CMOs Report A Skills Gap in Data and Analytics

February 27, 2020

CMOClub Most Critical Skills Gaps Feb2020One of the biggest challenges businesses face is finding employees with the right skill set to navigate the seemingly never-ending advances in technology. A new survey [download page, membership required] of global CMOs by The CMO Club finds that the skills gap continues to exist, with data science and analytics being the skills most in demand.

Three-fifths (60%) of CMOS also say that user experience (UX) is one of their top 3 critical skills gaps (from a list of 5). This is an area that has suffered from a lack of skilled employees for quite some time. SoDA and Forrester research from several years ago, for example, revealed that UX was the area with the biggest gap in talent.

The skills gap in UX has since been overshadowed by other needed skills. A majority of CMOs surveyed say that data science (78%) and analytics (68%) are among the most critical skills gaps in their organizations. This aligns with other research that has shown that for 3 in 5 B2B marketers, analytics is the most difficult skill set to hire for. This is significant given that executives acknowledge that while data has value to businesses, without people who can effectively manage and analyze that data, they are not able to maximize the value of the data.

The scarcity of talent has likely led some businesses to outsource. Three in 10 (31%) CMOs say they have either completely or partially outsourced their insights and analytics functions, second only to creative (59%) as the most outsourced function. Other research from Merkle also found that 46% of larger companies are outsourcing their analytics to third parties.

Although the current survey indicates that several functions are being outsourced to some extent, nearly two-thirds (64%) of CMOs report that they have an in-house agency, with 61% saying they are the ones who made and executed the decision to create their in-house team.

The full report can be downloaded here.

About the Data: Findings are based on a survey of 401 CMOs from around the world, primarily from the Technology (29%), Healthcare (16%) and Food and Beverage (14%) industries.

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