Competitive Intelligence: Giving HR a Superman Cape

Remember Clark Kent from ‘Superman’ who’s this regular, nice, and hard-working guy leading a ‘normal’ life? But only until one day when the love of his life, Lois, gets embroiled in a helicopter accident, making it impossible for just anyone to rescue her conventionally. Confronted by this challenge, Clark uses his extraordinary powers for the very first time and appears in his Superman avatar wearing his glorious red cape – the cape that became synonymous with superhero powers worldwide. The HR function is no different from Clark Kent. They’re these focused and earnest guys working every single day to get their organization the best talent they can find. And like Clark once did, they’re facing their times of trial too, as the recruitment landscape in the American market gets more aggressive than ever before. However, like Superman, once they realize their superpowers, they won’t stop. They’ll keep going forward, taking their organization to newer and greater heights.

 

“But where’s the cape,” you ask?  Well, it’s in HR competitive intelligence! Yes, competitive intelligence is the Superman cape HR heads have been waiting for.

 

The Need to Transform

 

Gone are the days when the role of HR was limited to recruitment, payroll, and compensation alone. Over the past few years, the American economy has undergone massive transformations and so has the HR function. HR has evolved into an enabler that advises top-level management. Its role has expanded to involve activities directly affecting the strategic vision of the company. HR is now an irreplaceable part of a company’s board meetings, where they’re expected to present strategies on how to improve workforce competitiveness, how to ensure compliance with complex and stringent regulations, or say how to enhance personnel security. The fact that HR needs to continually monitor the external and internal environment to spot or retain talent goes without saying.

While there has been a shift in role, the need to deal with people remains for HR. And people, as we know, are unpredictable. There’s no set formula to understand their decision-making, which is subjective. Therefore, an air of mystery always prevails.

 

The Cape of HR Competitive Intelligence

 

This Superman’s cape has some pretty simple, albeit pretty amazing, powers – you know everything about what’s happening in your industry, in your city, within skill-sets, among talent polls and in comparison with your competitors. What’s more is that you see all this in real-time. Just imagine the possibilities if you knew:

 

• which city had your desired talent pool in high concentration,
• how many your competitors are recruiting,
• how much they’re offering to pay their employees,
• what’s the average job closing time in your industry-type, and
• what’s the recruitment performance of your organization.

 

Given such crucial information, you can forecast your competitor’s move, align your recruitment goals with market trends, benchmark your performance against that of your competitors, and do just so much more.

 

Competitive intelligence is a technique that’ll give you a bird’s-eye view of not just your organization but also the entire American job market. All you need is a recruitment tool that leverages competitive intelligence in HR strategies and talent acquisition. Therefore, choosing the right tool can make all the difference.