How Are You Looking After Your Data People?

Are you looking after your data team?

Although things are generally moving in the right direction, the vast majority of organisations are still failing to understand what it is exactly that motivates their data and analytics teams. We see and hear evidence of this on a daily basis, it’s absolutely everywhere.

I see job adverts that copy and paste jobs from job specs (which I personally think should be a crime) to teams of data scientists never having their work see the light of day because someone at the top doesn’t have a clue.

Firstly, what do people working in data and analytics want in their role?

In the same way that people working in marketing want something different than people in finance, and finance want something different than HR, etc – data people have their own needs, too.

To keep it simple, there are three keywords that can help sum up what data people are looking for in their work, in one way or another. These words will help you understand if you are looking after your data team. Impactful, visible & valuable.

Impactful – the feeling of positive change in a business at the hands of your work is a great feeling, and data people look for that too. The inspiration for this blog came from a conversation I had yesterday with Vladimir Bendikow, Chief Data Officer at FirstBank UK, who gave a great example of motivating a data team. If you can create a link between individual performance to the success of the business, the impact is very clear. An example of this would be having a data strategy that is well-developed enough o be broken down into individual responsibilities and objectives.

Visible – like many others, data professionals need their work to be seen by the business. Data and analytics roles have changed a lot over the last decade. There’s no desire to be churning out data in a dark room at the back of the office or even in the basement! A strong data culture means that your data teams will be front a centre of the rest of the business. We see this more and more, but it’s still nowhere near where it needs to be in most organisations.

Valuable – the connection between data, analytics and the rest of the business is important. The conversation on the value of data is a hot topic that no one has a definitive answer. What helps, is a strong connection between data teams and business objectives. Whether it’s to do with revenue, growth, or churn – data people need to know what they’re working towards and how it benefits the business.

Large organisations seem to get away with it, but the best people will always gravitate to where the data matters. Having a clear data talent strategy is a smart way to ensure you’re looking after your data people, whilst creating an environment that candidates want to hear more about.

We work with businesses to help set them up for their next round of hiring. This means providing Talent Insights that provide a breakdown of where the talent you need is located (along with a dozen other metrics), benchmark you against your competitors for your candidate value proposition, and we also help you to improve your data and analytics brand awareness by promoting the fantastic things you’re doing to our Driven By Data community and wider network.

Please get in touch if you’re looking for new, more efficient ways to attract data and analytics people to your business.

Ethan is a highly skilled consultant with us here at Orbition, specializing in data and analytics.

With a passion for technology and a natural talent for identifying top talent, he has become a valuable asset to both clients and candidates in the industry.Read more.