GEC NEWS WIREOrganisations across every industry need to access and work with data and analytics to stay competitive, yet the demand for data skills far outstrips supply in the MENA region. A recent survey by PwC Middle East found that 46% of respondents in the UAE and 58% in Saudi Arabia said there is a skills shortage, this includes everything from basic Microsoft to cloud computing. In addition, respondents to a McKinsey global survey on future workforce needs say that solving the data analytics skills shortage is a priority focus area.
For many business leaders, analytics can be the difference between making informed real-time decisions for the business and the risk of being surpassed by competitors who have prioritised digital skills such as data literacy. The unique selling proposition of the world’s most profitable companies is their ability to collect, analyse and act on their stored data at scale, and use it to make better, more effective decisions.
Any organisation wishing to emulate these analytically mature businesses and achieve success using their own data are not only being held back by a shortage of expert data scientists but the misconception that hiring more data scientists is the only solution to delivering these insights. They forget that the most significant data-driven insights in history were not delivered by data scientists – but by subject matter experts who had hands-on experience of solving.
So, how can businesses in MENA change their approach to hiring and managing talent – reducing their focus on simply recruiting data professionals and homing in on upskilling the existing workforce to deliver data insights?
Step 1: Discover and enable your in-department experts
Global research conducted by Gartner indicates that formal inclusion of data literacy in over 80% of data and analytics strategies will become imperative for driving business value by 2023. This means that success is linked to how well employees can “speak data”. Knowledge workers are not only the missing link between data and data scientists but also know where the gold is buried. Digitally enabled knowledge workers bring nearly immediate business impact. But data is everywhere. For these new data strategies to deliver across all departments, they must involve developing these in-department experts through cross-functional learning resources and engagement to ensure they thrive and bring the unique knowledge and context they possess to the forefront of the decision-making process.
Part of achieving this goal and delivering the data skills that businesses need today is assessing what resources are contained within each department and how they can be put to best use.
Companies wishing to overcome the data skill shortage must therefore focus on empowering their existing workers. Finding and generating data-driven insights cannot be the remit of any single team, but a mission approached by everyone in the business.
Step 2: Create a new strategy incorporating these hidden experts
Most data scientists do not have the time or capacity to solve every problem they are given. A more efficient use of data experts is to have them provide leadership on data strategies, while in-department experts – knowledge workers who understand the business context and possess diverse perspectives – provide them with support and input on strategic decisions. According to Gartner research, more than one billion knowledge workers were in-role globally in 2019, but they remain critically underused.
Part of the problem is that most data analytics teams are heavily (or exclusively) made up of data scientists. This gap often leads to a narrow understanding of any given problem or solution. Organisations need to bring their in-department knowledge workers into the analytic journey. They can do so by developing a culture that enables and facilitates the communication of data.bDeveloping this new culture necessitates establishing a sense of awareness and enthusiasm among people, providing the requisite training and upskilling and ensuring the successful implementation of the new culture.
Step 3: Develop a continuous cycle of learning and improvement
While companies often look outwards for technical solutions, the key component to successfully developing a broader data-literate workforce comes from within. Tackling the MENA region’s data skills shortage is a journey. To build a more data-literate workforce, companies must prioritise encouraging all data workers to improve their skills, rather than only providing specialised technologies for data scientists. This effort should be coupled with enjoyable activities like Datathons, which challenge teams to solve problems and learn collaboratively. Creating a safe environment for failure is also crucial; using sample datasets and virtual environments to test ideas can help employees navigate challenges.
By prioritising this, companies can address their data skills shortages and leverage existing experts to deliver insights faster, benefiting the organisation as a whole. The Smart Dubai Data Initiative has set a leading example in the UAE by establishing advanced governance frameworks to manage data as a strategic asset and fostering collaboration between the government and private sectors. Any company aiming to tackle their data skills shortage must focus on leveraging such initiatives, upskilling and enabling the experts they already employ to support current data science teams.
