Hiring in today's economy has become more and more challenging. Many companies have announced that they are battling a skills shortage. The time to hire and cost of hiring continues to rise and then retaining staff is a whole other challenge.
Hiring the best candidate while also keeping time to hire and hiring costs down is possible when you make the right primary steps. When you have a position open, it is important to know exactly what the successful candidate will look like - this is called a candidate profile.
A candidate profile is different than a job description. In a candidate profile, you are describing the person who would be most successful in this role, you are not describing the job itself. A candidate profile can be made for any position level, function or industry.
A candidate profile will help to generate a more accurate job description and will expedite the recruitment process since you will have a much better understanding of who exactly you are looking for. The hiring process will speed up even further if everyone involved in the hiring is in agreement on the candidate profile.
To create a candidate profile, one must analyze the company internally first.
How to Create a Candidate Profile
1. Get to Know the Department that is Hiring
Talk to the manager of the department that is hiring. Find out from them what the list of qualifications are (education, experience etc.). Also take time to discuss this with the people who are currently doing the job. They will have the greatest insight into what it takes to do the job.
In order to hire the best person for this role, it is important to define what the best performance is. Identify the top performers in this role and analyze the characteristics that they have that make them so successful in this role.
2. Assess Your Company's Goals and Culture
When you've made a commitment to hiring the best, you will be looking for a candidate that will not only be successful in the job, but will share similar values as your company. Determine why there is a hire (growth or replacement), what goals are you aiming to achieve with this hire and how the candidate will help your company get there.
Assess the personality traits within your company culture. Identify the values of your company and figure out how to assess whether the candidate shares the same causes and values as your company.
3. Assess the Open Position
Instead of just focusing on what the candidate needs to have to be successful (ex. a degree and 5 year of experience), it is good to consider what the candidate needs to do to be successful. You will find the right candidate more easily if you can describe the results wanted from this open position (based on the assessment of the company's goals) rather than just the skills that are required.
Include the deliverable's desired in your candidate profile and having your candidates give examples of accomplishing these kinds of results will reveal what candidate is best suited for your open position.
Conclusion
Even when it is clear that you need to hire someone, it may remain foggy as to who you should hire. Going through the recruitment process before clearing up these ambiguities can tack on a lot of time and costs. Next time you need to hire, try building a candidate profile first and see a difference!
