How To Hire a Data Analyst
Complete with job descriptions, skill profiles, and interview templates. Use this Data Analyst hiring guide to help you make the right decisions, fast.
Data Analyst Recruitment Guide
What does a Data Analyst do?
Data analysts collect and analyse information to find outcomes to benefit a business or trends in the market. This could include answers to specific questions an organization has asked, trends the company is seeing, or finding future offerings. Data analysts may be asked for examples of how to grow revenue and will need to make suggestions based on the statistics and data that they have access to. Data analysts translate a collection of scattered and sometimes unconnected information and turn it into meaningful business outcomes supported by historical data.
Day to day tasks of a Data Analyst
- Analysing data
- Developing strategies based off the data
- Identifying meaningful and useful patterns from datasets
- Provide tangible business outcomes
- Communicate their findings
Data Analyst definition
A data analyst's primary responsibility is to examine data and find patterns in order to provide suggestions that improve business outcomes. This could lead to new business or optimise current business offerings.
HIRING PROCESS
Data Analyst Hiring Process
Build the ideal candidate profile
Skills needed for a Data Analyst
A Data Analyst should be proficient in maths but most importantly, demonstrate a strong business sense. This is because through this combination they’re able to drive change to the business based on pieces of information they derive from data.
- Critical Thinking
- Data Models
- Data Classification
Pro Tip
You should know the distinction between a data analyst and a data scientist. Data analysts are more focused on business outcomes created from insights they derive from data whereas a data scientist is usually a technical professional with programming skills enabling them to predict future business events based off of previous patterns.
WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION BASED ON SKILLS
How to write a Data Analyst job description
Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. Here’s what to include in your Data Analyst job description:
Job Title: What position are you hiring for?
Summary: What makes your company unique? What would it be like to work for you?
Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization
Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully
Benefits: Details of compensation, benefits, and any perks on offer
Pro Tip
In building your candidate profile, remember you’ve already identified what skills are needed to succeed in the role. Here’s where to list your “must-have” skills and maybe a couple of “nice-to-have” skills. For example, a Data Analyst must be proficient in using SQL, as they will have many tasks in their daily life which involve interacting with a database.
SELECTING THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sample skill tests for a Data Analyst
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Question 1
Data Classification
Question Type: Multiple Choice
You are working on a sentimental analysis project which classifies text as positive, negative, or neutral. The label that you are trying to predict, which is described by the other features (here, input text) is known as?
Question 2
Data Models
Question Type: Multiple Choice
What according to you will happen as the complexity of a model increases?.
Question 3
Critical Thinking
Question Type: Audio
Describe a time where you have had to make a decision without having all of the necessary information. How did you come to the decision?
INTERVIEW TOP PERFORMERS
How to interview a Data Analyst
Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The interview should focus on any skills that require development that were highlighted from the skills assessment.
Now you know that candidates can do the job, the interview becomes more of a relationship building exercise where you can get to know the candidate on a more personal level, understand their motivations, and how they would fit in with the team.
Making An Offer
How much does it cost to hire a Data Analyst?
The USA average for a data analyst has the average base salary as $61,329 with ninety percent earning up to $86,000 according to Payscale.com. The lowest ten percent earn up to $44,000. Whereas, Glassdoor USA reports a slightly higher average salary as $67,546.
Data Analyst Salary United States
Data analyst salaries in the United States range from $44,000 – $86,000 (USD). Data analyst salaries in the U.S depend greatly on the superiority of the position and industry of the company.
Data Analyst Salary United Kingdom
Data analyst salaries in the United Kingdom range from £21,000 – £49,000 (GBP). Data analyst salaries in the UK vary largely based on the skills on the individual, location and industry of the company.
Data Analyst Salary Australia
Data Analyst salaries in Australia range from $57,000 – $110,000 (AUD). Data Analyst salaries usually depend on the type of industry the job is within as well as location and seniority.
