We aren’t meeting current hiring expectations. How do we change that?

Not long after you learn that the company is not meeting current expectations, a hiring manager tells you that a data visualizer you’d hired quit. When you ask why, the response is not unexpected, “because there were not enough career advancement opportunities.”

You understand that retaining top talent is vital to meeting your organization’s business goals. However, you also know that the data science labor pool is small. Improving retention has to be addressed.

Data professionals, young and old, whether data visualizers, data wranglers, business analysts or other related roles, are likely to pursue new opportunities for these top two reasons: compensation and lack of career growth.

If you are a start-up, your company might not have the budget to offer the salary the more prominent tech firms provide. Once a week, data scientists receive calls from recruiters with job opportunities at more significant firms. So that makes it hard to compete on the salary side. However, taking the career development tract could hedge against younger and older data scientists leaving your company.

Top data professionals think outside the box, and as a recruiter, you should do likewise when it comes to encouraging career progression. Here are some best practices to help to just that.

Embrace Horizontal Movement

In the data science world, internal mobility is not always a movement upward but is often sideways. Top talent who already understand your business and its culture should be encouraged to shift from role to role within the firm. To ensure this talent does not leave, encourage your company to look for opportunities within its walls.

Don’t Fear Job Hoppers

Today’s job hopper isn’t mindlessly going from job to job. These folks have a strong desire for career development. They are always looking for the next challenge. As the research shows, external recruiters from other firms are contacting data scientists once a week with new job opportunities. If the level of career development matches their desire, there going to jump ship. You could encourage your hiring manager to value this mindset and highlight the benefits these candidates can bring to the company. Candidates changing jobs every year and a half could indicate their rate of learning.

Ax The Traditional One Size Fits All Career Path

Not everyone wants to be responsible for other people. In data science, this especially true because data professionals need opportunities where they can advance without becoming managers. Encourage the IT managers to develop a career path for hires who have the technical skills and the inner calling to manage. In turn, help the IT manager create a career path for new hires who wish to develop their expertise.

How Working With an Analytics Talent Partner Can Help You Improve Talent Retention

When you want to find retainable data science candidates, working with a data analytics talent partner can help. A talent partner can pre-screen candidates to see whether they fit into expert development or management development. Freelancers might fill gaps in the technical roles, whereas temp to permanent hires might be good longer-term candidates for future management. Knowing these two aspects will help you find the right candidate to interview. As a result, you decrease your research time and increase your chances of hiring a retainable data professional.

Chisel Analytics can help you find the right data science talent for your company. We provide you simple tools to assess, interview, hire, and retain the expertise you need. Whether you are recruiting for a specific need, team growth, or a change from your current direction, we can help you find and keep qualified data professionals with the skill sets you need.