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Effective executive recruitment relies on market intelligence: the tools, techniques and processes that give the insight required to make good decisions. This intelligence is worth its weight in gold in a complex labour market that makes recruiting the best, most talented executives especially difficult.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at what market intelligence is, how your competitors are using it to get ahead and why you could be missing out by not investing in it.

 

What is market intelligence in recruitment? 

Market intelligence is a suite of tools and techniques to find and contextualise data about clients, candidates and competitors, and to assist with the creation of a coherent recruitment strategy. 

Solid market intelligence gives an executive recruiter the best chance of identifying and hiring the best candidates. 

 

The impact of market intelligence in recruitment: why your competitors are ahead 

If your organisation doesn’t conduct rigorous market intelligence gathering and is repeatedly struggling to fill roles, the two factors are likely connected. This is true regardless of whether the issue lies with attracting candidates in the first place or retaining them once they move into their role.

Below we explore different ways that successful companies use market intelligence.

 

They look for the right information

To conduct a successful recruitment process, you can’t go in with your eyes closed. You need the right information to build an understanding of the state of play. From there, you can devise and implement a suitable strategy. 

Acceptance of this reality, and allocation of the financial and human resources required to take the appropriate action, gives an organisation the upper hand over any competitors who don’t acknowledge or accept the need to do so.

 

They build a better understanding of the industry 

Even though you can apply recruitment techniques across different industries, real success requires a firm understanding of the nuanced attitudes and goings-on of their industry. To identify and source the best talent, an organisation must be able to demonstrate its understanding of the priorities and values of potential candidates and align with this. 

A good understanding of the industry allows an organisation to reach out to candidates on their terms and greatly increases the chance of a fruitful ongoing relationship.

 

They understand market trends and developments

The launches of new products and services, the publicised onboarding and departure of big-ticket clients, the opening and closure of offices: all of these events provide clues as to the ever-shifting state of play in an industry.

They also hint at the potential flow of talent between organisations. Effective executive recruitment relies on understanding and leveraging such developments.

Building comprehensive templates for tracking and showing market share, trends, forces and projections positions an organisation to succeed.

 

They create detailed talent maps

Recruitment isn’t just putting up a job description and waiting for candidates to roll in; it’s about building and maintaining a rich map of prospective candidates within and beyond the industry and cultivating relationships with them.

Recruiters, whether internal or external to an organisation, should foster a network of such relationships. Then, when a role becomes available, an up-to-date talent map provides a solid basis for starting the recruitment process. Tapping into a network of contacts whose skills, goals and levels of current job satisfaction you’re familiar with removes a lot of the guesswork and lets you skip straight to the productive conversations.

 

They have competitor insight

The natural result of cultivating relationships with prospective candidates throughout the industry is recruiting people formerly employed by competitors. These former employees bring with them insights and expertise.

Although an infodump of competitor intel isn’t viable (or desirable), insights into company culture and priorities, along with an insight into the factors that led a candidate to move on, are useful in strengthening your positioning to attract future talent.

 

They combine these factors into a coherent strategy

Talent acquisition is a whole lot easier when done strategically. By investing time and energy into collecting information about the industry, trends, candidates and competitors, an organisation can develop a strategic roadmap for recruitment efforts.

Having a strategy in place when recruitment begins allows you to hit the ground running and avoid many of the frustrations HR teams and recruiters can experience in the earlier stages of the process. 

 

They are abreast of the latest tools and techniques

Executive recruitment requires not just reactivity, but also a willingness and capacity to adapt and integrate new tools and techniques. 

Organisations who are unwilling or unable to do this will be left behind. They won’t be able to attract the top talent, and if their competitors are leveraging market intelligence, they will struggle to retain their best employees.

 

A few final thoughts 

At Carrot Executive, we have extensive experience in leveraging market intelligence to strengthen your market positioning. Our Strategic Market Insights service lets you enhance your unique selling points (USPs) to attract talent and provide insights on how to compete better in your sector.

We also offer talent attraction and talent retention strategy reviews to ensure a powerful strategic approach rather than an ineffective piecemeal one.

If you’d like to understand more about what we do, get in touch with the team today.

We've also created a guide entitled 'The Ultimate Guide to Market Insights for Recruitment Intelligence' designed to answer all of your questions about market intelligence in recruitment.

 

Carrot Executive

Carrot Executive work in partnership with a large number of Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences companies and consultancies, supporting with a range of executive search and bespoke insights projects to support clients in their strategic decision making in relation to talent attraction and retention, market penetration and competitor benchmarking.

For more information, please contact Martin Anderson via martin@carrotpharma.co.uk, call +44 (0)1625 541 032 or use the 'schedule a call' link below:

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