The best candidate you’ll ever find does two things perfectly. She’s very good doing what your company needs. She’s also very good doing what her career needs. This article, the second in a series, helps you guide top candidates to see your organization as the best way to meet both goals.

Last month, we focused on defining the best applicants. This month, we will use that same information to help top performers choose your organization and make you, the corporate recruiter, look very good.

Ask for excellent résumés…as you define excellence
Finding the best shouldn’t be a one-time windfall. It should be your system to shorten time between announcement and final hiring, help overcome the deluge of résumés, and streamline interviews. In the process, you’ll learn even more about how your company works and who drives every key process. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. For now, let’s focus on what unlocks the process: getting the kind of résumés you need.

When our announcements merely ask for résumés, we encourage the applicant to guess what we want. You’ve seen enough awful résumés to know that many applicants—no matter how well intentioned or capable—have been mislead by the pernicious “advice” that surrounds that document. It’s time to ask for what you want, not just settle for what you get.

Let’s cut through the noise and set criteria for the best résumés. Outstanding résumés offer clear and compelling proof of transferable excellence. Right at the top of the document, applicants should build your confidence that they can make you more money than it costs to keep them.

That standard consigns most “summaries of qualifications” to the shredder. There’s no need to recite admirable traits—they are usually the minimum standard for every job. Unsupported claims about the ability to do key responsibilities add nothing, as well.

Finding standards that measure applicants’ potential
Specifically, you want to read about observable behaviors—things you can see applicants do—that set them apart as the best in their fields and produce the profits you want. Those actions prove applicants understand the problems you want them to solve. But we need more.

Performance is a strong indicator of potential, too. Hence you want “living, breathing,” documented proof of problem solving skills. There’s no room for a list of traits here. And too many words about responsibilities tell you nothing about how well they were performed.

Instead, imagine very short success stories that tell about each problem solved, how the applicant solved it, and what the results were. The more and varied the stories, the better.

Professional self-development is also a good sign of potential. Start by putting education in context. A recent degree carries more weight than a piece of paper the applicant earned ten years ago. Respected schools trump institutions that smack of email-order diploma mills.

(www.usnews.com/collegerankings is a good place to start.)

Perhaps more interesting is training. Does the training relate to the skills you need? Is it recent enough to be applicable? Did the applicant pay for the training herself? Or did the company think highly enough of her to cover the cost? Those with exceptional self-development efforts write about their field in trade journals, speak at conferences, or have a professional reading program.

Make your needs very clear in your announcements
Since you know what you want, why not ask for it? Consider this announcement:

Production Supervisor needed. As a minimum, at the top of your résumé, spell out which actions you find to be best in maximizing investment in production facilities and the people who support them. Be specific and concise. Strive to describe actions we might see you take as a member of our team.

For each job you’ve held, describe production-related problems you solved, which actions you took to solve those problems, and tell us the results. Quantify results or compare them to a standard, if you can.

Also, please tell us about relevant self-development efforts in the last five years. You’ll have the edge if you’ve authored articles in your field, spoken at a professional conference, or describe your professional reading program.

Finally, please choose references who have seen your work at first hand, preferably the same problem-solving or self-development efforts you describe in your résumé. We cannot consider résumés which don’t include the elements you’ve just read about laid out in unambiguous words.

The best applicants will rise to your expectations
I suspect you’ll get a lot fewer résumés. I also think you’ll see much higher quality. That means better interviews and shorter times between posting announcements and making the hiring decision.

I can almost hear your concerns. Can applicants rise to those challenges? Will I really get exceptional résumés? If you ask for them, they will come.