Empowering people with data-driven insights

Data is a key aspect of what we do at Hymans Robertson. As a data scientist, this is incredibly timely, and fortunate, for me.

Being a part of the firm, for almost three years now, I have seen first-hand Hymans’ desire to foster a data-driven culture that encourages innovation and efficiency and gives people the information they need to make sound decisions. A significant portion of that revolves around our clients. In a sense, our role is to advise them on how to manage the financial risks that come with not knowing what the future holds.

To do that, we need to take advantage of Data Science. Without delving into the controversial subject of what Data Science is, my favourite definition comes from Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Scientist at Google. “Data Science is the discipline of making data useful”.

Making data useful is something that we, within the firm, have been doing for a long time but may not have publicised that much. That is all about to change.Our collaboration with Data Idols and the Data Science Festival is one of our more recent initiatives. Last year, we participated in their Summer School Session, offering an Introduction to Statistics short course. This year, we participated in the Data Science Festival Sandbox sessions.

In particular, I, Ali Humphry and Ben Clare gave lightning talks about how we are starting to leverage data throughout the firm, from directly assisting clients to business divisions within our firm. We also demonstrated how data-driven tools and dashboards can be built to deliver meaningful insights.The session was attended by around 120 people from 13 different nations. It was a great success, and attendees learned a great deal about a wide range of data-related topics, such as:

• Applying Data Science approaches to increase cross-selling possibilities and better understand client demands,

• Converting financial data into risk management insights; and

• How the firm's administration division is beginning to adopt data analytics to improve the customer experience for pension scheme members.

If you have any questions, please get in touch.