The following is a guest blog post from our friends at Amby. As a leading HR consultancy, Amby brings unique experience and expertise to the table. In this article, they share their knowledge of LinkedIn Talent Insights and share practical tips on how they use the tool to source great talent.
In 2018, LinkedIn rolled out Talent Insights, a tool that changed the game for recruiters. Since its launch, Talent Insights has given recruiters an increased understanding of the candidate market and helped them identify talent trends.
If LinkedIn Insights isn't already part of your recruitment strategy, let's explore why it should be and some use cases for implementing it.
What is LinkedIn Talent Insights?
LinkedIn Talent Insights is an analytics tool that provides real-time data through two main reports: the Talent Pool and the Company Report.
Talent Pool offers an in-depth look at, amongst other things, where candidates are, who they work for, and how/if they are engaging with your company on LinkedIn. Want to know more about DevOps Engineers in Dubai? Content Marketers in Copenhagen? Talent Pool will show you which companies they work for, where and what they studied, their job titles, and any additional skills they have. This works both for broader trends, and more granular searches.
The Company Report, meanwhile, allows a closer look at a specific organization. How many people work there? What do they do? How many staff are they hiring? How many are they losing? And where are these people coming from and moving to?
As LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world, Talent Insights gives recruiters access to billions of data points - on talent, companies, jobs, skills, and schools - painting a 360 view of the talent landscape.
What does it mean for recruiters?
Why was LinkedIn Talent Insights such a game-changer for recruiters? If you've worked with recruitment before, you know that market research is a critical step in setting up a hiring strategy. It helps you understand the size of the talent pool you're working with, what skills are in demand, and what your ideal candidate could be looking for in their next role.
Previously, when recruiters wanted to conduct this type of market research, they would sift through various reports, white papers, and secondary data points. This was time-consuming and could involve data that was inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated by the time you were ready to use it.
Talent Insights streamlines market research through a single platform. This doesn't just save time; it potentially transforms the way you understand and connect with talent.
What features are available?
Talent Insights is a powerful analytics tool for several reasons, and its rich feature list can help you manage hiring manager expectations, set realistic hiring targets, improve your employer brand, and tailor your outreach. Here's a summary of some of the different features in Talent Insights:
Talent Pool Analysis
This allows you to gain comprehensive insights into where your potential candidates are and what they're skilled in. A general talent pool analysis can reveal industry trends, the availability of talent, and skills, whereas a more detailed analysis can help you target more relevant candidates and tailor your outreach.
You might, for example, want to know where certain skills are in short supply so you can adjust which markets you source from.
Real-time data
Far from a static report, Talent Insights draws live from LinkedIn's vast pool of global data. This means that the information is up-to-date and relevant, and you are not relying on outdated reports as a basis for your decision-making.
Candidate engagement
With the Employer Brand tool you can measure how engaged these candidates are with your company in general, your company's job postings, and how they respond to your InMails. Are they interacting with your content? What's their typical response to your job ads?
Employer Value Proposition
Another great feature is the Employer Value Proposition summary. Based on survey results, you can see a list of the most desirable things these candidates look for in a role.
An employer value proposition on LinkedIn Talent Insights for a frontend developer in Oslo.
In-Depth Company Insights
You can also access detailed information on where potential candidates currently work, outlining points like diversity and educational background and how candidates' roles evolve over time.
Demand Trends
LinkedIn Talent Insights can show you the demand for specific professions, the number of job postings, and the level of candidate engagement, delivering pivotal information to refine your messaging and set outreach goals.
Talent Insights in practice
Talent Insights has so many different use cases - but here are a few examples of how our team uses it.
Source from new markets
If you are dipping your toes into a new talent pool, it's useful to understand the market.
Perhaps you're expanding operations to a new city or country. How do candidates here interact with your brand? Do they have different priorities when choosing their next employer? Does the typical career path for this role look different? Use Talent Insights to grow a better understanding for the market you're entering.
The best thing for me is gaining an initial overview of the market. I look specifically at how many people there are in a certain area for the role and the turnover in the market. This way, I can give the hiring manager concrete information to help manage expectations about our opportunities in that location.
Andreas Pearson, Recruitment Specialist at Amby
Craft candidate outreach
The EVP tool mentioned above can transform how you communicate with potential candidates. You could use it to inform which benefits you highlight in your initial outreach and even how you present career progression opportunities.
"As a supplement to Amby’s own salary research, the employer value proposition report is key to making sure our client’s offering aligns with market expectations, and is an essential insight for attracting the best candidates."
Joe Gleadall, Recruitment Consultant at Amby
Set realistic targets and timelines, and manage stakeholder expectations
As every recruiter knows (and every hiring manager eventually finds out!), some roles are more challenging to fill than others. Talent Insights can align expectations across the hiring team, based on data rather than - or as a complement to - anecdotal evidence. This also shapes your hiring roadmap, as you may need to begin work on some roles earlier than expected, whereas others may be easier to fill than you imagined. You may also find that your EVP is simply not a match for a new market, so you may need to adjust your offering to attract talent.
Conclusion
To sum up, LinkedIn Talent Insights provides recruiters with a comprehensive and dynamic view of the talent landscape. With its ability to offer real-time data on talent pools, company insights, and candidate engagement, it empowers recruiters to make informed decisions, tailor their strategies, and ultimately connect with the right candidates more efficiently.
So, whether. you're exploring new markets, crafting targeted outreach, or setting realistic hiring goals, Talent Insights serves as a critical tool in navigating the complexities of the candidate market.
Last updated:
