This article discusses the 4 ways Competitive Intelligence is great for HR. Recruitment and HR teams are not the usual place for Competitive Intelligence. And Octopus have never worked with a recruiter, despite the sector is ripe for picking for Competitive Intelligence.
1. What do they think of us?
The first thing HR can use Competitive Intelligence tools is by assessing how your company is viewed by current and former employees. You will get some up-close and personal feedback on a number of websites, like Glassdoor. Here you may find employees who have told the world how it is working for you. But some primary Intelligence (talking to people) will also reveal a great deal of information.
A word of warning to viewing Glassdoor reviews:
- Keep your ego out of it and try and read the reviews with an open mind.
- Take the very negative reviews from former employees in context. If you sacked them, they are hardly going to recommend you for the “Sunday Times top 100 companies to work for” award. But, they may have raised valid problems.
- Fabulous reviews also need to be tempered, especially when it’s obvious who wrote them.
- Watch out and resist the temptation to write your reviews on your own company. They stick out like a sore thumb and you won’t kid anyone.
Look for the patterns and trends in what everyone is saying and the Intelligence will reveal the good and the poorer points of your company organisation and culture.
2. How much are they paying?
Human Resources teams use Competitive Intelligence and Competitor Research to keep track of who is hiring. And what they are paying and offering in terms of benefits. Knowing this sort of information will allow your company to remain competitive in the job market.
3. What’s it like in their organisation?
Competitive Intelligence techniques are also brilliant for when you are onboarding new hires. Assuming they are not breaking confidentiality clauses you could ask them about the rival they used to work for or see what they say about them on their CV.
4. Who are they hiring and why?
Keeping track of your competitors’ recruitment activities is also an important aspect. HR will be able to determine new markets, new geographies, processes and technologies your competitors are getting into. After all, if your rival starts advertising for a new sort of engineer; they must be doing so for a reason. Then, it’s up to the CI team to work out what they are up to
Summary
This article discussed the 4 ways Competitive Intelligence is great for HR. Fresh new hires are also able to offer a fresh new perspective on the market you are competing in and before they become too embedded in your organisation can offer an outside view on you.
