Just one in ten are confident in data skills

Without technology it would have been impossible for employees to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Unfortunately, two years later, employees are still struggling to use tech effectively. Research by Qlik found that only 11% of employees globally are fully confident in all data literacy skills.  

Only 27% of employees surveyed have had formal data literacy training with hands on-exercises, and just 21% of employees believe their employer is preparing them for a more data-orientated and automated workplace. 

Additionally, 45% of employees reported they feel anxious that their employer is not taking responsibility for nurturing their kills to succeed in the future workplace.

Consequently, 32% of employees reported they had changed jobs in the last 12 months because their employer wasn’t offering enough upskilling and training opportunities. This begs the question is the world on the cusp of a ‘Great Skills Resignation’?  

Paul Barth, global head of data literacy at Qlik, said “Investment in leading-edge data platforms has revealed a large—and expanding—gap in data literacy skills in the workforce.” 

“To become a data-driven company, where employees regularly use data and analytics to make better decisions and take informed actions, business leaders need to make investments in upskilling workers in every role to close the data literacy gap.” 

Employee responsibility to combat the skills gap

Amid the ‘Great Skills Resignation,’ it is the responsibility of current employers to ensure their employees are given access to training opportunities to stay consistent with the future of the workplace.  

Elif Tutuk, VP of innovation & design at Glik, noted, “We often hear people talk about how employees need to understand how artificial intelligence (AI) will change how they complete their role, but more importantly we need to be helping them develop the skills that enable them to add value to the output of these intelligent algorithms.”  

“Data literacy will be critical in extending workplace collaboration beyond human-to-human engagements, to employees augmenting machine intelligence with creativity and critical thinking.” 

Glik recommends five goals for business leaders to maximize the return of investment of AI, including creating a data-literate culture, democratizing the right data through tools and literacy, embracing continuous learning, promoting trust in data, and harnessing data for positive change.  

Are you investing in data-literacy training and competency?