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- Researchers from Unsupervised indicate data literacy as a top skill for career advancement in the 21st century.
- 70% of workers cite that the impetus for becoming more data literate is for the sake of leveraging a potential promotion or receiving a raise.
- Having a good sense of data will improve your career in many ways, such as increasing the odds of getting promoted or getting a raise, improving your search for a new job or career, and improving your job performance, no matter what your job is.
Data literacy is the ability to competently interpret data. By “data,” this could mean charts, graphs, statistics, and other well-known skills in the world of tech.
Obviously, if you work in tech or at a tech company in some capacity, having data literacy skills will get you ahead. However, what is less well known is the fact that data literacy’s application in improving career outcomes is universal, not just exclusive to tech jobs.
Data literacy is arguably one of the top skills you should be learning for the sake of career advancement. Researchers from Unsupervised indicate data literacy as a top skill for career advancement in the 21st century.
The Prevalence and Necessity of Data Literacy in Ordinary Employment
Unsupervised’s 2022 study called Leveling up in the Workforce begins by asking “How important is data to your job?” Especially, how important is it to the average employee, as opposed to a data scientist?
The importance of data literacy for the purposes of performing one’s job successfully is quite substantial in most cases. Luckily, 42% of workers cite having acquired data literacy skills on the job.
In the Unsupervised study (which surveyed over 700 employees from a wide range of industries), 64% report that leadership often talks about data-driven decision making, and 32% say that these talks “sometimes” occur. Only 4% say it rarely occurs.
“The vast majority of working Americans hear leadership discussing data-based decision-making on a regular basis. And if not, they’re at least hearing it sometimes. In other words, the heads of most companies are openly making their workplace decisions based on data. And more than half of all employees considered “data analysis” to be the single most commonly encountered data-related term on the job today,” according to the study.
Workers also report that the primary way that they learn about data is on the job. Of those who do not learn about data on the job, most workers learn it by way of instructional videos on the internet on how to visualize data (67%).
Second only to online instructional videos, 62% of workers cite independently researching salient data-related concepts, such as “data analysis,” “data collection,” “data management,” “database,” and “data visualization.”
Based on the latest research, it is clear not only that data literacy is broadly important across careers, but that workers are beginning to catch on to this fact.
What is motivating workers to learn more about data literacy?
The importance of data literacy has become more transparent to more employees, which surely motivates them to learn more about it. Being good at your job is always beneficial –even if tangible rewards do not immediately come about, it displays dedication and integrity.
However, employee motivation for learning about data literacy further reflects its importance and power in the modern era of work.
- 70% of workers cite that the impetus for becoming more data literate is for the sake of leveraging a potential promotion or receiving a raise.
- 65% of workers cite that the impetus derives from data literacy being relevant to their current job.
- 54% of workers want to become more data literate so they can make a change in their careers –presumably, for the sake of getting a new job.
- 21% of workers want to become more data literate so they can start a side-hustle.
Employers prefer data-driven employees
Employees who have data-related skills are bound to reap benefits that they wouldn’t without those skills. Of those who took it into their own hands to become data literate, 74% felt more confident in their ability to talk about data-related matters.
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Likewise, improving data literacy allowed for up to 87% of workers to add new skills to their resumes. Managers love to see these sorts of skills on resumes – 81% of managers say that they are more likely to hire someone who has made efforts to improve their data literacy.
The need for training and how to get your own
Unfortunately, in 68% of cases, employers do not offer training for data literacy. More often than not, learning data literacy is up to employees, who often have to spend large sums of money to acquire these skills.
However, if your employer does not offer training, various online courses exist that not only can improve your data literacy, but can also prepare you for a new job in data-centric fields like data science.
Doing this will give you a better understanding of business strategy, other roles in your company, and you may even find that your ability to communicate with coworkers and managers has improved.
The benefits of data literacy are clear-cut. Having a good sense of data will improve your career in many ways, such as increasing the odds of getting promoted or getting a raise, improving your search for a new job or career, and improving your job performance no matter what your job is.
Factors such as managerial approval, understanding of business structures, and an improved ability to communicate with others at work can be directly traced to educating yourself in data literacy.
The importance of data literacy in career advancement is arguably more salient than any other skill you can acquire in the 21st century for the future of work.
