The New Normal? COVID-19’s Impact on the Analytics Landscape & Developing Trends

Linda Burtch, founder and managing director of Burtch Works, opened her keynote session, “The New Normal? COVID-19’s Impact on the Analytics Landscape & Developing Trends,” by taking a look back nearly a decade to the start of the “data science craze.” This was the time frame when companies truly began to understand the importance of their unstructured data and look for ways to manage it and maximize its impact. Back then, finding top analytics talent (or unicorns, as she referred to them) was a much more complicated and time-consuming process. Coming back to the present, she shared that while it’s still difficult to find and hire analytics talent, it’s nowhere near as difficult as it used to be, even in light of the unique challenges of the past year.

To provide insight into the analytics and data science job markets, Burtch Works conducts a number of surveys and interviews throughout the year. The resulting reports are used by numerous firms and professionals to gain insight. This marks the eighth year Burtch Works has produced these reports, and they provide the basis for the information and insight she shared during her presentation.

The popularity of analytics and data science is continuing to grow. Only 12 years ago, there was just a single advanced degree program focused specifically on business analytics, whereas now that number has skyrocketed to more than 300. As a result, the talent field is primarily comprised of young professionals. And while men in the field continue to outnumber women (72% vs. 28%), there are currently more women in the field than ever before.

And while many feel uncomfortable discussing salaries, Linda places particular importance on salary transparency. She shared the following information in regard to how predictive analytics salaries have changed or grown from 2019 to 2020:

• Early-career salaries (first 3-4 years of career) have remained consistent at about $80,000 annually, which could potentially be reflecting that with increase in academic programs graduating young professionals, supply is finally meeting demand
• Professionals who are 4-8 years into their careers experienced a 3% increase in salary from the previous year to $100,000 annually
• Later career professionals experienced a 2% increase in the past year to $135,000 annually

Predictive analytics professionals in managerial roles saw similarly sized increases, to include:

• Entry-level managers experienced a 2% increase in annual salary to $132,000
• Annual salaries for mid-level managers (leading teams of up to 15 people) remained steady at $180,000
• Top tier managers (leading large teams, whose roles are primarily strategy-focused) experienced a nearly indiscernible increase of <1% to $250,000 annually

“It’s been the biggest single impact in my business lifetime”

But what role has the COVID-19 pandemic played in all of this? Overall, the U.S. unemployment rate was at less than 4% at the beginning of 2020, a number that peeked in April of this year at 14.7%. To better grasp the situation in the data science and analytics field, Burtch Works partnered with the International Institute for Analytics to conduct surveys from among the 70,000 contacts the Burtch Works organizations stays in touch with. These surveys provided important insight into a number of areas, including staffing and hiring, salaries, layoffs, work-from-home status and more. 

In early May, only .5% of those surveyed were in the office, and it was expressed that overall, there wasn’t a huge rush for everyone else to return. With this continuing to be the case, there are some longer-term impacts to consider. Working from home widens the talent pool but could also impact salaries. It also introduces challenges relating to onboarding new staff, as well as communication, community and culture within an organization, and raises questions about prolonged productivity.

Overall, many reflected their teams had not yet been negatively impacted in regard to staffing, hiring and layoffs. In previous recessions, you were either laid off, or you weren’t. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, many organizations have been exploring furloughs whenever possible in an effort to retain their staff. Regardless, the pandemic has presented a unique set of problems that have made predicting and planning a recovery trajectory difficult. Overall, though, quantitative professionals are feeling positive about their stability, which could perhaps be a reflection of the fact that data science is now a ‘need to have,’ not a ‘nice to have’ component of most organizations.

As far as the impact on the hiring process overall, Linda shared that she was actually surprised with how quickly and completely companies embraced remote hiring, and there have been some unexpected benefits related to this. The interview and hiring process has sped-up considerably, and people are able to start working sooner. She shared that if your organization is able, now is an excellent time to hire. There is however a great deal of competition, with candidates frequently receiving multiple offers.

In closing, Linda discussed what some of the factors impacting 2021 salary data might be. She shared that early on in the year, there were widespread salary cuts, and while some of these have been restored, most organizations have announced there will be no increases in salaries or bonuses this year. And while she mentioned earlier that candidates may receive multiple offers, their negotiating power in regard to salary is not as strong this year. Another unfortunate factor that could have a disproportionate impact on women is the need to balance the demands associated with childcare and school closings, potentially leading to more requests for part-time or modified work schedules.