<img alt="" src="https://secure.smartenterprisewisdom.com/780275.png" style="display:none;">

Intuition and experience remain essential when making smart workforce investments, but in today’s data-driven world, intelligent analytics are helping businesses gain a significant advantage in the markets they operate in. With the support of market insights, employers are rapidly improving the way they make strategic hiring decisions, uncover new opportunities in unexplored markets, and differentiate their brand from competitors.

Depending on your requirements, market insights allows you to gather relevant, targeted, real-time data to make the most informed business decisions. If you want to take control of your brand’s image and reputation in the market or better understand how to position your solutions to prospective clients, market insights can help you to get a firm grasp on your business needs.

In this Guide to Market Insights and Recruitment Intelligence, you will learn how this type of research can translate into meaningful information that helps you recruit and manage talent more strategically. Following an introduction into what market insights are, you will find out how you can use this data to foster short and long-term success at your organisation. To finish up, we will walk through a list of themes where strategic market insights can help to propel a business forward.

Request a proposal

 

What are market insights?

Market insights involve collecting and analysing data to uncover information that helps professionals to better understand the trends, opportunities, and challenges present in their market. These powerful sets of data support company leaders to be more effective, efficient, and consistent when making strategic business decisions.

Market insights can help an organisation with anything from gauging the size and quality of a talent pool or identifying potential acquisition targets, to gaining an understanding of how to better differentiate from the competition. They provide significant opportunities to conduct benchmarking in the market which can help to identify the different types of products, services and technologies your competitors are using; and how effective they are.

In addition to benchmarking, market insights provide the necessary data that allow businesses to reposition themselves in the market. This enables leaders to improve their competitive advantage when there is a change in the market’s perception of their offering, the target segment is getting smaller, or the business has developed an innovation that they would like to introduce. 

 

Why do organisations use market insights?

Strategic business decisions are often made with incomplete information about the true picture of risk and opportunity across the whole organisation. Market insights support key decision-makers to discover and then action specific data that can positively impact an organisation and benefit the business strategy. For example, organisations have utilised market insights to:

  • identify suitable candidates for key vacancies that require a specific or niche skillset;
  • identify the different types of talent attraction strategies utilised by their competitors;
  • uncover potential locations for new office space by assessing client and competitor proximity, where the available talent is and also key considerations such as local amenities and transport links;
  • gauge how best to position their brand and USPs in the market to stand out;
  • identify geographic areas or sectors where there is the most lucrative opportunity in the market to launch a new product or service;

When exploring new markets, organisations with access to market data are far better informed and therefore can act more strategically when it comes to developing their business plan. They can identify new sourcing opportunities, anticipate future candidate trends, identify skill gaps that may prevent business growth, and ultimately, make the right decisions based on critical market intelligence as opposed to gut instinct. According to Harver, 22% of organisations have made a bad hire due to insufficient talent intelligence. By being equipped with relevant insights, organisations place themselves in the best possible position to actively compete for highly skilled candidates, particularly where demand is high or where quality is hard to find.

 

What makes bespoke market insights important?

As well as providing employers with a 360-degree view of the talent market, market insights allow professionals to use data that is both personalised and actionable to their organisation. This means recruitment strategies can be adjusted to stay ahead of the curve and respond to the changing hiring needs. 

 

Should my organisation use market insights?

Absolutely, and there has never been a better time to leverage key market data. Market insights are supporting modern organisations to determine how they can better serve their customers, enhance operational efficiencies, and recognise new products to develop and/or invest in.

Not only can market insights provide an organisation with sufficient data to achieve success, it can provide organisations with accurate and up-to-date market information that delivers substantial and measurable results, reducing the risk of failure.

  • Would you like to leverage tailored market insights to achieve business targets? At Carrot Executive, we are experts in providing comprehensive market analysis from a wide range of data sources. Find out how we can deliver bespoke market intelligence for your business. Work with Carrot Executive

How to use market insights for better recruitment intelligence

Many of the most successful organisations put their accomplishments down to building high-performing teams. These companies understand the importance of market insights and how utilising them can revolutionise the way they secure talented professionals. Smart leaders invest in their future leadership and, in turn, set their organisation up for long-term success.

Ever wondered how market insights can keep your organisation abreast of the rapidly changing talent landscape, or have you asked yourself one of the following questions:

  • How can I make informed talent decisions to source more effectively?
  • How can I build a successful talent pipeline for the future?
  • How can I benchmark my workforce against those of my competitors?
  • How can I strengthen my employer branding efforts?

If so, here are some key advantages to consider:

 

Market insights allow you to refine your talent searches

What if you could tap into diverse and qualified talent pools that are often missed by other tools? Market insights allow you to interpret data to identify specific talent segments, uncovering information that’s most relevant to your talent searches as you seek out highly-qualified individuals to fill your open roles.

 

Market insights allow you to improve your recruitment strategy

Market insights play a vital role in recruiting top talent. Uncovering relevant data to your markets improves the chances of hiring the right talent and can significantly increase the quality of your hire. For example, a talent mapping report can identify the best talent available, not just those who are actively seeking a new role. This approach allows you to find the right people with the right skills for the role you’re hiring for.

Crucially, a better recruitment strategy can lower costs and free up HR teams to spend more time on developing existing talent and reducing staff turnover. 

Learn more about how to use Market Insights effectively. 

 

Market insights allow you to harness instant data

Market insights help organisations collect the most accurate view of candidate data and trends at any given moment. This leads to increased agility and better decision making, as well as being able to address operational issues should they arise. 

Importantly, having data-driven reports gives leaders a more comprehensive view of the hiring landscape. This is highly advantageous as it allows organisations to maximise responsiveness and make more accurate decisions and workforce investments. Additionally, hiring managers can optimise proficiency, identify and act on short-term changes, and evolve their recruitment strategies based on specific candidate needs and the wider market environment. 

  • Organisations cannot afford to let this data go to waste. With a more in-depth understanding of the candidate market, you are more likely to succeed in today’s increasingly data-driven world. Find out how we can help you access data and harness it to accelerate your recruitment and talent acquisition strategies.

 

Market insights allow you to form a better talent pipeline

In today’s increasingly data-rich world, organisations have established more engaged talent pipelines that reduce costs and time to hire. Candidate data obtained from market insights have allowed leaders to target potential individuals with valuable qualities that align with their organisation’s short and long-term goals. 

Optimised talent pipelines have also helped organisations to tackle the challenges of diversity. A better talent pipeline provides the capacity to identify diverse prospects and build relationships with them.

 

Market insights allow you to find specialist or hard-to-recruit individuals

The success of any organisation is closely tied to the quality of its employees, which, in turn, is closely associated with its talent acquisition processes. Yet, many leaders are having a tough time hiring today. They are spending valuable time on back and forth discussions with HR and many hours interviewing candidates that may or may not accept the offer. Hiring the right talented individual the first time around requires deep consideration and the right data to get it right.

Market insights can help differentiate your brand through more effective talent marketing, by clearly identifying the type of talent in your market and their main motivators. The data enables the organisation to strengthen the position of their brand in a way that is more attractive to highly in-demand talent; improving your future talent investments and minimising failure. According to LinkedIn Business, 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agreed that employer branding has a significant impact on hiring.

  • At Carrot Executive, we can research and report on talent attraction strategies employed by other successful firms in your market.  You can then use this information to further differentiate your brand and attract the best talent in the market. Want to know more? Get in touch today. 

Useful areas that can benefit from strategic market insights

Complex markets can be difficult to understand, especially unexplored markets you don’t currently operate in. Today’s employers have access to strategic market insights that enable companies to secure the relevant and necessary data to make key business decisions.

The scope of strategic market insights you’ll undertake is influenced by your overall objectives. With this in mind, we’re taking a closer look at the key themes strategic market insights can cover.

  • This section of content is an adaptation of the Market Insights solutions available from Carrot Executive. If you would like us to discuss our insights capabilities in more detail, get in touch here and start the conversation.

 

1. How to position your brand

What sets you apart from the competition? A strong brand should be a priority for all businesses striving for success. Effectively communicate your USPs to your target audience by sharpening your brand’s image and positioning in the market.

  • Example question: How can I position my brand to stand out and gain an advantage over my competitors?

What do we uncover and recommend?

We gather insights to help you take control of your reputation and brand image. We provide recommendations on how best to position your USPs to stand out, as well as to advise you on how your top competitors position themselves.

 

2. Growth through acquisition

Identify opportunities for growth through acquisitions. Determine strategic targets that could significantly boost your organisation’s value offering, complementing and enhancing your core services.

  • Example question: What opportunities might there be to grow through acquisition?

What do we uncover and recommend?

We gather the insights to identify potential acquisition targets for growth, based on your criteria, and present their strengths, weaknesses and any USPs. Additionally, we can take a list of targets from you and produce a report on each of them to assess their suitability, uniqueness, stability etc.

 

3. Talent attraction

Differentiate your brand through more effective talent marketing and pursue the best potential candidates. You can better understand which channels they use and where they spend most of their time. You can then leverage these channels in your talent attraction strategy.

  • Example question: How can you differentiate yourselves to attract the best talent in the market?

What do we uncover and recommend?

We gather intelligence on the different types of talent in your market, identifying their key motivators, employer value proposition (EVP), as well as informing you about attraction strategies employed by your competitors.

4. Talent Retention

Retaining your most talented employees who truly want to be part of your company and nurture your rising stars. Improve your talent retention strategies to facilitate the development of high achieving individuals who can have an enormous impact on business results.

  • Example question: Is your ability to retain talent in line with sector averages?

What do we uncover and recommend?

We gather insights to look at your turnover rate and median tenure against market averages and key competitors. We can conduct employee engagement surveys to provide recommendations on what would engage your employees more and then investigate areas for improvement.

 

5. Technology

Technology demands a combination of long-term vision and rapid adaptability. Insights help you achieve product development goals and equip your organisation with the insights to make high-impact actions to fortify top-line growth. Unearth something unique that will set your organisation apart from the competition.

  • Example question: What opportunities might there be for you to develop or acquire proprietary technologies?

What do we uncover and recommend?

We may gather insights to determine what technologies your competitors have and how they are using them, what technologies are potential targets for acquisition, what talent your organisation needs and how can you attract candidates to develop unique products.

 

6. New market sector

You can gain a deeper understanding of the available talent and top competitors in unfamiliar markets as well as validating viable opportunities in marketplaces you’ve not explored.

  • Example question: How can you set yourself up for success when expanding into a new market?

What do we uncover and recommend?

We can examine a new sector or market area where your organisation would like to expand its reach. We can look at ideal locations, talent availability, competition in the space, any gaps in the market for USPs, or how to position your brand in this new market.

 

7. New office location

You can equip your organisation with the data to effectively decide where to open a new office location. You can consider the position of your competitors and if they happen to be on your doorstep as well as identifying how the reputation of an area can have an impact on how potential customers and talent view your company.

  • Example question: Which location is the best for our new office or site?

What do we uncover and recommend?

We’d look at a handful of potential locations identified by you for a new office location. The report would feature an overview of each location, including nearby competitors, market size, size/quality of the talent pool, ease (or otherwise) of attracting talent to that location, average packages, rent costs, travel considerations, and legal or cultural considerations if the new location is based in a different country.

 

8. Talent pool intelligence

You can understand your target talent pool to identify, engage and attract more talent to your company. You can set up your hiring team for success and unlock the valuable insights required to make recruiting future talent easier.

  • Example question: What is the talent pool like for a particular role, function or skill?

What do we uncover and recommend?

We can conduct talent mapping projects which consider key information on individuals such as role title, current company, location, time in a current role, qualifications, career path, experience and any other criteria the client has established. We can also create a report that details key trends from the mapping and contains recommendations for your organisation.

 

A few final words

As you near the end of your read, we hope this guide has proved beneficial to you and that you have a deeper understanding of how market insights can positively impact an organisation. If you’re still gathering your thoughts, let’s quickly recap:

  • Market insights will provide you with a better understanding of the trends, opportunities and challenges present in the markets you operate in. 
  • Critically, your competitors have already recognised the importance of market insights and are using data to gain an advantage.
  • With the help of strategic market insights themes, you can collect the data that matters most to you. If you’re looking to identify potential targets for acquisition or establish your audience and build their confidence in you, market insights can help.

To aid you with the process of using market insights, we've created a free, must-have guide.

Download market insights guide

What’s the solution? Contact us here at Carrot Executive.

Are you ready to discuss our talent, competitor and market intelligence projects in more detail? Get in touch today using the 'book a meeting' button below

Martin Anderson
Founder

Martin began his career in Market Research and Business Intelligence with Adelphi International Research, before moving into Sales & Brand Management positions with the Biotech firm MerckSerono. Carrot was formed in 2006 to offer a knowledgeable and supportive service to consultancy and industry clients throughout the Pharma and Life Science industries, working across the product lifecycle.

Martin heads up our Executive Search and Insights business, working closely with clients to understand their strategic requirements around talent attraction and the generation of key insights to support their decision making across the business. Martin has a MSc in Marketing and Management, a BSc in Psychology, is an NLP master practitioner, ABPI qualified, and gained a distinction from the REC in recruitment accreditation. He is fully au fait with the MRS guidelines for conducting research.

Contact Martin Anderson: +44 (0)1625 541 032 / martin@carrotpharma.co.uk

Schedule a call