NeonLogic 
Hiring people comes naturally to you, after all, you’ve been doing it for years. You’ve honed your instincts when it comes to choosing people for all types of roles, maybe even across a few different industries? However with the labour market constantly changing, it’s good to regularly refine your instincts and think about how people are searching and applying for jobs – and just what they are looking for when seeking a new employer.
The Right Fit
Businesses no longer just need a list of skills in a new hire pulled from a CV. When they look for talent, they need a certain depth of experience, an understanding of very specific components, and an ability to fit into the culture or vision of a business. There’s no point in hiring someone with all the skills, but who doesn’t work well with your team; or an expert in a field who just won’t get the methodologies your business works to. It’s not just okay to find a candidate to fill a role; you need to find the right candidate for your business.
It’s not just businesses who are more considered about hiring decisions. Candidates, especially high performers, are also no longer just after a job. They want a job that offers progression, with a company that has values that align to their own, peers they want to work with and a mentor they respect. They want to be challenged and inspired – a job is no longer just a job.
The Candidate Journey
The Candidate Journey involves the steps a candidate makes when they connect with your business. It is the psychological journey they go through from seeing a role, to becoming a valued member of your team.
How do you find them in the first place? Are they active job seekers or passive candidates who need a deeper incentive to move roles? What do you say to engage them and capture their imagination, and where do you say it? There’s no point in having a great message if you’re shouting in the wrong room. What doubts and concerns do they have, and how are you planning to answer them? How do they make an application – and is your interview and hiring process professional and well run? And beyond that, day one until they finish, are you ensuring they settle into their role and deliver and grow with your business? Understanding these steps, the messages and touch points at each stage, make up The Candidate Journey.
As a talent marketer, it is a powerful tool with which to understand and assess your strategies and tactical activity. There’s no point in a great attraction campaign if your job application system is clunky and fails on a mobile device. We look at how your messaging is rolled out, but also how your key assets, such as your careers website and ATS, give the candidate the information and tools they require. We look at your employer brand and how your values are communicated within your business to drive behavioural change.
Our Auckland team recently completed the successful launch of a new website for Auckland Council that cleverly offers graduate candidates an accurate look into what it would be like to work for council. The website achieves this with rich, storytelling video content and a sophisticated Q&A functionality, allowing the candidate to have full control of their journey.
The Candidate Journey is the A to the B to the C of talent. How well does yours work? We can recommend this excellent report from LinkedIn that delves into some of these points.
If you would like to speak to someone about helping you find the right candidate for your business, reach out today, we’d love to hear from you.
