The Blueprint to Becoming a Data and Analytics Employer of Choice

We all know that people are our biggest asset. If you can attract and retain high-quality talent you will be more likely to drive tangible value for your organisation. Value equals success.

So, why do organisations rarely have a strategy about how they’ll succeed in the talent market?

Almost all organisations have been investing significantly in data and analytics initiatives, and have spent the past several years building the teams and capabilities necessary to execute their data strategies. That has created a demand for data and analytics talent that often outstrips supply.

In a competitive landscape, how do you win the ‘war for talent’? The answer is becoming a data and analytics employer of choice (or destination employer as some like to call it). This is especially true if you have to recruit at scale over significant periods of time.

What is an Employer of Choice?

An employer of choice is a company from whom you would always consider an offer, whether you are currently looking for a new role or not. They are commonly the first and most desirable organisations that come to mind for professionals actively seeking a new role. Notable high-profile examples include the FAANG companies (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google). However, FAANG companies are typically employers of choice not only for data and analytics professionals but cross-functionally. It is here that organisations come unstuck. Many companies are seen as employers of choice due to a generally attractive employer value proposition (EVP) but are not specifically desirable for data and analytics professionals.

Corporate EVP vs. Data and Analytics EVP

To succeed in a competitive data and analytics talent marketplace you need to create a data and analytics EVP that is distinct from your corporate EVP.

Your corporate EVP is your ‘name above the door’. It’s your overall brand, and how potential employees feel about it. Your data and analytics EVP, however, relates specifically to how attractive your organisation is to work for from a data and analytics perspective. They are interconnected, of course, and complement each other. But gone are the days when a good corporate EVP is enough to attract leading talent in specialised fields.

This is a big reason that many talented data and analytics professionals opt to work for smaller, less recognised, and perhaps less ‘reputable’ companies. These companies have successfully created a compelling data and analytics-specific EVP that makes them stand out.

What are the Benefits of Being an Employer of Choice?

Creating a data and analytics-specific EVP takes time and effort. So why do it? There are several benefits of being an employer of choice within the data and analytics ecosystem:

• It drives intrigue and interest from great people outside of your company who want to be associated with what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.
• It drives internal referrals on a level greater than most have experienced before. Remember, great people know great people!
• It massively increases the number of quality applications you generate.
• It drives improved response rates for your outbound advances and headhunting efforts.
• It makes your organisation, role, and opportunity much easier to sell and position against the competition.
• And all of the above help to reduce the time it takes you to hire, meaning fewer delayed projects or increased budgets for interim resources.

This is all a far cry from competing for the same person with four to five other organisations.

Considerations for Becoming a Data and Analytics Employer of Choice: Benchmarking

Every organisation has strengths and weaknesses. Before you take action, you need to understand where your organisation benchmarks against the industry at large. To create a compelling, exciting, but honest data and analytics EVP, you need to know what you should boast about and what you need to improve.

Creating your Data and Analytics EVP

Your data and analytics EVP should supplement your corporate EVP, not replace it, especially if your corporate EVP is an asset for you. Things such as mission, values, culture, remuneration, benefits, flexible working policies, career development, etc, that are often standardised companywide can be a real benefit if they’re better than average.

Your data and analytics EVP goes one layer further by capturing the information that only data and analytics professionals care about. Are the things I mentioned above such as remuneration, working policies, etc, important to data and analytics professionals? Of course. But will someone decide to join and remain at your organisation solely because of them? Very unlikely!

Every organisation will have different areas they want to lean into to create a unique and compelling EVP. However there are consistent things that I see most data and analytics professionals looking for beyond the obvious, like investments into data and analytics, information about the data leadership team, the types of projects will they be working on, how will those deliver value to the organisation, and the reality of your ‘data-driven’ culture.

Remember, many data and analytics professionals have been burnt by lip service before and many have faced restructuring because data and analytics ‘haven’t delivered’. Honesty is critical to long-lasting trust. Tell them how you’re delivering value and what impact your work is having on the business. Give them evidence (of course, you don’t have to give away your secret sauce.)

If you can craft your message to include those points then you’re already ahead of the curve.

• Articulating the Key Messages

To successfully articulate the key messages you need to pick relevant USPs that will attract external talent and retain internal talent. This is where I see most organisations struggle–most simply do not know how to articulate what is special about them or how to differentiate themselves from the next company. That’s problematic.

Remember, your organisation’s USPs will almost certainly differ based on the personas you are attempting to talk to.

• Personalisation

It’s important to remember that one size doesn’t fit all. Your data and analytics EVP can certainly contain some ‘catch-all’ items, but as it comes to telling your story, those messages need to be personalised to the persona you are seeking to attract.
What a data governance professional cares about is wildly different to that of a machine learning professional and as such, as you tell your story, remember who your target audience is.

• Internal vs. External

Just like your corporate EVP, your data and analytics EVP isn’t only about new talent attraction, it’s also about tweaking and evolving the EVP for your internal employees.

You must continue to articulate the story and vision as it evolves to keep great people with you on the journey. Whether the focus is on internal or external (it should be on both) there are many things you can do. Internally, things like ‘lunch and learns’, workshops, and newsletters are all commonplace. Externally, events, podcasts, hackathons, and articles are popular ways that organisations can articulate their data and analytics-specific EVP.

Scaling the Story

Ok, so let’s recap. You’ve undergone benchmarking to assess where you currently sit in the market. You’ve then created the basis for your data and analytics EVP, and you’ve articulated the key themes and messages. You’ve tailored those messages to cater to specific personas that you want to address and differentiate between external talent attraction and internal talent retention.

So now what?

Now it’s time to start telling those stories at scale. This means understanding which channels and mediums you’ll communicate through and who will be doing the communicating. Regarding communication mediums, podcasts, events, newsletters and articles are great, but I find they’re rarely consistent enough to have a huge impact. Of course, getting your data leaders out into the community to talk is key, but organic sharing on social media platforms like LinkedIn is where the magic happens. The objective is for your brand to be seen as bringing people together for the good of the industry. Case studies, key projects, testimonials, awards and corporate storytelling in written, audio and video content are all viable ways to tell your story at scale.

However you choose to execute this, someone must take accountability. Historically, these employer branding activities have fallen on internal talent acquisition teams, but I’ve seen a growing trend where data culture and communications teams are leading the charge.

Of course, if you’re planning to execute a social and digital media strategy then the depth and relevancy of your networks are crucial. It is here where internal talent teams can often come unstuck, often through no fault of their own, as they frequently have wide-ranging recruitment responsibilities. Data culture and communications teams can be effective because they can leverage their knowledge and relevant networks more effectively.

One of the key things to remember is this isn’t a one-and-done activity or even a quick fix. Consistency is queen and continuous engagement over time is the name of the game.

Collaboration with Talent Acquisition

Collaborating with your internal talent acquisition teams is extremely important. You don’t want to do all of that great work to only be let down by official communications in the form of job adverts and descriptions. Remember, the role of the advert is to attract, engage and intrigue people. The job description is the detail by which they learn more. These two documents serve two different purposes, but in far too many instances they’re the same. Ensuring you get this part right is critical. Don’t undermine all of the great work you’ve done to build your data and analytics EVP by turning people off when the time comes to apply.

At Orbition Group we’ve been on our own journey to build communities, develop content and be recognised as a pillar of the industry. Now, we’re trusted to help organisations transform their EVPs as they work to become a data and analytics employer of choice, and more capably manage their long-term recruitment strategies.

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