Digital skills benchmarking: Which industries are still closing the gap?

A shortage of digital skills across business and employee capabilities is stifling economies and competitiveness. A 2022 study by Accenture estimated the UK’s potential loss of cumulative GDP growth between 2018-2028 due to inadequate digital skills to be £145 bn.

In Econsultancy’s 2023 report, Winning the Race for Digital Skills: The New Best Practices of Effective Learning, over half of the enterprise organisations we surveyed admitted to losing ground due to digital talent gaps.

Only 27% of executives surveyed for this report said that their organisations possess the digital skills they need to accomplish their goals, while 83% said business growth depends on being able to rapidly advance employee capabilities.

Industry verticals vary in their proficiency, often dictated by market forces such as level of competition and scale of digital disruption. This is borne out when looking at results from Econsultancy’s Digital Skills Index (DSI), an assessment that evaluates knowledge levels across key digital marketing disciplines, including data and analytics, search marketing, CRM, social media and ecommerce. Average overall scores are highest in Finance Services and Insurance; Travel, Transport and Leisure; and Gaming and Gambling – sectors that all saw early digital disruption and have a long history of investing in tech as consumers have shifted to banking, booking travel and gaming on their smartphones.

Lowest average scores in the DSI come from Charities and Non-profit; Education; Healthcare and Pharmaceutical; and Manufacturing sectors. The latter two industries are often defined by indirect relationships with consumers, as either B2B or B2B2C businesses, which may dictate the level of expertise in ecommerce, customer experience and marketing communications, which form the focus of the DSI assessment.

Consumer Goods and Retail sit somewhere in the middle of the score charts, with arguable room for improvement.

More than 35,000 marketing professionals have completed the DSI in the past three years, answering questions across nine topics, and providing valuable insights about knowledge levels within their organisations. Learners are encouraged to take the assessment before and after their training programmes have been undertaken, and the index allows individuals to benchmark their results against industry, seniority, geography, or those in the same organisation, while leaders can track a team-wide score to identify areas that need further learning.

These DSI scores provide one proof point when comparing industries as a whole, but of course they are averages, and each business and workforce has its own talent and capability challenges. However, it’s clear that certain sectors have a more acute need when it comes to training and recruitment of digital skills. Last year saw headlines about a lack of digital skills in Healthcare and Pharma, from digital and data literacy to online selling. An ABPI report defined digital and data skills as the top priorities for the industry. In Manufacturing, a FutureDotNow report found that only 36% of people in the sector could complete 20 digital tasks that industry and government have defined as essential for work (such as using digital tools to improve productivity). Only the Construction and Service industry fared worse.

Econsultancy Digital Skills Index

The data skills gap persists

The skills gap is a growing problem for companies. Recent data from Marketing Week’s 2024 Career & Salary Survey shows a pressing need in areas such as data & analytics, performance marketing, content, and copywriting.

Marketing complexity is increasing, with more data and the fragmentation of media channels and audience attention. Organisations with a solid foundation in core disciplines like data and analytics, and marketing strategy and planning have a competitive edge.

Current industry trends and shifts in consumer behaviour should also inform training programmes.

In Marketing Week’s survey, data and analytics remains the most significant skills gap, with just under 37% of marketers identifying it as their team’s biggest deficiency. This is up from 34.4% in 2023.

Econsultancy’s 2023 Future of Marketing survey and 2024 trends digest highlighted the need for brands across a range of industries to pay close attention to the following disciplines:

• Data and analytics – The top spending priority for marketers over the next two years.
• Ecommerce strategy – Winning the digital shelf and adapting to retail media necessitate FMCG and CPG teams skilled in ecommerce fundamentals.
• Customer experience – Almost all marketers (95%) see customer experience as critical to success over the next two years.
• Content marketing – 62% of executives say efficiency gains have come at the cost of creative time and freedom.
• Loyalty programmes and CRM – Brands are investing here to retain customers, enhance experiences and deepen engagement.
• Trust and ethics – Uniquely human traits like empathy and ethical decision-making will grow in importance alongside AI.

Transformation requires investment in learning

The Marketing Week Career & Salary survey also revealed that teams are facing significant restructuring, with nearly half indicating they’ve undergone a restructure in the past year and over a quarter (28.5%) seeing their team merge with other functions.

Roughly 40% of marketers have not seen a sufficient salary increase to match an increase in responsibilities. This, understandably, has led to increased unhappiness among marketers. Just under 56% of the 3,000 marketers in Marketing Week’s survey said they were “quite happy” or “very happy”, down from about 62% in 2023.

Providing training, support, and recognition in the long term is a key element to any organisation transformation. Many FMCGs, manufacturers and healthcare businesses are grappling with the impact of ecommerce, self-service or establishing direct relationships with customers – and they cannot transform without the benefits that learning brings.

Closing the digital skills gap

Without a commitment to upskilling, falling behind is an inevitability.

Current industry trends demonstrate how high the stakes are for marketing teams, CMOs and the companies that rely on them for growth. A combination of persistent skills shortages, widespread restructuring, increased outsourcing, and more responsibility without commensurate pay is the perfect recipe for burnout. Cultivating in-house digital talent—and equipping teams with the skills and support they need—is becoming an urgent priority.

These industry shifts underscore the importance of shoring up digital marketing skills to navigate change and demonstrate value. Organisations that invest in their marketing teams’ digital capabilities are better positioned to adapt and thrive.