7 in 10 bosses troubled by their own data illiteracy

This gets worse down the workforce as almost all employees have reported getting overwhelmed when analysing data.

Data illiteracy is a growing problem that’s plaguing Singapore’s workforce as only three in 10 (31%) of c-suites and directors have expressed confidence about their ability to read,  comprehend and work with data, according to a survey by data analytics platform Qlik. 

Despite the dismal figure, Singapore ranks as amongst the most confident about their data literacy levels, outpaced only by top level executives in India (64%) and Australia (39%).

Whilst constant exposure to data may have boosted the confidence of bosses in their data crunching capabilities, employees are less confident about their skills to analyse data for work-related matters as the number is divided into half to 15%. 

“We can see a clear gap across APAC whereby business leaders are demanding that their employees leverage data day-to-day to drive actionable insights. At the same time however, there is a noticeable gap in the level of support provided to empower employees with the skills and training required to succeed.” said Qlik data literacy evangelist Paul Mclean. 

This comes as almost half (42%) of workers in APAC believe the training they are provided by their employers is inadequate however, a great number of workers (77.8%) have expressed willingness to invest more time and energy into improving their data skillset as long as companies will offer them proper training oppor. 

Indian workers lead the Asia Pacific in confidence on their data literacy skillset after almost half (45%) of respondents have expressed confidence in their data literacy skills as opposed to 6% of Japan employees. 

“Both employers and employees need to take ownership and be more proactive in bridging this skills gap. Companies that are on the forefront of improving data literacy will be able to capitalize on the Analytics Economy,” added Mclean.