Do you have trouble drawing up a good candidate persona? I’m going to help you! The persona helps with targeting your audience with the right message on the right channels to create the ultimate candidate journey. This blog explains what information you need to draw up a good candidate persona.
Before you start with a candidate persona…
There are no standard sets of candidate personas to choose from, as every organization is unique and has different needs. However, it is smart to consider which type of candidate personas you are going to create and not to create more than 5. On average, companies have 3 to 5 personas, depending on how they recruit. A good persona helps with your Recruitment Marketing strategy by giving insight into their motivation, and frustrations. It increases the success of your online campaigns because you know who to target and what to communicate.
Candidate personas are not created based on gut feeling or the memory of recruiters. Good candidate personas are created based on research, questionnaires, and interviews, but especially data from the ATS and CRM systems. By this, we do not only mean the demographic figures, but also the call logs of recruiters. What is discussed? What do candidates find important? Very valuable! What do they drop out on or decide to continue in the application process? Crucial information!
In addition, it is wise to see who reads or downloads what on the website. This way you can see what content is needed and you can also include that in the candidate persona.
How to make a candidate persona?
When you have all the input in order, you can start creating your candidate personas. Use my template for a good candidate persona and share these slides with the rest of your organization. This way everyone is on the same page and everyone knows what kind of candidate is being sought:
Below I describe for each part how you can best fill in the template and create a great candidate persona. It is up to you to choose whether you use all parts of the template or certain parts. The more you know, the better!
Default Demographics
For some vacancies, the employee cannot be more than an hour away from the work location. Think of vacancies for Airports or employees in the ICU of a hospital. It is also possible that a certain age is desired, provided you do not discriminate. There is also a minimum age for some positions in the police and army. With a persona, choose 1 age, 1 gender, and 1 location. If you make this a range, you are describing a target group, not a persona.
Drivers of the persona
From the interviews of the recruiters, you can find out what keeps a candidate busy at night. Why does the candidate apply for this vacancy and why not? What drives them when looking for a job? By summarizing this in the candidate persona and linking it to how you as a recruiter can help the candidate, you create a good mindset to call the candidate. Combine your own data with desk research. Like the Randstad Employer Brand Research. The most comprehensive global survey on how to become a magnet for talent.
Communication with the candidates
How you can best communicate with the candidate, on what channel and about what? Does the candidate use modern language or is the candidate more conservative? What resources does the candidate use to achieve their goal of finding a job?
Collect and use real data
Collect quotes from candidates’ call logs and interviews. What are they worried about? How do they describe themselves? What do they want? Copy this literally from the ATS and CRM for a good view. Also, put in the candidate persona what is holding back candidates. What arguments do they use?
Name your candidate
Don’t forget to name your candidate persona, or it will be more of a target audience than a fictitious person. It is best to make the name rhyme or alliterate (start with the same letter): Lean Leader Lenny, Recruiter Ronnie. This also ensures that everyone refers to the same persona and is on the same page. Another tip is using a photo on the candidate persona template to give your persona face!
Ready to make a candidate persona?
Recruitment Marketing is about getting the right candidate to apply. For it to succeed you need to attune your Employer Branding and Job Marketing communication toward your candidate. Create candidate personas for a deeper understanding of the right candidate and use them to align the team on the best target, support, and communication. This helps to increase your reach in the right target group and get that top-quality candidate to apply!
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