JULY 20258 IN MY OPINIONBY KHANG NGUYEN, HEAD OF DATA ANALYTICS & GOVERNANCE, TABCORP [ASX: TSH]As reliance on Data & Analytics across organisations increase, so too does the pressure to build high performing teams and retain top talent. The market for Data Specialists has become highly competitive, but with the right strategies, it is possible manage this challenging environment. In this article, I will share some key strategies that should be considered.Develop a Strong Team Dynamic: Googles Project Aristotle is a great example of how team dynamics is so critical to success. A positive and cohesive team dynamic will lead to increased trust, communication, and collaboration among team members. It's important to build this early with cultural fit becoming more of a factor during the hiring process. Once you have the right mix of people, you can then establish clear goals and responsibilities, and promote strong social connections. Create Psychological Safety: Psychological safety is the belief that you won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up or sharing an idea. Teams with high levels of psychological safety are more likely to be successful according to Project Aristotle. To create a culture of psychological safety, it's important to encourage team members to speak up and share their thoughts and ideas. This may not always be a straightforward exercise since every person is built differently, so create an environment where everyone has an opportunity to speak such as having a set agenda in meetings which allocates time for each team member to share their thoughts. This will help build confidence and really harness the different perspective of individuals.Provide Opportunities for Professional Development: It's a common theme that employees leave due to a lack of professional development. Offer opportunities for professional development through in-house training, mentoring, and tuition reimbursement. Encourage your employees to attend conferences, workshops, and other training programs. Buddy them with other teams around the organisation so they have exposure to different business functions, processes, and stakeholders. Provide access to online learning resources and other educational opportunities. Most importantly, ensure they have a clear development plan, so each employee understands what the expectations are of not only their current role but also where they aspire to be. We also need to ensure we are offering the time for the team to undertake these development opportunities and hold them to account. Structure it around KPI's and allocate an hour or two in the calendar each week as personal development time for example.THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA SPECIALISTSKhang Nguyen
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