{"id":2684,"date":"2016-08-19T13:43:23","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T12:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marvel7077.wpengine.com\/?p=2684"},"modified":"2020-11-12T13:51:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T13:51:42","slug":"hiring-creatives-perfecting-the-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shopjessicabuckley.com\/blog\/hiring-creatives-perfecting-the-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiring Creatives: Perfecting the Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hiring the right people can be a challenge. We spend around 70 per cent of our time with our colleagues, so it\u2019s pretty imperative that they can not only deliver results but also that we can work well with them. The comfort of knowing they\u2019re not a raging maniac that could diminish your business clientele, connections and general office morale in one swoop is an extremely desirable situation. So, how do we hire not only a good employee but the right employee?<\/p>\n

Mark Jarecke<\/a>, Creative Director of FOUR32C<\/a>, has explored the difficulty in hiring creatives as he feels the word \u2018creative\u2019 itself is losing plausibility. \u201cWhat bothers me is the fact that labelling oneself as a \u2018creative\u2019 has become a shorthand to bestow myriad of other ingenious traits and problem-solving skills that may or may not necessarily be inherent in the average \u2018creative\u2019. The \u2018creative\u2019 is getting confused with the \u2018artist\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe artists I\u2019m talking about are those who have undergone the rigorous training and self-examination that\u2019s required to conceive brilliant, wholly original ideas, but also possess the vision, skills, and capacity to realise them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a growing demand for the likes of UX, UI and Product Designers. The smaller talent pool of this industry means that recruitment in design is a battlefield for both candidate and company. Now if competition is strong, why are all these companies approaching recruitment in the same way?<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to EMSI, IT related jobs (a category which includes UX\/UI design) are 28 percent of all average monthly unique job postings, making this industry the second most in-demand group of professionals for 2016.\u201d - Michelle Joseph<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

In this digital age, the way that people search for jobs has shifted online. People browse through endless streams of uninspired and generic job ads, in online job boards, platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter...even Gumtree has had its moments! These ads are all guilty of tossing around the same phrases, so much so, they\u2019ve started to lose meaning. Some of the classics, for example, \u2018strong verbal and interpersonal communication skills\u2019, \u2018strong attention to detail\u2019 or \u2018excels in a fast paced environment\u2019. Fair enough these are all desirable traits from any employee but is there really any way these can be measured?<\/p>\n

Running a generic ad like this, that just houses a short company description at the top and runs through the staple responsibilities, will not provide enough clarity for the potential applicant. As a result, you will not attract the right candidates. Jared Spool of UIE did some research into what it is designers look for in an ad before they even consider applying.<\/p>\n

These were his findings in ranking order:<\/p>\n

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  1. How interesting and challenging will the projects be?<\/li>\n
  2. Who will my manager be and what will I learn from them?<\/li>\n
  3. How is design valued in the organization?<\/li>\n
  4. How much do my future co-workers enjoy working at the company?<\/li>\n
  5. Will I get a decent compensation and benefit package?<\/li>\n
  6. Is the work conveniently easy to get to?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    \"Everyone craves purpose in their role.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

    This ranking shows the level of detail a designer is craving within a job description and coincides with what they are craving from the role itself. Everyone craves purpose in their job, as described eloquently by Daniel Pink<\/a>. So dedicate some real time to establishing responsibilities and expectations of the new employee. Determine what kind of projects they\u2019ll be working on, who they\u2019ll be working with and why this will be beneficial for them. You\u2019re hiring for a reason right? So, you should not only be able to explain it but also sell it.<\/p>\n

    Jon Lax<\/a> from Facebook describes his role as Design Manager in a recent Hacking UI podcast<\/a>. He explains that in his role he spends a lot of time giving his team context for the work that they're doing and what trends are affecting the product - the same attention should be given to your potential employees. Show them the context and clarity you would give your own team members.<\/span><\/p>\n

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    \"The impact of a good portfolio can be totally derailed by that person\u2019s performance in interview.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

    Tony Santos<\/a>, an Interaction Designer, has interesting views on the interview structure for designers. He explains that over the past four years, he has seen a huge trend evolve in the interviews he\u2019s attended. For each of them, he\u2019s been expected to carry out speculative work, homework or on the spot designs as part of the interview process. Tony highlights in his article<\/a> that the most important question the employer should be trying to answer at this stage is, \u201cis this person the best designer for us?\u201d. Do these approaches really help determine the answer to that?<\/p>\n

    \u201cYou may think that giving someone an assignment to do is the best (or only) way to evaluate a design candidate. It might be the way you were evaluated for your job. Learning more about how someone works isn\u2019t necessarily a bad goal, it just depends on how you go about it. Most of the time they go about this with a homework problem or occasionally an on-the-spot \u201cdesign challenge\u201d even when those things don\u2019t actually answer the question they have about a candidate. For example, if they\u2019re doing this work all alone\u200a\u2014\u200aat home\u200a\u2014\u200ahow does it tell you any more about their approach to problem solving than any of the case studies in their portfolio?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    In Tony\u2019s opinion, here are more efficient methods to draw the information you need:<\/p>\n