VIDEO | Assurant, Director: Talent Acquisition Is the Most Valuable Arena in the 21st Century

(US and Canada) Yingying Kang, Director of Data Science, Assurant, speaks with Jason Masker, Field Chief Technology Officer, Stratascale - an SHI Company, about data science helping businesses accelerate innovation, talent acquisition, and how Assurant raises talent based on need.

Kang shares that having decades of experience and expertise as a business leader does not guarantee quality decision-making skills as it is bound to be biased. She mentions that humans cannot process information collected over the years in minutes but can coach a machine to analyze, find anomalies, and present opportunities to human experts. This helps decision-makers understand potential problems and opportunities.

Next, Kang states that talent acquisition is the most valuable arena in the 21st century. She stresses that decision-makers must find the relevant talent patterns to shape the team culture and serve the scope of business. She describes Assurant as a melting pot of talent with people from diverse backgrounds like psychology, finance, economics, basic sciences, and engineering.

She maintains that acquiring qualitative talent requires a strong partnership with HR partners to understand the criteria. Kang affirms searching for keywords in the resume with other experiences. The next step is to convert the experiences into a KPI and share them with HR for better talent screening. She also highlights the need for partnerships with academia to have a joint research program, ensure a talent pool and have reliable partners.

On the culture front, Kang urges managers to create a culture where the talents can communicate and exchange ideas with each other to create momentum. They must perform cross-functional training and up-skill themselves. This leadership act builds the career ladder of employees, who then participate in building the culture.

Finally, Kang emphasizes the importance of networking. She affirms having continuous conversations with the research, technology and outsourcing partners to understand the need and to inform them about the sought-after capabilities.