Talent Insight

Providing critical evidence about the talent market for better-informed business decisions.

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Talent Insight enables better decision-making by providing critical evidence about the talent market. Our team gathers real-time data from a variety of data sources and relevant talent pools on hiring, locations, employer brand, compensation, and more. We uncover hidden insights through confidential interviews with hard-to-reach talent to give your talent strategy a competitive edge.

What is Primary Insight?

Talent Insight, as explained in a session by Charlotte Moffatt and Mark Senior, involves obtaining real-time, exclusive information from direct conversations with talent. This Primary Insight, distinct from secondary data, covers salary, EVP, and market trends. At Armstrong Craven, dedicated teams integrate Primary Insights into Executive Search, enhancing recommendations for clients. The evolution of Executive Search emphasises the strategic role of talent insights in influencing business decisions and shaping employer brands.

What is Talent Insight?

Talent Insight projects answer critical questions about talent using external labour market data, to influence key business decisions.

Our unique primary research approach to Talent Insight gathers up-to-the-minute data from highly relevant talent pools to gain sensitive, confidential market information on hiring, locations, organisation structure, employer brand, reputation, compensation and benefits.

Our intelligence adds excellent value to any talent acquisition strategy, but we go further than just analysing data. We talk to the people within the sector. Informal channels enable us to obtain strategic and unique insights unavailable from other sources.

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Talent Insight Use Cases

Assessing the size and location of talent hubs in relation to specific skills and/or geographies, including potential growth projections. Primarily based on secondary research.

Identification and/or ranking of locations as potential hubs for specific skill sets. Comprising both primary and secondary talent research to assess candidate availability, salary costs, competitors, commuting trends, ease of hiring, cost of living, competition for talent.

Analysis of competitor operations relating to business units, functions, and geographies. Delivered via primary and secondary talent research, this talent insight allows clients to understand, and benchmark against, their competitors in the marketplace.

The sourcing of bespoke and highly specific salary data relating to roles, functions, skills, industries and geographies. This talent insight brings together published secondary data with primary data gathered via interviews and online survey methods.

A solution to help you understand how you are viewed in the market by the talent you need to attract. These talent research projects are often used to improve talent attraction or to counter attrition. They help you to understand niche, in-demand or hard-to-find talent pools and provide clarity ahead of recruitment activity on how best to engage and get interest from these people.

Talent research to uncover the key factors that motivate individuals within specific functions, or geographies. Covering remuneration, job-seeking habits, career motivating factors, employers of choice, perception of client, openness to relocation and future opportunities. These insight projects are predominantly delivered via primary research, interviews and online surveys.

These talent insight projects involve charting and analysis of organisational structures within specific organisations to help feed into your own org design strategies. Based on primary and secondary research, they include the analysis of structures and organisational design trends - best practice, pitfalls to avoid and how you compare to your competitors.

Assessment of the percentage of the total workforce that is exposed to disruption by AI automation, based on external labour market data. In addition to analysis on an organisation-level, intended to inform business leaders, the team will analyse GenAI exposure levels on a functional basis, and provide talent management recommendations, including likelihood of reskilling.

Analysis of existing skill sets and current and future skills gaps, against the likely levels of talent competition, informing reskilling recommendations to support the development of a future-fit workforce. Armstrong Craven can provide data on likelihood of career path transitions, based on historic talent dynamics, along with cost and time required to reskill.

How we help

With over 30 years of delivering bespoke intelligence to major global organizations, Armstrong Craven's Insight & Talent Analytics team gathers and evaluates data from diverse sources using traditional methods and cutting-edge TI tools powered by AI and ML.

  • We have an in-depth knowledge of key industries around the world.
  • We go beyond the data and make it our business to keep abreast of trends and challenges in your markets.
  • We identify and track significant players and emerging talent.
  • We gather the personal perspectives of influential figures and put this knowledge to work for our clients.
  • Our channels and methods provide insights into markets that might take months to gather by traditional means. 
  • You don’t just get the inside track - you get it faster and more cost-effectively

Talent Insights Benefits


Examines Worldwide Talent Pool

Organizations can make strategic decisions about talent acquisition and resource allocation by evaluating talent hubs' size, location, skill relevance, and potential growth projections. This approach ensures access to the necessary skills for thriving in the competitive global market.

Offers Competitive Intelligence

Examining competitors' operations across business units, functions, and geographic locations offers valuable insights. This enables clients to compare their talent strategies with those of their competitors. Through this comparison, organizations can pinpoint areas where they outperform or lag behind their rivals, empowering them to make well-informed decisions on enhancing their competitive advantage.

Enhances Diversity and Inclusion

Talent Insights data reveals biases in recruitment and compensation, helping organizations address unconscious biases for a fairer, inclusive work environment. Analyzing recruitment, promotions, and compensation data can identify trends and inequalities, guiding improved strategies for underrepresented groups.

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A Comprehensive Guide to Talent Insights

Global businesses and TA teams across multiple industries are starting to realise and utilise the potential and power of Talent Insights. This approach enables businesses to answer crucial questions about areas imperative to future business success, such as hiring strategy, location strategy, organisational design, employer reputation, compensation and benefits strategy and competition.

Our insightful guide will help you discover everything you need to know - what Talent Insights is, what it is used for, the process behind Talent Insights, and its benefits. 

Read our guide

The Evolution of Talent Intelligence

As part of volume 10 of the Armstrong Craven Review, we caught up with Elizabeth Birrell, Armstrong Craven’s Director of Insight and Talent Analytics, on what Talent Intelligence looks like in 2023 and how it will evolve.

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Covering 51 Countries in 3 Months

Our Global Insights

Our Talent Insights team has strategically mapped and engaged with multiple countries across the globe, gathering real-time data from a variety of data sources and relevant talent pools.