How does Covid-19 impact the work of managers and analysts?

Not only does the global Covid-19 crisis have an impact on our daily lives, but it also influences our professional lives. In June 2020, CROPLAND launched an online survey on LinkedIn amongst data analysts and the managers of these analysts. We will briefly discuss the, sometimes surprising, results.

Substantive job changes
Most analysts indicated that their job did not change substantively because of a shift in job-related requests. Managers of these analysts, however, pointed out that their job was highly affected by Covid-19. According to the analysts, they had to carry out more analyses, but they did not differ from the analyses made before the Covid-19 crisis hit. The reports they had to present were still about the same operational subjects. Managers on the other hand were confronted with different questions as usual, such as ‘Do we have to alter our business’s strategy, channels, products, and/or services?’.

Sources for data analysis
Regarding the sources of the data, managers tend to overestimate the fit of the data available to answer the problems posed in the organization. They also are more likely to assume that all resources needed are accessible, even if this means that different sources have to be combined to solve issues. Analysts are more divided on this matter. Approximately half of them feel that they do not have access to the data, reports, and other sources needed to solve certain problems or questions.

Since a substantial part of the managers and data analysts confirm that they have to bring different data sources together to fulfill their tasks, it is interesting to know that the Microsoft package (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PowerBI) is used by almost all of the respondents. Surprisingly enough, programming languages such as R or Python are not integrated into the work environment, even though they could significantly ease the data analysis.

External help
External companies specialized in solving data problems are mostly contacted when the company itself does not hold the right skills or capacity to analyze certain data. Analysts prefer a stable and long-term relationship with external companies, whereas managers rather pay a specialist for a specific project. Following these attitudes, more than sixty percent of the data analysts are open and positive about the services of a remote data assistant such as CROPLAND. Just one-third of the managers also adopt the same attitude.

Most of the reluctance of hiring external help results from the sensitivity associated with data and the fear that the external help won’t be immediately deployable. It is thus key to convince analysts and managers that the security measures we take are sufficient to guarantee the best protection for their data.

Interested in how CROPLAND guarantees the safety of your data? Check out our security statement here.