A fancy word that describes the conditions for a candidate to find a job, or for an employee on a temporary contract to gain greater security in their working relationship with the company (a permanent contract).
The objectives that measure this concept can’t be quantified, but they do make it possible to break the job down into a series of factors. Mapped onto the candidate, those factors let us align the job, the company and the candidate, and the closer the fit, the better we will be able to identify the ideal candidate.
The candidate’s training, work experience, qualities and skills are the factors that can be measured and compared with the job on offer.
Factors that shape employability
A candidate whose training keeps adapting, so that their knowledge grows and doesn’t become obsolete, already has points in their favour that set them apart from other options.
Work experience distinguishes one person from another when they are looking for a job. That experience also lets us assess other competencies, such as adaptability to the role, ability to learn, teamwork and the candidate’s ambition. It also lets us look carefully at the reasons for leaving previous jobs, which tells us something about the candidate’s interests.
We need to be clear about the qualities and skills that make up the job we are filling. Whether the role requires keeping up to date every day with tax or legal changes (for tax advisory or legal positions), whether it involves teamwork, whether it carries a heavy workload, whether it requires finding quick solutions to the problems that come in: these are qualities candidates must meet, and we should dig for them in their professional and personal experience.
They will be examples of moments the candidate has lived through, which we should quantify and match to the needs of the job, giving an overall picture of the job compared with the candidate.
What the factors add up to
All these factors are what set different candidates apart. They are the traits and details that define each possible candidate when measured against the job. Two candidates may have similar training or experience, yet these factors provide the real reasons for their employability in the role.
Featured image: Archives New Zealand, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
