The human impact of data literacy
January 16, 2020
January 16, 2020
Data underpins the success of organizations in mining both physical assets and digital business opportunities—improving accuracy, increasing efficiency and augmenting the ability of the workforce to deliver greater value.
To become data-driven, organizations must shift from the dominant enterprise approach to data, in which ownership of data and its analysis has been in the hands of a few specialists. Actualizing a democratized approach requires businesses to focus on three elements.
The good news: leaders now see the value of democratizing data. Our research found that nearly all employees are now expected to be able to use data in their roles.
75%
Read data
65%
Interpret data
63%
Make data-driven decisions
In addition, enterprises are increasingly investing in tools, such as data analytics and business intelligence software, to facilitate data consumption.
67%
of the global workforce have access to business intelligence tools.
75%
have access to data analytics software.
Self-sufficiency: More than self-service
However, just because employees have access to self-service tools doesn’t mean that they are self-sufficient to read, understand and work with data.
25%
of employees believe they’re fully prepared to use data effectively.
21%
are confident with their data literacy skills.
Our research identified three ways that show how a lack of self-sufficiency to work with data affects employees’ ability to assume their roles in a data-driven workplace:
How is this impacting businesses?
Each year, companies lose an average of more than
due to data-induced procrastination and sick leave owing to stress resulting from information, data and technology issues.
The key to realizing the opportunity of data is to unlock the potential of people within the organization. We have identified five key steps to consider when planning a data literacy strategy.
Education and empowerment will be the true determining success factors in a data-literate world.
With only less than a quarter of the global workforce reporting that they are confident in their data literacy skills, business leaders must invest in data upskilling to help improve their employees’ use of data and strengthen their data-driven culture. It will also enable organizations to accelerate time to insights, create new streams of revenue and fuel data-led growth.