It is no surprise that data scientists are in high demand. "McKinsey estimated that we will be facing a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 data scientists by 2018."
Managers facing this shortage are going to need to be creative to retain the data scientists they have. In this Harvard Business Review article, Michael Li, a data scientist who has worked at Google, Foursquare, and Andressen Horowitz, and has held the executive director position of The Data Incubator, provides many ways companies can keep their data scientists motivated.
One example is allowing data scientists to install and use their favorite tools. Michael says, "Data scientists don't exist in a vacuum. They are part of a greater universe of peers collaborating in a large open source movement. Many of the tools are open source. So allow your data scientists to install and use their favorite tools."
Michael has many recommendations to retain and excite talent. Read his article to learn about the three main categories of keeping these employees motivated: support, ownership and purpose.
