Business Analysts: How to Hire the Right One

Do you find yourself staring at pages and pages of business data? Unsure of how to use all this data to improve your business?

Then it might be time to hire a business analyst. A business analyst can help you interpret your business data and tell you what’s going on in your business and why. They can also help you identify trends and create a business plan to meet forecasted goals. 

But if the idea of scrolling through dozens of business analysts on LinkedIn has you feeling overwhelmed, our business analyst guide has you covered.

Read on to learn all about how you can hire the right business analyst in no time.

Freelance or Full Time? 

The first step to hiring a business analyst is to decide how long you need them for.

If you need someone to assess your business and give you advice once on a specific issue, then a freelancer is your best bet. But if you’re looking to continue improving your systems, then you may want to hire someone full-time. 

One of the biggest benefits of a full-time, in-house business analyst is that they will know your business inside and out. 

Decide on the Type of Business Analyst

Your next step is to decide on the type of business analyst you need. Some of the most common types are:

• Quantitative business analysts (reduce financial risks)
• Business analyst managers (for large teams)
• IT business analysts (use technology to improve procedures)

You may even need to specialize further depending on the needs of your business.

For example, an agile business analyst works in an agile software development environment, while a data business analyst focuses on using your business’ data to draw conclusions and improve performance.

Create the Right Job Description

One of the business analyst tips that sometimes gets overlooked is writing a job description that will attract qualified candidates. 

In your job description, make sure to include keywords that your candidates are likely to search for. These include:

• Business analyst
• Data analyst
• SAP
• SQL

Make sure that you write a compelling job description that also contains the job expectations specific to your company. 

Interview Candidates

One of the most important steps in choosing a business analyst is making sure you ask the right questions at the interview.

For example, you want to ask candidates about relevant work experience. Pick a few projects the candidate worked on and ask them detailed questions about them.

You also want to make sure the candidate has past success with delivering projects on time while reaching company goals.

Business Analysts Can Help You Reach Your Goals Faster

Business analysts can mark the difference between having pages of confusing data and using this data to improve your business.

We hope these tips gave you some clarity on how you can attract and hire the right business analyst for your company’s unique needs.

Want to read more articles like this one? Then make sure to check out more articles from our business category!