Sydney, Australia – Organisations have been found to be underinvesting in training and development of data and analytics amongst their employees, as a new research by Arktic Fox and Michael Page Australia unveils that 40% of Australian leaders admit to skill gap in data and analytics endeavours.
The research also unveiled that 57% of those who see brand development and brand purpose in their top 3 priorities do not have full ownership over leading the CX agenda. Meanwhile, 55% of marketing leaders don’t feel they and their teams have a strong understanding and knowledge of Australian privacy principles.
In addition, the research also said that 88% of leaders don’t have a clear path forward to deal with the depreciation of third party cookies. Despite that, 34% of leaders agree that data literacy is strong within their marketing department.
Teresa Sperti, founder and director of Arktic Fox says organisations need to rethink their training and development investment and strategy. She added that the study shows that teams are investing at levels that aren’t adequate based on the current operating environment.
“A good learning and development program isn’t just about training, it is about leveraging an array of learning modes and providing learning opportunities for team members to bolster their skills and experience, across both soft and technical skill areas,” she said.
Sperti added, “Investment at the appropriate level is important if you are looking to re-skill and re-tool your team in line with the changing market. Whilst on-the-job learning has always been seen as the best approach, the cost of not complementing this with other forms of learning and development can be significant. As a result, businesses forgo revenue and value due to team members not being equipped with the skills to deliver on key outcomes.”
Meanwhile, Laura Houlston, director at Michael Page Australia says that the ability to influence stakeholders is vital to driving growth within organisations.
“Driving CX, transformation and growth all require marketers to influence up and across the organisation. As marketers’ remits expand and we are expected to play a bigger leadership role, the ability to manage up and across the organisation and influence becomes critical – but leaders are telling us that it is these soft skills where the biggest skill gaps exist,” she said.
