Workplace Analytics is Not About Spying On Your Employees

Workplace Analytics can take your company to the next level. However, it is not about spying on your employees but finding improvement points.

Whenever a friend showed me, he had cams and microphones all over his company, I could not stop thinking about how managers distrust their employees. Whether a company wants to prevent loss of productivity or to improve its performance, some measures are not only invasive but also irrelevant and do not contribute to the growth of the organization.

There are many ways companies can track employees' non-work activities (eating, sleeping, talking, bathroom breaks, phone calls), or secretly record everything that happens on an employee's computer. However, these measures can only trace employees' activities and do not help anyone get better at their jobs.

These actions convey a loud and clear message of distrust to employees. If we take into account that trust is based upon reciprocity, in order to obtain employees' trust, first we must trust them. Studies show that about 70% of people are not engaged with their companies. However, as noted by university professors Rob Goffee & Gareth Jones "companies with highly engaged people outperform firms with the most disengaged folks—by 54% in employee retention, by 89% in customer satisfaction, and by fourfold in revenue growth."

Related post: 4 Traits of a Great Workplace

More and more people are using different applications, and technologies to track themselves. This means they understand the advantages of self-measuring, and how the right information can help them achieve their lose weight goals, control their phone bill, track their expenses, and much more.

Therefore, if employees understand what information is sought from them, how the company is going to use it, and how they can benefit from its results to improve themselves, it is easier for your employees to get involved and welcome these measures.

The reason why employees must be allowed to access this information whenever they want to is so they can use it as feedback, without relying on their manager´s time, or an end-of-the-year evaluation of performance. This shows your employees you are tracking them in order to find ways they, thus, the organization can improve. Rather than be seen as measures that seek to monitor and punish employees who, for example, log in to Facebook.

However, the best way to demonstrate this is by taking decisions based on the findings. Implementing changes that ultimately improve both employees' performance and engagement, and hence positively impact the growth of the organization.