9 in 10 employees say this is a productivity killer

It affects their overall career development

BY Nurhuda Syed 09 Jul 2020

Almost all employees (92%) in Singapore believe they would be able to do their job better if they were more data literate, based on a new study.

Another nine in 10 (89%) said they experience challenges at work due to the lack of data-related skillsets.

When asked about how the lack of data skills impacted their careers, most (87%) employees raised concerns such as a falling behind their colleagues in work performance (68%), becoming less useful to their companies (64%), and having lesser chance of a job promotion (57%).
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These were some of the key findings revealed in the recent study by NTUC LearningHub, which features insights from industry leaders such as global tech giant IBM, Japanese tech conglomerate Softbank and leading analytics software company Qlik.

Employees said data illiteracy has resulted in:

An inability to measure work outcomes (59%)
Becoming outdated on current and future business practices (56%)
Inability to do their jobs well (55%)

The same skills voted as ‘the most necessary’ for them to be productive, were also perceived as the skills they lacked in:

Data analysis (63%)
Data interpretation for decision making in business (50%)
Data protection and risk management (48%)

“In this new decade, data literacy will evolve as a basic literacy skill for Worker 4.0 – our future workers,” said Kwek Kok Kwong, CEO at NTUC LearningHub.

“Reading the report, more workers will be anxious about their data capabilities, but we are here to assure you that it is a learnable skill if you are willing to invest time and effort. It is not reserved for an elite few.”