Yesterday, I saw my friend Sukh Pabial has been recruiting for a new venture. What was different was the way he recruited – no CVs, just a cover letter to meet 3 questions he set for the applicants.

I’ve mentioned that we need to think about flexible working and flexible learning differently – I’m interested in the way that Sukh has approached recruitment more flexibly. For his venture – a local co-working space – it’s totally the way forward but would be easy to dismiss as unworkable for your organisation.

However, there are ways you might adopt some of the practices he tried:

• Use nil/neutral cost social media channels and local options to where you want people to be based. I remember responding to postcards in newsagents’ windows – what is the digital version?
• What 3 things do you want to know about people that you won’t find from the CV? Ask people to write in with their why and look for cultural fit. It’ll make your recruiters REALLY seek out a good fit.
• Be flexible in creating roles. 1.0 FTE might be filled by 3 x 0.2 and a 0.4 – how creative can you be in making a role flexible?

I’m really keen to see how it turns out for Sukh and seeing how his team work.