Competition for talent in the Ukrainian IT market was fierce in 2021. Unity and .NET Developers, 2D and 3D Artists, Analysts, and Project Managers didn’t have to job-hunt. Instead, IT recruiters were hunting for them.
In this environment, a game dev company (whose name I can’t disclose due to an NDA) struggled to differentiate its employer brand. They were offering competitive salaries and benefits—and yet couldn’t attract the desired talent.
The company turned to Reiseplan—the Research and Strategy department of [isdgroup]—to help uncover candidates’ needs and pain points. As a Strategist, I was responsible for research and actionable recommendations.
Ironically, recruiting interviewees was the hardest part of the entire project. The client insisted on maintaining a specific split between the professions and including other screening criteria such as geography and experience level. Additionally, it was important to talk with people who changed jobs recently, as their memories of the decision-making process and the emotions that came with it were still vivid.
With some effort, I found 25 specialists willing to share their stories. I interviewed them using the Mental Model Diagram methodology, which helped me uncover their intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and spot behavior patterns. After conducting the analysis, I identified five distinct mindsets reflecting these people’s approach to considering employers.
The most important finding from the interviews was that those aspects that the client expected to be crucial—salary and benefits—weren’t the deal-breakers. Instead, different self-actualization needs, such as professional growth or fulfilling one’s vision, proved more significant.
Together with the client, we chose the mindsets and value propositions that best fit their company culture and stood out from competitors. Their in-house team then created messages based on these value propositions and added them to the Careers section of their website and job postings.