Perceived problems
There will always be a change in team members in any business, this is simply how business works, but what can be done to ensure the turnover of staff is kept to a minimum while also encouraging new talent to join? DataIQ asked its members to identify their key concerns when it came to data office talent churn:
- Competition in the market (82.5%)
- Salaries are higher elsewhere (71.4%)
- Lack of room for promotion (46%)
- Unrealistic career expectations (driven by recruiters, LinkedIn, etc) (28.6%)
- Lack of defined career path (22.2%)
- Reluctance to move into management (15.9%)
- Workplace culture (6.4%)
- Lack of variety in available work (4.8%)
- Reluctance to move into commercially-focused roles (3.2%)
With more than eight in ten respondents highlighting that competition in the market is their top concern it shows that complacency is not an option. The need for talent within data offices is nation-wide and in many instances a bidding war for top talent has emerged. This in turn continues to drive up the price for data professionals and, as widely reported by DataIQ members, budgets for data team expansion are seldom flush with cash. DataIQ members have spoken at length at how they have struggled to get non-data professional executives on side to increase data budgets as the correlation between data investment and return on investment is often fragmented and not a clear-cut process as one would expect in different departments, such as sales.
It is no secret that data offices are, for the most part, new and small in scale for the majority of businesses. This can have many advantages, but there are some stark drawbacks when it comes to recruitment, most notably the lack of progression or promotion. Nearly half (46%) of respondents identified this lack of progression for data talent as an issue when it comes to recruitment. It is difficult to retain top talent if there is no obvious route to further a career. Yes, there are opportunities to expand and become a data team leader, but if this opportunity is not obvious at the time of hiring it can be incredibly difficult to convince someone to stay on the off-chance decision makers agree to expand. This then flows over into the other issue of a lack of defined career path which 22.2% of respondents noted as a concern for recruitment.
One of the smaller concerns identified by DataIQ members included a lack of variety in available work (4.8%). This is perhaps something that can be overlooked by CDOs as, when removed from the day-to-day operations of a data office, it can be easy to forget the repetitiveness of certain tasks. No matter the role in any department, there must be a variety in the available work to ensure people do not become bored or complacent (which impacts quality).
The solutions
DataIQ asked its members what they were doing to rectify the recruitment issues and if there were any programmes or initiatives that they had utilised to improve recruitment and retention.
The respondents stated that they had implemented the following initiatives to address their recruitment challenges:
- Social media recruitment campaigns (68.3%)
- Diversity and inclusion policy (62%)
- Data apprenticeships (external candidates) (52.4%)
- Data internships (39.7%)
- Diversity and inclusion targets and reporting (33.3%)
- Diversity and inclusion interview board (23.8%)
- Graduate “milk round” roadshows (19.1%)
- School careers day presentations (15.9%)
- Local community outreach (11.11%)
- Other (8%)
It is positive to see that data businesses are utilising social media to improve their reach, brand awareness and to reach new audiences. The downside is that the success rates of social media campaigns vary wildly depending on the platform and oversaturation. Another issue is that there is not a huge amount of visibility for who is being targeted in these campaigns and the onus is on the recipient of the campaign to go out of their way and apply for a position. That being said, social media is a concrete method of advertising to a large, targeted audience for minimal cost which can open the doors to many potential candidates.
Elsewhere, it is great to see that DataIQ members are embracing diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives such as a diversity and inclusion policy (62%), diversity and inclusion targets and reporting (33.3%) and diversity and inclusion interview board (23.8%). There is an underrepresentation of diverse groups in data and these initiatives will help improve diversity rates and source talent from different areas of society. DataIQ members should all be implementing DEI initiatives as a diverse team brings huge benefits to an organisation. It is hoped that 100% of DataIQ members will have one or more DEI initiatives in place for the recruitment process within the next 12 months.
Finally, outreach initiatives that target people still in full-time education or looking to learn new skills for a career change are widely used by data teams to improve recruitment and retention. While internships for data roles are used by 39.7% of DataIQ members, 52.4% of members utilise data apprenticeships for external candidates which opens the door to new talent of varying age groups. This attention to younger age groups is further heightened with 19.1% of respondents hosting roadshows for graduates and 15.9% working with schools for careers day presentations. It has been mentioned in previous DataIQ discussions that outreach programmes to schools and youth groups are arguably the best way forward to improve the talent pipeline. Current curriculums do not include data-specific courses and knowledge of careers in data are lacking, so it is pivotal that data businesses make the effort to educate and connect with the future talent pool as early as possible.
The solutions to the recruitment challenge are not necessarily simple or straightforward, but they do exist. Data teams and CDOs need to drive the internal conversations about recruitment and gain backing for DEI initiatives, funding for outreach programmes and further funding for educational tools such as internships and apprenticeships. This is not an overnight fix, but the benefits of acting now will be reaped in the coming years. Data offices and CDOs must act soon to improve their recruitment challenges and to benefit from the initiatives as soon as possible.
