Getting Inside Your Candidate’s Head

Monday, July 13, 2009



Shoes As a recruiter or hiring manager, it is important to be able to put yourself in the shoes of your candidates.  From a marketing perspective, your messaging needs to ring true with the individuals viewing your ads.  The objective is to have an emotional impact, followed by prompt action.  For high-quality candidates… you know, the ones you really want to have join your team… the need to make an emotional impact carries over into the interview.
 
This begs the question:  What’s going on inside the candidate’s head?  What are this individual’s priorities?  What are the significant issues that are going to cause the person take action?  All are great questions.


I came across some research this week that gives us some insight on this topic.  The research was conducted by The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM).  The study involved presentation of a list of common job traits, and a request for employees to rank their importance.  They used a four-point scale to indicate what they felt was “very unimportant” (a “one” on the scale), on up to “very important” (a “four”).  The percentages below indicate how many people ranked the given item a four, meaning “very important.”


JOB TRAIT – PERCENTAGE WHO RANK ITEM AS “VERY IMPORTANT”

  • Job security – 63%
  • Benefits – 60%
  • Compensation/Pay – 57%
  • Opportunity to use skills/abilities – 55%
  • Feeling safe in the work environment – 54%
  • Relationship with the immediate supervisor – 52%
  • Management recognition of employee job performance – 52%
  • Communication between employees and senior management – 51%
  • The work itself – 50%
  • Autonomy and independence – 47%
  • Flexibility to balance life and work issues – 46%
  • Meaningfulness of job – 45%
  • Overall corporate culture – 45%
  • Relationships with co-workers – 42%
  • Contribution of work to organization’s business goals – 39%
  • Job-specific training – 35%
  • Variety of work – 34%
  • Career advancement opportunities – 32%
  • Organization’s commitment to corporate social responsibility – 31%
  • Organization’s commitment to professional development – 30%
  • Paid training and tuition reimbursement programs – 29%
  • Career development opportunities – 22%
  • Organization’s commitment to a “green” workplace – 17%

As a hiring manager, I suggest you digest this list from a couple of perspectives.  (1) How do the employment opportunities you’re offering line up with what candidates want in a job?  (2) In the marketing and interviewing process, are you emphasizing issues that have a minimal chance of impacting your candidates?