Editor’s note: Stephanie Alaimo is an independent qualitative researcher in the Sacramento, Calif. area. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared under the title, “Losing the talent war? Try ideal workplace interviews.” 

Recent news coverage suggest that in today’s strong economy, hiring talented employees is tougher than ever. Some report that interviewees are “ghosting” interviews or failing to appear on the first day of work. More employees are quitting jobs at rates not seen since the dot-com bubble. Labor shortages now include highly skilled employees. Even Silicon Valley may be finding it more difficult to hire using traditional strategies.

In this labor market, it is important to realize that employers must provide employees with desired experiences. Companies are accustomed to doing market research in order to understand their customers’ needs, however, they do far less research into the needs of their potential employees. Instead, hiring difficulties are often explained by looking to labor statistics and trends in the greater labor market. Custom research into the labor market that a company must rely upon could make the all the difference in this employee’s market.    

Hiring must be precise

Think about it – you are looking for very specific people with very specific career priorities. Let’s imagine your company is looking for excellent marketers that have a personal passion for your industry (let’s say outdoor goods), the desire to grow a career with a company and live in Chicago. Now imagine you need a person with about five years of experience – likely a Millennial. 

Without looking at any other qualifications, you should now ask: How many creative, talented, outdoorsy Millennial marketers live in Chicago? Chicago is not a good place for outdoorsy types, so you may have to work hard to convince one to move there. How are you going to do that, given that Millennials have challenging demands when it comes to work? 

Of course, you could interview outdoorsy, creative, Millennials to try to fill the position. In the process, you might find out what they truly want from their work – if they feel safe enough to be honest during a hiring interview despite the vast power differential. But, you might also get a surprise when they quit their job soon after hiring. Maybe the position or company wasn’t a perfect fit but they needed a job. Result: they aced the interview, took the job and may not stay.

Turning to research

A great way to protect against quick turnover would be to understand (and provide) what your dream employees are looking for. Conducting ideal workplace interviews with the types of people that a company hopes to hire could be a great way to get there. These interviews would ideally seek to deeply understand the diverse goals and needs of those that are most capable of filling the roles most needed by the company. 

Consider these three strategies for ideal workplace interviews:

  1. Make interview participants feel safe. While the ideal workplace interview is not a job interview, participants may very well consider you a potential future employer for a role further in the future. Make sure they understand why you are conducting the interviews and address confidentiality.
  2. Promote career growth via an appropriate incentive. Of course cash is always appreciated by participants but maybe there is an easy way to provide an industry or role-appropriate reward. Consider a subscription to an industry publication or access to a networking group. This shows a company-wide commitment to facilitating career growth and learning, while also making participants feel valued and respected.
  3. Create specific ideal employee personas. Analyze the interviews, borrowing from market research analysis techniques. Generate three-to-five ideal employee personas. Consider including motivations, deal breakers, career phase, career goals and personality traits in these personas. Use these personas to ideate around how to best serve these diverse ideal employees. 

Just like stay interviews, ideal workplace interviews help companies craft retention and recruiting strategies. Teams would also have the benefit of providing an understanding not just of current happy employees but of finding potential workers that may prove elusive in today’s labor market.