LinkedIn Talent Insights is a paid data tool that turns LinkedIn member profiles into reports on talent pools and companies. You can see where people with certain skills live, which employers are winning or losing staff, and how a workforce is changing. It's sold through LinkedIn's sales team with custom pricing, and it's built for planning hires, not for messaging candidates.
That last distinction matters. People often look up Talent Insights expecting a search tool for candidates. It isn't one. LinkedIn positions it as the planning layer and LinkedIn Recruiter as the hiring layer, and you'd normally use them together.
What Talent Insights is built on
LinkedIn says Talent Insights translates information from member profiles, such as job titles, employers, skills and education, into data points. That information is aggregated and standardised so it can be compared at a macro level. On its product page, LinkedIn describes the pool as more than 12 billion data points.
Because it's built from profiles, it's only as good as what people put on LinkedIn. In fields where professionals keep their profiles up to date, it's rich. In trades or roles where many people barely use LinkedIn, the picture is thinner.
The two reports you'll use
| Report | What it answers | Built from |
|---|---|---|
| Talent Pool Report | What skills are in demand, which locations hold the talent you need, which companies and schools produce it, how that talent engages with your brand | Filters such as job title, skill, location, industry, function, school, degree, spoken language, years of experience and company size |
| Company Report | Where a company wins and loses talent, its top skills and functions, tenure, hiring and departure trends, attrition by function and location | A single company's LinkedIn presence |
LinkedIn says Talent Pool Reports update daily, which is why recruiters use them to watch fast-moving skills. A finished Talent Pool Report has nine tabs to work through.
How to create a Talent Pool Report
- Click Create a Talent Pool Report on the Talent Insights homepage.
- Enter one or more job titles, or pick from the suggestions.
- Add filters on the left: location, skill, company, industry, function, or advanced ones like school, degree, spoken language, keyword, years of experience and company size.
- Optionally click Exclude to remove groups you don't want counted.
- Click Apply, then move through the tabs at the top of the report.
LinkedIn's best-practice guide suggests deciding first whether job titles or skills describe the people you want. Skills are often the better filter when titles vary a lot between companies.
What a Company Report shows about competitors
The Company Report is the part I find most useful for small and mid-sized businesses competing for the same people as bigger firms. LinkedIn lists what's inside:
- Top functions and top workforce skills at the company.
- Where the company is winning and losing talent, and from which industries.
- Schools, degrees and fields of study of its employees.
- Workforce distribution by location, tenure and experience.
- Hiring and departure trends, plus attrition by function and location.
If your own company doesn't show up, LinkedIn says it may be because your LinkedIn Page isn't assigned to Talent Insights, and you'll need to contact them. Getting your Page in order helps here too; my guide to adding an admin to a LinkedIn Page covers the access side.
How to get access
You can't sign up for Talent Insights on your own. LinkedIn's product page says pricing varies with your company's needs and points you to a product consultant. Once your company's account admin gives you a licence, you receive an activation email. Then:
- Click the For Business icon in the top-right corner of your LinkedIn homepage.
- Select Talent Insights from the menu.
One small detail for admins: LinkedIn says activation links expire after 30 days. If someone on your team didn't activate in time, a Full Admin can resend the invite or copy a fresh link from the Admin Center.
Exporting and sharing reports
You can export a Talent Pool or Company Report as a PDF or XLS file and pick which modules to include. If a section doesn't have enough data, the full export can fail, so untick the thin sections and try again. Staffing users can only export single modules, and LinkedIn watermarks those exports.
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Talent Insights versus Recruiter
LinkedIn calls them two different products that work well together: Talent Insights to plan and Recruiter to hire. You can generate a Talent Insights report from Recruiter and a Recruiter search from Talent Insights. Counts won't always match between the two, because LinkedIn says Recruiter shows approximate numbers once a search returns 1,000 or more results.
If you need to reach candidates rather than study markets, LinkedIn's recruiting seats are the better fit, and an applicant tracking system keeps the hiring process itself in order.
Questions it can answer for a growing business
LinkedIn's best-practice guide groups uses into sourcing key talent, headcount investment and attrition. Translated into everyday decisions, that looks like this:
- Where should we hire? Look at location flows and the hiring demand index to find places where the talent you need is moving and competition is lower.
- Who keeps poaching our people? The Company Report shows which employers you're losing talent to.
- Are we looking in the wrong industries? LinkedIn suggests checking nontraditional industries where competition for a skill is low.
- Which skills are rising next to the ones we hire for? Related and emerging skills show up in the skills views.
My verdict
Talent Insights earns its keep for companies that hire the same kinds of roles again and again, open new offices, or need to explain to a board why a role is hard to fill. For a small business hiring once or twice a year, it's more tool than you need, and the sales-led pricing reflects that. Ask your LinkedIn rep for a demo of the Company Report on your two biggest competitors: if what you see changes a hiring decision, it's worth talking numbers.
Despite the similar name, the website tag is a different product, and my guide to the LinkedIn Insight Tag explains it.
Frequently asked questions
How much does LinkedIn Talent Insights cost?
LinkedIn doesn't publish a price. Its product page says the cost varies with your company's needs and asks you to contact a product consultant.
Is LinkedIn Talent Insights the same as LinkedIn Recruiter?
No. LinkedIn describes them as two different products: Talent Insights for planning with talent and company data, and Recruiter for finding and contacting candidates.
How often is Talent Insights data updated?
LinkedIn says Talent Pool Reports are updated daily, giving a near real-time view of the talent market.
How do I open Talent Insights after I'm given a licence?
Click the For Business icon in the top-right corner of your LinkedIn homepage and choose Talent Insights from the menu.
