Create personas in recruitment: an innovative strategy to attract the ideal candidate
In recruitment, the adoption of innovative strategies is crucial to attract quality candidates. We see a lot of methods and techniques from other trades (Techs, Sales, Marketing, etc.) be adopted to innovate and increase your results. One of these strategies is the creation of "Personas" - a concept borrowed from marketing and sale, but which is just as relevant in recruitment. This article explores how to create a recruitment persona and why this method can revolutionize your approach to the search for the ideal candidate.
What is a persona in marketing and how to adapt it to recruitment?
A persona in marketing is a semi-fictitious representation of your ideal customer based on real data and educated assumptions concerning the demography, behavior, motivations and objectives of your customers. The objective of a persona is to help you understand and view your target audience in a more concrete way, in order to be able to adapt your products, services and marketing strategies more efficiently.
Example of Persona on sale: Imagine "Sophie", a 35 -year -old marketing director, passionate about advanced technologies, active on social networks (Instagram and Facebook), who favors innovative and customizable products, attaches a lot of importance to the balance between her professional and personal life and practices a collective sport in club.
By adapting this method to recruitment, the "candidate persona" becomes a tool to better understand and target the typical profile sought. To create a recruitment persona, it is essential to consider not only the required skills and experience, but also elements such as personality, motivations, leisure and adequacy with corporate culture.
The usefulness of personas in recruitment
Using a recruitment persona makes it possible to target the candidates more effectively. This helps to design more attractive job offers and choose the most relevant distribution channels, such as Linkedin, social networks or other specialized platforms. By having a clear image of the future candidate, recruiter can better communicate the values and expectations of the company, thus increasing the chances of attracting a profile which corresponds not only into skills but also in values and aspirations.
How to create a persona for recruitment?
The creation of the Persona must be done with several, in particular with the employees concerned by this recruitment (Hiring Manager), in order to avoid objectivity errors and collect a maximum of relevant information.
- Information collection : Gather data on the previous previous and current previous candidates, using sources such as candidate returns, job interviews, and LinkedIn profiles.
- Identification of trends : Look for models in the courses, skills, personalities and centers of interest that correspond to success in the role.
- Definition of Persona : Create a detailed profile of the ideal candidate, including aspects such as motivations, career objectives, and adequacy with corporate culture.
Example of a persona in recruitment: consider "Alex", a potential software engineer, with 5 years of experience, passionate about sustainable development, active in online coding communities, and looking for a business with a strong culture of innovation and social responsibility.
When not to create a recruitment persona?
It is important to note that the creation of a persona for each recruitment is not always necessary. In some cases, this can even slow down the recruitment process, in particular for positions that require fast hiring or for very specialized roles where potential candidates are few. In these situations, a more direct and flexible approach can be preferable.
Conclusion
The adoption of personas in recruitment offers a structured and empathetic method to attract candidates who correspond not only into skills, but also in personality and values. Although this is not a universal solution for each recruitment process, its judicious use can greatly improve the quality and efficiency of your recruitment efforts. In the end, understanding and targeting the ideal candidate is an art which, when it is well controlled, can transform the way your business attracts and holds talents.
