Conventional job descriptions don’t work, yet we keep branding them in the marketplace.
Your positions go unfilled for months and the quality of candidates is far below your expectations.
We’ve been marketing the wrong information.
A Project Manager knows what they do. They do not need to be reminded with a list of responsibilities.
We follow this up by telling them that they must have 5-10 years of experience, thereby excluding those who have 4 or 11 years of experience.
We are creating a robotic marketplace of prospects who think in terms of requirements and tasks.
We’re selling the position and this has not worked in an evolving marketplace that values more than what they will be doing from 8 to 4.
You have failed to capture the intrinsic motivators that would compel a top performer to leave their current position and join yours.
Instead of describing the perfect candidate, companies should be focused on clearly outlining what makes them an ideal destination for a top performer. It’s a shift from “what you can do for us” to “what we can do for you.”
Let’s explore this deeper…
The Career Brochure (Sample Profile Below)
Building vehicles is what we do. Cultivating high performing professionals in a friendly environment is our passion and vision.
Over the last 20 years, we’ve gone through a major organizational shift by making tangible investments in our greatest assets.
We shut our doors the last Friday of every month to give our staff a well-deserved opportunity to rest and spend time with their families.
Our last 17 hires have been promoted over the last 5 years which has allowed us to stay competitive and keep them motivated.
We host our very own awards ceremony to honor our people with recent winners being awarded the following: “Comeback Employee Of the Year”, It’s Not My Job, But I did It Anyway”, & “Leader Of The Year.”
One of the prizes was an all-inclusive trip to a resort of their choice for 5 days.
We’ve established our own University to make sure our employees receive proper training and ongoing support. This is a fully paid for benefit and offered to everyone. Through this program, we’ve seen a 50% increase in productivity & retention, and a 70% reduction in product defects, representing a major increase in quality & turnaround time across our fleet.
We offer “Mental Wellness Days” instead of “Sick Days”. Meaning, you are allotted (3) days a month for the entire year to take care of yourself. We want you to enjoy time away from the office while you’re healthy, not sick (this is in addition to your vacation time)
Oh yeah, we also build cool vehicles! As part of that mandate, you’ll work individually and collectively with your team to accomplish the following goals over the next 2 years:
- You will have a prototype & production strategy completed for our latest electric vehicle by the end of the 4th quarter of next year
- You will refine our go-to-market campaign for the Asian market
- You will lead in the onboarding of a new “Chief Electrical Engineer” to galvanize the team and address some technological gaps
- You will secure another battery supplier with plans to keep as much of that intelligence and knowledge in-house as possible, with an end goal of developing our own fully operational battery. We are also looking to create a long-term strategy for repurposing our batteries to further promote and drive our clean energy mandate.
Wrap Up
Note that there is no mention of requirements or duties, and the goals were mentioned after conveying major company milestones & perks.
Let’s stop promoting what the person will do and let’s create profiles that convey an understanding of the needs of the marketplace. This is the only way to create a winning organization that is a talent magnet.
If you disagree or if you’re already doing something similar, please let me know below.