Before starting a search for a new hire, understanding the current market is crucial. This is where Hiring Intelligence has its role.
Knowing what the talent pool looks like, what candidates expect to be paid, and how many people genuinely have the required experience are among the key questions worth answering before a search gets underway.
We saw first-hand how many clients lacked this understanding, often asking us questions about the very industry they were hiring into. We wanted to help by bridging that gap so companies can begin their search feeling properly informed.
That gap is why we launched SD Hiring Intelligence.
Hiring Intelligence is an exhaustive report, tailored to a client’s requirements. We map the market, understand compensation data, employee sentiment, competitor actions, and industry movements in advance of any sourcing. So, we can work with you to form an insight led strategy to deliver a Right First-Time successful hire
We built it because clients kept arriving at the same question once a search had stalled: what did we miss?
The honest answer was usually that nobody had looked properly in the first place.
For a client, what changes is the order of events. The evidence lands before the brief is signed off, rather than after a second thin shortlist.
Salary bands get set against a named competitor set instead of a survey that’s two years out of date. The search starts from the whole market rather than from whoever was easiest to find.
And every finding carries a minimum of fifty attributed sources with a consultant’s name behind it, which is what makes it usable in front of a board.
What Does A Proper Hiring Intelligence Report Actually Contain?
SD Hiring Intelligence is built specific to your requirements. Shaped directly by 36 client interviews across 29 companies.
Your report will contain:
- In-depth talent mapping, with a reachability assessment for each name, not just a list of who exists.
- Current compensation benchmarking, analysed against a named set of competitors rather than a generic band.
- Competitor analysis and positioning, so a client can see who they’re up against for a given hire.
- Churn signal identification, surfacing movement before it becomes a public job search.
- A minimum of 50 verified sources per report, paid and public, all attributed.
- A SWOT analysis specific to the brief.
- Strategic or operational recommendations, not just a data dump.
- Full customisation to the brief’s actual scope, whether that’s an industry, a location, or a single role.
When Is It Worth Commissioning One?
Five moments when this hiring intelligence report would be invaluable:
1. Before a critical search starts, so the brief gets scoped on evidence instead of instinct
2. Entering a new market or building a function from nothing, where internal knowledge is thin by definition
3. Mid-search, when a shortlist has thinned out and nobody’s sure whether the market is small or the search hasn’t looked in the right places
4. Before a compensation benchmarking review or an offer, so the number reflects what the market is paying now
5. After a search stalls or a hire doesn’t work out, when the question stops being who else is out there and starts being what did we miss
None of these require a live search with Solutions Driven. The report stands on its own.
How Is It Actually Built?
It is built from three stages.
Firstly, search-led foundation draws on more than 25 years of market knowledge to scope what the research needs to answer before anyone starts sourcing.
Secondly, verified sourcing does the work: a minimum of 50 paid and public sources, every one attributed.
Thirdly, synthesis and sign-off is where AI earns its place in the process. It assembles the findings quickly. A consultant then verifies them, corrects what needs correcting, and signs off before anything reaches a client.
What Have Clients Said About It?
A Chief People officer at an energy business operating across 12 countries put it this way:
“What we needed was someone to tell us what the data meant and what to do about it on Monday.”
That’s the gap most market data leaves open. A spreadsheet of names and numbers isn’t a decision. Someone still must read it and say what it means for the brief in front of them.
Want to preview a custom built report for yourself?
Click through the different sections on the left side panel to see the depth of information we can gather for your next search.
Click HereSD Hiring Intelligence FAQs
What is SD Hiring Intelligence?
A commissioned hiring intelligence report that maps a talent market before a hire is made: who the people are, what they’re paid, who’s competing for them, and where movement is happening. Read more about it here.
Is this a subscription or a dashboard?
No, it’s standalone commissioned research, scoped to a specific brief and delivered once, rather than accessed on an ongoing basis.
How long does it take?
Delivery within a week of the brief being confirmed. Timeline is scoped to what’s being asked for; a single-role report differs from a multi-country view.
How is it priced?
Priced to the brief in the same way timeline is. A single role and a multi-country market view aren’t priced the same way, and the fee is confirmed once the scope is.
Do I need to be running a search with Solutions Driven to commission one?
How is this different from an AI-generated market report?
Every finding is drawn from a minimum of 50 attributed paid and public sources, and a consultant checks and signs off on the findings before delivery. AI speeds up assembly. It doesn’t replace the verification.
