5 Steps for a Human-Centered Data Strategy (Contributed)

Source: Gov Tech Published: July 23, 2020

From helping administrators more effectively plan infrastructure resource spending to better identifying the health-care needs of patients, we’re increasingly seeing data-informed decisions being made to support and streamline operations throughout the public sector. That’s because governments and organizations realise that being data-driven and data literate are not just nice-to-haves. They are necessary in today’s digital world, not only to improve the efficiency of public-sector organizations but to deliver the agile services that citizens now expect. And in our current climate, this has never been so pertinent. 

But while public-sector leaders may recognize the value in driving decisions based on data, there is a widening gap between what they want to achieve and how well equipped their employees are to deliver it. According to The Human Impact of Data Literacy, a report from Qlik and Accenture on behalf of The Data Literacy Project, while 45 percent of public-sector workers feel empowered within their organizations to make better decisions using data, the same amount confessed to feeling overwhelmed and unhappy at work at least once a week when reading, working with and analyzing data. More worryingly, nearly one-quarter (23 percent) said they felt so overwhelmed when confronted with data that they avoided doing the task altogether. 

It has never been more important for people to understand the information being presented to them every day, not only to help now but to equip them for the future. Sow what can public-sector employers do to close this gap and support their workers to be able to read, analyze, challenge and use data effectively? 

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