Analytical Thinking - What Does It Mean and Its Importance | HRMantra Hr Software

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Analytical Thinking Definition

The analytical thinking process is an art of addressing a problem and figuring out how to fix it. Analytical thinking helps the person find the causes and effects of a situation and make a wise decision.

As an employer or human resource manager, you may look for candidates possessing hard and soft skills. Among others, analytical thinking happens to be one of the most sought-after.

Analytical thinking enables a person to sort through data effortlessly, solve the most complicated issues, and form a mindful opinion. Knowing about this can help get the best candidates on board for your organization.

First, understand what analytical thinking means.

Put simply, it is being able to look at things more thoughtfully. If he is an analytical thinker, the analytical thinker will, in no time, be able to spot problems and their answers by taking the right steps at the right time; he will be able to find solutions through data and point out the root cause of the problem.

It is the capability of observing and solving problems that may enable a business to be more productive in general. Analytical thinking ability, the most frequent aptitude required in many fields, normally appears in most job descriptions.

Importance of Analytical Thinking

According to the Future of Jobs Report, companies do feel that the ability to think analytically will increase its importance by approximately 72 percent in the times to come.

Of late, more and more organizations want to hire people who can boast of analytical skills. That is because, with the rapid progress in technology, jobs are becoming difficult day by day. Thus, on one hand, automation is making it easier to analyze technical data; on the other hand, it''s taking a pretty long time to automate thinking and decision-making. This means companies think that in five years we will have a lot of data but not enough people who can figure out what it all means.

Jobs That Utilize Analytical Thinking

The following gets performed by those in the following occupations that demand them to apply analytical thought to what they are doing:

• Business Analysts: Seeing that they reflect on business challenges and arrive at potential solutions, business analysts have to hone how to think analytically so that they react strategically.
• Criminologists: Criminologists use analytical thinking to investigate various issues and develop action plans that can keep crimes at bay.
• Economists: Analytical thinking skills are also employed by economists to understand different trends and happenings in the economy.
• Software Developers: The ability to think analytically helps software developers make the right decisions while making programs and putting them into action.
• Accountants: Accountants examine and process their clients'' financial data and use analytical thought to help the clients identify and correct issues.

Difference Between Critical Thinking and Analytical Thinking

There are four major differences between analytical thought and critical thinking:

Facts

Both the skills look at facts to analyse in order to comprehend data, but they do so in different ways. The people who use analytical thinking towards looking at a situation back up their proof with facts. Critical thinkers, on the other hand, use facts to decide and to check if an idea makes sense or not.

Purpose

The ability to think analytically will allow one to decipher how to solve a complex problem and understand a situation. Based on this skill, new thoughts can be generated from among people.

If someone needs to form an opinion or view on an idea, critical thought would best work. One can employ this skill in order to help them support a case from a certain point of view. Critical thinking skills would also help them figure out what drives them and what their goals are.

Thought Process

Analytical thinking is more focused and straight. On the other hand, critical thinking is more circular. People who think analytically tend to move from one thought to the next in a straight line. People who think critically usually keep going back and forth on an idea until they make a decision.

These two thinning methods also use different factors to help someone make a decision. In analytical thinking, the process strives to avoid biases and assumptions, whereas critical thinking processes are more into the opinions and biases people have. Logic in an analytical thinker is used to solve problems, and in critical thinkers, things are looked at from different points of view.

There you go!

Now you know exactly what analytical thinking means.

The day you have such people in your company, the company will be in a much better position to address and solve serious problems effectively. You can also use HRMantra advanced Analytics to help you make sense of the workforce data and take meaningful decisions in time.

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