Every recruiter goes into an interview with a profile of their perfect candidate. They know the amount of experience the candidate should have, what skill sets she needs, any necessary degrees or certifications, and maybe even what previous positions she’s held. These “perfect” profiles are extremely helpful for targeting recruitment efforts, but are they enough for recruiters and HR teams to really understand if a person is right for a certain position?

SHRM explored this question in a recent article. The article highlights how recruiters may benefit from evolving their “perfect” candidate profiles into in-depth explorations of a prospective employee’s interests and motivators, a technique often used by marketers to identify their most qualified buyers.

According to Johnny Campbell, the founder and CEO of Social Talent, the key to creating candidate personas starts by putting successful current and former employees under the microscope. While doing this, there are three questions talent acquisition teams should ask to help create a comprehensive persona for certain positions…

1. What motivates this person?

2. Where does this person want to be in 10 years?

3. Where is the person now?

Read SHRM’s full article to get more insights into developing candidate personas.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of leveraging a candidate persona instead of a standard resume checklist is that it’s flexible and proactive. Chances are, the “profile” for a certain job position won’t change – a certain degree will always be needed, as will an approximate number of years of experience. But the mindsets, perspectives and motivators of potential candidates is fluid and ever-evolving. For this reason, your candidate persona guide should be a living document, and HR teams should always be updating it as they learn more about their talent.

For more insight into tailoring HR tactics to employees and candidates, read about our new recruiting acceleration platform.