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People analytics help home workers and businesses adapt to the new normal

Home working has suddenly become a reality for many people who had only ever worked in an office until a few weeks ago. But home working should be seen as more than just a new place to work; it’s also an opportunity to work in a more flexible way that benefits both employees and businesses.

Employers who are used to all their employees working in an office where they can see them may initially see home working as a threat to their business and seek to check on them as much as possible. They are now finding out that people and their circumstances are very diverse and that some people are adapting to working at home better than others. Some people have young children at home who need or want attention, or perhaps a sick member of the family. Others have only limited space to work in and that space may also be used by other people at certain times of day. Some people work better in the mornings than in the afternoons and vice-versa.

Rather than being a problem though, working from home creates an opportunity. Employees can work flexibly around their home life, and employers who are willing to be flexible and make it work for their staff will see greater efficiencies. In place of rigidity and uniformity, KPIs can be customised to the individual, and core hours adjusted by agreement to meet the needs of the employee and the business.

A performance management software tool can provide the data to help manage this change and to monitor its success over time. It also helps people working remotely, or in the office, to understand how their time is spent and how to be more efficient. There has been much discussion recently about how home working means that staff are working longer hours. This need not necessarily be the case. Non-draconian monitoring without capturing keystrokes is a secure and powerful way for managers to help staff to be more efficient and complete their work within their daily hours.

Performance management software has additional benefits to managers. One example is writing job specifications for a new position. Rather than ask what the employee who is moving on does, the software can actually show what her or his main activities are. And by searching for staff with similar work profiles, it may also highlight the fact that other staff members have the capacity to take on some of the work, and that hiring a new person is therefore not necessary.

In companies that are under ever-increasing competitive pressure the instinct is to cut people costs. People analytics data gives managers the insights they need to make the right decisions in order to improve business efficiency and avoid mistakes. It allows them, for example, to spot workers who need help and to monitor their progress, to highlight the best workers in any given activity and to take decisions based on data rather than on personal feelings towards an individual, group of individuals, or team.

TISTRO contextual remote worker activity tracking software is being offered to use FREE OF CHARGE to qualifying organisations until the end of June 2020.

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This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Andrew Whiteman .