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How to Build a Candidate Persona

What is a Candidate Persona?

A candidate persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal candidate. Building a candidate persona is one of the best methods employers use to ensure their sourcing, recruiting, and hiring processes are focused. Knowing exactly what you’re looking for streamlines everything and helps increase hiring confidence. So here’s how to create a candidate persona and how to use it.

How to Build a Candidate Persona in 4 Steps (Design)

Gather Data

Start building your candidate persona by deciding the purpose of your hire and collecting data. Once you have a job title in mind, consider reviewing your hiring records. If you have hired for the position in the past, investigate which hires were successful and which ones weren’t. From there, you’ll have an idea of what professional and personality traits are beneficial and which ones you should avoid.

If you’ve never hired for the position before, then consider networking with other recruiters or professionals who work in that position at other companies. Be sure to ask questions that will give you an idea of what it takes to be successful in the role.

Consider Your Company Culture

Your primary concern may not be hiring for culture fit. However, your work environment and company culture are still crucial aspects to consider. Outline the type of employee you think would be most successful in your work environment.

If a candidate does not fit, it doesn’t mean they are a bad person. Some people just don’t mesh well with companies whom they don’t share the same morals and values with. Additionally, your work processes and modes of communication may not match their experience or communication style. This mismatch could negatively affect productivity and workplace harmony.

Build Your Candidate Persona

Combining your data and company culture, it is time to construct your ideal candidate. Consider basic information such as:

  • Bio: age, location, current job title
  • Qualifications: educational and professional background and skills
  • Personality: traits, strengths, and weaknesses
  • Social background: how has their experiences shaped who they are?

Additionally, you should consider other factors such as your ideal candidate’s:

  • Career goals
  • Salary range
  • Non-negotiables and what would make them say yes to your offer
  • Ideal work environment
  • Immediate impact in the workplace

Consider Recruiting Factors

One of the biggest purposes of constructing a candidate persona is to assist in focused recruiting and sourcing efforts. So, once you have your ideal candidate in mind, strategize ways to engage people you think may be a good fit. With the right approach, you can attract active and passive candidates. Some things to consider are:

  • Candidate’s job search behavior
  • The channels they use to search for jobs
  • What resources and content do they trust?
  • Who influences their decisions?
  • Why are they looking to change jobs?

Where To Go From There

Once you’ve built a candidate persona, it’s time to put it to good use. Here are the different ways to use it.

how is building a candidate persona useful
other ways to use your candidate personae

As you source and evaluate candidates, consider creating a candidate score card. By doing this, you can keep your candidate persona in the forefront, evaluate candidates with your team and reduce bias.

A Template

Here is a quick template to creating a candidate persona for your next hire.

Four important elements to consider when building a candidate persona
Four important elements to consider when creating a candidate persona

Use your newly crafted candidate persona to create free job post today. Goodluck on finding top-notch candidates in your industry.

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