Three Ways to Redefine Your Global Talent Strategy

The world is full of talent data. But, more data can lead to more questions, uncertainty, and stagnation as organizations sift through it to figure out what’s fact and what’s fiction. The quality of decisions relies entirely on the data you have access to today. And the effectiveness of any global talent strategy is directly tied to the breadth and depth of that data across countries. 

In a global talent market, detail is often the biggest challenge. To make accurate hiring decisions, you need to be able to compare diverse talent pools at a granular level. 

Many organizations currently rely on the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) to access these insights. Covering roughly 500 occupational categories worldwide, comparisons can be made between roles, skills, and countries using their internationally recognized ISCO categories. But Lightcast has expanded these insights even further…

Leveraging our expertise and modeling from the work we’ve done in the US, we’ve redefined the global standard by applying the Lightcast Occupational Taxonomy (LOT) internationally.  Now covering over 1,500 occupations in 23 countries with translations in eight languages (set to expand throughout the year), we provide the most consistent, reliable, and granular way to analyze and compare economies on the market. 

Lightcast has expanded our talent insights with triple the global coverage and granularity. Learn more. 

Organizations today must recognize the value of expanding their perspective. Here are three ways to leverage global talent insights in your talent strategy: 

Achieve complete visibility into evolving skills

Skills are changing rapidly, and jobs are constantly evolving. Gone are the days when a role can simply be defined by job title, especially when it comes to recruiting and managing talent on an international scale. Job titles may vary significantly from one company to another and from culture to culture. With these variations, organizations need a more precise and dynamic way to describe their current and emerging roles—enter skills. 

To define and redefine your roles as they evolve, you need a way to identify their skills and paint a clear picture of how those skills are changing over time. Let’s consider the skill of artificial intelligence in Ireland. Looking back to 2019, top occupations posting for this skill were in the technical disciplines you’d expect, like software engineering, IT, and data analysis.

Flashing forward to 2023, the top occupation is Writer, surpassing Software Developers with over 10% more job postings. Writers are now expected to be proficient with AI—a requirement that's completely new based on evolving technologies in their field. We cite insufficient data as there was none available; until now, there hasn’t been demand for writers with AI skills.

This example further emphasizes that as roles adapt to new technologies, skills are more indicative of a role than its job title can ever represent. Organizations who understand this will be able to keep pace and access the talent they need in a more meaningful and actionable way. 

Analyze workforces across global markets

Companies need to know as much as possible about labor forces to understand which locations have the capacity to handle their work. This can come down to skills concentration, the size of the available workforce, the cost of local talent, and more. To achieve these insights, you need to know that the job title you’re using to describe the role is the same across countries. The Lightcast Occupational Taxonomy (LOT) enables this clear and consistent comparison, whether between New York and London, or Madrid and Toronto. 

You also need to know if there is actually a sustainable workforce to access in that location. Our new global workforce estimates model does just that, providing insight into the actual size of any given talent pool across our coverage. To do this, Lightcast uses what we know about countries that have very rich data and applies ratios to countries that have less rich data. When you compare these estimates with profiles, you know the characteristics of a workforce and the size of that workforce in a more confident way to make the best sourcing decisions. 

For example, if you’re trying to hire Account Managers, you can compare metros across Europe to identify talent hotspots for these people:

Access global competitive intelligence 

In the coming years, challenges in both hiring new talent and retaining current workforces will continue to rise. With this, companies must evolve from a reactive approach to a proactive one to compete on a global scale.

Leveraging data on who’s hiring and for what skills, what they’re offering in terms of pay and benefits, and where they're located enables this dynamic approach. This real-time intelligence allows organizations to strategically tailor recruitment efforts and stay a step ahead when it comes to talent acquisition. And it’s not just attracting talent, monitoring competitor postings can help you take action and ensure you don’t lose valuable employees to the competition. 

Lightcast’s competitive insights go a step further to offer job posting translation in eight languages beyond English. This enables us to tap into native perspectives, shedding light on local hiring trends and strategies employed by companies in their respective markets. With Lightcast, organizations can see the whole picture and position their strategy to compete for and retain talent, no matter the location.

The global talent playing field demands a data-driven approach. 

With Lightcast's expanded talent insights and standard taxonomies, we equip organizations to navigate their talent challenges with confidence. From understanding evolving skills to analyzing global workforces and competing for talent across borders, our solution offers a strategic advantage. 

The future of global talent acquisition and talent management is here—Lightcast has you covered.

Curious to see how your team can leverage global insights? Check out our latest webinar!