Business refusal to invest in data literacy training could trigger employee exodus

Data literacy assessments could help employers retain top talent

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to online assessment provider Questionmark, a key challenge facing organizations monitoring the data literacy of their workforce is establishing who is literate and who is in need of training. Despite assessments being a vital solution to this, able to both identify data literacy gaps and provide businesses with a means of measuring progress, many employers refuse to invest in this type of training. The result for employers is that they could risk losing their top talent to other businesses that invest in upskilling.

A recent study revealed that while 85% of executives believe data literacy will become as vital in the future as the ability to use a computer is today, many enterprise leaders believe it is up to individuals, rather than their current employer or educational institutions, to prepare themselves with the skills for the future workplace. Yet the report goes on to highlight how employees will walk if they don’t receive enough upskilling and training opportunities.

One potential challenge for large employers is the struggle to deliver effective learning programs to a wide variety of employees. To combat this, Questionmark says that not only should employers assess what types of training employees would respond to but use regular testing to check progress and program effectiveness.

John Kleeman, Founder of Questionmark, said: “Training effectiveness is a concern for employers who don’t want to be investing in courses that don’t resonate with diverse workforces. But when it comes to areas such as data literacy, employers that fail to offer appropriate training could well lose employees to competitors prepared to develop courses. Regular assessments can help not only work out what would work but gather data on courses as they progress, informing changes and ensuring employees are being properly taught.”

To solve this problem, Questionmark has released a ready-made assessment that enables employers to measure the level of data literacy skills among teams: Questionmark Data Literacy by Cambridge Assessment. Also, to understand how assessments can be used to test training efficacy, Questionmark has published “Measuring the effectiveness of learning”.

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About Questionmark

Questionmark unlocks performance through reliable and secure online assessments.

Questionmark provides a secure enterprise-grade assessment platform and professional services to leading organizations around the world, delivered with care and unequaled expertise. Its full-service online assessment tool and professional services help customers to improve their performance and meet their compliance requirements. Questionmark enables organizations to unlock their potential by delivering assessments which are valid, reliable, fair and defensible.

Questionmark offers secure powerful integration with other LMS, LRS and proctoring services making it easy to bring everything together in one place. Questionmark's cloud-based assessment management platform offers rapid deployment, scalability for high-volume test delivery, 24/7 support, and the peace-of-mind of secure, audited U.S., Australian and European-based data centers.