Building Australia’s data scientist workforce

As Australia becomes more technologically advanced, supporting its growth with an equally refined and skilled data-literate workforce is essential. Any growth in technology adoption will mean very little if only a part of the workforce is able to reap the benefits. With upskilling and training integral parts of technological advancement, it’s vital to ensure that all workers are able to question and understand how to use the data and insights received from any new technology.

Data literacy has been cited as an area needing significant improvement within any business, with 66 per cent stating it needed a complete overhaul. The data skills shortage is an ever-changing challenge for companies – as they seek to gather and provide the necessary skills to remain competitive and relevant on a global scale. While some skills gaps have closed, new shortages have emerged.

This is true for data analysis. With data everywhere and every department in every business trying to work with data, the challenge is due to a great demand for, but an equally significant shortage of, highly qualified data scientists. Data analytics skills must be enabled across the business to enable all knowledge workers with the skills to question, understand and solve problems.

Data literacy and technology

Research confirms that we are now not only operating in the greatest period of data generation in history but also in a remarkably disrupted global economic landscape. While this data surge provides new opportunities for delivering decision intelligence at scale, many businesses struggle to deliver the insights they need at the required speed and scale to transform decision making. For context, research completed by Statista showed that just 2 per cent of the data produced and consumed in 2020 was saved – and retained – into the next year. This presents a huge opportunity for organisations across Australia to upskill their existing workforce in data literacy so they can understand, interpret, and apply data-driven insights to decision making.

Data literacy and the ability to harness analytics effectively are key to delivering value from data. Data literacy is also one of the most powerful tools in developing the next generation of data science talent, as it can make a big difference in how data are interpreted or how AI algorithms are trained. But technology alone cannot solve what is a very human problem. Technology is only ever a facilitator of the human expertise behind it. The analytics skills gap won’t be resolved by teaching more people coding or buying more technology. Instead, business leaders need to focus on democratised analytics – the enablement of anyone in an organisation to work with and deliver value from data.

Building a workforce from within, not from scratch

As businesses grow and the demand for data analysts increases, the route industry leaders can take to differentiate themselves is simple: grow what is already present. Therefore, tackling Australia’s data skills shortage is a journey. While companies often look outwards for technical solutions, the key component to successfully developing a broader data-literate workforce comes from within.

Delivering the decision intelligence required to solve fast-evolving problems in real time requires employees who can effectively work with data. These workers aren’t necessarily the ones with advanced coding skills but instead the in-department experts. Knowledge workers in the line of business are the often-untapped resource. With hard-won domain expertise and the ability to effectively combine this knowledge with code-friendly and/or code-free self-service technology, they can easily address their data problems creatively because they have the context of the questions being asked. Whether you have data on-premises, in the cloud, or, most likely, somewhere in between, the combined approach of accessible self-service data platforms and data-literate knowledge workers can make data-literate workforces a reality.

Upskilling is a continuous investment

Developing digital skills and data literacy comes down to how business leaders engage these domain experts – allowing them to lean into analytic opportunities, discover new use cases, and deliver specific end results through a continuous cycle of improvement. Any company aiming to tackle its data skills shortage must focus on the journey: utilising, upskilling, and enabling the experts they already employ to support current data science teams. Domain experts know the nitty-gritty of the business but might lack the technical knowledge to make data-based decisions. Upskilling this set of employees will levitate the business growth. They already have the skill set to make impactful business decisions; reskilling them with powerful analytical knowledge will provide them with the ability to back these decisions with data insights.

As the need for data intelligence grows, industries must look at how they fulfil their data and analytics needs. The benefits of improving data literacy are numerous. It helps employees grow their careers as individuals by learning more efficient ways to use data; it helps businesses earn employee loyalty, as well as creating a data-intelligent workforce capable of efficient decision making. In this intelligence era, the untapped potential of a data-driven workforce without a data science qualification is yet to be seen, but the possibilities are endless. But upskilling and reskilling all employees – from IT to sales, accounting, and marketing – in data literacy needs to be a continuous investment. Companies that recognise this will lead the charge by creating a culture of data literacy where anyone can leverage data for strategic decision making without relying on skilled data workers. Those who step up to take these initiatives will quickly be ahead of the competition.

By Libby Duane Adams, co-founder and chief advocacy officer at Alteryx