Identifying the ultimate candidate

Employees are the face of an organisation, critical to the service or product delivery, patient or customer experience, and culture. Therefore, it's important to identify the right person, or what we call the 'ultimate candidate' before considering an appropriate sourcing strategy or making a hiring decision. 

Identifying the ultimate candidate requirements should involve more than refreshing a position description. A vacancy opening is an opportunity to review and refresh the expectations of the skill set, experience, and personal qualities necessary to do the job. 

The ultimate candidate is more than a candidate who ticks the qualification and technical skill requirement boxes. Consideration of the organisations' culture, values, and team requirements, and aligning these to the expectations and technical skill requirements of the ultimate candidate is equally important. 

Firstly, we recommend developing a personal spec sheet of the characteristics you'd hope to bring to your team and organisation. Start by considering these areas:

Ability requirements: 

• What are the necessary qualification and/or national registration requirements?
• What level of verbal reasoning is required?
• What aptitude/s would the person have?

Personal style ideals:

• What level of competitiveness is required by the candidate?
• What level of ability to work and collaborate with a team is required?
• Are they required to be creative and innovative?
• If you could introduce a new personality attribute to the team, what would it be? 

Work environment adaptability:

• Consider the need for autonomy, is it required by the ultimate candidate?
• Is the nature of the work predictable or repetitive? 

Next, we recommend considering the team, culture, and value requirements of the organisation, and aligning these to the characteristics above. For example:

• What is the leadership and management style and how does this impact the personal style attributes of the ultimate candidate?
• What does the organisations' culture practice and encourage and how does this align with the candidates work environment adaptability and personal styles ideals?

Given that employees are the face of organisations impacting service or product delivery and the experience of patients, customers, and employees, an open vacancy shouldn't be under-looked. Use vacancies as an opportunity to identify ultimate candidates and to influence the sourcing strategies and hiring decisions made, you may be surprised by the impact it can have on your employment brand!