An Urgent Call to Action for Investment in Information Skills
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

FreePint's recent Report: Research into Skills Development 2015 makes it clear that the critical issue of information skills development is being neglected by many organisations and strategy leaders. Find out more about the research and its relevance to digital workplaces.

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Every information professional I talk to longs for time and mental space to dedicate to skills development - for themselves and for their teams, as well as for other knowledge workers throughout their organisations.

FreePint Research into Skills Development

The results in the FreePint Report: Research into Skills Development 2015 make clear two things:

1. This lack of time to focus on the future cuts across industries and organisations of all sizes
   
   
2. The result is that organisations lack strategic planning around skills development, setting themselves up for increased risk as business goals increasingly depend on quality information interactions by all workers.

The report is based on a survey we conducted in April and May 2015 as part of the Topic Series, "Best Practices in Information Skills Development", which garnered responses from 199 information professionals in a range of industries (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Industries represented by survey respondents

Because the bulk of information work now takes place on end user desktops and devices rather than in an information centre, we designed the survey to gather information about skills development for information professionals and other knowledge workers throughout an organisation.

Only 60% of our respondents report that their organisations offer ongoing training for information professionals, and slightly fewer report that there is any information-related training for new hires. Our detailed analysis also looks at different types of training, and whether or not survey respondents are satisfied with what's on offer.

Skills and Strategy

We asked a series of questions to gauge how respondents rate the strategic thinking in their organisations around skills development.

For example, respondents were asked to rate their agreement with the statements, "Senior leaders understand the importance of keeping everyone's information skills up to date" and "Information skills are explicitly part of defined core competencies for knowledge workers".

Average agreement ratings for all of these statements were neutral to negative, indicating that respondents feel their organisations are not at all strategic with regard to planning for future workforce skills.

Driving the Digital Workplace

Today's organisations emphasise objectives like efficiency, innovation, cost savings and smart decision-making.

Today's organisations are digital workplaces. It defies logic that leaders believe they can deliver on these objectives and maximise the promise of a digital workplace without recognising and investing in information skills across their workforce.

We hope that this report, along with the many insights raised throughout the series "Best Practices in Information Skills Development", can contribute to raising awareness on this critical issue.

FreePint Subscribers can login now to view and download the full FreePint Report: Research Into Skills Development 2015

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