Won't disagree that many - even most - candidate personas are crap. But you left out one of the most important facets of the persona, i.e., the candidate journey. Plotting how and where the candidate engages with you, and whether those touch points are handled well or poorly, provides valuable insights into what you need to do to improve your relationship with the candidate (aka your Employer Brand). So we begin by profiling the candidate demographically in order to determine when and where they begin the journey and the path(s) taken. And no one persona will suffice. There may be one for college students, another for military personnel, one for each of the major job disciplines for which you hire, geographic/cultural personas (personae?), etc. Fun fact: persona research began as user experience (UX) research for website development. Instead of designing the site for abstract demographic data, if you keep Chris in mind (your target persona) you intuitively know how Chris will react if you choose one navigation scheme over another because you've gotten to know Chris through their persona.
Won't disagree that many - even most - candidate personas are crap. But you left out one of the most important facets of the persona, i.e., the candidate journey. Plotting how and where the candidate engages with you, and whether those touch points are handled well or poorly, provides valuable insights into what you need to do to improve your relationship with the candidate (aka your Employer Brand). So we begin by profiling the candidate demographically in order to determine when and where they begin the journey and the path(s) taken. And no one persona will suffice. There may be one for college students, another for military personnel, one for each of the major job disciplines for which you hire, geographic/cultural personas (personae?), etc. Fun fact: persona research began as user experience (UX) research for website development. Instead of designing the site for abstract demographic data, if you keep Chris in mind (your target persona) you intuitively know how Chris will react if you choose one navigation scheme over another because you've gotten to know Chris through their persona.