How to Build a Potential Candidate Profile

A potential candidate persona is a relatively new concept in Vietnam. We are more familiar with the concept of a potential customer persona in marketing, while the potential candidate persona in recruitment is still quite unfamiliar. To better understand this concept, let’s explore it with 1Office in the next installment of our “Complete HR Guide” series!

1. What is a potential candidate persona?

A potential candidate is understood as the person you aim to hire based on the JD (Job Description) you create. This candidate is the ideal model for the position in all aspects, both inside and outside of work. This model serves as a guide for recruiters to follow throughout all stages of the recruitment process.
When creating a JD, we can only list the explicit criteria we require. These are also the criteria for evaluating candidate profiles. However, that is only a small part of what makes a good employee that the employer wants for that position. The hidden criteria can range from major issues like career goals and candidate personality to very minor details like their residential area.

2. The impact of building a potential candidate persona

Recruitment is like selling a position within the company. Having a detailed candidate persona will affect two aspects of recruitment: recruitment costs and candidate quality.

2.1 Save on recruitment costs

Recruitment costs decrease when you have identified the candidate pool. Costs here include both tangible costs like money and intangible costs like effort and brainpower. Therefore, outlining a potential candidate persona helps recruiters narrow down the candidate pool, approaching a smaller but much higher-quality group of applicants. Additionally, having this persona will significantly improve the quality of recruitment communications.

2.2 Improve candidate quality

Candidate quality is the most noticeably improved aspect when building a candidate persona. The candidate persona is the foundation for recruitment content (JD, interview content, question sets, etc.). This minimizes subjectivity when creating recruitment content and selecting candidates. The hidden requirements beyond the JD are often the deciding factors for a new employee’s commitment to the company. Therefore, building a potential candidate persona is a way to increase employee satisfaction and the quality of the employee journey.

3. Comparing a candidate persona to JD requirements

The biggest difference between the two concepts lies in their purpose. The JD requirements serve as the initial filter to eliminate weak CVs and are the minimum benchmarks for a CV to be selected. In contrast, the potential candidate persona is the ideal model the company aims for.
Recruiters select candidates based on the candidate description, but this doesn’t mean the chosen employee will be a 100% match to the persona. The selected candidate will be the one who meets the most criteria that make up the potential candidate persona.

4. Basic elements that create a potential candidate persona

There are many ways to break down the components of a potential candidate persona. However, for most small and medium-sized enterprises that hire small numbers and recruit infrequently, the funnel filtering method is used to build the candidate persona. This method closely follows the company’s recruitment process. The company shapes the potential candidate persona using funnels created by HR and the department head. The content is divided into 3 main aspects: the explicit part, the implicit part, and the candidate’s expectations.

4.1 Explicit factors

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4.3 Candidate Expectations

Candidate expectations are the requirements candidates have during the work process. Recruitment is about choosing the most suitable person, not the most talented one. If the two factors above are the minimum requirements, this is the limit for selecting a candidate. The factors here include: demands for the work environment, compensation, career advancement, etc. 

5. A preliminary potential candidate persona template 

This is a preliminary potential candidate template for the B2B Sales staff position at the 1Office Hanoi office for Q1 2019. 
Note:

• This is only a preliminary candidate template, a persona template 
• The “content” section may not be accurate due to 1Office’s confidentiality requirements
• The “weighting” of the criteria is intentionally left blank by 1Office for security reasons
• Candidate expectations are not provided by 1Office for security reasons

5.1 Surface-level factors

5.2 Hidden factors – via the CV 

5.3 Hidden factors – through interviews 

Conclusion

The concept of a potential candidate persona is still very new in Vietnam, but its importance has been affirmed in many developed countries around the world. Building and perfecting it is a mandatory step in professionalizing the recruitment process. We hope this article from 1Office can be helpful in the process of building a recruitment system for businesses.
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