What Information Do I Need Before Building a Report?

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You do not need a finished workforce strategy before ordering. You only need enough information to define the hiring question you want the report to answer.

The better you define the project at the beginning, the more precisely the analysis can reflect the market you actually care about.

Start With These Four Things

Location

The ZIP code, city, county, state, or other location you want analyzed.

Occupation

The job or workforce you expect to hire.

Hiring Need

The approximate number of employees you expect to hire.

Compensation

Your proposed hourly wage or annual salary, when compensation is relevant to the project.

Location Details

Your workforce market is not always the same as a city boundary. Depending on the report you choose, the analysis may evaluate workers, employers, schools, wages, competition, or other conditions within a defined labor-market area.

Tip: If your facility already has a planned address, use the most precise location available.

Occupation Details

Job titles can vary from company to company. One employer may use a title that another employer uses for a completely different role.

Where’s My Workforce uses standardized occupational classifications to identify the workforce that best represents the job being analyzed.

Example

A company may internally use the title Production Technician, but the actual work could align more closely with machinists, industrial machinery mechanics, assemblers, or another standardized occupation.

Hiring Need

The number of employees you expect to hire provides important context. A market that can support five hires may not be equally capable of supporting fifty.

Your hiring need can affect how workforce availability, competition, recruiting difficulty, and recommendations are interpreted.

Compensation

If you provide a proposed wage or salary, Where’s My Workforce can evaluate it against relevant compensation benchmarks for the selected occupation and market.

Lower

May make recruiting more difficult or reduce the reachable candidate pool.

Market Aligned

Generally positions the opportunity within the prevailing compensation environment.

Higher

May strengthen recruiting competitiveness but can increase labor cost.

Additional Information

Depending on the modules you choose, you may also be asked for information such as:

  • Industry
  • Experience level
  • Additional comparison locations
  • Additional occupations
  • Project notes or special considerations
You do not need perfect information.

Use the best information you have today. Your report is designed to help you evaluate the decision, not require you to have already made it.

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