Developing Analytic Talent

Learn what it takes to succeed in the the most in-demand tech job Harvard Business Review calls it the sexiest tech job of the 21st century. Data scientists are in demand, and this unique book shows you exactly what employers want and the skill set that separates the quality data scientist from other talented IT professionals. Data science involves extracting, creating, and processing data to turn it into business value. With over 15 years of big data, predictive modeling, and business analytics experience, author Vincent Granville is no stranger to data science. In this one-of-a-kind guide, he provides insight into the essential data science skills, such as statistics and visualization techniques, and covers everything from analytical recipes and data science tricks to common job interview questions, sample resumes, and source code. The applications are endless and varied: automatically detecting spam and plagiarism, optimizing bid prices in keyword advertising, identifying new molecules to fight cancer, assessing the risk of meteorite impact. Complete with case studies, this book is a must, whether you're looking to become a data scientist or to hire one. Explains the finer points of data science, the required skills, and how to acquire them, including analytical recipes, standard rules, source code, and a dictionary of terms Shows what companies are looking for and how the growing importance of big data has increased the demand for data scientists Features job interview questions, sample resumes, salary surveys, and examples of job ads Case studies explore how data science is used on Wall Street, in botnet detection, for online advertising, and in many other business-critical situations Developing Analytic Talent: Becoming a Data Scientist is essential reading for those aspiring to this hot career choice and for employers seeking the best candidates.

Apply predictive analytics throughout all stages of workforce management People Analytics in the Era of Big Data provides a blueprint for leveraging your talent pool through the use of data analytics. Written by the Global Vice President of Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics at Monster Worldwide, this book is packed full of actionable insights to help you source, recruit, acquire, engage, retain, promote, and manage the exceptional talent your organization needs. With a unique approach that applies analytics to every stage of the hiring process and the entire workforce planning and management cycle, this informative guide provides the key perspective that brings analytics into HR in a truly useful way. You're already inundated with disparate employee data, so why not mine that data for insights that add value to your organization and strengthen your workforce? This book presents a practical framework for real-world talent analytics, backed by groundbreaking examples of workforce analytics in action across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Leverage predictive analytics throughout the hiring process Utilize analytics techniques for more effective workforce management Learn how people analytics benefits organizations of all sizes in various industries Integrate analytics into HR practices seamlessly and thoroughly Corporate executives need fact-based insights into what will happen with their talent. Who should you hire? Who should you promote? Who are the top or bottom performers, and why? Who is at risk to quit, and why? Analytics can provide these answers, and give you insights based on quantifiable data instead of gut feeling and subjective assessment. People Analytics in the Era of Big Data is the essential guide to optimizing your workforce with the tools already at your disposal.

As we dive deep into the humanistic paradigm – in society and in business, the models and narrative of business must change. The human-centric dynamic places people at the center of sustainable value creation. Therefore, leaders must shine the light on talent and people. The book Co-Creating Talent and Human-Centered Organizations: Organization Development (OD) Perspectives is an elaboration of the concepts to developing talent masters and build high-value organizations through cultivating enduring human capabilities and tapping into our collective capacities. Based on the OD field’s fundamental values, the focus is, therefore, on enhancing the capacity of leaders to build resilient organizations. The book is informed by the realization that most organizational routines and boundaries inhibit and deplete enduring human capabilities and tendencies. Recognizing that organizations are open organizational systems, the book creates space for readers, leaders, managers, and OD professionals to continually reframe their cognitive and emotional frameworks towards high-value organizational cultures that would help co-create sustainable futures. Leveraging on the informal interpretations, impressions, insights and interventions of Organization Development (OD) ‘tacit knowledge’ and ‘deep smarts’, this book focuses on concepts targeted at charting the talent journey, identify cultural gaps in the workforce, modernize the learning & development architecture, and enhancing intentional change effort and purposeful enactment across all organizational members. The book leverages on Organization Development (OD) science, theory, practices, and values; and the role of Appreciative Leadership in developing talent in contemporary organizations. Whole System Thinking and co-creation of possibilities are central principles in this book. The book is informed by the increasing need for organizations to holistically prioritize the talent agenda and continuously drive competitiveness and performance through workforce optimization approaches. This is necessitated by the emergence of multi-generational workforce, the pervasive impact of technology, increasing talent mobility, shifts towards increased reliance on virtual teams, and the effects of globalization on the talent landscape.

An evidence-based organizational framework for exceptional analytics team results The Analytics Lifecycle Toolkit provides managers with a practical manual for integrating data management and analytic technologies into their organization. Author Gregory Nelson has encountered hundreds of unique perspectives on analytics optimization from across industries; over the years, successful strategies have proven to share certain practices, skillsets, expertise, and structural traits. In this book, he details the concepts, people and processes that contribute to exemplary results, and shares an organizational framework for analytics team functions and roles. By merging analytic culture with data and technology strategies, this framework creates understanding for analytics leaders and a toolbox for practitioners. Focused on team effectiveness and the design thinking surrounding product creation, the framework is illustrated by real-world case studies to show how effective analytics team leadership works on the ground. Tools and templates include best practices for process improvement, workforce enablement, and leadership support, while guidance includes both conceptual discussion of the analytics life cycle and detailed process descriptions. Readers will be equipped to: Master fundamental concepts and practices of the analytics life cycle Understand the knowledge domains and best practices for each stage Delve into the details of analytical team processes and process optimization Utilize a robust toolkit designed to support analytic team effectiveness The analytics life cycle includes a diverse set of considerations involving the people, processes, culture, data, and technology, and managers needing stellar analytics performance must understand their unique role in the process of winnowing the big picture down to meaningful action. The Analytics Lifecycle Toolkit provides expert perspective and much-needed insight to managers, while providing practitioners with a new set of tools for optimizing results.

Start, Build, and Navigate Your Training and TD Career ATD’s Handbook for Training and Talent Development is the premier resource and compendium of everything a training and talent development (TD) professional needs to know to start, build, and navigate a thriving career. Now in its third edition and grounded by the Talent Development Capability Model, this is more than a revised volume. This edition offers an up-to-date view of the growing roles of talent development professionals, our changing world of work, and the critical need for business alignment. Edited by Elaine Biech, the third edition is divided into eight sections comprising 57 chapters authored by 100 expert practitioners—the brightest thinkers in the field—who share foundational and advanced perspectives and information. The Handbook dives deeply into growing professional expertise and personal skills, virtual learning and remote work, trends affecting TD, managing organizational and career change, growing roles in TD, and understanding organizational impact and business alignment. Fifty online tools are available to download, and there is also a glossary and references. TD professionals, keep this practical, companionable volume close by; it’s the reference you will always turn to.

Our newly digital world is generating an almost unimaginable amount of data about all of us. Such a vast amount of data is useless without plans and strategies that are designed to cope with its size and complexity, and which enable organisations to leverage the information to create value. This book is a refreshingly practical, yet theoretically sound roadmap to leveraging big data and analytics. Creating Value with Big Data Analytics provides a nuanced view of big data development, arguing that big data in itself is not a revolution but an evolution of the increasing availability of data that has been observed in recent times. Building on the authors’ extensive academic and practical knowledge, this book aims to provide managers and analysts with strategic directions and practical analytical solutions on how to create value from existing and new big data. By tying data and analytics to specific goals and processes for implementation, this is a much-needed book that will be essential reading for students and specialists of data analytics, marketing research, and customer relationship management.

Master Data Analytics Hands-On by Solving Fascinating Problems You’ll Actually Enjoy! Harvard Business Review recently called data science “The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century.” It’s not just sexy: For millions of managers, analysts, and students who need to solve real business problems, it’s indispensable. Unfortunately, there’s been nothing easy about learning data science–until now. Getting Started with Data Science takes its inspiration from worldwide best-sellers like Freakonomics and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: It teaches through a powerful narrative packed with unforgettable stories. Murtaza Haider offers informative, jargon-free coverage of basic theory and technique, backed with plenty of vivid examples and hands-on practice opportunities. Everything’s software and platform agnostic, so you can learn data science whether you work with R, Stata, SPSS, or SAS. Best of all, Haider teaches a crucial skillset most data science books ignore: how to tell powerful stories using graphics and tables. Every chapter is built around real research challenges, so you’ll always know why you’re doing what you’re doing. You’ll master data science by answering fascinating questions, such as: • Are religious individuals more or less likely to have extramarital affairs? • Do attractive professors get better teaching evaluations? • Does the higher price of cigarettes deter smoking? • What determines housing prices more: lot size or the number of bedrooms? • How do teenagers and older people differ in the way they use social media? • Who is more likely to use online dating services? • Why do some purchase iPhones and others Blackberry devices? • Does the presence of children influence a family’s spending on alcohol? For each problem, you’ll walk through defining your question and the answers you’ll need; exploring how others have approached similar challenges; selecting your data and methods; generating your statistics; organizing your report; and telling your story. Throughout, the focus is squarely on what matters most: transforming data into insights that are clear, accurate, and can be acted upon.

The New Edition of a Business Classic This landmark work, the first to introduce business leaders to analytics, reveals how analytics are rewriting the rules of competition. Updated with fresh content, Competing on Analytics provides the road map for becoming an analytical competitor, showing readers how to create new strategies for their organizations based on sophisticated analytics. Introducing a five-stage model of analytical competition, Davenport and Harris describe the typical behaviors, capabilities, and challenges of each stage. They explain how to assess your company’s capabilities and guide it toward the highest level of competition. With equal emphasis on two key resources, human and technological, this book reveals how even the most highly analytical companies can up their game. With an emphasis on predictive, prescriptive, and autonomous analytics for marketing, supply chain, finance, M&A, operations, R&D, and HR, the book contains numerous new examples from different industries and business functions, such as Disney’s vacation experience, Google’s HR, UPS’s logistics, the Chicago Cubs’ training methods, and Firewire Surfboards’ customization. Additional new topics and research include: Data scientists and what they do Big data and the changes it has wrought Hadoop and other open-source software for managing and analyzing data Data products—new products and services based on data and analytics Machine learning and other AI technologies The Internet of Things and its implications New computing architectures, including cloud computing Embedding analytics within operational systems Visual analytics The business classic that turned a generation of leaders into analytical competitors, Competing on Analytics is the definitive guide for transforming your company’s fortunes in the age of analytics and big data.