In September alone, 64,000 new positions—as Jessy Bains reports for LinkedIn News—were added to the Canadian job market. And while this is three times more than the expected 20,000 economists anticipated, it is still below pre-pandemic job rates. And it is crucial to note that these jobs were added predominantly within transportation, warehouse, and education industries. Meanwhile, numbers of positions in real estate, finance and insurance, construction, information, and recreation continue to fall.
So, especially if you’re looking to hire in the latter industries, how can you increase the likelihood of catching the eyes of top talent? We recommend personalizing your hiring processes to both showcase all you have to offer in comparison to your competitors and to demonstrate to your applicants the close attention you use with your applicants.
There are tons of ways you can do so, but for now, here are four of our favourite ways you can personalize your hiring process.
4 of the Best Ways to Personalize Your Hiring Process
1. Customize Your Job Listings
Nowadays, there are tons of shortcuts and templates you can use for crafting a job listing quickly. And sure, you could rephrase an existing one (either from within your organization or from a template), but it might not catch the eye of a potential candidate.
In order to do so, you’ll need to:
Firstly: determine your target audience for this job listing. Consider what keywords might they be using to find your job posting; where they might be looking for their next job; and what perks or working conditions they might see as a deal-breaker.
Find keywords specific to the position you’re looking to hire by searching other positions with similar responsibilities. You can also find keywords or specific language in a field of work by prompting ChatGPT with something like: “What are some keywords I should use in a job posting for a X position in the Y industry?”
For example, when I asked ChatGPT for keywords for a copywriting job in the finance industry, it offered me the following.
- Finance-related keywords, such as asset management, retirement planning, portfolio management, and fiscal analysis
- Copywriting skills and qualifications, including content creation, storytelling, branding, and proofreading
- Industry-related keywords, such as FinTech (financial technology), cryptocurrency, investment strategies, and blockchain
- and Job specific tasks, such as writing headlines and taglines, collaborating with marketing and design teams, and crafting marketing materials
Secondly: craft the posting based on this information, as well as your company’s work culture and values. Specify what sets you apart from your competitors. Use language that you use in your value statements to carry over the attitudes you use in theory to how you will exercise those in practice.
2. Personalize Your Candidate Responses
Soon after you have your job posting up and drawing in top talent, you’re sure to get tons of impressive applications. Again, the easiest way to approach this would be to only respond to those whose applications make them a top candidate for the position. But this would mean ignoring and leaving all other candidates out to dry. And, of course, no one likes being ghosted, especially when they’re depending on your reply to make further moves in their careers.
Instead, make sure you’re personalizing your responses to at least include their name, the position they applied to, and their status in their application.
Some organizations choose to keep their applicants up-to-date by sending automated text messages. Others simply use emails that update applicants based on where their application stands in the hiring cycle. However you may choose to inform your applicants, though, you must remain a) transparent, b) consistent, and c) caring.
After all, if you impress them with your hiring cycle this time around, even if they’re not selected for this position, chances are they’ll apply for more openings in the future.
3. Ensure Candidate Success with Customized Assessment Scores
Once you’ve updated all applicants about their status in the hiring cycle and have found some top contenders, you’ll need to make sure those you anticipate will be a good fit actually will be a good fit.
This is where soft skills assessments come in handy! These are assessments that candidates themselves fill out to determine their potential in a given role or industry. Packfinder, for one, is a psychometric assessment that takes into consideration how well a candidate will fit into a role and how well they’ll do in the organization itself based on their personality type and behavioural tendencies.
Once your candidates have completed the assessment, you can then determine how well they will do in the position based on benchmarks you set specific to your industry and environment. That way, you’ll know how likely they are to succeed in a position not in any organization, but how they’ll do at your organization.
The best part is if you’re not sure what benchmarks to set, Packfinder has options for you to choose from. So, you’re sure to get the results you need.
4. Personalize Your Onboarding Process with AI
Once you’ve determined who among your top-ranking candidates has the most potential for success in the given position at your organization, the last thing left to do is welcome them on-board!
But, again, no onboarding process is one-size-fits-all. In order to onboard your new staff in the most effective and most productive way, you’ll need to personalize their onboarding process.
This might look like organizing systems to set them up with for their first day, a welcome package that includes details about their position and who on the team they should reach out to for certain questions or concerns, a buddy or mentor who can help them better integrate into the organization, and milestones or specific key performance indicators (KPIs) they can work towards.
Remember: how they are welcomed onto the team can be a huge factor in how well they will perform at your organization. The more attention you put into making their integration into the team, the more likely they’ll feel taken care of and paid attention to. And this can provide them with a lasting sense of care and support they’ll need, especially in their first few weeks to months.
From the beginning of the hiring cycle to the on-boarding process, the Workwolf platform can streamline, simplify, and personalize all of your filtration and hiring processes. Learn more about everything Workwolf has to offer hiring professionals and recruiters here. When you’re ready to make your hiring processes easier and more effective than ever before, click here to sign up for a Workwolf business account. You can thank us later!
