Design thinking and talent attraction.
Are you using design thinking in your talent attraction, yet?
Design thinking is no longer only associated with product design and advertising, it can be used to enhance talent attraction and retention outcomes.
The NSW Department of Education defines design thinking as a human-centred methodology, based on the philosophy that developing useful products, services and organisations begins by learning from the people who are to benefit from it.
Research shows that people who have a positive employee experience are 16 times more engaged than those with a negative experience - and eight times more likely to stay.
The fundamentals of design thinking
Design thinking centres around putting people first.
When it comes to employee engagement and employee experience, it’s obvious that design thinking can help.
“Workers are hungry for trust, social cohesion, and purpose. They want to feel that their contributions are recognised and that their team is truly collaborative. They desire clear responsibilities and opportunities to learn and grow.” [McKinsey & Company]
At Heart, we believe that recruitment is marketing. And it seems design thinking researchers and advocates would agree.
Job searching is not just about the work, people are interested in everything to do with the organisation and what it can offer a potential employee. Putting people first and their needs at the centre of the hiring process is design thinking in action.
The American Marketing Association has defined five steps to design thinking, which can be directly applied to talent acquisition: Empathise, define, ideate, prototype, test.
Empathise
This is where many employers fall flat.
Empathy begins with understanding. To understand the employee experience, you’ll need to start with listening.
What makes your people happy at work?
How do they feel about their employee journey so far?
What matters to them regarding their role and work environment?
How could their employee experience be improved?
Define
Identify and target significant stages of the employee experience: The first team meet; the onboarding process and the ‘settling in’ period.
At Heart Talent our process of understanding the employee experience involves in depth employee interviews and focus groups. From there we can draw key insights, identify trends and report back to the leadership team.
Ideate
Consider collaborating with your team to unravel solutions which will enhance the employee experience - and help you attract the right talent. What can be done differently? What flexibility can be offered to suit individuals? Articulate your employee value proposition (EVP) and turn insights into an authentic brand narrative.
Prototype
This stage is about experimentation and transforming ideas into tangible artefacts. In talent attraction, these artefacts could be employee stories or testimonials, careers page content, social media content and content for your recruitment and onboarding process.
Test
Once you’ve been through the stages of empathise, define, ideate and prototype, it’s time to test what you’ve developed. Leverage your new EVP and employee content to showcase your employer brand and as part of every recruitment marketing campaign.
By using design thinking principles and the five steps above, you can unleash the power of your employer brand!
A personal approach
With a little time and effort, design thinking can help you solve talent challenges and be more strategic in how you attract and engage the right people to your team.
According to the American Marketing Association, embracing design thinking as a way to codify and organise your creative development and output will create stronger teams, instil deeper collaboration…and most importantly, create potentially monumental solutions that improve the lives of other human beings.
Got a question about how to attract, engage and retain top talent? Get in touch with the Heart Talent team.