A little knowledge is far from a dangerous thing

Jo Faragher

There are countless analyses of the reasons behind the financial crash in 2008, and a recurring theme among them is one of multiple poor decisions being made.

Several years later and it’s no longer overly optimistic to believe we’re out of recession, yet workers still don’t have confidence in their decisions; they feel uninformed, and it’s making them feel stressed. At least this is the finding of a study commissioned by Epicor Software Corporation.

The research found that 76% of UK office workers have had to make uninformed decisions at some point in their career. And for one in five, they fear they could lose their job if they get it wrong. Stress then increases absence, and the impact on employees’ performance can often lead to a loss in revenue.

Yet at the same time, organisations have access to more sources of data than ever before. Piecing together this data should allow them to come up with trends and insights to support decision-making, but either this isn’t happening, or the ability to do this is not being instilled into those employees who could really use it. In fact, a PWC survey supports this, claiming less than a third of employees feel decision-making in their organisation is data driven.

Coming up with insights from data doesn’t have to be overly complex – decisions don’t always have to be based on complex algorithms or predictions. Making a call on whether to recruit a new team, for example, could be based on existing retention data (how long people stay), average salary (how much it will cost) and time to hire (when do we need to complete?). It’s all about building up a simple picture, or telling a story.

To do this though, as Epicor points out, companies need to provide teams with the tools to bring up that data and help collate those insights. This is one instance where a little knowledge is not a dangerous thing, but could be the difference between someone making the right decision and growing in confidence, or ‘riding blind’ and becoming so stressed out they leave.