Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership

Having great “co-workers” is a primary attraction factor for top candidates (Gallup research). Being viewed as a more transparent, welcoming, and inclusive company will also increase your applications and offer acceptance rate (especially among currently employed top candidates who can just stay where they are).

What Exactly Is A Team Profile?

A team profile is a candidate convincing and selling tool. It provides finalist candidates with short profiles of the key team members they will join.

These teammate profiles are short but compelling bio summaries of members’ experience, education, skills, and/or interest areas. In addition to highlighting the manager and the individuals on the team, the profile can also cover key team accomplishments, milestones, and future goals.

This electronic profile packet usually consists of partial LinkedIn profiles. Some team managers have a team member write up these personalized profiles. This profile packet is usually presented in such an electronic format that it can only be viewed once by a candidate. 

The Benefits Of Providing Candidates With A Team Profile 

Many benefits occur when you provide your top finalist candidates with a profile of the team. Those benefits include:

• More prospects will apply – when prospective applicants learn that your hiring process is highly transparent. And that you proactively go out of your way to provide candidates with the information they need to make a commitment. Your Glassdoor ratings will rise, and you will receive many more job applications.
• Candidates will be more excited – when candidates who have already applied see the range of talent and experience already on the team. They will become more excited about this job opportunity. Therefore, they will devote more time and effort to getting this job. In addition, they may learn that they already know someone on the team, which may provide them with an opportunity to talk with an insider.
• Candidates will feel more welcomed, included, and less anxious – we know that many of today’s candidates desire to feel welcomed. Being able to see pictures and read details about their potential key teammates will likely make “an outsider” feel that they will fit in and will likely be welcomed and included in this group. That positive outlook will likely excite them about their upcoming interview while, at the same time, reducing their interview anxiety.
• Candidates will be less likely to drop out of your hiring process – knowing your hiring process is transparent. And that your company is proactively thinking about what a candidate needs and wants to know. Most candidates will be less likely to drop out of your hiring process prematurely. 
• This unique information element will make your corporation stand out – because other organizations don’t proactively provide candidates with a great deal (or any) information about the team. Your recruitment process will stand out as more candidate-friendly and transparent.
• Candidates will see an opportunity to learn – the best candidates are continuous learners, so when they see the expertise that’s already on the team. The candidate will be excited about having so many new learning and mentor opportunities.
• It may increase your diversity – because diverse candidates are among those who are most likely to be concerned about working alongside people who “look like them.” If you have a diverse team, revealing that diversity to candidates will only help your diversity recruiting.
• Finalists will be more likely to accept your offer – because they know a lot about and are comfortable with the team’s strengths. They will be even more comfortable if the team also has a superstar (like LeBron). As an added plus, seeing that they are joining a strong team will make candidates less concerned about future job security. So, taken together, the offered candidate will be much more likely to accept your offer.

An Example – Of How Google Effectively Used A Team Profile 

Imagine this recruiting scenario. During a final interview, one of your top tech candidates clearly appeared to be wavering about whether she was willing to leave her current “pretty good job” and accept a possible new opportunity at your company. When suddenly, this Google hiring manager made a bold and unexpected move. By leaning over and handing this reluctant candidate a stack of resumes, each one from a member of his current team.

Why? To show her the power, education, experience, and capabilities of “the team she’ll be joining.” In this case, the manager who used this effective approach was Jonathan Rosenberg (Who eventually ran the product team at Google).

However, almost any hiring manager can now use his “show them their future co-workers” approach. I have found that revealing the quality of the team to a candidate remains one of the simplest and most effective but least used “candidate attraction and excitement approaches.” 

Action Tips (if you decide to implement this practice)

If you decide to implement the simple profile approach. Some of the implementation factors that you should consider include:

• Make the profile packet easy to scan – keep the information on each team member brief whenever possible. And if the candidate needs more information, you can always provide them with a link to the teammate’s entire LinkedIn profile.
• Keep the profile current – having an out-of-date team profile might actually make you look worse. So, design your individual employee profiles so that they are easy to update.
• Ask the candidates what they would like to know about their teammates – it’s a mistake to guess about the proper content of these profiles. Instead, ask a sample of your candidates and new hires what information they would like to know. 
• Ask teammates about their privacy concerns – you should also collaborate with team members. Ensure they are comfortable with the material you propose to reveal to the candidates.
• Make the team profile packet trackable – when you make the profile packet trackable. That allows you to count the frequency of candidates viewing the packet.
• Pretest your team profile – I recommend you first pretest this profile packet with some of your employees. Ensure that each employee’s most important attributes are included and easy to spot. Also, consider asking a sample of finalist interviewees to identify the elements of the packet content that impressed them the most. During onboarding, you must develop a formal process for asking each new hire which recruitment process elements (i.e., team profiles, interview scheduling, one-on-one, etc.) impacted their decision to accept. 
• This practice raises no major retention issues – when only publicly available LinkedIn profiles are used. When the profile is put into a non-copyable format, it can only be accessed by designated candidates. There is little chance that outside recruiters will get hold of the packet. 

If you only do one thing – begin by putting together a team profile that covers a team of professionals who do a lot of hiring. Next, develop a team profile for that team. Then, for six months. Give the profile to each finalist for an open job on the team. When a new hire starts in one of those jobs, ask them during the first day of onboarding to identify and rank the “top five recruiting-related steps” that influenced their acceptance. And then don’t be surprised when the team profile is among the most convincing reasons they list.

Final thoughts

As all recruiting gradually becomes more data-driven. Those who design and operate hiring processes will learn how to attract top candidates. And later, closing them will also have to become data-driven. In this case, we know that the ability to learn and work alongside great people is a key candidate decision factor. In my view, it’s time to conclude that, at least for jobs in professional teams. Providing this team profile should be a standard practice because the practice costs nothing and takes little time. But it really makes a difference to candidates with multiple job choices. 

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