A shortage of employees with good data skills.(Source: Shutterstock)

Many workplaces are having a hard time becoming data-drivenorganizations because many of their employees lack data-literacyskills and in some cases even actively avoid using data, accordingto new research from Accenture. That shortage of data skillsafflicts the credit union industry, too, one human resources experttold CU Times.

The survey of 9,000 full-time employees in the United States,U.K., Germany, France, Singapore, Sweden, Japan, Australia andIndia found just 25% believe they're fully prepared to use dataeffectively, and only 21% were confident in their ability to read,understand, question and work with data. Just 37% said they trustedtheir decisions more when they based those decisions on data, andabout half (48%) said they went with their guts rather than withdata when making decisions.

Accenture also found that 36% of employeeslooked for ways to complete tasks without using data.

"No one questions the value of data — but many companies need toreinvent their approach to data governance, analysis anddecision-marking. This means ensuring that their workforce has thetools and training necessary to deliver on the new opportunities that data presents," Accenture Data BusinessGroup technology officer and global lead Sanjeev Vohra said."Data-driven companies that focus on continuous learning will bemore productive and gain a competitive edge."

The survey results could be a stark warning for the credit unionindustry, where a shortage of employees with data skills is keepingmany credit unions from achieving growth goals and affecting theirability to serve members, according to Jill Nowacki, who ispresident/CEO of credit union HR consulting firm Humanidei.

"In my previous role (as president/CEO of the Credit UnionLeague of Connecticut), I was facilitating about 20 credit unionplanning sessions each year. I noticed that for as much asorganizations spoke about human capital being an organization'sgreatest asset, very little was being done to strategically alignthat human capital for achievement of organizational goals. The useof data is one example I often hold up. Credit unions haveambitious goals around how to use Big Data and artificialintelligence to drive forward — and we have access to a tremendous amount of rich data — but organizations were notlooking at how to change the org chart, job descriptions,development opportunities or recruiting practices to make sure theyhad the talent that could help the organization harness the datathey have," she told CU Times.

JillNowacki

The thought of having to hire chief data scientists atmid-six-figure salaries was also intimidating for many creditunions, too, she added.

"Employees who were already in organizations did not haveexperience in the field and became concerned their jobs would bemarginalized," Nowacki said. "This is why it's so easy foremployees instead to shy away from using data."

Credit union employees have the capacity to work with data andmay even enjoy it, Nowacki noted.

"When credit unions invest in developing their existing talentto better use data — and there are many opportunities out there forthis development — this can be a win-win-win. Credit unions reachtheir growth goals, employees strengthen their skillsets and thepurpose of their work, and members get solutions that are betterdesigned for them," she said.

Other survey findings included:

• Employees who identify as data-literate were at least 50% morelikely to say they felt empowered to make better decisions and aretrusted to make better decisions.
• 37% of employees said they believed data literacy trainingwould make them more productive.
• 74% of employees report feeling overwhelmed or unhappy whenworking with data.
• 61% report that data-overload has contributed to workplacestress.
• 31% of the global workforce has taken at least one day of sickleave due to stress related to information, data and technologyissues.