Large majority of UK employees see data literacy as critical to their career progression, yet half have never been offered training
LONDON, May 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A Censuswide study of over 3,000 UK employees revealed that despite four in five professionals (84 per cent) believing data skills will be important for their career progression and a similar percentage (83 per cent) using data on a weekly basis as part of their role, nearly half (49 per cent) say their employer hasn't offered them any kind of data analytics training.
Statistics from the study, commissioned by visual analytics firm Tableau, shows Britain's workforce understands the growing significance of data within their organisation. Almost all (94%) of those surveyed stated that they consider data to be important[i] for performing their role, and data skills were ranked as fourth in a list of the most important skills for their job – with only traditional, 'soft' skills such as 'communication', 'organisation' and 'people management' ranking higher (see below).
According to Tableau's SVP EMEA James Eiloart, what's slowing down organisations from adopting a data-driven culture is the current lack of urgency given to data skills training. He argues: "As the digitalisation of things continues, reams of data are being created every second, representing a great opportunity for companies. But data is only valuable when business insights are gleaned from it and that comes by putting data in the hands of employees. Our research shows that employers and employees recognise this, but training up employees on data literacy skills just isn't keeping pace."
With the use of AI, IoT and machine learning becoming rapidly adopted by today's enterprises, getting actionable value from the data resulting from these technologies will be crucial for businesses to compete and thrive. Even as STEM services rise on the political agenda in an effort to close the growing skills gap, Tableau's study demonstrates that current training courses in data analytics aren't keeping pace with the changing business landscape.
Additionally, despite an employer-focused study released by LinkedIn last year revealing that 'statistical analysis and data mining' was the number one skill to get you hired in the UK, Tableau's report suggests companies aren't as focused on nurturing these skills in existing staff as they could be.
Companies that are successfully leveraging new technologies for business success are doing so alongside training - even at a basic level - that provides foundational data analytics skills to employees.
The full ranking of skills employees stated as important, were:
1. Communication skills (64%)
2. Organisational skills (47%)
3. People management (41%)
4. Data skills (32%)
5. Leadership (21%)
6. Presentation skills (16%)
7. Budgeting/forecasting skills (11%)
8. Design/creativity skills (8%)
9. Digital media skills (4%)
For more information about Tableau, please visit: www.tableau.com/.
About the research
The survey was conducted in March 2017 by Censuswide which polled 3,010 white-collar, professionals, who had been in employment for at least 5-10 years. Employees surveyed work in the professional services, arts & culture, legal, HR, IT & telecoms, finance, sales, media & marketing, retail, catering & leisure, healthcare, manufacturing & utilities, architecture, engineering & building, travel & transport and education industries.
About Tableau
Tableau (NYSE: DATA) helps people see and understand data. Tableau helps anyone quickly analyse, visualise and share information. More than 57,000 customer accounts get rapid results with Tableau in the office and on-the-go. Over 300,000 people use Tableau Public to share public data in their blogs and websites. See how Tableau can help you by downloading the free trial at www.tableau.com/trial.
Tableau and Tableau Software are trademarks of Tableau Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
[i] Responses revealed respondents thought data was either "very important" (62%) or "important" (33%)
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