Gartner estimates that 4.4 million new jobs will be created around data in the next two years.  Why is that important?  It depends on your point of view.  If you are a Business Analytics professional, this may mean a lot of great opportunities.  If you are an executive, this should freak you out!  So here are some tips to finding and keeping BI talent

FINDING TALENT

• Look within your organization, find the highly analytic people.  You know, the people who love excel files and data.  You may be surprised to find them in HR, Finance, Marketing; they can be anywhere.
• Determine if they are highly inquisitive.  Why?  Because sharp, inquisitive people can learn anything and they usually love to learn.
• Once you find them, you need to plead your case to executives as to why it’s imperative that you build a team of top talent, as it will impact the innovation and economic growth of the company.  (I will provide ideas on this in another blog)

KEEPING TALENT

Once you have the talent, you need to create a culture and environment that will keep them.

• Bright talent will need to know the whole organization supports the analytics and data initiatives.  This comes from the top.
• They need to know there’s a roadmap to bring data and analytics to all areas of the organization.
• They need to be empowered to make change.
• But, most of all, the organization needs to invest in continuous education and programs for growth.  This is where a lot of companies fail.  I have heard of organizations that wouldn’t let their people go to user groups for fear their people would get job offers.  Are you kidding me!  That’s a sure fire way to drive talent away!

So remember, the best place to start looking is from within!