The Human Impact of Data Literacy

 

Data is a gold mine that can help the Intelligent Enterprise drive growth. Yet, while organisations continue to collect, store and analyse data, its real potential remains largely untapped. In fact, research from Forrester found that between 60 and 73 percent of all enterprise data is never analysed.

That said, it would be wrong to ignore the significant investment that many firms have made in state-of-the-art solutions to uncover and unlock new opportunities from their data. From local police forces to the world’s largest banks, organisations are using data to prevent fraud, create better customer experiences and even save lives. But we are still just scratching at the surface of data’s full potential.

Businesses increasingly recognise that augmenting the capabilities of the whole workforce—rather than one small team of data specialists—can significantly increase the business opportunity of data. So, while investment in training and solutions has largely focused on smaller groups of employees with data expertise, individuals across all business functions are increasingly expected to become self-sufficient with data and make data-driven decisions.

However, with technology having developed far more quickly than the typical employee’s ability to harness its insights, some employees report feeling overwhelmed by these changing working practices, which consequently affects their performance.

To delve deeper into the matter, Qlik and Accenture commissioned a global research study on behalf of the Data Literacy Project, surveying 9,000 employees from a sample of industries and job roles—from the C-suite to entry-level—in nine countries across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.