Competitive intelligence

1. Competitive intelligence case study - recruitment

2. Getting to the best hires first • A military contractor was finding it difficult to hire a particular type of candidate. They needed to know where to find these people, and how to attract them away from competing job offers. • Our client was competing for a type of specialized talent with several other very large companies. They did not know where to find these potential hires, were not sure what they should be paying, and had no information on why candidates chose to work for their competitors. Aqute’s brief was to map the talent supply pipeline, work out what the most compelling offer would be, and help the client get a bigger share of the candidate pool.

3. Mapping the talent pipeline • Our client wanted to build a sustainable supply line of talent to recruit. • Aqute’s first task was to examine who made up the target talent pool. We split this research into new graduates and experienced hires. For new graduates, Aqute worked methodically through the top universities in the world, plotting the number of doctoral graduates, the topics of their theses and where they went to work; we also spoke to careers offices and students. For experienced hires, we mined a range of online sources such as LinkedIn, personal blogs, job aggregators, and Google+; as well as offline sources such as recruitment agencies and former employees of competitors. • We used quantitative data to predict when a given candidate would next change jobs. Analysis of when each candidate changed jobs before, helped determine the best date when they should be approached.

4. Plotting talent supply vs demand • Aqute then examined the hiring efforts of our client’s competitors. What universities were they targeting? What media channels? We dissected their job postings. This data helped us quantify where demand exceeded supply, and where there were untapped wells of talent. Aqute identified geographical areas where competitors were least active, in which our client would have more success. We also discovered some of the more unusual locations to target candidates, such as venues, events and web forums. • Finally, we investigated the competitors themselves to create organization charts, including the expertise and experience of existing employees. These gave us some insight into what talent the competitors were likely to need. • The overall result was a strong picture of what skills and which candidates would be most sought after, and how our client could get to the best talent first.

5. How to attract candidates • We contacted many of the individuals to find out what motivated them, what had attracted them to their current employer and how they might be persuaded to move. With this information, Aqute produced recommendations on creating the most seductive hiring packages. • As a result, our client changed from a recruiter on the back foot, to a company with a strong pipeline of candidates.

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