• A winning workplace strategy is built on solid data to handle the major decisions of today’s workplace
• Major decisions for today’s workplace leaders & their corresponding data sources
• Top scorers in the ‘Workplace Insights’ assessment have the data readiness to develop winning workplace strategies    
• Take the Workplace Insights assessment and find out today how to level up your workplace strategy!

A winning workplace strategy is built on solid data to handle the major decisions of today’s workplace

Today’s workplace leaders are being faced with unprecedented decision-making.  Global events have normalized uncertainty for the past 18 months.  Companies that intend to survive will embrace agility.  

Are you deciding how to return-to-office (RTO)?  Or planning for the future of work?  How do you know which steps to take and if you’re moving in the right direction?  The answer is data.  But not just any data.  What’s greatly needed now more than ever is clear, insightful, and actionable data.  Plus an experienced team skilled in pulling insights from this data to make critical decisions about the workplace.  Read on for examples of today’s major workplace concerns and the data sources that provide clarity and confidence around those decisions.

Major decisions for today’s workplace leaders & their corresponding data sources 

• Strategic Space Planning & Virus Prevention Strategies.¹   Office Space Usage, Personnel Density & Navigation data assists workplace leaders with planning how to bring employees back to the office when the time is right.  Thus, health, workplace safety, and, where necessary, health privacy can be ensured.  Additionally, employee wellbeing is promoted.

• Space Optimization & Lease Events. Employee Satisfaction combined with Office Space Usage, Occupancy, and Team/Workplace Mobility data offers insight for office space redesign projects.  And whether to take advantage of lease events to adjust the real estate portfolio.

• • Global Workplace Analytics, “The Leading Authority on the Future of Work” predicts increasing productivity per workspace will be more important than cutting real estate costs per worker.²

• • Additionally, employees skilled in data analysis can generate insights to illuminate whether space is being used efficiently.  This, in terms of both quantity and quality.  

• Attracting & Retaining Talent.  The same data used for strategic space planning and virus prevention coupled with space optimization and human resources data will be the key to crafting winning employee experiences.  The result is higher levels of employee wellbeing, satisfaction and productivity.   

• • “A recent PwC survey found 65% of all US employees are looking for a new job, and 88% of executives said they are seeing higher turnover than normal.”³  With the data sources just listed, companies can improve or resolve current employee complaints about health & safety, privacy, flexibility and autonomy.

The questions that an organization with the right data sources can answer are limitless.  Having high data readiness is key.

Top scorers in the ‘Workplace Insights’ assessment have the data readiness to develop winning workplace strategies    

What does it mean to have a high data readiness?

There is a lack of accurate data streamlined for clarity.  This is a barrier to winning workplace strategies.  And this is critical when planning for the future of work and RTO.  However, some companies will manage to capture more insightful, actionable data than others.  Forrester Consulting** calls them High Workplace Data Readiness firms in a study commissioned by Locatee.

At 23% of firms surveyed, high workplace data readiness firms achieve high Workplace Insights scores across the 3 Pillars of Workplace Data Readiness–technology, people/data & knowledge/skills.  

For more info about how top Workplace Insights scorers effectively track workplace data, capture actionable insights, and make transformational change to their workplaces click here to read the report.  

Interestingly, many Workplace Insights top scorers are failing to collect three critical types of data.  Take our assessment linked here to find out which three.

Nevertheless, a firm that scores high in workplace data readiness:

• Effectively collects, manages and tracks different types of data.  E.g. Employee satisfaction, sustainability tracking, office space usage, employee density, team mobility and occupancy of each floor, conference room and desk.

• Tracks this data using advanced, integrated workplace data management tools.  E.g. A single dashboard that combines data from various sources.  Data sources such as maintenance, finance, building, and real estate management systems.

• Has knowledgeable employees that know how to use this data to generate actionable insights.

• Possesses stakeholder buy-in/unified leadership, clear ROIs and ample funding. 

• Has trained staff & thriving internal processes needed for identifying areas to improve internally or leveraging partners.

• Is concerned most with the scalability and implementation of their solutions, but has surpassed the questions of where to begin.

How are companies with high Workplace Insights scores benefitting from high data readiness?

Workplace professionals spend exorbitant amounts of time, expense, and effort gathering data.  Many times, companies collect and manage data inefficiently.  Leading to data with questionable accuracy at best.  When challenges across the 3 Pillars of data readiness are addressed this improves workplace insights captured.  In turn, workplace leaders know how to best optimize their space.  

One example of this is solving the challenge of siloed data.  Sabine Ehm, Thought Leadership & Research Manager at Locatee articulated the point in a podcast discussion with Mikkel Lyngbo Nielson, Vice President, Chief Real Estate & Head of Group Real Estate at Ericsson.  They were discussing how CRE, HR and IT are collaborating at Ericsson.  Consequently, the collaboration has produced shared data and common KPIs.  Additionally, the end-user experience has improved.

“[T]he big advantage…of coming out of the silos of data and intertwining the available data sources…you have is that you can truly…find the sweet spot of…[space efficiency & end-user experience].”⁴

–Sabine Ehm, Thought Leadership & Research Manager, Locatee

The research backs this.  According to Forrester, firms high in workplace data readiness were roughly twice as likely to report significant employee and business benefits than low workplace data readiness firms.

The more organizations trust their data collection and assessment processes, the more confidence organizations have to invest in workspace optimization.  The result is greater ability to respond to workplace challenges today and in the future.

Examples of this can be seen in the Forrester study.  One, over two-thirds of respondents found that capturing insights lead to either “Significant” or “Transformational Benefits” for several, key workplace capabilities. 

Two, the figure below shows a clear connection between workplace data readiness and transformative workspace benefits seen.  

Consistently, companies with low data readiness reported “Slight” or “No benefit”.  This equates to a low value for effort result for companies that have not addressed their 3 Pillar issues.   

Take the Workplace Insights assessment and find out today how to level up your workplace strategy!

Assess your company’s workplace data readiness now and take your data-driven decision making to the next level.  First, find out your Workplace Insights Score and benchmark your business against 321 survey respondents.  Then, receive helpful recommendations on how to strengthen your 3 Pillars of Workplace Data Readiness.  Meaning your technology, people/data, and knowledge/skills.  Finally, create a winning workplace strategy and position your workplace for transformational benefits both today and beyond.

“In order for people to solve problems, you need to really understand your existing systems.  Because, it’s difficult to move into a phase of change if you don’t have a good understanding of [your] current state.”⁵

–Patrenia Werts Onuoha, former Real Estate Strategy and Portfolio Manager for Shell Nigeria

Click Here to Take the Workplace Insights Assessment

*Locatee commissioned Forrester Consulting to produce The Locatee Workplace Insights assessment.

**Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Locatee.  Titled “Ready or Not, It’s Time to Track, Manage and Integrate Workplace Data” (September 2021)

¹Appa.org | Six Ways Facilities Managers Provide Leadership During Covid-19

²Global Workplace Analytics, “The Leading Authority on the Future of Work”, White Paper | The Business Case for Remote Work

³CNN Business | A ‘Big Four’ Firm is Allowing 40,000 Employees to Work From Home

⁴The Workplace Leader Podcast | Episode 23: “Mikkel Lyngbo Nielson on the Approach to Personalized User Experience”

⁵The Workplace Leader Podcast | Episode 7: “Patrenia Werts Onuoha on Crisis Management and Scenario Planning”