Raleen Gagnon faced a problem that plagues talent acquisition leaders worldwide. As a global workforce market intelligence expert at ManpowerGroup, she needed data from "over 30 different places" to make a single workforce decision. The frustration wasn't just about quantity—it was about quality and consistency.
"There was no one place to go—so no one tool, there was no one subscription, no one website," Gagnon explained. Each vendor-defined data elements differently, creating a maze of conflicting information that required manual synthesis. This fragmentation forced teams into reactive planning, always responding to market changes after competitors had already moved.
The real cost wasn't just time lost switching between platforms. Organizations were making workforce decisions with incomplete pictures, missing critical market shifts that could impact their talent strategy for months ahead.
Why Current Labor Market Snapshots Miss the Complete Picture
Gagnon's breakthrough insight challenges how most organizations approach workforce planning. "It's not enough just to know what is the current snapshot of the market," she discovered. "You need to know how it got there and how much it's changed in the last quarter, in the last six months, or last year."
More importantly, successful workforce planning requires forward visibility. "You need to know where it's going next," Gagnon emphasized. She pointed to a concrete example: "If there's just been an election and labor legislation is about to go into place," organizations need to understand how regulatory changes will impact different markets.
Her key revelation transforms how talent leaders think about market analysis: "These two markets who look identical today may not look the same in six months." This insight drives organizations toward predictive planning rather than reactive responses to market changes.
How TalentEdge Transforms Data Fragmentation Into Predictive Intelligence
TalentEdge addresses the core problem by consolidating workforce intelligence into a unified platform. The solution "pulls together as much information as possible" while using AI to ensure proper visualization based on user queries.
The platform's foundation rests on extensive historical data collection. "We synthesized and continue to maintain four years of historical data to analyze the correlation of supply, demand, and compensation," enabling teams to not only assess but benchmark their workforce strategy from a new angle.
This historical foundation powers TalentEdge's forecasting capabilities. While the platform "can't predict out 10 years," it provides visibility "in the next three to six months" by analyzing patterns between market conditions and workforce changes. The AI component ensures that based on user queries, information gets visualized in ways that drive actionable decisions.
The platform maintains consistent data definitions across all markets, solving the vendor-to-vendor variation problem that forces manual reconciliation. This consistency enables apples-to-apples comparisons across global markets, removing guesswork from international workforce planning.
The platform's technical capabilities translate into measurable business impact across multiple use cases.
Watch Raleen's demo of TalentEdge to RPOA's members.
Real-World Applications: From Margin Optimization to Pipeline Growth
TalentEdge serves multiple audience segments, with particular strength in the staffing industry. "Our primary focus is on serving the staffing industry," Gagnon noted, working with "staffing companies, RPOs, global payrolling firms" that need real-time market visibility.
Margin Optimization Applications
For organizations operating under tight bill rates, TalentEdge helps "identify which market to be sourcing talent out of... which employers in those markets will help you to maximize your margin." The platform reveals "which employers are paying a competitive rate in those locations or who might be paying less," increasing acceptance rates while maximizing profitability.
Business Development Strategy
Beyond delivery optimization, TalentEdge drives growth strategy. Staffing companies or RPOs can “research their existing clients and see where else they are hiring and what else they are hiring beyond their existing scope of business to proactively upsell within their accounts.” Moreover, TalentEdge sourcing data enables those clients to identify new stakeholders within those accounts to expand relationships and the value proposition they bring to the table.
Teams use the platform to identify expanding markets: "Hey, this market's growing faster than the market we have been focused on." The employer insight capabilities help teams "look at our existing accounts and see where else they're hiring and what else they're hiring that isn't currently in our span of control."
This dual application creates comprehensive value. While delivery teams optimize sourcing and margin, business development teams identify new opportunities and expand existing client relationships based on actual demand data rather than assumptions.
These applications become even more critical given current market conditions
Why Market Velocity Demands Predictive Planning Now
Current market conditions amplify the need for forward-looking workforce intelligence. "The market is changing really quickly right now," Gagnon observed, pointing to specific challenges like "how tariffs or visa policies could impact workforce or location strategy."
The scope of these changes becomes clear in comprehensive industry research. The 2025 RPO Trends Report, based on insights from 500+ talent acquisition leaders, examines how organizations adapt their recruitment strategies to navigate this uncertainty.
The uncertainty creates both risk and opportunity. "There is no one clear answer right now. The data is changing every day," making traditional planning approaches insufficient for current market dynamics.
Gagnon's recommendation focuses on partnership quality: "Make sure you're working with the right partner who's going to give you that kind of visibility and help to mitigate any risks associated with all of the exciting changes that we're going through right now."
Organizations that maintain reactive planning approaches or leverage multiple technology platforms with inconsistent data risk missing market shifts that competitors with predictive capabilities identify months in advance. The velocity of current changes means the gap between reactive and predictive planning creates competitive advantages that compound over time.
Understanding this market opportunity, TalentEdge emerged from direct industry experience.
TalentEdge Company Foundation and Growth Timeline
TalentEdge was "officially founded in the fourth quarter of 2023" and "went live with our first pilot in June of 2024." The company "spent the rest of last year working with clients in a variety of ways," refining the platform through collaborative development with early adopters.
The platform differentiates itself through unlimited sourcing capabilities. TalentEdge allows users to "source unlimited candidates, as opposed to most of the platforms today, which limit you to lots of 500 or 1,000." This removes volume constraints that force teams to make sourcing decisions based on platform limitations rather than market opportunities.
The company combines comprehensive data consolidation with practical applications that address real pain points in workforce planning. By solving both the data fragmentation problem and the predictive visibility gap, TalentEdge positions organizations to move from reactive market responses to proactive workforce strategy.
TalentEdge's predictive workforce planning capabilities deliver maximum impact with proper implementation support. View TalentEdge details on the iCoCo Marketplace
The Path Forward: From Market Followers to Market Leaders
TalentEdge represents a fundamental shift in workforce planning methodology. Rather than reacting to market changes after they occur, organizations gain the visibility to anticipate shifts and position themselves advantageously before competitors recognize new opportunities.
The platform's combination of historical analysis, current market intelligence, and predictive capabilities creates a comprehensive view that transforms how teams approach workforce strategy. For talent acquisition leaders tired of playing catch-up with market changes, TalentEdge offers the visibility to stay ahead of the curve while their competitors scramble to understand what just happened.
