As more and more articles predict a major shortage for analytical talent, many organizations are in a rush to quickly build up their analytical team. But, in the spirit of “crawl, walk, run” it never hurts to do some labour market research before launching your recruiting efforts. This homework will help your organization set more realistic timeline for building your internal analytical team.

Here are some tips that executives and leaders can use to research your local labour market for Analytical Talent:

Tip 1: Learn from other organizations in your area
Each region is different in terms of the local talent pool, so it’s a good idea to learn as much as you can from other organizations in your area that already have an Analytical Team. They can share their lessons learned, as well as, their recruiting and retention costs, and give you a sense of what it would take to build up a team in your organization. There should be plenty that you can learn from organizations in other industries, especially when you are just starting out.

Tip 2: Get advice from experts
There are many experts that can offer you advice on building an Analytical Team. Some potential experts include:

• Recruiters that specialize in analytical professionals. They will be able to give you a sense of the analytical talent pool in your region.
• A college or university with a well-recognized program in applied analytics will often be able to tell you where their graduates are being hired.
• Consultants or consulting firms that actively specialize in analytical work. As service-oriented people they will likely be more helpful than you might think. Alternatively, you could hire them to help you with your recruiting campaign.

Tip 3: Check out your competition
Try reviewing the job postings for analytical talent in your area. It’s a pretty basic idea, but it’s still worth doing. You’ll find out:

• Which companies are hiring, and how many openings there are
• What they are offering to new job seekers, in terms of salary and benefits
• How they are communicating to the talent pool
• What job titles they are using
• What level of experience, and credentials they are looking for

For example, if you go to a job posting site like Monster as a job seeker, and type in the keyword “data” and your location you will quickly get a good sense of your local market. When I ran this search today I found over 1,000 results in San Jose, but only 62 results in Boise, Idaho.

Applying these tips can save you a lot of time, and help you increase your odds of building your Analytical Team right the first time. There are many experts out there on this subject. Please feel free to weigh in with your point of view if you have something to add.