Hiring Top DM Analysts Means Breaking the Rules

Breaking up is hard to do. That’s particularly true when a marketing organization is losing a highly talented data analyst.

A case in point: An integrated digital and direct marketing agency recently contacted me with an urgent need for a database marketing analyst. The individual who had been in that role was plucked away by another agency at a whopping 20% bump in salary. Not bad, when one considers that about one-third of direct marketers imposed pay cutslast year, according to a Bernhart Associates study.

The human resources director told me that the analyst’s resignation was “totally unexpected” and left them “in a world of hurt.” One of the great ironies of human resources is that the pain suffered when a highly valued employee leaves is in direct proportion to how smart HR was in hiring that person to begin with!

What made this particular individual so highly valued was that he was a whole lot more than just a tongue-tied math whiz. It’s one thing to compile and analyze data, but analysts who can explain the impact of marketing data in layman’s language and give insight into how to use it are as valuable as the data itself.

Unfortunately, a lot of employers haven’t recognized that yet. Even while the national unemployment rate stands at more than 9%, I would venture to guess that the unemployment rate among the smartest, most marketing-savvy data analysts in digital and direct marketing would hardly register a blip, if there was a government chart that tracked it. In the 20-plus years I’ve been recruiting and placing digital and direct marketing talent, neither wars, nor dot-com bust, nor Great Recession, nor any calamity the world mustered has dented the demand for good, strong, business-savvy analytic talent.

In fact, the added risks and uncertainties that inevitably emerge from these events have only served to strengthen the need for “quants” – individuals who can analyze quantitative data, add an overlay of market factors and build relevant business cases that have strong statistical support.

What this means is that for employers, the tide has turned. For data analysts who have a full spectrum of skills, the recession is over. Candidates who can crunch the numbers, interpret the results, effectively communicate their findings and make recommendations to internal marketers or external clients, no longer have to consider lowball offers – if they ever did.

The bottom line is that once a marketer has completed a thorough interviewing process and identified the best candidate, it should be prepared to paya salary range that the candidate could get elsewhere, even if that means breaking the organization’s compensation rules.

How much extra should an employer prepare to pay? I recommend up to 10% above the top end of the current range. The extra investment a marketer makes up front to attract and retain these highly prized individuals will be more than offset by what it and/or its clients will gain by having them on board.

I can practically guarantee it.

Jerry Bernhart has been an executive recruiter within the digital and direct marketing field for 20 years.