Johannesburg, 09 Mar 2022
Data and analytics (D&A) skills are in high demand across Africa and businesses must be willing to spend to not only attract- but also retain these sought-after skills. But how much? For whom? And when? These are the questions decision makers must answer , and quickly.
The need to act fast is because having adequate D&A skills equates to more strategic use of data and valuable analysis, which leads to better decisions and more effective operations.
Getting to this point will depend on how effectively business leaders manage people, D&A teams and the workplace environment, as discussed on the first day of ITWeb’s 2022 Business Intelligence Summit, hosted as a hybrid event in Johannesburg this week.
Wema Bank Nigeria’s head of data analytics Olamide Jolaoso led a discussion about strategies to hire and retain D&A teams.
“We need to, as organisations, be able to create value for our top talent, they have to feel the sense that they are part of something big… there has to be a culture where everyone is able to see that their learning experience is increasing on a regular basis,” said Jolaoso.
But what happens when a company offers these experiences, but these skilled individuals still leave?
According to Jolaoso, it is really a matter of whether or not businesses actually create enough new learning opportunities and how open they really are to allowing talent to take on new challenges and test their skills.
Balancing act
D&A talent investment is a balancing act – do business leaders invest in external skills knowing that this could come at a hefty price, or do they focus on ups skilling existing team members, at more competitive rates, but still with only a medium chance of retaining the staff?
Jolaoso said, “I would favour hiring internally because that gives you the chance to create and build teams (that) truly understand business problems and (how) translate these into valuable tech tools.”
While this requires the team to produce its own leaders, along with hands-on help and training, there is a focus and direction.
“I would recommend a balance of the two because the teams then balance out and you are then able to achieve both long-term and short-term goals,” he added.
The reality of supply and demand in digital technology is that IT and business no longer operate in silos. They are more in-tune with each other’s requirements and objectives. But while there is more synergy, Jolaoso says there is still uncertainty over where exactly the D&A team sits in the organisation. Who do they report to? This represents another challenge for business leaders.
According to Jolaoso, the more a hierarchy is entrenched in an organisation, the more challenging the environment and often the reason why innovation, creativity and the aspirations of D&A teams are snuffed out.
Businesses that match skills sets with competencies and the right personalities have a winning recipe, one that will enable them to tap into high growth markets such as fintech. As far as Jolaoso is concerned, this is one market segment – certainly in Nigeria – in which data and analytics will continue to play a pivotal role.
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