Over 27% Say Digital Literacy Helps With Self-Growth

Technology has impacted almost all aspects of life, including work. The capability of using technology in a workplace and its impact on employees. “Digital literacy” is referred to an individual’s ability to use and communicate through channels like media, devices, and other platforms.

Accordingly, many employers and recruiters prioritize digital literacy as an essential skill a candidate must have to guarantee work efficiency and effectiveness. Companies can usually distinguish digitally literate and digitally non-literate candidates from each other. Others in a society, however, believe differently with arguments that other skills and abilities are more important than digital literacy. As there are varying opinions, Real Research, an online survey application, launched a survey on digital literacy in the workplace. Here are the results:

Highlights:

• 30.19% agree that digital training should be provided to new employees for increased productivity
• 29.85% strongly agree that digital skills are mandatory in today’s adult education and training
• 27.67% say that the main advantage of a digitally-skilled candidate is self-growth

Majority Strongly Agree that Digital Literacy Increases Productivity

The survey on Digital literacy skills starts with a poll on whether respondents are aware of the term “Digital Literacy.” 50.58% are well aware, whereas 26.43% have only heard of it. Contrastingly, 22.99% are not aware of the term.

Next, the survey asks if respondents agree that strong digital skills can lead to efficiency and increased productivity. In response, 30.94% strongly agree that digital skills can lead to increased productivity, 23.62% only agree, whereas 20.56% remain neutral. However, 12.44% disagree, and 12.43% strongly disagree.

Some companies provide digital literacy training to newly-recruited employees. Accordingly, the survey asks respondents if new employees should undergo digital training. In response, the majority agree for a variety of reasons, such as increasing productivity (30.19%), learning basic knowledge (14.55%), and increasing digital awareness (9.87%).

By the same token, 7.27% said it brings better output, and 7.19% said it helps increase self-confidence and productivity.

On the other hand, the rest do not agree with providing digital training for new employees. In detail, 6.57% said digital literacy is a personal skill, and 6.28% said digital literacy should be acquired by oneself. A distinct 6.19% said it is not the company’s responsibility to provide training for digital literacy.

Digital Skills Mandatory in Today’s Education?

Next, the survey asks if digital literacy is mandatory in today’s education/training. To this, 29.85% strongly agree that it should, whereas 22.56% agree. However, 13.37% disagree, and 12.95% strongly disagree.

Thus, the survey asks how important respondents think digital skills are when applying for jobs and positions. In response, 32.02% say digital skills are very important. However, 21.06% say that it is only just important. In contrast, 12.98% say it is unimportant, and 12.47% say it is totally unimportant.

Digital-Skilled Candidate Advantages

The survey then asks what respondents feel is the main advantage of a digitally-skilled candidate and the skill’s impact on employees performance. 27.67% say self-growth, 16.95% suggest high productivity, 15.92% suggest more efficiency, 10.35% suggest they could be a figure of inspiration, and 10% say better performance overall.

Several skills are crucial to the recruitment of a candidate, such as communication skills, interpersonal, time-management, teamwork, etc. In this survey, participants are asked if digital literacy skills are more valuable than these mentioned skills or if other skills are more useful. In response, 48.48% say digital literacy is crucial given the rise of the digital industry, whereas 30.13% say other skills are more important. 21.39% say other skills and workplace knowledge are important.

Finally, the survey asks respondents what level they are in their digital literacy. In response, 30.62% say it is “advanced,” whereas 20.66% say it is “fair,” and 19.56% say it is “sufficient.” Others said it is insufficient (15.23%) and poor (13.93%).