How Can You Encourage Analysts’ Development and Help Them Learn New Skills?
Analyst development/learning programs such as regular knowledge sharing meetings, mentorship programs, regular office hours, ad-hoc trainings, and hackathons can be big drivers of analysts’ development. These can really boost analysts engagement by giving them the resources they need to start using more efficient analytics tools and, ultimately, get their job done in a timely manner.
Consider asking your analytics manager (or even a top analyst on their team) to host regular knowledge sharing meetings, such as a monthly analysis meeting. Monthly analysis meetings involve getting analysts throughout the organization together to see 3-4 analysts present an analysis, tool, or technique that could be useful to other analysts; getting visibility into analytics approaches other analysts have taken is one of the few ways analysts can gradually enhance the rigor of their analytics methodology!
Consider asking another team member to lead a 1:1 analytics mentorship program. This is an opportunity for volunteer experienced analytics mentors to regularly provide project-based advice to 1 (or more) mentees for a temporary duration; this not only gives your analysts some experience with associate development, but could also create career growth for employees outside of your analytics team and provide a funnel of future analysts in a challenging analytics recruiting environment.
Creating a weekly office hours is a another key development initiative that allows analysts to optionally meet with an analytics expert who can help them brainstorm analytics projects and approaches or even troubleshoot their code with them; this is critical when analysts are trying to learn new, more advanced analytics tools.
If there are team members who have a unique advanced analytics skill that could help the rest of the team be more efficient and effective, consider asking them to lead an ad-hoc training or training series to teach that skill to anyone at your organization who could also benefit from it.
Finally, consider hosting periodic one-day solutions (or “hackathons”) to get your entire analytics team together to create an MVP (minimum viable product) solution to a challenge your organization faces. Not only can this help your organization build a robust analytics solution fast, it is also a great teambuilder that helps your team build relationships and learn together.
Watch the video above to learn how to be the kind of people-focused manager that drives engagement among team members by focusing on their development.
