At Measuremen, this principle is at the heart of everything we do. Making decisions without solid data can feel like navigating in the dark. Measuring provides a clear path forward, enabling you to take actions that align with reality. But how can this process help your organization thrive?
Measuring – Getting close to the truth
In an environment where everyone has an opinion, numbers offer a way to cut through the noise. Opinions, especially without supporting evidence, can blur reality and lead to decisions that miss the mark. Relying solely on assumptions or gut feelings often results in more harm than good. Data, however, provides a clear, fact-based view of what is happening.
By tracking relevant data points, you gain the clarity needed to avoid misguided choices. Data eliminates uncertainty and gives you a truthful, unbiased understanding of your organization’s current state.
Measuring what matters – Getting your focus
When you want to know what is truly happening, you need to measure the right things. This means vastly different variables for organizations and nations. In fact, the right things to measure differ between each organization.
For example, you can prioritise measuring the average well-being of your employees or employee engagement. You could discover which type of support employees need to work remotely effectively. Or you could focus on the status of your inventory, and how many employees you can house on the square meters you have available.
The measurement process itself will also guide your thinking. By defining what you see as success, you are able to measure it correctly. Some managers see their success in cost savings, others in employee productivity and engagement, while others as functioning buildings. I hope it does not come as a surprise that cost savings, employee engagement and functional buildings are all parts of the same puzzle.
For example, strictly focusing on cost savings might have devastating effects for employees. Focusing on the long run is key for strategic decisions. An organization is one connected system where all these factors interact with each other.
Measuring change – Getting predictions
When measuring different variables, we often aim to predict future patterns and behaviour. However, this can be much simpler in theory than in practice. According to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, when you measure where something is, you don’t know where it is going.
Prediction can be especially important when evaluating organizational changes. Looking at this from the workplace perspective, if you measure employee productivity after 3 weeks of remote work, you know their ratings at that moment. However, you do not know where their ratings will be after 6 or 10 weeks of remote work. Employee productivity and engagement is likely to fluctuate in prolonged periods of remote-only work.
When you have repeated measures (like small questionnaires every week), you can work towards identifying trends. Then you are able to make solid predictions of where your workforce is likely to go and how you can best support them.
Measuring interactions – Understanding your organization
Measuring a singular aspect of your office or organization cannot provide you with a holistic picture. Your office has an impact on your employees, and the well-being of your employees influences your revenue. Only by having repeated measures across variables, can you see how these factors impact each other.
For example, if you have weekly information about your employee well-being, you can evaluate how in-office versus remote work days affect them. This information is useful to guide managerial decisions and can influence your workplace policy. Additionally, it can be interesting for the employees themselves as a form of self-reflection. Similarly, to people who wear FitBits to measure, and improve, their steps.
Through the dynamics in data, you can get valuable insights to understand which factors interact and in which ways.
Measuring data – Improving your organization
Although measuring is important, the quality of your data and what you choose to measure is even more important. By knowing what you want to measure and why, you can have relevant and truthful data, reliable predictions and understand interactions within your organization.
Armed with these insights, you can begin to make meaningful changes that improve your organization. When your decisions are driven and supported by data, you can improve employee well-being, productivity and even revenue. You can prevent potential problems by getting the right information on time, and understanding what your employees do. But you could also see how new interventions affect your employees through A/B testing, for example.
Measuremen – We measure
Measuring opens the door to countless opportunities, but making sense of your own data can be challenging without the right tools. That’s where Measuremen comes in. Through services like our employee experience app, Habital®, Workplace Asset Inventories, and iBASX Smart office Solutions, we provide the support you need to gather and interpret meaningful data.
With our interactive online Measuremen Portal, you can access live data, customize visualizations, and uncover insights that drive real results. Whether you’re looking to enhance employee well-being, optimize your space, or boost productivity, we help you measure what matters. So that you can make informed, impactful decisions every step of the way.