Data Literacy – What Is It and Why It Matters?

In this 21st century, data literacy is a necessity. Organizations are gathering myriads of data from performance measures, claims, text, calls, and emails. Data collection allows the company to improve its services, operations, talent acquisition, program designing, financial planning, and more. 

Data is at hand and becoming more influential and powerful but the issue arises when there is a lack of data interpretation. Data is prioritized at the moment but there is a lack of confidence in employing this data. Therefore, organizations need to consider data literacy and gain a competitive edge.  

What’s data literacy?

At EW Solutions, business owners and employees can learn to write, read, and communicate data in context. It is a leading data literacy consulting agency that educates on how to evaluate the gathered data, uncover its meaning in figures and pick up actionable insights. With data insights, employees that specialize in specific business areas will capably take action for obtaining good results. 

Besides data analyst, the basic ability to decipher and using the data is a must for everyone in the company. Data literate personnel can make decisions based on figures and facts. They can experiment with data and explore new opportunities. Not just collecting but putting data to use is essential for business growth.

Why does data literacy matter?

• According to a study, 50% of businesses still lack AI and data literacy skills needed to attain business value. The amount of data your organization collects is useless until it is put to business use. Data has to be analyzed to gain actionable inside and achieve business value.
• Poor literacy is a hindrance to business growth. Experts predict that 80% of businesses will need to initiate a data literacy program for overcoming every employee’s data reading skills.
• Employees must have the capacity to use data and influence their daily activities and business-critical decisions. Deciphering and using data correctly will help employees perform better, obtain their goals, and contribute to the entire company’s performance.
• Data access to every employee with basic data reading and using skills will help to streamline the operations without waiting for data scientists to decode the data. Silos are eliminated.
• Data literate employee is well-aware of how to deal with data correctly, which reduces a lot of data security breaches. [currently, 40% of employees are responsible for data security breaches]

Steps to build data-literate employee culture

To increase data literacy within your company, here are some steps to follow.

• Determine the current data literacy level within your company.
• Identify how many of them are fluent data speakers.
• Recognize where there is a communication gap that prevents the data from being fully used.
• Discuss why data literacy is crucial for the success of the company. Those who understand will willingly support the training program.
• Data accessibility to all is a necessity so that everyone can manipulate, evaluate, and share their viewpoint. It may involve including data visualization technology.
• Create a small data literacy program like a single department at a time. Make the training a fun and engaging program.
• Even the business C-suite needs to prioritize and support the use of data insights.

Approach professional training services to boost the data literacy program in your organization!