Written by our resident Generative Artificial Talent Intelligence Blogger (GATI)
As a Talent Intelligence leader, my goal was to build a function that would provide data-driven insights on all matters related to talent. We started off small, with a team of three people: a Talent Intelligence Analyst, a Research Specialist, and a Data Analyst.
Over time, we grew the team to include a Project Manager and additional analysts to support the increasing demand for our services.
Roles and Structure:
The Talent Intelligence Analyst was responsible for identifying and tracking talent trends, analyzing talent data to derive insights, and developing reports and dashboards to visualize and communicate insights to business stakeholders. They were also responsible for collaborating with other functions within the organization, such as HR, Talent Acquisition, and business leaders, to support key initiatives.
The Research Specialist conducted primary and secondary research to gather data on talent trends and market insights. They worked closely with the Talent Intelligence Analyst to ensure that the data they gathered was relevant and actionable.
The Data Analyst managed and analyzed talent data, including candidate pools, competitor analysis, and talent acquisition best practices. They were responsible for ensuring that the data we used was accurate and up-to-date.
The Project Manager managed the Talent Intelligence function's projects, ensuring they were delivered on time and on budget. They worked closely with the other members of the team to ensure that our work was aligned with the organization's strategic goals.
Examples of Work:
When we first started, we had limited resources and had to be creative in how we gathered data. We conducted surveys, interviewed candidates, and mined data from job boards and social media. We also worked closely with our HR team to gather data on employee engagement and retention. As we grew, we developed more structure around our work. We created processes and templates that helped us scale our operations. For example, we developed a standardized process for conducting candidate surveys that allowed us to gather data quickly and efficiently. We also developed templates for our reports and dashboards that allowed us to visualize data in a way that was easy to understand.
One of our biggest challenges was communicating the value of our work to business stakeholders. We had to develop a strategy for demonstrating the impact of our insights on the organization. We did this by aligning our work with the organization's strategic goals and presenting our findings in a way that was actionable and relevant to the business.
Lessons Learned:
- Building a Talent Intelligence function requires a mix of hard and soft skills. On the hard skills side, the team needs to have a deep understanding of data analysis, research methods, and reporting tools. On the soft skills side, the team needs to be able to collaborate with other functions within the organization and communicate complex insights in a way that is easy to understand. Start small and build out gradually. When we first started, we had limited resources and had to be creative in how we gathered data. By starting small and building out gradually, we were able to develop processes and templates that allowed us to scale our operations while maintaining the quality of our work. Work closely with other functions within the organization.
- Talent Intelligence is not a siloed function. It requires close collaboration with other functions within the organization, such as HR, Talent Acquisition, and business leaders. By working closely with these functions, we were able to ensure that our insights were aligned with the organization's strategic goals.
- Demonstrate the impact of your work. One of our biggest challenges was communicating the value of our work to business stakeholders. We had to develop a strategy for demonstrating the impact of our insights on the organization. By aligning our work with the organization's strategic goals and presenting our findings in a way that was actionable and relevant to the business, we were able to demonstrate the value of our work and secure more resources to support our function.
Case Studies:
Here are a few examples of how we used Talent Intelligence to support key initiatives within the organization:
- Developing a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy Our organization recognized the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, but was struggling to develop a strategy that would be effective. We used Talent Intelligence to gather data on best practices in diversity and inclusion and to identify potential barriers to progress. We presented our findings to the Diversity and Inclusion team, who used our insights to develop a comprehensive strategy that was aligned with the organization's strategic goals.
- Reducing Employee Turnover Employee turnover was a key challenge for our organization. We used Talent Intelligence to analyze data on employee engagement and retention, as well as data on the external job market. We identified factors that were contributing to turnover and developed recommendations for addressing those factors. We presented our findings to the HR team, who used our insights to develop a retention strategy that resulted in a significant decrease in turnover.
- Improving Candidate Experience We recognized that the candidate experience was a key factor in attracting and retaining top talent. We used Talent Intelligence to analyze data on candidate satisfaction and to identify areas for improvement. We developed recommendations for improving the candidate experience, such as streamlining the application process and providing more personalized communication with candidates. We presented our findings to the Talent Acquisition team, who used our insights to improve the candidate experience and attract more top talent.
Conclusion:
Building a Talent Intelligence function is a complex and challenging process, but it is also incredibly rewarding. By using data-driven insights to inform key decisions related to talent, organizations can improve their competitive advantage, attract and retain top talent, and drive business success. The key is to start small, build out gradually, and work closely with other functions within the organization. By doing so, you can develop a Talent Intelligence function that is aligned with the organization's strategic goals and delivers real value to the business.
Initial GATI prompt:
"Imagine you are a new Talent Intelligence leader. Design your perfect Talent Intelligence function, what headcount is needed, what capabilities, what is your remit and scope of team and what hard and soft skills are needed. Use this as context for a blog post as if you had done this already and the post was a case study in building out a function. be specific and detailed about the roles, the structure and give mini role synopsis for each role, give examples of the type of work you did, how it started off scrappy and how you built more structure as you grew, end with any lessons learnt."