Why Data Leaders Must Own Their Talent Strategy

As a data leader, you are responsible for understanding the needs of your data team to ensure their growth and success. This includes the challenge of finding high-quality recruits for the team. However, it may surprise you to learn that as a data leader, you may not even be involved in the hiring process to expand your team.

A common issue we often encounter is the lack of a recruitment plan for data teams. This problem can result in a gap between the data leader and the talent team. It’s tempting to overlook this responsibility, as the hiring process is challenging for both the applicant and the organisation/hiring manager. However, it’s crucial to address it. If the data team ends up struggling, it’s the data leader who has to handle the consequences.

It goes without saying, that the team you build and develop directly affects the successes (or failures) that come out of it. As a data leader, you would need to support the recruitment team to share the specialisations and knowledge you would have to be able to recruit effectively in your team. Recruitment teams are recruiting for the whole company, in different departments, therefore it is quite difficult for them to be experts within one specific area.

This gap can be addressed by data leaders being actively involved in the recruitment and selection process. When data leaders are part of the process, they can hire the correct candidate and they can enjoy the fruits of their labour.

There are many benefits of active involvement, as this ensures as much parity as possible between the needs of the data team and what the recruitment team is advertising and offering. When the right talent is found with the required specialised knowledge and is a candidate who can take ownership and accountability, this can lead to a high-performing team with a competitive advantage. Putting time aside to find the right candidate can be so beneficial in the long run as it can provide long-term success, higher retention and a happier team.

In order to deal with the hurdles that we have discussed above, data leaders, perhaps you could take a look at these measures:

• Try and work with your internal hiring team and let them know who it is exactly that you are looking for. Write a job description, ask to sit in the interviews and provide feedback.
• Recommend people who you think may be a good fit from your LinkedIn network or a community you may be in. Grow your community further and attend conferences, events and online groups.
• If you think your workplace is great, promote that. Encourage people to apply and shout about your professional D&A growth whilst with the company.
• Learn from your mistakes – review and update the strategy or description based on things you learn along the way or industry trends.

In short, as a data leader, the potential to grow your team successfully with long-term benefits lies with you and its success is linked to the quality of the team. The mindset that talent recruitment should be the responsibility of the recruitment team only needs to be scrapped, as it is a shared effort, especially if you want a top-notch recruit. If you want that dream team, you need to lean into the candidate search process.

Sophie is our Head of Marketing. She has a wealth of experience in marketing and communications, having driven strategic initiatives and managed direct communications.

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