The difference between successful businesses and unsuccessful ones is that the successful ones take the extra step to use data in all parts of their business. They regularly study the data that is already out there, and they are also not afraid to look at their own data and dissect it. They then combine metrics from these two sources to create strategies that work.
You need to follow the same steps when designing a management plan for your employees. This will ensure that you get the most out of them without sacrificing employee engagement.
Therefore, to help you get this right, I have shared a step by step plan to design a data driven management plan for your employees…
Search for employee productivity and engagement data that is already out there
Employee data from your own company is the most important data you need to use while creating your management plan. But before you harvest this data, you need to analyse the data that is already out there.
There are several companies that have experimented with management plans and released them to the public. Some organisations even release helpful reports and surveys. You need to check all the data out and avoid the mistakes other business have made. Here are a few reports and studies that could help…
Gallup’s reports: Gallup releases polls and reports that share data like the annual employee engagement rate. You need to go through these free reports and make a note of all the key points. You can then compare data like the average engagement rate against your company’s to see where you stand. Their last report found that the percentage of engaged employees in the U.S. is 34%.
Tork’s survey on lunch breaks: A survey from Tork found that 90% of employees who take lunch breaks feel refreshed and are more ready to get back to work. This shows the importance of scheduling a lunch break for employees to improve both engagement and productivity.
GAP’s study: When GAP began releasing their employees schedules two weeks in advance, stopped scheduling workers for on-call shifts, allowed staff members to swap shifts and made several more changes to their employee management plan at 28 stores they earned $2.9 million.
As you can see there’s so much you can learn from reports and studies like these. So, find as many as you can, study them closely and take notes. Make sure you avoid the mistakes these business have made and achieve your goals quickly.
Analyse your own data
After you study the data that is already out there, you will know what to look for in your own data. So, go through your workforce management software data and look for patterns. You will start noticing things like when your employees work best, how breaks help them, which management techniques get results and more.
You can then use the data to set up surveys and interviews with your employees (that ask the right questions) and find out what engages them and helps boost their productivity. The surveys and interviews themselves can increase engagement as it shows employees that you care.
When Facebook ran a survey that asked 30% of their workersif the company was taking steps to offer them a better work experience, it resulted in employees being 12% more likely than their peers to request a curated list of additional resources and tools to help them become more engaged at work. It had the same effect on all survey participants whether they answered yes or no.
Put them together
The final step is to put all the data together to create an employee management plan that works. There are two ways to do this. One is the manual way where you brainstorm a plan along with the managers at your company, while the other is to make use of AI.
Most of the top workforce management software these days come with AI. So, all you need to do is add the data and it will automatically generate an effective schedule that will boost employee engagement and productivity.
Conclusion
This is how you design a data driven management plan for your company. It takes a lot of time and effort to create a plan like this. But you can be certain that it will increase employee engagement, productivity and revenue at your company.