Boosting Learner Engagement for Data Upskilling Programs: A Comprehensive Guide

Overcoming Cultural and Employee Resistance

One of the major challenges in implementing data upskilling programs is overcoming cultural and employee resistance. In fact, in our State of Data Literacy 2023 report, 27% of leaders engaged in data upskilling cited employee resistance as their biggest challenge to success. To address this issue, thinking like a marketer and focusing on creating buy-in from your workforce are essential. 

Think Like a Marketer

Arguably, one of the most important elements of building engagement for data upskilling programs is evangelizing the program throughout the broader population. Leaders should consistently articulate the value of picking up data skills. 

The value shouldn’t be constrained to how data upskilling can benefit the organization’s bottom-line metrics but also how developing data skills can enable better career outcomes for individuals. In many ways, this necessitates leaders engaged in upskilling to think like marketers.

One common marketing tactic to undertake is by developing your organization's data personas is key to articulating and tailoring this messaging. 

In a nutshell, data personas are archetypes that represent different individuals within your organization and their relationship with data. In the quote above, Emily explains the importance of data personas in evangelizing learning programs. 

Data personas help program managers personalize their messaging and approach, making it easier for learners to answer the question, "What's in it for me?" This way, they can understand how data upskilling will help them be smarter, quicker, better, and more productive at their job.

Another is by creating excitement around data initiatives with engaging communication plans for each initiative. Glenn shares some ways New York Life evangelizes its learning program and data products in general. For example, they create short, easy-to-digest videos featuring team members and partners, which are then used in executive officer training.

Other Tactics to Evangelize Your Program

There are a variety of tactics you can adopt to evangelize your learning programs:

• Link to your data literacy program in all your communications: This includes internal newsletters, email signatures, and other relevant documents. By making your program consistently visible, you increase the likelihood that employees will recognize its importance and consider participating.
• Launch an internal podcast on the importance of upskilling: Develop a series of podcast episodes that discuss the value of data literacy and feature interviews with industry experts or successful learners from within your organization. This will raise awareness about the program and helps build a culture of continuous learning.
• Create learner testimony videos from your pilot program: Showcase real-life success stories by having participants from your pilot program share their experiences in short video clips. Creating social proof allows potential learners to see the benefits and impact of the program on their peers.
• Begin a learner-of-the-month program: Recognize and reward the top learners each month by featuring their achievements in internal communications or social media platforms. This approach can help motivate individual learners and encourage healthy competition and engagement.
• Launch a lunch-and-learn initiative with data experts within your organization: Organize informal lunchtime sessions where data experts share insights and best practices with employees interested in upskilling. Such events help to build a community of learners and reinforce the importance of data literacy within the organization.

Making Data Human

A significant aspect of cultural and employee resistance to data upskilling initiatives stems from common misconceptions about why and how data is becoming a priority one agenda item.

Data science and its related fields, like machine learning and artificial intelligence, often create fear within the broader population of the organization. These fears are skills-related, where individuals are worried that their skill set may become obsolete, or automation-related, where they tend to believe that machine-learning-based solutions will automate large degrees of their job.

Megan explains how leaders can assuage data fear by paying attention to their communication style. Avoiding overly technical conversations with business audiences can help reduce the fear of math and make data more approachable.

Setting Expectations About Data Usage

Another crucial aspect is setting clear expectations about how data will be used in the data transformation program.

Cindi explains that while data should be used to hold teams and individuals accountable, it shouldn’t be used to punish individuals or disincentivize the use of data. Instead, data should improve business processes and foster a data-driven culture where people feel confident surfacing insights to discuss business outcomes.

Conclusion

Boosting learner engagement for data upskilling programs requires overcoming cultural and employee resistance, thinking like a marketer, and making data more human. By adopting various tactics to evangelize your program, addressing data-related fears, and setting clear expectations about data usage, you can create a thriving environment for your workforce to embrace data literacy and drive your organization's success in the data-driven era.