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Reading between the lines of talent analytics

As analytics becoming a more critical part of the business, Deloitte’s Analytics Trends 2014 Report highlighted some of the biggest trends around it while shedding light on the realities of the situation.

For example, one of the eight trends the report explored was machine learning, and companies’ reliance on it to make quick decisions. However, the report argued despite the high levels of automation in decision making that happens within organisations today, there still needs to be a human element.

“Just because someone knows how to operate the sausage maker doesn’t mean tasty sausage will turn out,” the report said.

“Companies still should rely on smart human analysts to hypothesize about relationships in the data and find models that support or overturn those hypotheses. It may be a slower process, but their companies may be much less likely to get into trouble.”

Another pressing question addressed in the report was while employers around the world will whole-heartedly agree there is a global talent crunch at nearly every level of the organisation, is this predicament more a result of hoarding than an actual demand of suitable candidates?

“In response to predictions about impending shortages of qualified analysts, companies scrambled to recruit talent beyond what they actually needed,” the report suggested.

“This led to experienced people being asked to carry out activities like straightforward reporting that could have been done with lower-level talent. It also led to lower-level talent doing busywork – e.g., cleaning data – that is better done by machines.”

The report admitted “whether a particular trend will affect you immediately is hard to say”, but cautioned “thinking about the trend – and what it might mean if it is true for your organisation – may be time well spent.”

Image: Shutterstock

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