Thomas Otter

John Le Carre is the most underrated living writer.  His prose is excellent, characterizations profound, an immaculate attention to detail, gripping plots and better insight into human failings than anything I’ve ever read. He has created a fictional world that is so real. His descriptions of Germany and Germans played a small but influential role in me deciding to move here.  

If he had written about something other than spies, he would have at least a Booker or three, if not something bigger.

After getting that off my chest, back to the main point of my post. While reading the Guardian (my favourite newspaper in the world) online over the weekend,  I stumbled across this piece about Facebook and MI6

MI6 is using the social networking site Facebook to recruit the next generation of spies. The Secret Intelligence Service, which has traditionally scoured the country’s elite universities for recruits, launched a series of online adverts this month as part of its attempts to attract people from a variety of backgrounds.

I wonder what Smiley would have made of Facebook? I reckon Connie Sachs would have loved it. All that data to mine and cross check.  

Moving from the world of MI5 and MI6 to my more normal corporate fare, I wonder how many of you have an HR-recruitment strategy for Facebook and other social networks? If you don’t have a plan, it is high time you did. Do you understand the opportunities and risks these networks create? I’ve been doing a fair bit of research on social networks in an HR context, and I’m interested in talking to organisations that are getting value out social networks in an HR context.

Mi5 and Mi6 place a lot of emphasis on formal testing methods, not just interviews and the old boy pat on the back. Yes, they make mistakes, but more than most organisations, they grasp the power and relevance of psychology in an organisational context. There is a vast field of brilliant research that most organisations ignore in favour of the look them in the eyes manager interview. Check out Europe’s most published Psychologist, Adrian Furnham. He has written many books, including this one, the Incompetent Manager.  As the review notes

There’s a weight of evidence that the traditional job interview process is the least valid way to select the best candidate.

I think many HR departments could learn a lot  from MI6 about effective recruitment. It is a mistake to think that all HR innovation goes on in the private sector.

Added bonus of doing this post is that I’ve realised Le Carre has a new book out.

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Category: HCM HR Social Software     Tags: facebook, Furnham, HR, Mi5, mI6, recruiting

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