How Stratigens is helping to raise the game of talent intelligence at Stryker
Meta McKinney leads the talent intelligence function at global med-tech firm, Stryker. Through the provision of strategic labour market data, including using Stratigens, the TI function is supporting the senior leadership team in making informed decisions about
skills supply and locations for its growing business.
" We chose Stratigens as it provides a unique outlook on the jobs and skills in the global workforce. I was impressed with the holistic view of skills and location analysis. Using Stratigens, we are able to access quality, targeted data to help Stryker make strategic talent decisions today and tomorrow. For example, we’re using the platform for site location analysis, to identify the best locations to find specific in-need talent, and to provide competitive and market intelligence.”
The client problem
At Stryker, the talent intelligence function is a
small team in a 40,000-person organisation and so technology platforms, in order to conduct research, play a big role. Stryker has been using Stratigens as one of its data sources to help make major business
decisions such as how to access niche skills and where to locate its global service centres.
One of the challenges that Meta was tasked
with when the function was established was to encourage the senior leadership team to look at talent data and to get them to start thinking about talent, and the data behind it, differently. The relationship that the senior team has with talent intelligence has already evolved significantly since the creation of the function.
Whereas in the past the leadership team might look to the TI team to validate decisions already made, the business now looks for talent intelligence information at the beginning of the journey. One of Meta’s goals as the business moves forward is to get data more deeply ingrained in day-to-day
decision making.
“Data is becoming the norm and talent intelligence is out in front, not just confirming decisions that have already been made. In the early days I had a location analysis question, but the decision was made before our research was finished. The business chose the location that would have been third or fourth on my list. Fast forward to 2021 and we’re operating very differently, working with Stratigens to proactively guide on location strategy”.
The solution
Using Stratigens, the Stryker TI function produces regular reports that inform long term talent strategy. These labour market reports include an analysis of seven key job families, providing an overview of key roles within job families, data on talent supply and demand, high-level cost, and high level diversity metrics. The reports offer guidance on where to focus and include data on hot topics, for example, remote working and connectivity. They provide the basis for conversations about future planning, not just one year out, but looking at a long-term time horizon from a talent perspective.
These reports are released at the end of the first quarter of the financial year so that the senior leadership team and working groups can review the data in order to plan for budgetary discussions that take place at the end of quarter two.
As a data-person I think it’s really important to be able to look at data and compare to see where there are trends. When the data comes together, I get a really strong picture that I can combine into a report. The senior team appreciate that talent intelligence has something that we can bring to the table that they don’t have”.
The outcome
The reports produced by the TI function have raised the game of talent intelligence at Stryker and increasingly the senior leadership team are asking for deeper dives into data. The conversations that the TI function has with leadership demonstrate
that there is hunger for talent intelligence data and value to be gained from it.
The talent intelligence function collaborates with other teams at a senior level, including HR, people analytics and talent acquisition, to present a joined up picture with an external lens. The next step is to help leadership and talent teams look at day-today talent trends that are happening now and that can impact talent decisions, for example by looking at competitive talent intelligence.
In the future, Meta would like to see a move towards more dash-boarding and self-service so that colleagues can see and manipulate live talent intelligence data. Plus, once the business has a base of data to look back historically as well as forwards, they’ll be able to be more predictive about spotting future trends. Talent intelligence is ensuring that at Stryker, no talent
decisions are made in a vacuum and that all have a strong basis in data. Although a small team, the talent intelligence function is providing an invaluable picture to the senior leadership team through an external talent lens.
