Human Centred Design in Recruitment: Beyond the CV Pile

Recently, a client told us they had received 200 CVs for a single role. Two hundred! Rather than solving their recruitment challenge, they'd inadvertently created a new one.

This conversation reminded me of a fascinating discussion I had with James Grice about human centred design (HCD). It dawned on me that without explicitly labelling it as such, we at The Search Project have embedded HCD principles into our recruitment process from day one.

What is Human Centred Design in Recruitment?

At its core, HCD in recruitment means focusing on solving underlying challenges rather than merely treating symptoms. A pile of 200 CVs doesn't solve a hiring problem—it creates new ones.

Our approach digs deeper than traditional recruitment to understand the real needs behind the job specification, ensuring we connect organisations with professionals who will genuinely thrive and add value.

The Key Elements of Our HCD Approach

Empathy: Understanding the Problem

We invest time to comprehend the genuine challenges and opportunities within your organisation. This involves delving deep into the 'why' behind the role, exploring current team challenges and future goals, and questioning assumptions that might be holding you back. Our challenging questions always come from a place of wanting to learn rather than assuming we already know the answer.

Iteration: Building on Market Intelligence

Our process continuously gathers feedback from the market about your brand reputation and how potential candidates perceive the opportunity. This allows us to address concerns about the role and its scope, adapt our approach based on real-time insights, and refine the opportunity as we progress. By staying responsive to market feedback, we ensure that your position remains competitive and attractive to top talent.

People-Centricity: Beyond Skills and CVs

We focus on the people, not just their skills or CV highlights. This means identifying the attributes and values that will ensure success in your organisation while looking beyond technical capabilities to find cultural contribution. We've moved away from simply matching CVs to job descriptions because we understand that the most successful placements come from alignment of purpose and values, not just skill sets.

Collaboration: Solving Problems Together

We neither take orders nor simply tell you what you need. Instead, we work in partnership to understand and solve the problems behind the hiring need. By creating a collaborative environment where all stakeholders can contribute, we develop solutions that reflect a shared understanding of what success looks like. This collaborative approach ensures buy-in from all parties and leads to more sustainable hiring decisions.

Prototyping: Engaging the Entire Market

Rather than just approaching active job seekers, we speak to the entire market, including passive candidates who might not be actively looking but could be perfect for your role. We create shortlists based on solving your specific problem and look beyond the obvious competitor firms for fresh perspectives. This comprehensive market approach often uncovers exceptional talent that traditional recruitment methods would miss.

User Involvement and Feedback: A Continuous Dialogue

We maintain constant two-way communication with candidates about their questions and aspirations, clients about their evolving needs, and the broader market about emerging trends. This feedback loop ensures we continuously refine our approach, making adjustments as new information emerges. By keeping all channels of communication open, we create a dynamic recruitment process that responds to real-time insights.

Inclusion: Embracing Diverse Perspectives

We actively seek different opinions from various stakeholders within your organisation, team members at different levels, and industry peers with alternative viewpoints. This holistic approach provides richer insights and prevents tunnel vision, ensuring that the recruitment process benefits from a wide range of perspectives. By embracing diversity of thought from the outset, we help you build teams that are innovative and adaptable.

The End Result: True Problem-Solving

When you embrace human centred design in recruitment, you get a solution that truly addresses your underlying challenges and confidence that you've found the best person, not just the best CV. The process respects your time while providing genuine insights during interviews. Most importantly, you gain a new team member who adds authentic value from day one.

At The Search Project, we're passionate about change and transformation—and that begins with how we approach recruitment itself. We challenge clients to move beyond what they've always done, what their competitors typically do, and hiring in their own image. Instead, we explore innovative options, considering how learnings from different sectors might apply to your challenges. By applying human centred design principles, we ensure that we're not just filling positions but solving problems and creating opportunities for genuine organisational growth.

Fancy a chat about how this approach could transform your hiring process? We'd love to hear from you.