While I’m sure you’ve heard of the many wonderful technological advances Apple has brought to the world, there’s an important innovation you‘ve probably missed.
It’s a contribution that will help you much more with recruiting than any iPhone or MacBook.
It’s a business process innovation called the Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) concept. It’s so simple and obviously helpful, you’ll be asking yourself: Why are we not doing this?
The DRI Concept
The DRI concept was created at Apple and first documented in Adam Lashinsky’s best-selling book Inside Apple. Here is a quick video of Adam explaining the process:
When something important needs to be done, the desired result is documented where everyone in the organization or team can see it. There is usually a deadline associated with the result as well.
Next to the result is a person’s name—the DRI.
It’s the organization’s responsibility to support the DRI by providing the resources to get the desired result.
Simple, right? Yes, that’s the point.
Screwing-Up the DRI concept
Simple concepts are not always easy to implement. Here are some ways you can short-circuit this concept:
–Results are not defined. Simple, measureable results must be identified. If you need help with this, read this WorkPuzzle.
–Results are not publicized. I spoke to one of our clients yesterday who has an employee working really hard on a result no one knows or cares about. Publicizing results keeps this from happening.
–DRIs are not supported. If someone is assigned (or volunteers) as the DRI, they will need the support of the organization. Everyone on the team has the responsibility of helping the DRI get across the finish line.
DRI Concept and Recruiting
It makes sense to use the DRI concept in the recruiting process because it’s made of measureable components (small results) leading to the final goal (hiring agents).
For example, one of the measureable components we recommend our clients track is the number of monthly face-to-face interviews. A goal for a multi-office company might be 30 completed interviews/month.
This result can and should be made known to everyone in the company as well as the person assigned as the DRI for this result.
Just one person is responsible for this result, but everyone on the team is responsible for helping that person achieve that result.
This simple and powerful technique works every time it’s tried. It also compliments the last four WorkPuzzles (one, two, three, four) on the science of recruiter process execution.
As David Lashinsky says: “It’s a brain-dead obvious business concept that I can’t believe everyone doesn’t use.”
Give it a try and let me know how it’s working for you.
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