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The top Big Data skills you need in 2021

Big Data has the power to transform organisational effectiveness and success. By interpreting and extracting meaning from data, companies can refine their product development process, improve customer retention, or find new business opportunities. As digital transformation initiatives continue to rise, so too has the demand for data scientists and business transformation professionals. But as the industry is rapidly changing, it’s essential to keep your skills fresh to stay ahead of the competition. In this post, we’re sharing the top data skills you need in 2021 to stay ahead of the curve.Sharpen your technical skillsFirst let’s lay the groundwork and ensure you’re developing a solid foundation of technical skills. An aptitude for statistical analysis and computing, mining and processing of large data sets is essential. You’ll also need knowledge of various programming languages to organise unstructured data sets and implement data analysis and machine learning, like SQL, C/C++, Java and Perl, with Python being the most common coding language in data science roles.To recognise and extract valuable information from an organised data set, understanding analytical tools like SAS, Hadoop, Spark and R is key, and certifications can help you to establish your know-how with these tools. Look for opportunities to integrate best practices from software engineering into your work, like version control, continuous integrating and testing, to make yourself even more marketable. Lastly, be prepared to work with data that comes from different channels and sources across a business.Invest in your professional developmentAs the profile of business transformation and data science continue to rise, committing to your professional development will help differentiate you from other talent in the market. Think of your career as an investment; you need to continually learn and build up your knowledge so that you understand the latest trends and developments, stand out against the competition and ultimately have more to offer to a potential employer.There are plenty of learning opportunities to choose from: you might download academic papers, subscribe to relevant newsletters, or read blogs about the fast-changing technical landscape. You could attend virtual conferences to seek out a mentor, or to widen your network and learn from the experience of peers. Course providers like Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) or bootcamps will offer practical lessons that you can put into practice in a hands‑on way. You might choose to publicly share any insights you’ve discovered, opportunities for improvement or solutions to industry problems, for example through articles on LinkedIn, to establish yourself as a credible voice in this space.Refine your soft skillsWhile technical skills are an essential requirement for data professionals, employers also look for soft skills that’ll contribute to the value you can offer their business. Strong communication skills are crucial so that you can effectively articulate data analysis, present research-backed solutions or introduce new ideas to colleagues, and clearly communicate with team members who have different backgrounds or priorities to your own.Business acumen is critical too, helping to inform decisions and implement actions that support the company’s strategy or achieve its goals. To do this, you’ll need to draw on your experience and knowledge to weigh up risks and opportunities, understand the roots behind your employer’s commercial success, and review the landscape of the wider industry to make sound decisions that produce good outcomes.Combined with strong technical skills, honing these soft skills will not only boost your competitive advantage over other candidates, but they will also increase your adaptability to work in different environments, making you more attractive to future employers.If you’re looking for your next career challenge, we’re here to help. Experis is the global leader in professional IT resourcing and solutions, operating in more than 50 countries worldwide. Thanks to our expert industry knowledge, history of success and strong relationships with organisations large and small, we’re well-equipped to share market insights like these and match specialist IT professionals into permanent and contract assignments. Browse all our current job opportunities here.

Remote Work is Here to Stay. Is Your Business Remote-Ready?

Much has been said about the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on today’s workplace. Not long ago, being trusted and provided with the equipment necessary to work at home was viewed as a fringe benefit by many companies. Now, remote working has become the new normal.This new reality is reshaping how organisations think about optimising their workforces. Now that it has been proven that work can be untethered from location, new opportunities exist for employers to tap skills that may have previously been outside their periphery. Digital connections, increased social networking and virtual communities enable worker interaction anywhere, anytime. These agile operating models are redefining the workplace, as well as the worker.Take a look at the dataOrganisations are being forced to make rapid decisions in order to retain the unique workforce skills that will allow their businesses to compete successfully in global labour markets. Luckily, human resource departments can easily apply remote readiness to their hiring strategies through data-driven tools such as Total Workforce Index™ (TWI). TWI, for example, provides unique insights aligned with an organisation’s most pressing workforce needs, including sourcing strategies, compensation levels and productivity measurements.The news has been full of company announcements extending their remote work policies, and many have made the switch to a permanent remote workforce after looking at productivity metrics. Just 13% of business leaders have voiced concerns over remote workers sustaining productivity. Employers also are able to look at a much more diverse range of potential employees, since location isn’t as big of a factor in remote hiring decisions. By leveraging comprehensive data, organisations can execute a precise talent strategy aligned to their remote work needs, while also future proofing them against a changing world of work.Not everyone’s paradiseMany employees have already declared that post-pandemic, if companies won’t allow them to work remotely or offer some autonomy to choose, they won’t work for them. In fact, 43% of workers believe that 2020 marked the end of the office 9-5 and 77% won’t miss it. And while only 5% don’t want to return to the office at all, most want the ability to collaborate and connect in person at least two days a week.Across the 198 global offices of Fidelity National Information Services, a financial technology company, about 95% of employees are working from home. Chief Risk Officer Greg Montana says that may not last forever, but he doesn’t see a return to pre-Covid-19 packed buildings.The remote work scenario hasn’t been a paradise for all employees though, especially female workers. Traditionally, women often lose career traction during caregiving years, with females carrying a lot of the responsibility for the household and raising children. The hope of many mothers in these pandemic times has been that a work-from-home scenario would give them better balance while they work remotely and take care of their families. The reality is that moms are burned out performing their jobs at home while also shouldering many of the domestic responsibilities.Organisations should evaluate each role and any performance changes from 2019-2020 that may be correlated to remote work transition to determine which roles are best suited for remote engagement. According to a Talent Solutions analysis of 3,700 roles, most positions require onsite presence (trades, retail, production, etc.). However, among professional roles, 69% can be remote with no negative impact to performance or productivity. This criteria-driven approach enables companies to be proactive in their remote workforce planning and can support additional cost savings or diversity targets as part of remote sourcing initiatives.Gain a competitive advantage through optimisationOptimising the workforce mix, whether it’s hybrid, remote, permanent versus contingent, on-site versus off-site or even human-to-robot ratios, will help organisations achieve a competitive advantage. “To create workforce agility, organisations must accelerate their realignment of workforce strategy and strategic talent management,” says Raleen Gagnon, ManpowerGroup Vice President of Global Marketing Intelligence. “Organisations need to re-evaluate their workforces to determine the best blend of ‘heads down’ remote employees and ‘heads up’ employees in order to encourage collaboration and creativity.”According to Enterprise Technology Research (ETR), the percentage of workers permanently working from home is expected to double in 2021, as the productivity of remote work has shown to be successful. And while the work is successful, employees will need to put forth extra effort to boost their virtual engagement and take advantage of access to new opportunities. Remote employees also want security, sustainability of skills, work life blend and wellness, so businesses will need to step up to ensure they can keep remote employees stimulated. Ask employees what’s working for them and what’s not to better support them long term.For example, some of the leading remote companies in the world found they needed to adjust their time-off policies and adopt asynchronous communication. Software company Doist provides 40 vacation days for every team member. With their staff spread across the world, they observe different holidays so the typical “X Weeks” + “X National Holidays” time-off policy wouldn’t work. Automattic, the company behind WordPress, opted for asynchronous methods to communicate with remote workers – this is where you send a message without expecting an immediate response. This allows collaboration across multiple time zones while preserving employees’ focus as they aren’t distracted by constant emails and video calls.2021 brings with it three key workforce trends: Greater workforce flexibility, a broader definition of talent sustainability and worker wellbeing, and that every company must be a digital company. The future of work will require many changes, including investing in digital infrastructure and releasing office space that’s not needed anymore. Time will tell whether the new home office will become the permanent standard or whether real estate leases will begin to grow again. Organisations that leverage data-driven insights from tools like TWI and look to tap skills outside of physical location, such as talent in the cloud, are navigating this uncertainty, mitigating risk and seizing the opportunity to grow.

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The top Big Data skills you need in 2021

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