The Human Impact of Data Literacy | Accenture and Qlick

Most organizations understand the enormous opportunity of data in driving productivity and performance; however, a report by Accenture and Qlick found that only 25% of surveyed employees believe they’re fully prepared to use data effectively, and just 21% percent report being confident in their data literacy skills — i.e., their ability to read, understand, question and work with data. Almost half (48%) frequently defer to a “gut feeling” rather than data-driven insights when making decisions and more than one-third said they would find an alternative method to complete the task without using data. Given that organizations are increasingly investing in data analytics and business intelligence tools to help employees glean tangible value from their organization’s data, there is an opportunity to upskill their workforce in this area. Five steps are offered for planning a strategy to build a data-driven workforce.