The Role of Data Analytics in Remote Work
Tags: dataanalytics, analytics, remote, workplace
Published: 2024-05-28 08:24:28

The global healthcare crisis of 2019 forced several industries to adopt a remote work culture. It has dominated offices, exhibiting several pros and cons concerning employee productivity. However, analytics can help evaluate the hybrid work mode's suitability for your organization. After all, you want to benefit from virtual collaborations enabled by work-from-home (WFH) platforms. This post will explore the role of data analytics in remote work for team improvement and performance boost. 

## What is the Role of Data Analytics in Remote Work? 

1| Performance Tracking 

[Data analytics solutions](https://www.sganalytics.com/data-management-analytics/) can provide practical insights into worker performance and productivity in remote settings. They help study core metrics to examine progress or calculate time spent on activities to adjust priorities. Besides, you can use a human resource management system (HRMS) to assist the organization in identifying remote work risks. 

Therefore, the discovered data patterns are vital to optimizing workflows. This data-driven approach allows managers overseeing remote workers to make objective resource allocation and workload distribution decisions. Furthermore, quarterly and annual performance evaluation insights can guide managers on ideas to improve efficiency and output. 

2| Employee Satisfaction 

Happy employees are precious to growth-poised enterprises. They voluntarily accept new responsibilities and put in extra effort for business objectives. Simultaneously, they are more likely to cooperate, transfer skills, and suggest groundbreaking ideas. 

However, the remote work model makes ensuring employee engagement, satisfaction, and cooperativeness more challenging. After all, there are almost non-existent mechanisms for employees to understand each other through physical cues. 

So, leaders can benefit from workforce [data solutions](https://www.sganalytics.com/data-solutions/), research, innovation, and feedback surveys in developing new team-building exercises based on virtual reality (VR), gaming, and net-enabled conferencing. Furthermore, you can conduct studies about employee engagement and satisfaction using anonymized data to find ideas for hybrid workplace improvements. 

Besides, it is crucial for employees to feel valued and integral to the team, whether they are in the office or at a remote location. Therefore, equipping them with adequate tools and stable connectivity is a good practice that reassures them of the importance of seamless collaborations. You can utilize analytics to evaluate the ease of communication and tech-related downtime to prevent team coordination issues early on, further emphasizing their role in the team's success. 

3| Recruitment Planning 

Restructuring teams to fulfill new projects’ requirements without hurting the progress of an ongoing deliverable is an overwhelming puzzle. At the same time, the estimation of the workforce and tools for efficient project management has changed due to the rise of novel technologies. 

You want recruitment analytics and predictive data insights to decide the ratio between on-site and remote work roles. Later, your talent acquisition teams can promote job descriptions based on the insights. Additionally, you can leverage performance analytics to assess newly recruited workers’ eligibility for a permanent position. 

What Are the Tools for Remote Work Management and Analytics? 

HiBob assists in strategic hiring, workplace culture, recruitment automation, and pay transparency. It also has a 4.5-star rating on G2 based on 765 working professionals’ reviews. 

Humanforce acquired IntelliHR in June 2023. It facilitates onboarding automation and has analytics features for employee engagement and performance management. 

Qualtrics maintains three components of employee experience management (XM). The first offers insights into engagement goals. The second describes events across an enterprise's employee lifecycle. Finally, the last generates decision recommendations for team improvements. 

Conclusion 

Data analysts specializing in human resources and productivity insights must upgrade their skills to meet the unique needs of hybrid workplaces. Remote work is here to stay because it has proven that specific job profiles are immune to workplace changes. Simultaneously, this era of eliminating wasteful resource usage and promoting work-life balance dictates younger professionals’ job expectations. No wonder the WFH culture attracts them. 

Still, failing to track employee performance will increase the risks of workers misusing remote work privileges. Also, some remote workers might feel alienated due to communication hurdles or bias during recruitment based on work location preferences. Organizations must ensure that never happens. 

Global companies have recognized the pivotal role of HRMS and data analytics in remote work management. These tools are not just aids but essential components. After all, they enable companies to hire and retain top talent without witnessing productivity losses. 

Understandably, data analysts’ expertise in workforce analytics tools like Oracle Analytics, Humanforce, Qualtrics, Crunchr, and HiBob is highly valued. Their knowledge will be instrumental in studying the effectiveness of the remote work model without hassle.