Strategic Recruiting 4: Market Intelligence

Although it may seem overwhelming at first (particularly if your organization is in an extremely large city), you should be able to identify the people who are likely to become a part of your workforce, the various sources (schools, competitors, adjacent industries) from which they will emerge. It's a matter of reviewing the data you already have to determine those sources and the degree to which you rely on them.

This is one of the best uses for an applicant tracking system (ATS). What you are looking for is quantitative data describing the schools, competitors and adjacent industries that supplied you with your current workforce. The very best source of that information is company records. The most likely central repository is the ATS. Data from your existing workforce can show the labor supply patterns.

(Remember the searches you have done in the ATS. They will be useful as you begin to mine for potential employees later on in the process.)

Once you have a solid list of supply points (again, that's schools, competitors, adjacent industries and other organizations), you can start to ask some pretty interesting questions like:

• What percentage of last decade's graduates from Community College X did you hire. What percentage of which majors? Are they going to continue that level of supply over the next five years?

• What percentage of your engineers come from competitors? What percentage come from colleges? Will both sources continue to be viable over the next five years?

• Where do your program managers come from? What's happening in those institutions?

• Where do your technicians come from? What's happening in those worlds?

Ultimately, you need a supply point by supply point assessment of value and likelihood of continuation? This is the very same exercise that purchasing departments engage in when they plan for the availability of critical materials or subcontractors.

In fact, you might consider collaborating with them. One person's labor supply is another person's subcontractor. Being well versed in the labor supply includes understanding the sources for the entire organization's supply chain.

State funded Economic Development Councils and Boards are great places to find the right data. Each of the members of the Employment Supply Chain, from Universities to Customers and Vendors, from Regional Government to Competitors in transition, members of your chain know the answers to your questions. Building a comprehensive picture of your labor supply, its causes and conditions is a critical step in learning to manage it.

John Sumser © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.
  Permalink. - .Today's Bugler . - .Send To a Friend

Talent is what matters most.
Hire the best with Authoria Recruiting.

Authoria Recruiting 2007 is a next-generation recruiting solution that helps you:

• Understand exactly what talent your managers need.
• Find the best sources.
• Target and attract the highest quality candidates.
• Hire top talent and track their success.

The most widely-used enterprise recruiting solution on the market, Authoria Recruiting helps our customers manage private talent pools totaling over 11 million candidates.

Find a smarter way to hire. Download our complimentary white paper
- Staffing Strategies: Can You Find, Recruit, and Retain the Talent You Need?

\

---

| ERN | Bugler | The Blogs | Advertise | Trends | Archives |

---

 
 



 



 

 

  Contacting Us:
Copyright © 2012 interbiznet. All Rights Reserved.
Mill Valley, CA 94941
415.377.2255
Send comments to colleen@interbiznet.com
 
 

 
 



 



  To receive this Newsletter in Email each weekday, please use the form on the linked page.