Whichever way you slice it, living and working through the last eight months has been hard.
The biggest problem that many organizations – and their talent – are facing today is that work is not working. Engagement has hit historic lows, productivity is predicted to flatline and managers and leaders are the most disengaged they’ve ever been. 75% of Americans have switched brands during the pandemic and employee loyalty has dropped by over 10%. Now, more than ever, workplace culture needs to include personal considerations.
“Personalization and Customization are key consumer trends in 2020, and the demand for more personalized experiences is spilling over into other areas, including HR.” – Deloitte
Your Employee Value Proposition is the foundation of your employee experience. The companies that are winning today are the ones that are magnetic. The organizations that have solved how to clearly identify and communicate their EVP have top talent that wants to be part of this journey in a way that resonates to them personally. To articulate how you can align their personal and professional values and wants to your organizations, you need to dig deeper into your talent personas.
What is a talent persona?
A talent persona is a representation of your ideal hire for a specific role or job group based on as much real data as possible, along with educated projections about talent’s goals, motivations, behaviours and interests. They help you better understand your talent in an impactful way, as a means to better identify their needs in the workplace. Much like the consumer trends of 2020 – they require more personalization and customization.
How do you identify these personas?
In order to articulate and externally communicate the reason top talent should consider joining your organization, you have to start by considering that talents’ reality. How has their work life changed in the last eight months through the pandemic? What additional pressure or stressers does this individual face? How are they managing their personal wellness? Are they a working parent and balancing their family and work responsibilities? Do they live alone and perhaps experience feelings of isolation? What is it that this talent truly needs from your organization to thrive?
How can they be implemented within your organization?
It boils down to doing research. Once an organization has decided to implement an EVP, research is required in order to best segment talent personas in a way that suits your individual organization’s culture. This research starts internally with data driven insights and survey results on current employees, and then it requires analyzing performance data from HR systems to identify the experience, background and career objectives of high-potential employees. These insights are a critical tool in identification the talent pool you need – versus making an uneducated or shortsighted decision – so that your recruitment marketing can proactively target the talent you need for the various functions within your organization.
We may be in this pandemic together, but we are all experiencing something completely unique. The companies that continue to thrive through these challenging times will reflect and build on their EVP and talent personas to consider the employee and candidate experience by seeing the workplace through your talents’ eyes. Yours should too.