More technology was supposed to mean more time to actually get things done. In the workplace, it was supposed to mean that your employees could focus on their actual job and then many processes would work in the background to streamline things.
The problem is that many businesses are not using the proper software to achieve this or are not using it properly. Unfortunately for them, this means that there are a lot of jobs overlapping and time and resources lost as a result.
There is a solution to those problems created by Microsoft in Workplace Analytics and MyAnalytics which are two different software suites. They will help you improve the workflow in your office and free up your workers to concentrate on what matters.
The trick is implementing the right one, however. In this article, I will go over the differences between them so you can decide which one is right for your company. Once you settle on the right one, get in touch with somebody like Trusted Tech Team to set up the licenses.
Workplace Analytics
Most offices have their employees using Microsoft 365 for most of their work. Some or even all of your workers are going to be using it for a word processor and spreadsheet. Others will be creating presentations and calendars as well as email clients.
It’s cloud based so it has a wide range of applications in the suite and is being updated regularly. It’s a powerful tool that many companies could not do without.
With so many people using it for various applications, there is a wealth of data being recorded. And that data can be analyzed to make sure that it is being used properly and efficiently. Once you have the data in your hand you can see some areas that can be improved and made much more productive.
This is where Workplace Analytics comes in. it is able to analyze the data and spot the patterns. These patterns will show areas that can be improved as well as the tasks that are being done well and need little improvement.
The home feature is a dashboard that provides an overview of the company as a whole with regards to how it’s using the 365 software. You can analyse meetings and see some trends when it comes to person hours and groups. This area doesn’t provide a granular look into the data. For that, you have to press further into the application.
For instance, you can then go into detail and check out the daily reports about your meetings. In this area, you can see how many rooms in your office are being used for meetings, for how long they are used and when as well as how many hot desks are available. If you want to know if your meetings are worth the time that is going into them then this is the way to quantify it without needing to guess at it.
Microsoft MyAnalytics
MyAnalytics is designed more with the employee in mind. If you need a lot of detail about how your employees are working and how they are organized, then you really only need to use MyAnalytics.
It works much the same as Workplace Analytics works in that it takes the data from the various applications and creates a snapshot that you can use to determine if there is any waste in the workflow.
In this application you can take a look at individual workers and see how their time is being spent. You’ll see how much time is spent in meeting, who they most collaborate with and how much time is spent sending emails.
An interesting aspect is how it can make suggestions about making the work more productive or even innovative. For instance, if you have one worker that ends up collaborating with another worker most of the time, the application can suggest another person that may also prove beneficial with whom they could also collaborate with.
The machine learning and Artificial Intelligence employed by MyAnalytics is what is behind this and makes it almost like another set of eyes on the operation.
In addition to this, you are able to get a detailed view about how your employees are organized and can see patterns that show too many repetitive tasks being performed. This is how you can identify areas that need improvement and then have some solid data to suggest how to fix them.
A benefit to using MyAnalytics is that it is also very private. Other time trackers that do many of the same functions are meant to be shared among different workers and departments.
This system is strictly for administrative purposes so you won’t have the rest of an employees team able to see the stats on anybody in particular. A worker can check their own stats so they can also see their performance and maybe come up with some ideas on how things can be improved.
All of this data is not just for the benefit of the company, however. This can also help an employee maintain their life/work balance. One of the features is an after hours tracker that can show how much time is spent beyond regular working hours on a project. The insights provided may show that there aren’t enough hours in the day to complete their tasks and end up spending more time working late. When time is better spent due to the recommendations of the application, then that can mean less time spent doing work that is unnecessary and they can leave work at a normal time.
Using MyAnalytics can greatly reduce burnout in your staff and help them maintain a healthy well being. Which in turn helps increase productivity as they are more motivated and better able to get more done in less time.
Conclusion
Which of these systems is best for you? I think it depends highly on how big your office is. If it is more of an enterprise then the Workplace Analytics is probably better. For any small or medium businesses you can probably get a lot out of just using the MyAnalytics.
They both do many of the same things but how much data you need is going to determine which one is actually going to work better for your needs.
