“The ability to take data – to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualise it, to communicate it – is going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades.”
Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google.
Data powers everything we do and is the backbone of most business tools and processes. Data and insights within the human capital space allow businesses to make evidence-based decisions when putting in place organisation design and expansion plans.
To make good decisions, you need good data. To ignore data and rely purely on instinct, previous experience, or worse, a gut feeling (which alone has ramifications around unconscious bias) is not a recipe for success. Instead, what is needed is a robust strategy informed by qualified, relevant, up to date data and insights, and (where applicable) supported by research and past experience.
Here’s what a business can learn from talent intelligence:
1. It’s needed for strategic decision-making
To make longer-term strategic decisions around growth strategy, data needs to play a starring role. Using home-grown insights from internal data alongside external data, it can build a bigger picture that allows the development of more sophisticated long-term plans. Talent intelligence can inform business leaders and business strategy from the top down, helping the leadership team to make the right decisions using a talent lens.
2. It can be a leading indicator of competitor activity
Understanding the skills your competitors are hiring now, and the skills they are losing; having sight of the skills footprint of your competitors and knowing who your competitors are hiring from can all be leading indicators of a new geographical shift in their strategy or product strategy. Business leaders continually scan market intelligence for information on competitor activity, those most on the ball use competitor talent trends to look to their future talent strategy.
3. It makes the setting of, and achievement of diversity targets data led and not a wish
By benchmarking the external availability of diverse talent for the first time we can challenge the “but there aren’t any women / minorities” argument we have heard so many times from business leaders and hiring managers. To have data to show market availability at a skill and a location level, and by comparing that with your internal population data, you can model what the art of the possible is. You can set realistic goals and timelines, not just pipedreams. Today, more than ever, diversity matters, and missing targets will damage your employer brand.
4. It validates answers
If there are questions that need answers, talent intelligence will be a sound way to provide them. Often, a talent team will likely have a hunch about the answer or may have some simple data to support their ideas. Add this to a wealth of additional talent intelligence data to understand what the individual data points say on their own and as part of the bigger picture. Talent intelligence will inform decisions around entering a market, the cost and ease of doing business, and whether your desired talent pool exists there.
5. It allows a leadership team to gather extra opinion
It’s worth remembering and setting expectations of stakeholders within the business that data doesn’t always hold all the answers. It’s an important part of the team’s arsenal, but data on its own can be hard to interpret so, additional information and knowledge are often needed to help the business use the results in a meaningful way. Talent intelligence platforms, such as Stratigens, can often provide the missing piece of the jigsaw either through talent intelligence data or, when needed, qualitative data and consulting analysis to supplement it.
6. It provides market insight for hiring mangers
Data helps provide the information needed to influence a particular audience. Working closely with business leaders to fully understand what they need to know to achieve their goals is essential l. Providing data that the business is assumed to need rather than what it does need will not deliver the right results. In today’s competitive world, teams need to be proactive and understanding what skills issues are causing business problems will flush out the required information. A talent intelligence platform can inform and shape the answers, such as providing data around where skills are coming from, which industries hold similar skills and where to find more diverse candidates.
7. It informs ESG strategy
Talent intelligence helps an organisation understand the impact of its expansion decisions on its carbon footprint, ensuring ESG and CSR targets are met. A strategic talent intelligence platform, such as Stratigens, provides data on areas such as, commute time, digital connectivity, air quality, water quality, availability of green space and co-working spaces, allowing for a fully informed decision around the proposed workplace eco-system.
8. Providing data visually can create a strong vision
Data can help bring a vision to life by creating a roadmap of the journey, underpinned with high-quality dashboards, helping companies join the dots with their data. Often there is more data than is needed, so it is vital to analyse what the business needs to see and then share this alongside a narrative in a visually engaging and understandable format.
9. It provides ongoing learning and visibility of trends
Having a constant flow of data and being able to consistently analyse and decipher patterns gives a leadership team valuable ongoing learning. As a result, they will better understand their market outlook and predict future outcomes more successfully. Proactivity breeds learning.
Analysing tens of thousands of data sources over a long period gives visibility of trends that might exist so they can make smarter decisions about where to grow and invest.
In a highly digital marketplace, a plethora of data is available to companies. Operating a business without tapping into this resource is like navigating a forest without a map of the paths. The most successful companies are data-driven, which sets them apart..
More than marginal gains can be made by ensuring a strategy is underpinned with knowledge and data, and talent intelligence can guide a business into the future.
Are you struggling to make the best decisions for your business? Stratigens Decision Intelligence Software pulls together data on people, skills, talent and places and transforms it into a highly digestible format so business leaders can make smarter decisions about where to grow and invest.
Contact us today if you’d like to talk to us about your business challenges.
