Tom Spencer, head of customer data science at Aviva, set up his department and team with a vision to get synergy between the insurance expertise of the company and new ways of thinking that could give the company an edge.
Before even building the team it was important that he ask himself several questions. What do I want to achieve and why? Why are we creating this capability? How do I want to the team to operate? How do I want us to behave as a group of individuals and as a team?
Having thought about the answers, he succinctly summarised the vision he was looking for. “That part of the process was really important because, to paraphrase the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, if you don’t know where you are going, it doesn’t matter which path you take,” he said.
His vision had a clear focus on behaviours. “That’s something I’ve learnt through my career with building teams. The work is clearly important, but often how you do that work and the people you work with is what makes a success or a failure.”
Once the vision was clear, Spencer then had to bring in good people who would demonstrate those behaviours. He worked closely with internal and external recruiters so they could understand exactly what he was looking for. He said it was important for the recruiters to be able to convey to the candidates the different type of roles for the team he was creating.
This is because sometimes data science employers can end up in an “arms race” of high salaries. He added that some workplaces with astronomical rates of pay could be compensating for a toxic work environment or dubious industry ethics.
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