Candidate Persona

Meaning & Definition

A candidate persona is an illustrative representation of an ideal candidate for a particular position based on real data, including the candidate’s skills, experiences, career aspirations, related behaviours, and motivations. Selecting an ideal candidate persona will assist HR departments in developing targeted content such as job descriptions and sourcing strategies; also supporting the candidate experience.

Important features of Candidate Persona

• Assists in attracting suitable candidates for open positions.
• Enhances clarity, suitable, and purpose of job descriptions.
• Increases ability to target sources for open positions in job boards and social media.
• Decreases number of irrelevant applications and amount of time spent screening candidates.
• Provides higher-quality candidate experience and improves candidate engagement throughout the application process.

Compliance Requirements

There is no specific statutory requirements associated with the creation of candidate personas.

Under Indian labour law, candidates must be treated equally and without prejudice based on gender, religion, caste, age or disability. 

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) requires that any actual candidate data used to create candidate personas must be anonymised and must have been obtained with the consent of the candidate.