it. How has such a change
> in approach been possible in five years?
> Admittedly, the only experience to date of contractualization of the OSMF
> has been entirely satisfactory, but this is no doubt due as much to the
> specific tasks of the position as to the person who was hired. Wanting to
> replicate this experience, this time by completely changing scale, will
> necessarily have repercussions, and I totally agree with Frederik in his
> analysis of the dangers inherent in calling on a large number of contract
> workers. With its current funds, the OSMF would have much more interest in
> assuring its current slim operation over the long term before committing
> itself to an increase in its expenditures, which will only perpetuate a
> growing need for funds, especially at a time when the world is about to
> enter the deepest and most global economic crisis in its history.
> What are the unfulfilled needs of volunteers and how are they defined?
> Is it a question of covering essential needs without any volunteer time
> available, or are these needs linked to a desire for greater efficiency?
> For example, wanting to be able to ensure continuity of service 24/7 (or
> even for a few hours) obviously goes beyond what volunteers can provide,
> but is this really what the Foundation needs to put in place, given the
> constraints and consequences this would impose?
> Moreover, as often in the discussion, the mantra comes back to be inspired
> by what professional structures put in place, even if it means risking to
> change its essence. OSM has succeeded where all economic actors have failed
> in the past and are still failing today to respond. On the contrary, the
> mantra should NOT seek to integrate what could twist the very essence of
> what OSM is.
>
> [1]
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/2016-April/003712.html
>
>
> Severin
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
> Le samedi 9 mai 2020 20:19, Christopher Beddow <
> christopher.beddow at gmail.com> a écrit :
>
> 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
>> >
>> >
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > 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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## Manfred Reiter - -
## www.weeklyOSM.eu
## https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/EuYoutH_OSM
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