As grads enter the workplace, majority of UK biz leaders expect employees to have design skills – new data from Canva

Canva, the world’s only all-in-one visual communication platform, today released new data and insights from the company’s Visual Economy Report, revealing the majority of business leaders are investing in design literacy and expect employees to demonstrate these skills as the world becomes increasingly visual.

Visual communication is now table stakes
Ninety-seven percent of UK business leaders expect employees to build engaging presentations, social media posts, visual documents, and more. Amid shrinking attention spans, communicating visually is fast becoming the most impactful way to communicate in the workplace. To promote design literacy, 70% are facilitating visual design training at work for those in non-design roles. This learning and development effort is starting to have an impact, with 89% stating that employees understand what’s expected of them from a design perspective and 88% knowing where to turn for design assistance.

Gen Z is emerging as the visual generation
As Gen Z’s presence increases in the workplace, investing in design literacy has become even more critical. Ninety-three percent of Gen Z respondents agree that communicating visually helps them articulate ideas better. This demographic has also shown a preference for the visual, with 95% prioritising the ability to quickly create visual content, and 94% prioritising cross-team collaboration when evaluating visual communication platforms. “As visual communication increasingly becomes table stakes, it’s encouraging to see businesses across the UK equipping teams with the requisite skills for the emerging visual economy,” said Duncan Clark, Europe Lead, Canva. “A visual-first culture allows for more effective communication, collaboration, and creativity, ultimately leading to better business outcomes,” Clark added. Canva’s The Visual Economy Report 2023, can be found in full here. You can also read about Canva’s recent expansion into Europe after opening its new campus in London.

Methodology
Canva commissioned Morning Consult to survey 1,600 business leaders in marketing, sales, HR, and commerce who have knowledge of their company’s revenue goals. This group also influences their organisations’ audience engagement strategy, as well as how internal teams communicate with each other, other teams, and the company at large. 


About Canva
Launched in 2013, Canva is a free online visual communications and collaboration platform with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design. Featuring a simple drag-and-drop user interface and a vast range of templates ranging from presentations to documents, websites, social media graphics, posters, apparel, and videos, plus a huge library of fonts, stock photography, illustrations, video footage, and audio clips, anyone can take an idea and create something beautiful.