Companies that can successfully translate the right data at the right time into their workplace strategy will achieve both a solid ROI and improve their company culture. But doing so is not easy. Until now.
We recently sat down with Data Consultant Bastian de Graaf to discuss Mapiq's vision on workplace analytics and how Mapiq ensures the feedback loop needed to discover and implement your ideal workplace concept.
What is the difference between data analytics and workplace intelligence, and why does it matter?
“Workplace intelligence means clients aren’t just collecting information, but are harnessing its real power at every organizational level. This is more important than ever as hybrid working has radically changed the expectations of employees and created new challenges for employers who want to balance well-being, productivity, and costs.
Data analytics is best understood by the Gartner data maturity model, where the value to the user is directly proportional to how advanced the platform is.
This scale ranges from Descriptive Analytics (What happened) and Diagnostic Analytics (Why did it happen?) to Predictive analytics (What will happen?) and the ultimate goal: Prescriptive analytics (How can we make it happen).
Workplace intelligence is data analytics in a mature stage. It’s the difference between simply having access to data versus knowing exactly what to do with it and when.
These insights play a crucial role in every step of every part of workplace decision-making. And when quality and leadership teams can make decisions with the clear backing of data, we see better choices and measurable returns on investment.”
Why and how did Mapiq evolve the original analytics offering within the platform?
“The reality is that right now most organizations still regard data analytics as a mandatory element to be implemented at the end of a process. People recognize that they need data and analytics but can’t quite deduce the best way to harness these insights.
We started rethinking our analytics solution for the hybrid work era. With constant change and uncertainty, data should provide calmness. Workplace managers want to make confident decisions backed up by reliable and contextual data. We knew that only presenting the correct data and KPIs on dashboards was not enough. It’s about the action users can take from the analytics.
We had conversations with dozens of our end users at every organizational level, from facility management to workspace management, and real estate to IT. And these showed us the best ways to transform the raw data into actionable insights, bespoke to different departments with different needs to enable measurable effects on their performance.
Workplace leaders are now looking to understand more about how employees interact with spaces and if those fit their needs. In the past, corporate real estate data primarily focused on optimizing building occupancy by measuring every square foot. Although this data type is still essential, it doesn't reveal how people feel about the space.
In short, workplace intelligence becomes a richer, more intuitive, purpose-driven experience. Everyone, from data experts to data enthusiasts and C-suite to Facilities managers can easily understand and uncover the relevant data to make solid strategic decisions. And we think this way of approaching workplace analytics is critical to successful workplace strategies.“
What changes can people expect to see from working with Mapiq?
“Analytics are now always presented with a clear purpose catered to relevant roles. We want Mapiq to be the single source needed to optimize your workplace concept.
The data is presented in an understandable format with a greater user experience and smooth UI. With our API, insights from the analytics can be easily exported and integrated with other data sources to further boost usability, and ultimately create a better environment to thrive in.
The base framework is a two-way feedback loop between the employees and workplace management where new learnings and ideas are validated with ease. This continuous process of data-backed experimentation allows organizations to get really creative with discovering and optimizing their ideal workplace concept.
The goal is to make it very practical. We don't just want to present accurate findings and suggest the next best step. Still, we also want to ensure that the insights can be directly implemented by the workplace teams through Mapiq, resulting in immediate employee benefits.
For example, one client observed that the Finance team works in the office only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and often collaborates with the Legal team. As a result, they chose to allocate more space for these departments on those days and provide room for other departments on the remaining days. The changes were implemented directly in Mapiq and, therefore, were immediate.”
What does the future of workplace data analytics look like?
“The accuracy and accessibility of the analytics will allow data to be a core part of decision-making. As with Gartner’s model, workplace managers are encouraged to look toward the future, to assess what is likely to happen, and to act accordingly.
By exploring predictive analytics next, we aim to equip workplace leaders with all the insights needed to make effective decisions that ensure employees want to be in the office now and in the future.
We’re excited to have developed a long-term platform to build on and we’ll add more functionality into the framework over the next couple of years. What’s more, we are already seeing how users are using the service to move into that final stage of analytics.”
Ready to uncover the potential of your workplace? Contact us to learn more about Mapiq.
