So, you’ve identified a need to hire. Perhaps because of turnover, perhaps because of growth. In either scenario, this is when most leaders, managers, and HR folks initiate the search. And by initiate the search, I mean posting the job opening. But here’s the problem… We haven’t identified who our ideal candidate is. We haven’t identified what success looks like for this position. And we can’t answer why our ideal candidate should work for us.
Today I want to talk about three questions we need to answer before posting our job opening. Who is our ideal candidate? What does success in this role look like? And why should our ideal candidate want to work for us?
Who’s the Ideal candidate?
Let’s start by clarifying that most job descriptions do not meet the bill as identifying your ideal candidate profile. Most job descriptions are written to explain what you want out of a person who’s hired to do a job, and not so much illustrating who that person should be. Can a job description satisfy the criteria of also defining your ideal candidate profile? Of course! A job description and your ideal candidate profile can certainly be a single document; however, we need to be intentional about not only describing the job, but also identifying our ideal candidate.
How to create an ideal candidate profile
There’s no one way to create an ideal candidate profile. What’s important is that the defining happens before you begin your search. It’s quite difficult to recruit the right person if we don’t know who we’re looking for.
When we help clients identify their ideal candidate profile, a question I like to ask is, “who in your organization would you clone for this position if it were possible?” There’s not always a good answer, or someone to clone, but this is a good place to start. It’s a lot easier to look for someone with characteristics you already know work, then to define someone based on hypothetical characteristics, or characteristics that might or will probably work.
Defining the ideal person you want to hire is very position, company, and situation specific. One brainstorming exercise is to list the candidate’s must haves, should haves, and can’t haves. The idea is to illustrate your ideal candidate so clearly that someone who doesn’t know anything about your company or the position could get a good idea who you’re looking for.
What does success look like?
Job descriptions tend to do a decent job describing what the position will do, but rarely include a clear picture of what success looks like. If you define what success looks like before you launch your search, you’ll be able to ask and attempt to answer this about the candidates you consider—how likely they are to be successful at your company and in a given role.
Having clearly defined what success looks like before you launch your search, these objectives and metrics can be used when creating your job description and ideal candidate profile. You’ll also be able to have more meaningful and specific conversations with candidates.
How to define what success looks like
Again, this is very company, position, and situation specific. What’s important is that you have a clear understanding of what success looks like before you launch your search. The more objective and measurable the better. Here are a few examples:
Sales Professional. Instead of “achieve sales goal” say, “generate $1 million in new business in the first year.”
Project Manager. Instead of “oversee the completion of projects” say, “complete projects at or below budget, on schedule, and to client’s satisfaction.”
Finance Controller. Instead of “oversee AP, AR, and preparation of financial statements” say, “Responsible for never-late and always-accurate AP, maintaining an AR days sales outstanding below 45, and delivering accurate month end financials in 8 business days.”
Why should your ideal candidate work for you?
This is the hardest part for most employers. If you want to attract and recruit the best talent, you must be able to clearly explain why someone who matches your ideal candidate profile should want to work for you and your company.
Job seekers have a lot of choices, especially the really good ones. This is why I always say that recruiting is more of a sales function than a management one. The best recruiters and employers are those able to attract the best talent by selling their company and the opportunity. There’s no recruiting strategy better than being your ideal candidate’s best option!
It's important to know the answer to this question and be able to articulate it in your job ads and when talking to candidates. Unfortunately, even employers with a lot to offer can lose candidates to their competition if they can’t sell it. Some candidates will ask, many wont, but they all want to know what’s in it for them and if the opportunity you’re presenting is their best option.
How to sell your company and the opportunity to job seekers
You’ve identified your ideal candidate profile. You’ve identified what success looks like. Now, and still before you post your job opening, you want to have a clear understanding of why your ideal candidate should want to join your team. If you don’t know, or if you know but can’t articulate it in your job ads and during candidate conversations, you’re going to have a hard time convincing A-players to get onboard.
A good place to start is by making a list of what you have to offer. This includes everything from compensation and benefits to the less tangibles. Next, identify what you have to offer that your ideal candidate is likely to have a hard time finding elsewhere. It’s this differentiator, or differentiators, we want to focus on.
Compensation. Are you willing to pay considerably more than your competition? This could be one area to focus on. Money isn’t everything when it comes to recruiting and retaining employees, but it isn’t irrelevant either.
Benefits. Are you willing to pay for 100% of the employee’s health care, when your competition only covers a portion? Do you start benefits on day-one when your competition has a 90-day waiting period? Are your benefit offerings an area where you can stand out?
Work-life-balance. If your company culture values time away from work, this can be a great topic to focus on. Do you offer more PTO than your competition?
Career advancement. Is significant professional growth likely for your employees? Talk about how you help make this a reality. Case studies or examples of current employees who have experienced rapid or substantial advancement works wonders to give job seekers a glance into the future.
These are just a few examples. What’s important is that you figure out how you’ll appeal to your ideal candidate before you post the open position.
Final thoughts
Take the time to answer these three questions before you post your job opening:
- Who’s the ideal candidate?
- What does success look like?
- Why should your ideal candidate work for you?
No organization can grow faster than its ability to recruit and retain enough of the right people! BR1 offers on-demand and subscription recruiting. We can also help improve employee retention and engagement. Contact us or schedule a discovery call to learn more.
