What is CDO? How to Hire Your First Chief Data Officer?

CDO recruitment is an often debated C-level recruitment activity, giving rise to many questions among board members or top management committees. A clear understanding of the position helps ease the issues that seem to create a conflict of interest.

According to top C-Level recruiters, in a majority of organizations, the most challenging part of CDO hiring is the initial phase. This phase involves bringing the management teams on one page about what the position entails and when an organization can be ready for CDO hiring.

Here is a blog to help you get the right insights and information.

Chief Data Officer

The chief data officer is a C-Level executive position with a business focus. A CDO understands the strategy and direction of business lines and growth plans and draws the strategy and plans to discover how to use data to achieve those plans.

The CDO of a company will be the one overseeing all key data-related functions, from data governance and management to ensuring its access, quality, and use in drawing insights through analytics and business intelligence.

In general, data management and exchange through databases and hubs might fail under IT roles, and the management of all analytics activities would be for the chief analytics officer.

The CDO is the C-level officer who decides the framework through which all enterprise-wide business data can be channeled to generate the right insights. The CDO decides how the storage, access, quality, and integrity of data should be managed to achieve objectives of business intelligence, data analytics, and data monetization.

That is why unless your organization is ready for such an overhaul or transformation in its way of functioning, it will not be ready for CDO hiring. If your company, however, realizes the need for a CDO, then you need to understand and plan the necessary changes to set the stage for a CDO to work.

Prepare The Stage for CDO Hiring

Prepare an Action Plan for A Data-Driven Operations Model

Before hiring a CDO, create a plan for implementing the infrastructure which a CDO can use to executive the position-based roles and duties. If your company is not ready for a data-driven operations model, then it is not the right time to hire a CDO. The majority of the roles played by the CDO are about facilitating and boosting data-driven operations.

Create a Framework for Centralized Data Storage, Access, and Governance

If your organization is ready to lay the foundation of data-driven operations, you would need to brainstorm and discover a basic framework for centralized data storage and access. Find out how much investments would be needed and how you can justify the investment. The top management needs to set a clear plan of action that shows how the transition from data silos to centralized data storage and management can help the business.

Identify Need for Data Science and Analytics Systems for Marketing, Sales, Operations, and Other Key Areas

There are a number of roles a CDO plays to ensure data science and analytics for improving enterprise-wide functions and outcomes. Going for CDO recruitment without any plans for the implementation of data analytics programs does not make a lot of sense.

Prepare a Business Plan for Digital Transformation and Value Improvements

Before hiring a CDO, your company must be technologically advanced and should have implemented protocols for compliance, data security, etc. The process and the business model should be transformed with the domain model. A business plan must align with the Cultural/Organizational Transformation.

CDO Talent Search

Based on the Steps Mentioned Above, Identify the Kind of Leader You Need

Find out what kind of plans need to be implemented and how you will be going with your data-driven operations models. Based on those plans, you would get a clear idea of the kind of future duties and responsibilities for the Chief Data Officer position.

Also, he or she must be able to communicate the insights and make information easily available to all. The leader must be able to advise, monitor, and govern the enterprise data and enable data efficiency. The CDO must be able to drive the digital transformation of the company with cost reduction and revenue generation strategies.

Hire A CDO Executive Search Firm

Hire a CDO Search firm with the expertise to identify the right talent that best fits your CDO position as well as the cultural composition of your organization. CDO recruiters must be able to leverage multiple candidate sourcing channels and find candidates who best match the ideal candidate persona for your company.

Conduct Market Mapping to Identify the Best CDO Talent in Chosen Geographies

With the assistance of a CDO recruitment agency, you can find out about all potential and active CDO candidates in target geographies for your industry. Market mapping also helps you find out the kind of CDO talent your top competitors have. The research insights help you make a very practical approach to defining the KRAs and KPIs of your future CDO and the level of skills, experience, knowledge, and abilities required to carry out the same.

Conduct Compensation Research and Make Estimates for Investment in CDO Recruitment

It is wiser to undertake pay research before fixing a salary for the CDO position. Not every CDO gets the same type of compensation and benefits. The level of expertise, competencies, technology implementation knowledge, and track record vary from one individual to another. Compensation benchmarking helps you make the right decision about salary and benefits with regard to a candidate’s background and profile.

Finalize – Interim CDO, Permanent CDO or Consultant CDO?

Before hiring your first Chief Data Officer, you must first determine the sort of CDO your company requires.

Interim CDOs are C-level executives who are temporarily in charge of enterprise-wide governance and information asset use. CDO consultants assist individuals and organizations in creating a better future for themselves through data processing, analysis, data mining, information trading, and other strategies.

A permanent CDO plays a much bigger day-to-day role in all C-level decision making. Consult with top C-level recruiters about your business needs about CDO hiring and find out what is your immediate need – hiring a consultant CDO, an interim CDO, or a permanent CDO.

CDO Recruitment Process

Prepare Superior Employer Branding Materials for CDO Candidate Outreach:

To build a positive employer brand, you need to position your company as a “dream workplace.” Positioning as a dream workplace for your ideal candidates can help you attract and recruit them. Being part of a strong employer brand can make employees proud and more invested in sharing their positive experiences and recommending the company to their peers.

Invest in stronger employer branding from a C-level perspective before starting with CDO recruitment.

Let The CDO Search Firm Initially Source Only Top 5 Best-Match Candidates:

It is advisable for CDO search firms to initially source only the top 5 candidates as prospects for your business. Based on screening and interviews, you might feel the need to revise some aspects of the CDO profile and performance expectations. Based on new inputs, you could ask the C-level recruiters to research and target candidates who are perfect fits based on new inputs.

Conduct Detailed Interviews Through External Experts to Test Key Areas of Knowledge, Proven Abilities:

By conducting in-depth interviews with subject matter experts, you can hire the best candidate for your firm. Expert interviews delve deeply into a candidate’s experiences, feelings, and viewpoints.

Get Paid Consultations Done with Top 2-3 Candidates to Find Who Is Best for Your Company:

Paid Consultations with Top 2-3 Candidates will help the business gather information about the candidate and how the candidate can be part of your organization and build the business vision, and how they will overcome the challenges. Based on their insights and performance, companies may quickly identify which of their top prospects is the best.

Organize Site Visit and Assess Culture Fit Traits:

Before hiring a CDO, you should consider if the applicant is collaborative since this indicates whether he or she can work in teams and values the opinion of a diverse range of individuals, and you should also consider flexibility. Hiring for cultural fit is critical to maintaining your company’s image.

Negotiate And Frame a Tight Contract:

Before employing a CDO, confirm that the CDO’s contract is legally binding and has precise criteria. In addition, the offer should be customized to the prospect’s individual needs. If the applicant prefers to arrange his or her own tech help (Broadband), the company may amend the agreement to include a tech support (Broadband) allowance.

Alliance International

Alliance International can assist you in conducting your next successful Chief Data Officer search. We have already enabled thousands of companies to find superior candidates for their C-level positions. The services of our C-level recruiters have led to companies fulfilling major targets related to business transformation, expansion, and operations excellence.

Consult with us for C-level recruitment. Find a superior leader for your organization.