Hiring the right team members and consultants will make or break a company.

One of our clients said recently that the value of their business could be measured by the quality of the decisions that they made. Many of these decisions are still made by people, everything you may read in the news about AI and machine learning notwithstanding. How well you hire and manage these people will impact the quality of your company’s decisions and its longevity.
 

At Data Management Group, we begin with the end in mind: We ask what our clients will want from new hires and then we adjust the recruiting and career management process to support that. There are many qualities that are prerequisites for all of our strategic staffing candidates to succeed, but these four stand out above the rest: excellent communication skills, creative problem-solving, behavioral and cultural fit, and business/technical expertise. 

Companies too often focus on technical expertise above all when recruiting for positions that require data management expertise. This is a serious mistake. Without each of the other qualities, the greatest technical mind in the world will not make a significant impact. In fact, they often fail as a new hire, which carries a significant price tag when you consider the cost of recruiting, training, and replacing team members.

With the gravity of making successful hires in mind, I’ve decided to share some thoughts and best practices on how we approach recruiting and resource management. This post is the first of a multi-part series on how you can increase your success in hiring, or enlist a company like DMG to help you manage the hiring process via our Strategic Staffing solution. As we know well, successful hires are measured not just by a new hire’s individual contributions but also their ability to impact and influence the organization. I’ll delve into each of these qualities individually in future posts, where I’ll cover more about why each is so vital and how we go about screening for them.

To start this series, here’s a “by the numbers” look at what it takes to land new team members for our clients:

  • For every opening on our clients’ teams, we will generally review hundreds of resumes.
  • Approximately fifteen of those candidates are selected for a first-round interview, where we aim to screen for communication, problem-solving, behavioral and cultural fit, and business/technical skills.
  • Four to eight of those candidates make it through to the next rounds, which involve the technical screen and further evaluation of soft skills, followed by any additional interviews that may be needed.

As you can see, it takes quite a bit of vetting, and our clients show their appreciation by continuing to choose DMG to help them staff some of their most pressing positions.

If you need help attracting high-performing Financial Services and Data Management talent in an increasingly tight labor market, consider DMG’s strategic staffing services. Feel free to schedule a free consultation to determine whether our services match your needs.