As Digital Analytics continue to evolve and play a key role in businesses country-wide, and with the talent redistribution resulting from the pandemic, many Hiring Managers are seeking to attract top candidates to roles based outside of London. But how they can do this efficiently and effectively? To answer this question, we’ll be exploring hiring in the North of England and Midlands in a new series of articles focusing on the four key specialisms found in Digital Analytics: Insights, CRO/Optimisation, Implementation/Tracking, and Product Analytics. First up, we’re taking a look at hiring Digital Insight professionals. Why is Digital Insights important?As the world undergoes a digital transformation, companies are becoming increasingly data-led, specifically in relation to their websites and apps. Over the last two years, the average consumer has turned more and more to these platforms and so many companies, in order to keep up with their competitors and to give their customers the best experience, are keen on personalising the customer experience across their websites and the apps.To achieve the goal of improving the customer experience online, and therefore improve sales, you first need to know what the customer does on their journey; What pages do customers click on? What converts into sales?  Are there any trends across different demographics or segments of customers? A Digital Analyst will come in, examine the data collected by the developers and implementation teams and translate this data into useful insights with actionable recommendations as to what needs improving. What are employers looking for in a Digital Analytics candidate?In the current market, there are numerous jobs and fewer candidates, meaning candidates are being snapped up quickly.  The market is moving particularly fast at the moment, with candidates moving through processes at faster rates – we have seen candidates through processes in just two weeks! Therefore, as candidates are in multiple processes, clients are facing more rejected offers than ever. While there are some great candidates on the market at the moment, the perfect candidate is tricky to come by. The absolute standard for a Digital Analyst is Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics with some form of Data Visualisation skills to help them create dashboards and reports with the insights they find. However, SQL is, more often than not, also becoming a must-have. By conducting the process as quickly as possible and realty appealing to candidate motivations, you will have a better chance at securing these quality candidates that would make a great addition to your business.What are candidates looking for?From my experience so far, Digital Analytics candidates seem to have a better experience in the current market, as they are able to be more selective. They are often involved in multiple processes and can weigh up which role offers them the best opportunity. Therefore, candidate motivations are important and can be crucial for a speedy recruitment process. As seen in our 2021 Data & Analytics Salary Guide, the motivations that appear to be most important to candidates are culture, training and progression, flexibility and the overall package. Culture, including training and progression, is always going to be important to a candidate and giving them a good first impression with lots of information about how your company and your role stand out from others is essential.Furthermore, flexibility is a post-pandemic privilege that is becoming the norm. While hybrid working works for some, others require primarily remote working. Despite the number of different roles across the North and Midlands, the candidate pool for a Digital Analyst with Google Analytics, SQL and Power BI is not huge. Therefore, having as much flexibility as possible with your working from home policy is key.Finally, overall package (not just base salary) is also important. The disparity between London roles and North roles is not as large as you might assume.  As there is a shortage of candidates, in order to stay competitive, it is vital to benchmark candidates effectively. Again, there is information about this in our current salary guide. However, just to give you an idea of the market, last year, the average tenure of a Digital Analyst was approximately 2 years. The average increase in salary after this time was approximately 17-20%.  Therefore, it is clear that staying competitive and understanding what candidates are looking for is important.Final Comments:Whether you are curious about the market, a client looking for help hiring, or a candidate actively or passively looking for work, Harnham can help. Take a look at our latest Digital Analytics jobs or get in touch for advice on anything from salary to candidate motivations, to work-from-home preferences.