Data & Analytics is powered by people

The DataIQ Awards are finally here, and we’re thrilled to be sponsoring its ‘People’ category which includes awards such as ‘Data Champion’ and ‘New Talent or Data Apprentice’.

But why the ‘People’ category in particular?

Simply put, people are at the heart of data. It’s the hivemind of brilliance that sees the industry excel year on year. Whether it’s creating apps to monitor COVID-19 risk or enabling online mental health treatment, none of this would be possible without the people ‘behind the screen’. And as the world grapples with a growing demand for Data & Analytics talent following the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for superb people has never been greater.

Currently, the UK faces a £2bn Data Science skills shortage with 7 in 10 business (73 per cent) admitting to lacking the talent needed to complete crucial AI and data science initiatives in this new age of Data & Analytics. So, what’s the answer? How do businesses find and nurture the talent needed to plug these gaps in a time where the ‘right’ people appear to be few and far between?

Don’t focus on a polished product

The Data & Analytics market is estimated to sit at a value of more than $24bn in 2021, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 25 per cent during the forecast period until 2030. To give this some context, that’s higher than the global growth rates of the airline (13.2 per cent), automobile (17 per cent), and casino and gambling (18 per cent), industries according to Yahoo Finance. And yet despite this immense expectation of growth for the industry, we simply can’t predict what’s going to happen in this time.

Indeed, the findings of a report conducted by Dell Technologies in association with the Institute for the Future (IFTF), led to the prediction that 85 per cent of jobs needed for the industry haven’t been created yet – they will come with the constant moving and progression of the industry.

So, why are so many of us obsessed with finding the ‘perfect’ candidate right this second? Instead, businesses should be focusing on that integral raw talent. Those who may not be a polished product but have potential for greatness can not only begin to fill the current gaps for the short-term but can be moulded to grow with the inevitable changes and challenges the industry will face.

Work with people who understand your challenges

Anyone can source talent. Indeed, there were 119,000 recruiters in the UK alone in 2019, all of which undoubtedly had brilliant candidates on their books – but when it comes to Data & Analytics, and more importantly, plugging crucial gaps for the short- and long-term, it’s important that future employees have been nurtured in the right way.

Rockborne is made up of a team of highly experienced Data & Analytics consultants from within the industry itself. They have worked for the likes of KPMG, Experian, Accenture, Lloyds of London, and IBM to name but a few. Each one has done the jobs that we train, coach and mentor people on and all understand first-hand the challenges hiring managers face.

Stop looking in the same place

University and higher education have been, and still are, the most common route for budding Data & Analytics graduates to take to reach their career goals. However, as the jobs market progresses, the ‘traditional’ route is being overtaken by other paths such as college, diplomas or apprenticeships. By only looking in one direction to hire talent, you are undoubtedly blinkering yourself to a much wider, diverse pool and risk missing out on that talent altogether.

At Rockborne, we are committed to helping to create an industry that is diverse, accessible and, above all, inclusive, not only for the benefit of our candidates but for the success of our clients too. That’s why we work to ensure our cohorts are of an equal gender split and are representative of many ethnicities, experiences and backgrounds.

People make our industry what it is. Machines cannot inject emotion, understanding, nor unparalleled ability into what they achieve – that’s the men and women within the industry that do that. Without them, Data & Analytics would simply be a shell of unfinished ideas.

That’s why we are incredibly proud to be sponsoring this year’s Data IQ ‘People’ awards – to say ‘thank you’ to all the brilliant minds and personalities in the industry who have made an incredible difference to our world over the past 12 months. Moreover, to congratulate them on the inspiration they will offer to the next generation of data specialists.