The survey results could be a stark warning for the credit union industry, where a shortage of employees with data skills is keeping many credit unions from achieving growth goals and affecting their ability to serve members, according to Jill Nowacki, who is president/CEO of credit union HR consulting firm Humanidei.

"In my previous role (as president/CEO of the Credit Union League of Connecticut), I was facilitating about 20 credit union planning sessions each year. I noticed that for as much as organizations spoke about human capital being an organization's greatest asset, very little was being done to strategically align that human capital for achievement of organizational goals. The use of data is one example I often hold up. Credit unions have ambitious goals around how to use Big Data and artificial intelligence to drive forward — and we have access to a tremendous amount of rich data — but organizations were not looking at how to change the org chart, job descriptions, development opportunities or recruiting practices to make sure they had the talent that could help the organization harness the data they have," she told CU Times.

Jill Nowacki

The thought of having to hire chief data scientists at mid-six-figure salaries was also intimidating for many credit unions, too, she added.

"Employees who were already in organizations did not have experience in the field and became concerned their jobs would be marginalized," Nowacki said. "This is why it's so easy for employees instead to shy away from using data."

Credit union employees have the capacity to work with data and may even enjoy it, Nowacki noted.

"When credit unions invest in developing their existing talent to better use data — and there are many opportunities out there for this development — this can be a win-win-win. Credit unions reach their growth goals, employees strengthen their skillsets and the purpose of their work, and members get solutions that are better designed for them," she said.

Other survey findings included:

• Employees who identify as data-literate were at least 50% more likely to say they felt empowered to make better decisions and are trusted to make better decisions.
• 37% of employees said they believed data literacy training would make them more productive.
• 74% of employees report feeling overwhelmed or unhappy when working with data.
• 61% report that data-overload has contributed to workplace stress.
• 31% of the global workforce has taken at least one day of sick leave due to stress related to information, data and technology issues.