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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Enabling success: talent management

Brelmont Bank has a shortage of data scientists. Its HR plan shows internal supply will cover only 30% of the need within 18 months, and the market for such skills is tight. The board wants the new capability embedded in the bank's culture and wants to retain the knowledge gained. Which resourcing approach best fits these aims?

A blend of targeted external recruitment and retraining of existing staff fits best. Internal supply cannot close the gap alone, so hiring is needed, but developing current employees embeds the capability in the culture and retains knowledge, which outsourcing or pure agency hiring would not achieve.

  1. AOutsource all analytics work to a contractor on a rolling short-term contract
  2. BUse a mix of targeted external recruitment and development of existing staff through retrainingCorrect
  3. CRely entirely on external recruitment through agencies at premium salaries
  4. DFreeze analytics projects until the market eases

Explanation

The gap is large and the skills scarce, so some external hiring is needed, but cultural embedding and knowledge retention favour building internal capability too. Full outsourcing leaves knowledge with the contractor and weakly embeds culture. Complete reliance on external hiring ignores the retraining option and is costly in a tight market. Freezing projects fails the strategic need.

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