Female data workers underrate their data skills compared to men: only 28% of female respondents said they had the best skills in recent survey.
Women Rate Their Data Skills Lower than Male Colleagues
Alteryx, Inc. (NYSE: AYX), the analytics automation company with clients such as Sainsbury’s, Gymshark and Brookson, is highlighting new results that women rated their skills here lower than those of their male colleagues. On a scale of 0-10, 81% of men and only 76% of women rank themselves between six and ten. And the gap is even wider when it comes to “perfect” data literacy (8-10): 42% of respondents who said they had the best skills were male and only 28% were female.
The results highlight the difference in perceived value of data skills. Where 71% of workers believe the pandemic has increased ‘the importance of having strong data skills to make informed business decisions.’ Additionally, the majority of workers believe more training in data work would result in better (75%) and faster (69%) decisions.
Women Rate Skills More Accurately Than Men
It is possible that women rate their skills more accurately as the research highlights that just 23% of data workers — whom they call the Data Champions — are delivering any actual business value. This is despite Alteryx finding that three quarters (73%) classify their data skills as above average.
Lack of Hiring Talent
Despite the clear link between data-driven insights and business agility, this lack of knowledge and skills inflation is stalling business transformation efforts. While the historic digital skills gap centred on a lack of hireable talent, we now see a new phenomenon: a lack of talent in those available to hire. Hindering every organisation trying to leverage data-driven insights for a competitive edge this lack of analytic talent.
Basic Data Skills
When it came to basic data handling skills, Alteryx asked how confident workers were in a range of basic data skills including identifying trustworthy data, cleaning data and sharing data securely.
The 23% of data champions say their skills enable them to not only save money (75%), but also generate additional revenue (68%), and deliver business value (82%).
Alan Jacobson, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Alteryx, comments:
“Digital transformation has moved beyond boardroom discussions. It’s now mission critical for businesses to be able to assess, analyse, and adapt to constantly shifting requirements through data.
“Employees with strong data skills are a core requirement for developing business resiliency and the ability to pivot at speed. Despite the inherent value of data-led decision making, there is a critical disconnect between what skills are reported and the reality. The majority of data workers appear unable to deliver on what is needed to drive this transformation forward.”
