How do you know if your recruitment process is ‘Kenough?’ Lessons Inspired by the New Barbie Film
The latest Barbie film is more than just an animated adventure. It carries a myriad of lessons not only for its young audience, but also for organisations seeking to attract, hire, and retain top talent. In this article, we will explore the ways in which this iconic brand, with its evolved perspectives, can inspire companies to refine and upgrade their recruitment processes.
Inclusive Recruitment Practice
The film's "You Can Be Anything" slogan showcases the power of diversity and inclusivity. This serves as a potent reminder to companies that a workforce enriched by diverse backgrounds sparks innovation and creativity. However, fostering this diversity requires a close look at your recruitment practices.
Are they truly inclusive, or might unconscious biases be causing the inadvertent exclusion of certain demographics or minorities? Consider the potential of neurodiversity—does your hiring process accommodate candidates with unique cognitive profiles such as ADHD or autism? Are your hiring managers equipped with the necessary skills to adapt their interview styles to accommodate such candidates?
Attracting diverse talent requires an introspective review and continual refinement of your recruitment strategies. In doing so, you can build a truly diverse, inclusive, and innovative workforce that truly embodies the magic that "you can be anything," and every individual, regardless of their background or neurology, brings unique value to the table.
Reassess Role Profiles and Job Descriptions
Just as the Barbie film dispels traditional societal norms and champions individuality, organisations should re-evaluate their recruitment processes to focus on candidates' unique skills, behaviours, and the value they can add to the business. This approach sidesteps the risk of bias or stereotype-based decisions, ensuring the most capable individuals are hired, irrespective of their identity.
An integral part of this involves regularly reviewing role profiles and job descriptions. When were they last assessed for relevance? As businesses evolve, so do the roles within them. It's crucial to involve hiring managers in these assessments since they have first-hand experience with the role's requirements. Furthermore, engaging individuals currently performing the job can provide invaluable insights into the day-to-day responsibilities and challenges, ensuring the role description accurately reflects reality.
Lastly, consider the potential barriers in your job descriptions. Are there criteria that might discourage capable individuals from applying if they don't meet every single one? Is every listed criterion genuinely essential? Removing unnecessary obstacles can invite a wider range of candidates, driving diversity and inclusion in your workforce. By challenging stereotypes and reassessing role profiles, organisations can ensure their recruitment process is genuinely fit for purpose and inclusive.
Group Assessment Centres: Balancing Individuality and Teamwork
The new Barbie film showcases the synergy of teamwork. Mirroring this, businesses must appreciate candidates' ability to work effectively in teams. Group assessment centres offer an efficient way to evaluate multiple candidates, shedding light on their team-playing capabilities while also spotlighting their individuality.
However, this approach requires hiring managers to be trained in identifying key traits and managing diverse personality types, whether that's a more dominating presence, or a quiet contributor. Each personality can bring unique value to a team, and a calibrated scoring system ensures fair evaluation.
So, by creating an assessment centre that allows candidates to shine as individuals and team players, you can enrich your recruitment process and build a balanced team.
The Power of Effective Recruitment Marketing
Barbie's adventures often involve her pursuing her passions and finding her purpose. Similarly, today’s candidates are seeking more than employment, but roles that offer a healthy life-work balance and align with their social and economic values. This evolving demand underscores the critical role of recruitment marketing.
It's crucial for job adverts and career sites to accurately echo these modern aspirations, showcasing how your organisation can support the desired lifestyle and values of potential candidates. Thus, recruitment marketing becomes an essential tool, attracting highly engaged, motivated, and productive individuals, and helping to shape a harmonious, driven, and values-aligned workforce.
Fostering Emotional Connections
The Barbie film, which resonates with audiences on an emotional level, offers valuable insights for improving recruitment processes. Given the intensely personal and emotional nature of the job search, especially in today's candidate-led market where talent is flooded with options, fostering meaningful connections during the recruitment journey has never been more vital.
Candidates are seeking not just roles but experiences and relationships that resonate with them on a deeper level. Thus, recruitment must go beyond transactional exchanges and create a process that resonates with candidates' aspirations, concerns, and values, thereby enhancing their overall experience and encouraging them to progress in their recruitment journey.
If candidates don't feel a connection or have a positive experience, they are less likely to continue with the recruitment process. Therefore, it's essential for businesses to cultivate emotional connections throughout the recruitment journey; it's about ensuring that the process is not transactional, but personal. Is your recruitment process high-touch and personalised, or does it feel impersonal and transactional?
Stay Competitive
In the same way that the Barbie brand has consistently evolved to reflect an increasingly diverse and inclusive society, organisations also need to regularly reevaluate and refine their recruitment process to cater to the changing talent landscape and their preferences, values, and sense of purpose.Staying informed about shifts in the talent landscape and acquiring market insights are crucial steps in this process.
In addition to understanding your target candidates' needs, aspirations, and values, it's essential to regularly review how your offering compares with competitors. This includes benchmarking salary and benefits, assessing flexible working opportunities, considering lifestyle accommodations, and reviewing charitable commitments. By ensuring these aspects align with your candidates' expectations and your organisation's ethos, you not only stay competitive in this dynamic market but also attract top talent that resonates with your brand.
Just as the Barbie brand's evolution has kept it relevant, regularly adapting your recruitment strategy to the changing talent landscape is key to achieving long-term recruitment success.
Is Your Recruitment Process 'Kenough?'
Emulating these lessons in recruitment can lead to a more dynamic, innovative, and productive team. So, ask yourself, is your recruitment process 'Kenough?' Are you keeping up with the changing times? Remember, your employees are your company's greatest asset, and just like Barbie, they should be allowed to shine in their own unique ways. By refining your recruitment processes, you can ensure that you're attracting and retaining the best talent in today's competitive landscape.
Drawing on lessons from the Barbie film, Greenbean's talent advisory services are here to help optimise your recruitment journey. From recruitment marketing to recruitment process diagnostics and design, our comprehensive services ensure you attract top talent. We facilitate group assessment centres, train hiring managers, and provide valuable market insights to help you navigate the evolving talent landscape. By reviewing and refining your recruitment process, we ensure your competitiveness in attracting and retaining the best talent. With Greenbean, your recruitment process will not just be 'Kenough', but outstanding, reflecting the passion, diversity, inclusivity, and adaptability embodied by Barbie's adventures.
