Community recruitment is the ultimate solution to catalyze the Web3 revolution

Hiring is and always has been hard, no matter what industry you’re in.

Forming strong teams can be the difference between your organization making it or breaking it, so hiring can be one of the most stressful aspects of your venture.

In Web3, the challenge of recruiting the right people is compounded by the unique characteristics of the industry, including:

Limited crypto-literate talent pool

Even prior to crypto, developers and technical professions (e.g data scientists) have always been a rare breed of talent. It makes sense that with Web3 in the early stages, blockchain developers will be even more in demand.

Unfortunately, Web3 recruiters are faced with another limited talent pool: people across a variety of skill sets but with a baseline understanding of Web3.

Whether it’s designers, content creators, community managers or marketers, they also need to be crypto-literate on top of just being good at their classical skills.

Contributors are a selective bunch

Web3 is intertwined with the spirit of individual sovereignty and worker empowerment. This means that contributors are likely to be discerning about the culture, values and mission of the organization they contribute to, beyond the compensation package.

Having one job in Web3 is also increasingly viewed as old school, which can make it harder for contributors to commit their full capacity to your venture.

Web3-native talent is not on LinkedIn

LinkedIn works fine as an online tool where you can filter profiles by expertise and contact them.

But it’s passive. YOU have to put in the work to identify candidates that fit the profile. Then you’ll need to contact each candidate individually and perhaps customize your message then pitch your organization.

By and large, LinkedIn serves its purpose as a repository for resumes but doesn’t truly leverage the unseen networks and connections within the Web3 community. That’s because native Web3 talent is not there anymore. It’s now on Discord, Twitter, hackathons and events.

The result? Missed opportunities to match the right job with the right talent.

We’ll say it again. Hiring is hard. Hiring in Web3 is even harder.

We emphasized this so that you realize (if you haven’t already) that you’ll need to update your mental framework for hiring strategies in Web3. As the space evolves, we expect new tools and tactics to emerge as employers seek out the most effective approaches for acquiring new staff.

Stats point to referrals as the solution

What do we already know about effective recruitment strategies in general?

Hiring statistics show that 82% of companies prefer using referrals as their recruiting strategy because it yields the best ROI. The benefits are very clear and surpass conventional methods:

Higher quality candidates - Candidates sourced through referrals are 4x more likely to be hired than through conventional methods

Increased cost savings - Each employee hired through referrals leads to an average savings of $7,500 in productivity and sourcing costs

Longer retention rates - 45% of employees sourced from referrals stay for longer than 4 years while only 25% of employees sourced through job boards stay for over 2 years

Faster placement - The average number of days it takes to fill a position without referrals is on average 60 days. However with referrals the average can range between 20 to 40 days.

As a peer-to-peer, bottom-up, decentralized ecosystem, it’s safe to assume that in Web3 the impact of personal referrals would be even higher.

The best avenues to start with in pursuing referrals would be your staff. If they love being part of your organization, they will likely encourage others to come on board as well!

But remember that personal connections and network effects are the two main assets and drivers in Web3. To be able to harness this, Web3 hiring requires not only Web3 talent but also Web3 native recruitment tools.

Talent lies dormant within Web3 communities

Employers want to hire the best candidates, while contributors want to find the best opportunities. Both parties are motivated by self-interest because their financial gains are apparent if they succeed.

But when it comes to community referral recruitment, this incentive is missing or much less formalized.

There’s no structured system in place to facilitate and align incentives for the people who generate “word-of-mouth” and amplify open opportunities through their networks, or are able to refer qualified candidates because they are well-connected in the space.

Trust in Web3 communities is achieved through active engagement and regular contribution on Twitter, Discord and Telegram, creating an almost invisible gate where outsiders can’t pay for access. As a result, employers can’t easily engage top talent or the right candidates in Web3 communities.

Community Recruitment at tr3butor

tr3butor is on a mission to match contributors with the most exciting Web3 opportunities by aligning incentives and making it co-owned and co-operated by contributors from day one.

Through the tr3butor Quest Board, contributors can now explore organization profiles and apply to more than 150 exciting opportunities from 75+ leading organizations in Web3.

These include grants, bounties, hackathons and full-time positions from a diverse range of organizations such as Alchemy, Algorand, Balancer, Binance, Chainlink, ConsenSys, Ethereum Foundation, Filecoin, GitCoin, Lens, Maker, NEAR, SSV Network, Starkware, The Graph, Zerion, zkSync, and others.

More importantly, the Quest Board is powered by community-driven referral recruitment through share-&-earn and refer-&-earn features that are embedded directly onto the platform!

This means that anyone can earn rewards by sharing the opportunities listed on the Quest Board or recommending the right candidates.

By posting Web3 opportunities on the Quest Board, organizations can incentivize Web3 communities (including their own), influencers and participants to spread the word through their networks.

They can also set a reward for recommending candidates that are potentially a good fit and pay only when the new hires meet the specific terms and conditions that define success.

By incentivizing Web3 communities to amplify the news of your open opportunities and refer candidates, you will be able to reach a bigger pool of more crypto-literate talent and encourage more people to look out for the best candidates to make a referral.

The mechanics work in a similar way to professional recruitment agencies but with one major difference: decentralization.

Instead of one or two headhunters for hire, you’re opening up the referral process to entire Web3 communities and their tens of thousands of members/followers.

Essentially, you’re deploying an army of recruiters to spread the word on your organization’s employment opportunities and compete to refer to candidates with the highest potential, optimizing for both speed and quality in your hiring strategy.

A Positive Sum Game

Community recruitment is a net positive for the entire Web3 ecosystem. It helps not only the hiring organization but also contributes in tangible ways to all stakeholders.

The hiring organization gets access to faster and better talent sourcing. This means the organization is able to build stronger teams more efficiently, thus freeing up the resources to focus on building their product and growing their user base. If successful, this will ultimately attract more participants into Web3 and expand the industry, creating more demand for talent and forming a positive feedback loop.

With the community recruitment model, communities can also offer value added for their members and followers. They can be the first to share new talent opportunities as they arise and generate additional income from sharing the opportunities or referring candidates.

Web3 builders and contributors also stand to gain. Not only are community members sharing opportunities and looking out to match opportunities with the best candidates, contributors can also have peace of mind that the opportunities on tr3butor have been properly vetted and share their values.

Get involved!

We are proud of what tr3butor has accomplished and the vision we are building out. There’s a myriad of ways for Web3 builders to get involved and benefit from tr3butor.

Here are some of the most common ways to be part of the next generation of Web3 recruitment:

List your organization

If you’re Web3 founder or represent a Web3 organization, one of the easiest ways to get involved is to list your organization and the opportunities you offer on the tr3butor Quest Board.

The organizations on our Quest Board range from hyper growth startups to DeFi blue chips to L1/L2 ecosystems, so you’re in good company!

The Quest Board is designed to accommodate the diverse nature of Web3 opportunities, so you can customize your opportunities as full-time jobs, gigs, grants, bounties, talent fairs, hackathons, and events.

It’s never been easier. Simply fill out this form or hop into our Discord and we’ll reach out to you to help you list your organization profile, your opportunities and attract the top Web3 talent.

Partner with us

We’re always looking for ways to add value to Web3 communities, whether it’s to help your members or followers secure amazing opportunities or onboard newcomers into Web3.

If you’re a community leader or influencer and you have an idea for collaborating with us, join our Discord and drop us a message there!

Find Web3 opportunities

Whether your superpower is as a developer, designer, marketer or community manager, it’s likely you’ll find something that matches your skills from the 150+ full-time jobs, gigs, grants, bounties, talent fairs, hackathons, and events listed on the tr3butor Quest Board.

Share-&-Earn, Refer-&-Earn

Get paid for helping your friends and followers to secure an opportunity in Web3!

The Quest Board allows anyone to earn rewards by sharing the opportunities listed on the Quest Board or recommending the right candidates.

Special: Mint your Genesis NFT

We’ve just launched our Genesis NFT campaign for Web3 builders.

The tr3butor Genesis NFT is a limited edition NFT that serves as the ultimate pass to the tr3butor ecosystem.

As a holder, you’ll get early access to the product and the hottest opportunities, exclusive content and events, high-demand airdrops and deals from our partners including legendary and early-stage Web3 projects.

There’s a catch though: you can’t buy your way into this community! Learn more about the tr3butor Genesis NFTs in our Announcement. Come join in on the fun! 💖

Other ways to get involved

1. Read our detailed Public Announcement to learn more about tr3butor and our vision
2. Hop into our Discord and get onboarded
3. Follow us on Twitter and turn on notifications 🔔