A Market Scan is a pre-sourcing exercise that you use to validate your value proposition before you undertake an recruitment assignment. It can also potentially change what options you take when you understand how go to market or what you do based on how your position fits into the ecology of similar jobs.
Working ON the position, rather than IN it
When I started HCMS, my first ever business, I read a book called The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. My key take away from the book was that I needed to work ON my business, as opposed to working IN the business. In other words, separate the strategy work from the transactional operations.
Undertaking a Market Scan before you recruit is working ON the position. This process:
- Confirms your direction and that the job brief is realistic and achievable (you can proceed on fact not hope),
- Demonstrates your professionalism and gains hiring manager buy-in,
- Provides you with confidence to be able to achieve desired results,
- Assists you with candidate interactions on what’s possible from their perspective,
- Saves you potential loss of face and rework if the position brief does not reflect reality and you need to start over (Nicholas Byrne, my first recruitment coach, always said to me “Vasy, when will you have time to start over if you do not do it right in the first place?” A wise man!)
Undertaking a Market Scan can take a couple of hours so I only do this for positions that are critical and scarce, or for positions that are critical/important and where I have not recruited before or for a while. Typically I ask my Hiring Manager “would it be ok if I validate this position description against the market to confirm its competitive and can be undertaken without considering any changes” I have never had a hiring manager say no.
How to undertake a Market Scan in only 2 hours
To undertake a Market Scan I use Bard or ChatGPT4 which provides market intelligence really quickly. The art to the Market Scan is understanding the optimum questions to ask. I typically ask questions on:
- The Demand & Supply of the positions.
- Career path and alternative positions titles
- Competitive information questions of what’s happening in the market at today.
- Value Proposition questions.
When I gain the output from the above sources I take a step back ask myself the following:
- What have I learnt about the position and how it compares to what I am about to undertake?
- What patterns do I see if any?
- What data do I need to verify?
- What actions will I take?
- What will I communicate to whom?
Typically, I then go back to my Hiring Manager and present a very short report on my findings. This report will include any trends that I notice, changes I recommend (such as changing the remuneration/benefits or changing the type of position), or suggesting we consider development of existing staff and the recruitment of a contractor or potentially sourcing/recruiting from a different location.
The Market Scan is also an enormous help when discussing the market and career paths for this type of position; it allows you to come from a position of knowledge. It will position you as a Professional Talent Expert to all stakeholders during whatever project you undertake.
