Transcript Recruiting for analysts - Institute of Fundraising Insight Group

Recruiting for Analysts
Panel: Ruth Smyth – RSPB, Shaun Williams –PDSA,
David Dipple – Tangible Data, Ben Smith - Amnesty
Session background: This session involved a short presentation by panel members and then workshops where different groups
discussed their recruitment experiences, these notes come from both the panel members and the groups
What competencies are needed? The groups were asked to share their top 3, these are listed in bold below:
•Communication skills x 2 – especially the ability to lead a discussion and gather requirements
•Analytical thinking
•Diligence / professionalism
This makes sure they can
•Drive
apply themselves even
•Technical skills x 2
when the task is boring!
•Understanding of charity fundraising
•Understanding of stats
•Ability to make sense of and translate data
•Thirst, willingness to learn and ability to apply
We discussed how
•Don’t need to be too formally qualified but need application to business
important charity
•Numerical skills
experience
is – it helps
•Attention to detail
with
the
language
needed
•Individual and team worker
but
isn’t
vital
•Logical thinker
•Time management / planning, responsiveness
•Expectation management
•Results driven – don’t get bogged down with the detail
•Creative and forward thinking
•Patience
•Challenging, probing, inquisitive
Some thoughts from the panel:
•Problem solving
Communication
skills are the most important
•Insightful
Need
to
be
able
to
communication
with IT, finance & marketing
•Data visualisation
Make
sure
you
don’t
just
recruit
in your own image!
•Flexibility / adaptability
Shaun
shared
his
top
7
tips
for
recruitment
– see last slide…
•Plain-speaking
•Methodical
•Caring & honest regarding work / mistakes
•Ability to absorb knowldge
Recruiting for Analysts
What works well when recruiting?
Shaun Williams said
this has worked really
well for PDSA due to
their location
I also talked to people over wine in the evening &
the following thoughts came up:
•Job descriptions don’t always match the job
•If you’re lucky enough to have a team you
don’t need every skill in one person
•Asking about experience
•Student placements
•Networking – online sources, linked in etc
•Testing skills e.g. how approach simple questions, whether understand marketing concepts
•Using a good agency who understand the requirements
•Picking a recruitment agency carefully
David said his favourite
question
is to ask someone to
•Another idea was to do more telephone interviews to check the candidate has the rights skills
explain
standard
deviation as
– also for candidates to phone employers because it makes a good impression
if taking to a non-technical
person
What is challenging when recruiting?
•Very small pool of people to recruit from
•Getting someone with good communication skills
I said David was scary!
•Charity specific agencies aren’t always the best place to go
•People looking good on paper & not in interview
•The ‘unknown’ factor – candidate not knowing about job role, employer not knowing about skills & personality
•Selling the role
•Finding people with the passion and communication skills
•Organisational fit
•Prior charity experience
We talked about how its
•Replacing someone very respected / been there so long
also very important to
•Creating fair tests (short notice presentations)
hang onto good people –
•Changing nature of the role e.g. new analysis, web data
David Dipple suggested
•Steep learning curve in analysis because need to know how the organisation works
shackles!
•‘Specialist’ yet a broad skill set required
•Varying analysis set-up within charities
•Budget
•Needing people with more than one skill
Recruiting for Analysts - Shaun Williams’ 7 steps for
successful recruitment
1. Conduct a Marketing/Fundraising situational analysis
2. Develop a clear understanding of the organisations needs
3. Design the analytical team structure around defined business needs
4. Build a skills/needs matrix to focus organisational requirements (Critical
v Nice to have)
5. Consider your selection process & evaluation criteria
6. Develop your management framework
7. Consider YOUR specific critical success factors