Building a Winning Data & Analytics Talent Strategy for 2024

A data and analytics team exists, in the large majority of organisations, to deliver “value”. But what does “value” really mean?

Introduction

The challenge that many encounter when looking to deliver value is that it means different things to different people. Even different stakeholders within a single organisation will have different goals and objectives, which means they’ll also have differing views on what they perceive “value” to be.

However, broadly speaking, it’s becoming more widely acknowledged that in commercial organisations, business leaders are expecting data and analytics teams to deliver something of value that contributes to the top or bottom line.

This has proven problematic for many organisations because very few hire data and analytics professionals for that purpose, nor do they assess them against having the experience or skillset to deliver, quantify, and articulate a tangible return. All you have to do is look at any job description in our space from junior analyst to CDO to recognise what skills are being sought – this is the fundamental challenge.

People Sport

Simply put, the success of any organisation and their data and analytics leadership team is intrinsically linked to the calibre of the team they can build, which is underpinned by the quality of the people they can attract.

Success with data and analytics is, quite literally, a people sport.

If you listen to any of the large research houses, you’ll hear that we’ve had many years of failure – I like to think of it as more of not realising the expected business benefits. But, however you look at it, one thing is considered true, this “failure” is very rarely driven by technological components of a data strategy, but almost always related to people; culture, communication, adoption, literacy, etc.

Hiring Brand

It always amazes me that in this day and age, despite the fact that most organisations have a defined business strategy and now, data strategy, very few have any kind of data and analytics-specific hiring strategy.

Every organisation, whether they realise it or not has some form of employer brand. However, the complexity and nuance of the data and analytics talent landscape mean that every organisation should be developing a data and analytics-specific hiring brand.

This goes beyond generic, corporate employer value propositions (EVPs), beanbags, office dogs, beer fridges, and foosball tables. This is a compelling narrative that acts as the backbone to answer one very simple, but fundamental question: “why would any data and analytics professional want to work here”.

After you’ve devised that story, you then need to work out how you’ll tell it (what channels or mediums), but more importantly, how you’ll scale it to ensure it is seen by the people you want to hire (which should align to your workforce plan) and whether there needs to be subtle differences to that narrative based on the skillset you’re looking to attract.

It should go without saying, but these types of initiatives should be in place and working for you for a long time before you need to push the button on hiring. This is about brand awareness, not just for your organisation as a whole, but specifically for your data and analytics organisation.

You have to keep in mind that the best talent is rarely looking for work. The stats show that around 80% of the market is passive and therefore the chances of attracting the best people via an advert alone are very slim.

Even with internal talent teams reaching out to prospective talent you have to ensure that the message and narrative they deliver is compelling and different. These people get bombarded with messages, calls, and texts, every single day. It’s become white noise.

Make sure the story and message are strong and in an ideal world, use various forms of media to tell that story long before you need to hire to make your life much easier – who knows, perhaps you’ll even generate some inbound interest!

A-Players

The harsh truth is, that the better the people you hire, the more successful you’ll be. However, there is a huge misconception around the notion of “A-Players”.

Every organisation needs A-Players and often, the more of them you have, the more successful you’ll be. However, “A-Player” does not necessarily mean the “best” or the “most talented”. It means they are the best person for that particular role within the context of your organisation or team at that particular moment in time.

An A-Player in one environment may be a C-Player in another or vice versa, and the key to success here is understanding exactly what skills, attributes and behaviours will determine whether someone is an A-Player or C-Player.

Evaluation Frameworks

The challenge that many organisations have is that they rarely have an evaluation framework on how to assess where an individual sits in terms of ability or competency in relation to the role they’ll be playing within the team environment. It’s usually, once again, driven exclusively by technological skills and experience with particular tools.

What about things like communication, presentation, business acumen, translation, storytelling, relationship building, attitude, character, work ethic, or resilience?

These all play a huge part in how effective someone will be within the specific context and guardrails of your organisation and team. How they fare in that assessment will dictate whether they’re an A-Player or C-Player for you and your organisation.

Being the world’s best coder doesn’t mean that person is an automatic A-Player in any organisation!

The game here is understanding exactly what great looks like for each given role and then finding a way to go and attract those people on a role-by-role basis. As mentioned above, unfortunately, far too many data and analytics hiring processes are geared exclusively towards who’s the best with specific tools.

Diversity of Thought Vs Representation

It’s no secret that every organisation on the planet is grappling with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), especially when it comes to building data and analytics teams. The stats are still shockingly low and there’s no denying that there’s a great deal of work to be done. However, for many DEI is still a tick-box exercise, and speaking candidly, many are focused on representation and not diversity.

If it was as simple as just “hiring a woman (insert another diverse label here)” then everyone would do it. The truth is, focusing on what your team looks like doesn’t guarantee that you’ve got a “diverse” workforce. You need to focus on ensuring that the people who join your data and analytics team have “diversity of thought” and that they come from different backgrounds, with different skills, experiences and perspectives.

For far too long, most data and analytics roles are recruited against an exclusive technical backdrop, despite the fact that we know that technical skills aren’t what let us down.

Having a balanced team with a variety of people with strengths in different areas is a much better way of giving yourself a better chance of being successful and also having a truly diverse team.

Conclusion

If we agree that the purpose of a data and analytics team is to deliver tangible, meaningful value for their organisation, and we agree that there is a direct link between the calibre of the team you can build, the diversity of that team, and the success that you’ll have, then it is imperative that you have a robust, comprehensive and intentional data and analytics talent access strategy.

In theory, it’s simple; work backwards from your data strategy – what skills do you need to execute that strategy? What are the current skills gaps that‘ll need to add? At what point in time will you need those skills? How long will that process of approvals and recruitment process take? (break this down by time to attract, interview process, offers, negotiations, etc). Then you’ll have a timestamp of when you need to begin.

In an ideal world, you’d have already devised your compelling data and analytics hiring brand story and narrative and will be telling that story, specifically, to the right skill sets and personas via various mediums. This should make the whole journey much simpler.

As far as diversity goes, well, that should just be a given that you weave into the fabric of any data and analytics talent strategy.

You may have noticed I call this a talent access strategy; because that’s what it is. Acquisition implies you can just go and buy what you need. This could not be further from the truth. What you need is access to the right people, at the right time, and even if you have the luxury of throwing cash around, that alone isn’t enough. Accessibility is always above acquisition.

This article was featured in the first Edition of our Driven by Data Magazine. You can download the magazine and read more articles like this by clicking here.