Take Atlassian. The Australia-based tech giant introduced a work-from-anywhere policy in August 2020, saying it expects staff to attend their nearest office only four times per year. While that might be at the extreme end of the scale, 84% of Australia’s 50 largest companies have explicitly confirmed the permanent adoption of hybrid working policies for their office-based employees. That’s because employees will always be a company’s biggest asset, and there is clear evidence that many Australian workers now view hybrid working as a non-negotiable.
Swinburne Edge and Deloitte Australia surveyed 2,000 Australian workers and found:
- 93% of workers say their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing is just as important as their salary
- 78% who can work remotely want to work hybrid or from home
- 66% would be prepared to forgo a pay rise for more flexibility in when and where they work
But flexible work arrangements can bring challenges of other kinds, not least the fact there is, sometimes, no substitute for face-to-face collaboration. Tracking and evaluating employee performance and productivity can also be tough in a remote team, as can fostering a sense of inclusion and organisational culture.
Thankfully, tracking the right HR analytics can provide invaluable information, helping you spot and deal with these issues before they turn into big problems.
Here are three ways people analytics can help make hybrid work a success for your organisation.
- Encourage employee well-being and explore absence trends
Remote working can blur the line between work and personal life, making it harder to switch off and stop working when the day is done. However, working excessively long hours often leads to employee burnout, with nearly half of remote employees surveyed by McKinsey & Company reporting symptoms of being burned out at work.
Employees who experience high levels of burnout are more likely to call in sick. So people analytics can help you track absence trends to help you identify if staff are in danger of burnout.
Furthermore, HR analytics lets you dig into productivity-related metrics, so managers can recognise if extra support is needed to help team members overcome wellness-related issues.
Agile HR Analytics (Built on Microsoft Power BI)
- Gain insights into employee productivity
Many organisations fear remote workers are less productive than office-based workers. While there is plenty of research that suggests otherwise – such as this LSE study or this McKinsey & Company one – it’s always nice to have some HR data to back this up. This data can be collected from multiple sources, including staff surveys, performance ratings and 360-degree evaluations, helping you delve further into employee productivity.
- Build a motivated and engaged hybrid workforce
Remote team members can feel disengaged, particularly if there aren’t many opportunities to interact with their office-based colleagues. As you know, engagement and performance often go hand-in-hand – so it’s vital for your organisation to maintain that sense of connection. Listening to employee feedback is critical to this, whether that’s through regular pulse surveys, continuous conversations or one-to-ones with managers.
Remote workforce analytics helps you make data-driven decisions
There’s no doubt the way we work has changed, with some form of hybrid working likely to be a permanent fixture for many organisations. To succeed in this new hybrid era, organisations need to:
- Support their employees’ wellbeing
- Explore factors driving productivity and engagement
- Foster a sense of inclusivity
People analytics can give you the valuable data you need to attract, develop and retain productive and successful remote teams.
Need an HR data analytics solution to support your hybrid workforce? Contact Agile HR Analytics by emailing info@agile-hr-analytics.com or fill in this contact form.
