One of the primary questions in the minds of candidates is “Where will I be two years from now?” Unfortunately, most recruiters and managers respond to that question with meaningless generalities like, “You’ll have lots of opportunities.” In fact, what candidates actually want is a realistic preview of where they are likely to go over the next two years if they join the firm. If you want to dramatically increase your offer acceptance rate, give applicants a “Where You’ll Be” profile! What’s A “Where You’ll Be” Profile? A “Where You’ll Be” profile is a sales tool designed to convincingly demonstrate to an applicant the kind of opportunities a top performer might expect at a firm. The profile is a brief preview of the kind of learning, growth, and economic opportunities that a new hire might reasonably expect to have during their first 1-5 years of employment at the firm. It’s designed to excite candidates with some actual examples rather than just meaningless platitudes. Some of the key elements in a “Where You’ll Be” profile include:
It’s A Profile, Not A Promise A “Where You’ll Be” profile is designed to show the kind of opportunities top performer might experience in this particular job class. It is not supposed to be a recruiter’s “BS” sheet. Instead it is derived from a compilation of the actual experiences of top performers in this job class. The profile can be developed based on information obtained through a series of interviews, surveys, and focus groups with top performers and their managers (in this targeted job classification). By identifying the actual opportunities that a new hire might experience, you put realism in your profile and you avoid wild “guesstimates.” Since this is a profile of what opportunities top performers have actually had, it makes the lawyers less nervous (of course a disclaimer statement stating that the past is not always a predictor of the future is always attached as part of the actual profile). Elements Of A “Where You’ll Be” Profile The content of a “Where You’ll Be” profile should vary with the wants and the expectations of the job applicants. You should start by surveying your top candidates about their job expectations. You then need to provide specific information for each of the areas in which they have a high level of interest in your profile. For example, some of the “Where You’ll Be” areas for a software engineer position might include:
<*SPONSORMESSAGE*> Potential Variations Of The Profile
currently work (and excel) at the firm. In addition, specific “success story” individuals that started two years ago can be profiled to “personalize” the statistics.
Retention Incidentally, the research for your “Where You’ll Be” profile might show that the actual growth and learning opportunities in your jobs are lacking. If this is true, you can use the “gap” data as a starting point for revising your people practices and for making your jobs more challenging and exciting both for new hires and for your current employees. Next employees can be asked to provide information on what frustrates them and what motivates them on the day they start their job. From that list, their manager can develop customized “learning, challenge and growth” plans to ensure that they actually get “where they want to be” within their first and second year. “Where You’ll Be” profiles can also be used for motivating and retaining existing employees that are continually getting external “Where You’ll Be” offers (promises) from (external) recruiters! Conclusion If you treat applicants like potential customers you soon realize that it is essential that you provide answers to their questions about your “product.” By providing them with a realistic job preview of what they can expect if they become top performers, you can both excite them and also improve the odds of them saying yes to your offer. The profile can be put on the firms jobs page or be a paper document that is handed to applicants. It takes courage to act “outside the box.” Unfortunately, most HR people lack that courage. If you are going to recruit top talent, you need to take risks and to act differently than your competitors. Cisco has done an “economic rewards” “Where You’ll Be” chart for awhile (don’t they lead in just about everything!). Now it’s time to expand the profile (and add non-economic elements) in order to make it a complete sales tool.
