]Words of ink have been written about productivity monitoring. If you're not careful how you say it, it comes across HR espionage. We all know where this leads. Employees get caught, feel bad, find ways to do their job sloppily, and a general atmosphere of distrust arises.
But without monitoring, it's impossible. If we want things to go better (i.e. profit, salaries, stable jobs), we need to know how things are done in the company.
I was reading something similar just this morning: Kathleen Hogan, HR manager at Microsoft, propose a change of approach. It starts from a known truth: today companies can measure everything – from the steps taken in the office to the number of keys pressed in a day. They can thus evaluate the most important investment, the one in people/talent. The question is: who should analyze the data? The bosses? The HR managers? Who do we give this data to?
Kathleen Hogan's response: „Give it to the employees.”
Her theory is that if people know how they work, they'll be motivated to improve their statistics. They'll see where they're wasting time and where they could optimize. It's a way to turn data into productivity.
The tool that does this is Delve Analytics, part of the platform Office 365. The app provides analytics on time spent in meetings, emails, and connecting with colleagues through Office apps. The idea is already being tested at Microsoft, where employees have access to the Delve Analytics dashboard, with confidential data about their own work. According to Microsoft, neither the boss, HR, nor IT have access there.
The point is, if you want to work better, it's important to know how you work.
What do you think? Give us a signal if you want to continue the discussion about how you can have a more productive business.