Without an EVP a Job Is Just a Job
If you want to hire a great person, you need to offer a great job, not a laundry-list of skills, experiences and competencies that at best is no more than an ill-defined lateral transfer surrounded by some generic boilerplate. This is even more important today with candidates leaving within 90 days after starting if the new job turns out to be more promise than substance (Fortune, May 2022).
Creating a great job begins by developing the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) before writing the job description. Ask the hiring manager this question first to set the stage that this will be a different approach for defining the role:
Then ask this question:
Now identify just 2-3 super skills the person would need to possess to successfully handle this role. This is all you'll need to identify 15-20 strong candidates for the spot using LinkedIn’s powerful filtering system,?a bit of "creative" Boolean?and some knowledge of what the best people do differently than the rest. For example, searching on the term “patents” will bring up strong engineers, "mentor" will bring up people who are leaders and “quota” will bring up sales people who are proud they made it.
But even with a great job, it's still hard to get these people to respond to your messages. What’s even harder is getting these people to talk to you and convincing them that your opening represents a career move. This is where strong recruiting skills are essential.
It's important to recognize that recruiting is not waiting for someone to apply to your job or answer your email saying he/she is ready to move. It’s proactively reaching out to top-notch people and persuading them to at least consider the idea of changing jobs. One way to increase your initial response rate is to add taglines that capture the EVP either as part of the title or the first line in all your job descriptions.
Using the intake meeting to determine the perfect tagline for your job post
Creating a great tagline starts during the intake meeting with the hiring manager. The primary objective of this meeting is to convert the job into a true career opportunity for someone. As an absolute minimum, this requires the following information and commitment from the hiring manager:
Based on this you’ll be able to create some compelling messages and taglines that inspire the “right” person to read the full?job posting, respond to your emails or return your voice mail messages. This is called "job branding." Once you try it you'll discover it trumps employer branding when it comes to attracting stronger and more diverse talent for more senior roles.
Using job branding and taglines to capture a candidate's?intrinsic motivators
For example, many years ago I saw a job description prepared by the?McFrank and Williams recruitment advertising agency?that’s a true classic for a cost analyst position:
Cost Analyst: Your attention to detail drives our corporate profitability.
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This is a lot better than saying "Must have 5+ years of experience, a degree in accounting and be detailed-oriented." You know your recruitment advertising messages are working when candidates tell you the ad "spoke to them."
One way to start developing these motivators is to review Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Zig Ziglar’s belief that “sales is helping people get what they want,” and?Coach John’s Wooden’s Pyramid of Success shown below.
Based on this basic understanding of human nature and the drivers of on-the-job success, you'll be able to create a short tagline that will capture the candidate’s intrinsic motivator.
Some examples will help you understand this messaging concept.
A talent leader used this one to find nurses for a hospital’s medivac program in less than a week after the traditional job posting failed miserably:
Flight Nurses – Helping Save Lives Everyday
Here’s one we created for a controller of a small movie film production company. The CEO wanted someone from a big entertainment company. We found some great candidates within 24 hours.
Here’s one for a Sales Operations Manager who needed to provide sales leaders the info needed to manage a sales team tripling in size over the next 12 months:
Sales Operations Manager: You and Salesforce.com Bring Insight Never Seen Before
Of course, getting a person to respond to your messages is critical, but this is just a starting point. These taglines will certainly help, but then the person needs to be compelled to read the entire job posting or email (which both need to be as exciting and as compelling as the tagline) and contact you directly. Then on the first phone call the recruiter needs to demonstrate that the difference between what your opening offers and what the person is doing today is?a true career move. And if it is, the next step is an exploratory conversation with the hiring manager.
Hiring top talent requires a great job in combination with a multi-level sophisticated marketing program, a skilled recruiter and an engaged hiring manager. But it must start with a great message that captures the attention of the person in less than 140 characters.
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Lou Adler?is the CEO and founder of?Performance-based Hiring Learning Systems?– a consulting and training firm helping recruiters and hiring managers around the world hire more leaders. Lou is the author of the Amazon top-10 best-seller,?Hire With Your Head?(John Wiley & Sons, 4th Edition, 2021),?The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired?(Workbench Media, 2013) and LinkedIn Learning’s?Performance-based Hiring?video training program (2016). Make sure you check out his?Hire with Your Head?Virtual Book Club?for the latest hiring ideas and trends.
Absolutely! Crafting job descriptions with a focus on passion and purpose truly makes a difference. ?? As Albert Einstein wisely said - Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. Ensuring candidates see the value beyond the paycheck can transform #hiring practices. ???? #talentdevelopment
Absolutely insightful! As Simon Sinek puts it, "People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it." In crafting job descriptions, it's crucial to articulate the purpose and impact of the role. ?? Also, speaking of impact, Treegens is excited to sponsor a Guinness World Record attempt for Tree Planting that can offer meaningful engagement opportunities for your team. Check it out: https://bit.ly/TreeGuinnessWorldRecord ?? #MakeADifference #TreePlantingRecord #PurposeDriven
HR Management expert driving talent acquisition success
2 年Super premium content!
BD, HR/Recruiting Consultant
2 年Yes!!! I so agree!!!
President & Founder, High Tech Software Recruiter for Sales and Sales Leadership in North America
2 年Love this