Closing in on the Data Skills Gap

The world in which we
live, play and work is transforming right before our eyes. In today’s rapidly
changing business and technology landscape, companies need to keep up quickly,
or else risk being disrupted.

The ability to succeed
in this digital era means increasing the speed at which ideation, innovation
and collaboration can happen. While technology plays a big part in this
equation, it’s not just the machines that make the magic happen, businesses
need talented people equipped with a data-first mindset to transform your data
into a powerful strategic asset.

According to
Singapore’s Economic Development Board, the data analytics sector alone is set
to contribute at least $1 billion to the economy each year by 2017. However,
while 94 percent of Southeast Asia’s business leaders agreed that it is
important to have a data-savvy workforce, there is a skills gap that needs to
be addressed in order for organisations to fully move ahead with a data-driven
culture. Only 39 percent of those polled felt that they have employees with
relevant data skills to help them identify and achieve business outcomes.[1]

While some
organisations are trying to solve the issue through training and contingent
hires, which may partly solve the problem, others are taking on a more direct
approach by attracting and managing the talent needed to make this shift.

Businesses need to
realise that talent and technology together can drive their
data transformation and fast track business success. The key to this is to
ensure they have the right talent in their organisation.

1.    Groom the next
generation of talent

One way businesses can
help bring into the market a steady pipeline of talent who are equipped with
the required knowledge, and who can leverage the tools for the age of big data
is to groom the next generation of data professionals through public-private
partnerships.

This is where students
in tertiary institutes are trained in the necessary skill sets through hands-on
experience to implement or build modern, agile IT infrastructure that can help
businesses respond to new and changing business requirements more rapidly.
Private sector companies need to take the lead in supporting this upgrading of
skill sets and cultivate a new generation of trained IT professionals who can
then be matched to opportunities across various industries – not just the IT
sector.

2.    Mine your existing
workforce

Companies searching to
fill a skills gap usually start searching externally. However, with a little
training, most enterprises are surprised to learn that there are employees who
may already have the skills, or who could easily be redeployed, to fill the
gap.

Mining for talent within
the business can have big payoffs and help bolster talent pools. However, to do
this, enterprises need to build in flexibility and inter-department mobility
that’s founded in a skills- rather than role-based approach so that people can
be effectively deployed to different roles and divisions, as and when the
business need arises.

3.    ‘Acqui-hire’

One strategy that
looks set to become a trend is ‘acqui-hiring’, where businesses
acquire another company to tap the talent and skills of its personnel.
According to a survey and whitepaper commissioned by the Economist Intelligence
Unit and Cognizant, 37 per cent of companies plan to implement such measures by
2018, and 21 per cent of businesses surveyed have already done so[2].

In India, a few
emerging e-commerce tech companies, such as CommonFloor, Flipkart, Urban Ladder
and Housing.com, have done acqui-hires[3]. It is not about
hiring regular run-of-the-mill talent just to add to the workforce, rather, if
there is commonality in the work done by two companies, then there is huge
merit in bringing teams together.

4.    Ensure that leaders
exemplify a data-first culture

Lastly, people need to
stay ahead of the curve, not by being “faster or cheaper” but by developing,
honing and capitalizing on the capabilities that are uniquely human and cannot
be replicated today by automated software.

The key to
organisation-wide data transformation begins with leaders and senior management
as company culture is often instilled from the top-down. One approach leaders
can take is to paint a desirable and clear vision of what digital
transformation for the company looks like, and at the same time, actively seek
and implement employee suggestions for new ways of leveraging data to generate
positive business outcomes. Many companies might consider hiring increase their
millennial employee population in the hope that their data-savviness might rub
off on less savvy colleagues. But it doesn’t work that way — senior management
needs to lead this change, and cannot simply delegate the responsibility of
building a digital culture down the line.

Ultimately, if data in
the modern industry is the lifeblood of business, then having a workforce that
fully embodies a data-first mentality and approach will drive innovation.

Tackling the talent
skills gap will not be solved in a day. Companies will need to invest in data
training and re-training for the long haul, while partnerships among industry
players, educators and the government will be just as essential.