This is part 2 of our first installment of Mapiq’s Collaborative Workplace Leader Series. You can read back Part 1 of the interview with Coty an Peloton here.
Strategies for Measuring Success
With the redefined workplace, there is also a new standard for success.
Fatima Hakim and Daniel Santiago say workplace leaders are no longer satisfied with simple attendance data because their focus is now on the cultural synergy, work buzz, and collaboration experienced when in the office.
It’s about moments.
But can these kinds of moments be measured? If so, how? Daniel says Peloton was initially looking at badge data for insights.
“That’s one way to measure it — people coming. I get that,” he says. “What [Peloton has] been doing to leverage and measure these moments is the engagement between physically on-site and remote.”
1: Get Direct Feedback
Aside from this, it's crucial to realize that culture and experiential impact speak louder than attendance numbers. “If I do a 200-person, they may say, well, out of 1,200, that’s not a lot,” he says. “But if you experienced it in person and saw its impact, it is really different.
Following an event like a fire-side chat, Daniel says his team will distribute surveys to get direct feedback on what team members enjoyed and want to see more of. “As we’re engaged in this dialogue, engagement goes up because we can start checking more boxes for what people want to see,” he says.
2: Be Creatively Data-Minded
With a new workplace dynamic, Fatima says Coty is attempting to collect engagement data using tangible perks, such as food and products.
“You’ve got to get more strategic. Engagement was easier to do before,” she says. “Everyone was on-site, and everyone came. Now, they’re all over the place doing all different types of things. I’ve got to be able to measure the success of particular programs. It can’t be badge swipes. We use badge swipes just to measure who's here, and for the average time people get in.”
For example, meals at Coty’s headquarters are now only redeemable for employees who can show they’ve booked desk space through Mapiq’s employee experience app, opening up insights about events and creating more efficiency in Fatima's ability to plan ahead and accommodate workers.
Fatima says fragrance products are a “secret ingredient” to get cross-functional participation in events. While employees used to have wide access to free Coty fragrances, she says they’ve started limiting them to only those who engage.
“I make sure it’s hard to get,” she says. “It’s one of my tools. It’s how I get accounting, legal, procurement — all those teams involved. Otherwise, I can’t get them to participate. That’s now 40 percent of my population that perks up and participates.”
Coty will also prompt participants with social media engagement like hashtags or mentions, which she says allows for employee engagement data for in-office and remote employees.
3: Combine workplace data for better insights
Fatima and Daniel, both workplace leaders, need to be looking at holistic data to begin more accurately telling the story about the workplace culture and how operations are helping to foster and support the culture of those in the office.
They each said the most important KPIs for their teams are:
- Occupancy
- Space Utilization; and
- Event Engagement
According to Daniel, while occupancy rates are needed for baseline data, space utilization has been “huge” for Peloton, and it’s providing the design insights for new office locations.
“What’s been huge is how we're activating the space. For example, how many people are using phone booths and large conference rooms? Which free-flow areas are being used more? That’s really the driver for how we’re building out [Peloton’s] other spaces.”
In addition, WIFI data is allowing Peloton to create heat maps for which of its eight floors in New York are being used most and what portions of the floor are used.
Telling The Full Story: Convincing Leadership and Stakeholders
The workplace team at Peloton is considering adding a senior data analytics professional who can help aggregate and connect data points into better insights to communicate a fuller picture to executives.
Using The Right Data to Rightsize
Daniel says Peloton is among the companies that experienced hyper-growth in the wake of the pandemic and “bit off more than they could chew” with leases. This has created a need for in-depth, qualitative workplace insights to paint a fuller story of workplace impact and justify how the company utilizes space and its resources.
“One of the big pushes post-pandemic has been analytics and data,” he says. “How are we leveraging our offices? Based on that, do we have enough office space? Do we have too much? It’s opened up the eyes of our lead team. They’re asking what the data is, how they are utilizing the office, and does it make the most sense.”
Search for Context and Patterns
Coty is also leaning on more KPIs to inform decisions. Fatima says she is breaking down surface-level occupancy data into richer insights when assigning teams to neighborhoods, such as function, time, and space allocation.
Desk booking insights coming from Mapiq’s are important for Coty, Fatima says, noting she depends on it to understand attendance occupancy behavior and to plan for and accommodate specific needs.
“It's just not enough to just say we have 400 people who came to work today. That’s not enough of a story,” Fatima says. “You need to tell the different types of people. The times they came to work — data by function, by day, by month, and pattern data. We want to tailor the office to the people who come. I want to know who they are and what I need to do to support them.”
Imagining The Future of Workplace Data
What data are workplace experience teams hoping for?
Fatima says she wishes she could see real-time vacancy and departure time statistics. She says this would help her schedule support staff and optimize facility management work.
“I can never get that information,” she says. “If we had sensors that told us that by 4:30, 50 percent of the population are gone. If I could quickly see how many people are here and where they are, we could start [facility work] right now where it’s not going to interrupt anybody.”
Daniel says he wants to see AI help more accurately forecast space needs and budgets.
“For example, you have 750 people who are tied to an office. But now you’re on a hybrid schedule, and you don’t need 750 desks. So, leveraging AI to say: based on how many people are coming in per day, this is how many desks you’ll need.”
Conclusion: Look Beyond Attendance Data
Getting a grip on new workplace dynamics requires leaders to look beyond attendance data and focus on richer elements like intent, engagement, and utilization.
While capturing this new kind of data requires creativity and even growing pains, it is essential to tell a more accurate story of your workplace and tailor the experience for the people who are there.
Leaders like Fatima and Daniel are pioneering this new standard for in-office experience with being data minded in all their efforts and connecting KPIs to help capture the real story about their workplaces.
Interested in connecting data and taking analytics from your own portfolio to the next level? Mapiq's Workplace Insights is specifically designed to translate complex dashboards into convincing, actionable, and user friendly rapports.
