A focus on the candidate experience in personality profiling

7 Dec

At TALY, we spend a lot of time talking about empathy. The better we understand and empathise with each other at work – using science-based data rather than bias – the stronger our relationships will be and the stronger our teams will be.

During recruitment, we have an important opportunity to build empathy with candidates right from the start – exploring and understanding what’s going on in their life, connecting with them in a personal (but professional!) way, understanding what the recruitment process is really like (and how much it can suck!), and more.

Asking candidates to complete a personality profile or other assessments is a big part of this!

As with all parts of the recruitment process, getting the communications and engagement right around assessments can be an opportunity to strengthen connection – and getting it wrong can lead to uncertainty and division that’s hard to come back from.

We’ve touched briefly on the candidate experience in previous blogs, but today we want to explore this more with you.

In a tight talent market, and tough economy, building engagement and connection right from the start can make a huge difference.

The TALY approach to personality profiling brings together a unique mix of Five Factor and Emotional Intelligence profiling to help organisations, hiring managers and teams to make better decisions about recruitment and teams.

Get in touch to find out more… we love talking about this stuff! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.

Why the candidate experience matters…

Australian’s unemployment rate is 3.7%. In the long term, with tight immigration and an aging population, this is unlikely to change much. Today, 16% of Australians are aged over 65, and within 40 years that’ll be more like 25%.

In a tight job market (especially in some sectors), candidates are making decisions quickly.

During recruitment, candidates are slowly building a picture of the culture and values of their potential new employer – and of course the offer (pay, benefits, experience, culture, connections, and more).

Moments during the recruitment process that feel in conflict to the picture they are building can lead to uncertainty and can impact on the connection.

There are three key factors in candidate experience for personality profiling and assessment that matter…

Commitment to vision

I can understand why the profiling is an important part of the overall vision.

Satisfaction with outcomes

I respect the need for profiling and the outcome is high quality. I get value from it as well – it’s about a sense of shared understanding.

Feels energised

It’s simple, fun and fits in with my life. It’s not a drain.

Let’s dig into each of these

Commitment to vision.

Profiling for the sake of it rarely leads to a positive place – for the employer or the candidate. If you’re just ticking the box and going through the motions, potentially it’s time to get back to your original motivations.

For many of the organisations TALY works with, they see profiling as an opportunity to start to build a connection with potential new team members. We all want new team members to arrive on their first day with a strong sense of purpose, and a desire to help achieve the overall vision.

Research shows that individuals who feel seen and understand during recruitment and in the early days of a new role are likely to start linking their identity to their new employer – setting up a foundation for strong long-term commitment.

Satisfaction with outcomes.

If using profiling (which of course you should be!), be clear with candidates that profiling will be part of the process, when it comes in, the role it plays, and what they can expect to get out of it.

While some providers use profiling as an assessment tool, at TALY we see it as being more about shared understanding and empathy.

The world has moved away from archetypes – there is no archetypal sales person or leader any more. Profiling is about understanding individual personalities, and how these align to the role, the business, the team and the leader.

A great profiling experience is one where the purpose is clear, the process is clear – and the candidate has the opportunity to see their results.

If you are using profiling, why not bring the results out during the interview process? The best way to show why you are doing profiling is to actively show how it is being used.

Build energy and excitement.

Profiling matters. If you’re not using some sort of assessment, you’re recruiting new team members just based on your bias – and that can lead to all sorts of problems. So profiling matters.

But that doesn’t mean that you need to go over the top. In this space, aiming to do as little as possible is key. Keep it simple, make it enjoyable, make it fast and easy.

Potential new employees should really feel the purpose behind these activities and how the outcome will help to build a stronger connection. Profiling is a great opportunity to build excitement by showing respect and empathy.

Remember, profiling should be an opportunity to connect, engage and understand… not a burden.

You only have one chance for a first impression.

Thinking though your approach to profiling, and how it aligns to these three areas, can be a great first step in helping to ensure your actions are all aligned to creating a great first impression.

The TALY approach to recruitment profiling, and the TALY platform, can help to make sure you tick all of these boxes.

So before you next invite a candidate to complete a profile, remember:

• Be clear on the purpose.

• Ensure there is a clear, mutual benefit.

• Make it simple, fun and engaging.

If you want to find out more about TALY’s Personality Profiling and how we’re obsessed with the candidate experience, Get in touch to find out more… we love talking about this stuff! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.

Peter Treloar