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How companies create optimal benefits with Candidate Personas

Better benefits for employees? Yes, please! Why companies need candidate personas for this and how they help in the selection process: A guide.

 

 

In terms of benefits, Frank is particularly attracted by the provision of a company cell phone that can also be used privately - with a free choice of operating system. He is also interested in health offers such as eye tests, courses on healthy sitting, subsidies for the gym or online fitness courses. As a car owner, the option of a company car, preferably an e-car instead of a gasoline-powered one, is also interesting for him. He enjoys goodies and taking part in team challenges that improve health while building cohesion. As a young father, he needs to be able to easily take a home office day or work outside of core working hours.

Why does Frank want these benefits?

The benefits Frank likes are derived from his profile: Frank is 35 years old and has been working in IT at a utility company for four years. His colleagues appreciate him for his team-player manner and his ability to remain calm even in stressful situations. The feeling of having accomplished something "honest" at the end of the day, the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity for technological innovations and to learn new things, is more important to Frank than climbing the career ladder. Stress arises for him when he is asked to take on things that are outside his comfort zone: strategic work, knowledge transfer and workshop design are among them. He prefers to solve concrete problems instead of thinking "big" and "abstractly. Frustratingly for Frank, in his current company he tends to feel like he's "the girl for everything." And although he enjoys helping colleagues as a problem solver, he would like to specialize as an expert in new technological areas that interest him. Importantly, he would like to be able to help decide in which area he specializes and how the specialization takes place.

Optimize employee benefits: Here's how to do it in three steps

Frank is not a real person, but a data-based Candidate Persona. The text is an excerpt from his persona profile, which is based exclusively on scientific data. Data-based Candidate Personas like Frank represent a group of potential or existing employees. The data-driven persona profile provides information about the lifestyles and interests of professionals, how they work, and what drives them in their jobs. In this way, Candidate Personas help to better understand professionals. This supports HR managers not only in designing an individualized candidate journey, but also in selecting suitable benefits. They are an important building block for the employer brand and an aspect of why talents choose you and not the competition. But how do you derive the right benefits for your employees from a large amount of data? We will show you how to proceed in three steps.

1. create (have created) one or more data-based Candidate Personas

The first step toward optimized benefits is the data-based candidate persona. Regardless of whether you create them yourself or have them created - the following applies to personas: the more qualitative data you have available, the better personas will reflect the desired target group. A mix of internal and external data is suitable. Specifically: In addition to scientific studies and market research data, include internal data - for example, from feedback discussions, focus groups or anonymous surveys. Once the data base is established, the next step is to evaluate it and create the persona profiles. To do this, we recommend that you first list facts and figures clearly, as in this example. This way, you always have the most important data in view. You can then use this data to create a detailed persona profile to delve even deeper into the life world of your persona, as we did here. The fact is, however, that data-based Candidate Personas cost time and involve a great deal of effort. If you lack the financial and time resources for this, service providers such as the Persona Institute relieve companies of this work. This not only brings you closer to your goal faster, but also saves you over 80% of the budget you would otherwise spend on research, analysis and market research.

2. derive employee needs from the persona profile

In the second step, you derive needs from the persona profile and sort them according to relevance. In addition to internal surveys, data on the social environment, leisure activities, and consumer and media behavior provide information about what employees need and want. Statements about drivers and stressors in professional and private life also show which benefits are nice-to-haves or even decisive for skilled employees to want to work for a company. Frank's example: As a family man, flexible working hours and the opportunity to work from home from time to time are important to him. Depending on the age of the children, a childcare allowance could also be helpful. Since Frank would like to specialize, flexible learning opportunities are interesting for the IT expert. And since he uses his smartphone not only for work, but also for private research and online shopping, a company cell phone would suit him - especially if he can also use it privately. In addition, sports offers or a company bicycle of his own choice go down well with the health-conscious Frank. In short: For every data-driven persona there is a variety of benefits that are advantageous for both the employee and the employer. Our tip: Sort the needs by relevance and consider which benefits offer the greatest added value to the persona and thus to your employees. Alternatively, a data-based Candidate Persona from the Persona Institute will provide you with recommendations for action on which you can base further considerations.

3. reality check: how well are the benefits received?

With benefits that you select on the basis of candidate personas, you are already on the right track. For a final selection and a later comparison, a reality check can be worthwhile. In practice: If you have found a number of benefits to be good, start a final survey among employees. Depending on the budget, they can select, for example, five out of ten benefits. The benefits with the most votes win. In the long term, too, companies should regularly subject their employee benefits to a reality check. After all, teams and employees change - and so does the persona. So it can be worthwhile to regularly check the persona data. You can also find out which benefits continue to be well received by conducting an annual survey within the company.

Flexible benefits providers you should know about

Food subsidy, food stamps:

Online shopping, travel, leisure:

Mobility:

Child care, psychological counseling: Voiio

E-learning, continuing education:

Health:

Hybrid work: Future Call

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