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Workplace analytics solutions are software platforms or tools that provide organizations with data and insights about their workplace and workforce. These solutions leverage data from various sources — most often entry sensors and area sensors — to provide a holistic view of how the workplace is being used and employees interact with it. Some common features and capabilities of workplace analytics solutions include:

• Space utilization analysis: This involves collecting data on how employees are using different areas of the workplace, including workstations, meeting rooms, and common areas.
• Occupancy tracking: This involves tracking the number of people present in the workplace at any given time and their location and movement patterns.
• Workplace optimization: This involves using data and insights to make changes to the workplace to improve productivity, efficiency, and employee experience.

• Real-time dashboards and reporting: Real-time data and insights through customizable dashboards and reports enable organizations to make data-driven decisions in real-time.

The best workplace analytics solutions, like XY Sense, combine high precision, privacy-preserving sensor hardware with real-time workplace analytics to provide a precise picture of how people use the office space in real time and across time. Workplace or corporate real estate teams can log into the workplace analytics solution to view live and historical occupancy reports and analyze the usage of different resources such as desks, meeting rooms, phone booths, and breakout/social spaces. 

Companies leverage occupancy analytics to manage a broad range of projects in addition to ongoing analysis. These include return-to-office planning, occupancy planning, improve workspace experience initiatives, CRE portfolio optimization, reducing real estate costs, and hybrid workplace design.

Workplace analytics platforms can also help organizations improve the overall experience for occupants – including employees, customers, and visitors. Typical “power users” of workplace analytics software are occupancy or real estate teams, but the data are also used and valued by line-of-business (LOB) and team leaders across an organization. 

Further benefits arise if your platform offers API integrations. Once integrated with a company’s booking technology tools, teams can access live views of which desks and meeting rooms are currently in use, book available spaces in real time, and end the phenomenon of ‘ghost bookings’ where rooms and desks are booked and marked as unavailable but not actually occupied. This often drives marked improvement in employee satisfaction and productivity.

Want more info? Discover more about occupancy sensors and workplace analytics in this blog post. 

Workplace analytics solutions are important for workplace teams because they provide valuable insights and data that can help improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the workplace. By providing real-time data and insights into how employees use the workplace and interact with each other, workplace analytics solutions enable teams to make informed decisions, enhance collaboration, and improve the employee experience. 

These solutions also enable workplace teams to identify inefficiencies and address problems proactively, helping organizations to achieve their business objectives and stay competitive in today’s rapidly changing workplace environment.

Some of the most common uses of workplace analytics relate to return-to-office planning, occupancy planning, improve workspace experience initiatives, CRE portfolio optimization, reducing real estate costs, and hybrid workplace design.

Additional insight on workplace analytics solutions is available by reading this blog post about deploying occupancy sensors and analytics.

Real estate teams must maximize efficiency and control costs in today’s environment while avoiding potentially costly rash decisions. Workplace analytics solutions help companies make informed real estate decisions based on workplace utilization. Insights from these platforms are key to an objective, data-driven approach to rightsizing and other workplace decision-making. Using occupancy analytics, you can:

• Understand Location Attendance: Start understanding how much space you need at each workplace location
• Identify the Spaces Employees Use and Prefer: Define and build out a workplace environment that maximizes utility and efficiency
• Align Workplace Resources with ROI: Conduct an ROI assessment of all spaces in your workplace
• Accurately Forecast Future Needs: Make an accurate assessment of the potential future needs of the company so you can reserve only the amount of space you need. 
  
  

These four core sets of insights give you the information you need to make better real estate and workplace decisions that help the company control and reduce real estate expenses. 

Read our guide to measuring ROI from workplace analytics. 

When companies acquire entry sensors and area sensors, it’s important that they choose a solution that combines robust data collection with powerful tools to analyze the data. Unfortunately, not all sensor solutions offer robust analytics tools. Without the benefit of an analytics platform, it’s difficult to derive valuable insights from your data. Beware of low-cost solutions that do not offer the tools necessary to use the data you collect!

Workplace analytics tools provide a more comprehensive understanding of how a workplace is utilized and how employees interact with it than simply having access to sensor data. Some reasons why it is important to have workplace analytics tools include:

• Deeper insights: Workplace analytics solutions including insights platforms can provide more detailed and nuanced insights into employee behavior, preferences, and productivity than area and entry sensors alone.
• Identifying patterns and trends: Workplace analytics solutions including insights platforms can help identify patterns and trends over time, allowing organizations to make more informed decisions about optimizing their workplace and workforce.
• Evaluating performance: Workplace analytics solutions including insights platforms can help evaluate the performance of employees, teams, and the organization, providing insights into areas where improvements can be made.
• Increasing efficiency: By analyzing how employees use the workplace and identifying areas where inefficiencies exist, organizations can make changes to increase productivity and reduce costs. Workplace analytics solutions including insights platforms are uniquely suited to delivering these data sets.
• Improving employee experience: Workplace analytics solutions including insights platforms can help identify pain points and areas where employees face logistical challenges, enabling organizations to make changes to improve the employee experience.
• Supporting data-driven decision-making: Workplace analytics solutions including insights platforms provide objective data that can be used to make informed decisions about optimizing the workplace and workforce.
  
  

XY Sense offers a great example of a workplace analytics solution that enables workplace and real estate leaders to analyze the data they collect with occupancy sensors. The XY Sense Insights Platform transforms our sensors’ highly accurate, anonymous, real-time data into meaningful workplace insights and space recommendations. 

We offer a rich set of pre-built and customizable reports and analyses for the many types of projects workplace leaders face. Live occupancy views monitor utilization in your workplace and support live wayfinding and occupancy displays. Our platform offers secure, API-based integrations with leading workplace experience and booking applications, including Appspace, Calven, and GoSpace. 

Download our buyer’s guide to workplace utilization technology to get additional insights.

Workplace analytics solutions powered by data from computer vision sensors are better than solutions powered by data from infrared, WiFi, Bluetooth, or RFID sensors because computer vision sensors can provide more detailed and accurate information about human behavior in the workplace. Versus other types of sensors, computer vision sensors provide: 

• Higher Precision: Computer vision sensors use advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to detect and track the movement of people and objects with a high degree of precision. This enables them to detect and count people accurately, even in crowded or complex environments. Computer vision provides far better data on the number, location, and activity of each person in a workspace.
• Wider Range: Computer vision sensors can cover a broader range of physical spaces than infrared, WiFi, or Bluetooth-based sensors. For example, XY Sense Area Sensors have a coverage range of 1,000 feet (95 square meters) – about the space required for 20 workstations. By contrast, competitor infrared and other sensors typically have a range of about 1/2 that size. A wider range means companies need fewer sensors, which controls costs and delivers a more sustainable measurement solution.
• Better Detection: Computer vision sensors are better at detecting small movements or subtle changes in occupancy levels than other sensors. This means they can provide more accurate and detailed data on occupancy patterns.
• Non-Invasive: Unlike other types of sensors, computer vision sensors do not require occupants to carry devices or wear special equipment (such as a lanyard with an RFID tag.) This makes them easy to use and reduces the risk of equipment failure or inaccuracies.
• Unsurpassed Security and Privacy: The best computer vision sensors, like XY Sense, leverage a variety of safeguards to ensure the highest levels of security and employee privacy. For example, XY Sense Entry Sensors and Area Sensors never store or transmit images of your office location, and process all detection inputs inside the sensors — something called edge processing. The only thing our sensors transmit are XY coordinates of each individual in a space. That’s why we call ourselves XY Sense. You can learn more about our security and privacy protection on this webpage. 
• Address More Use Cases: Computer vision sensors can be customized and configured to meet specific requirements, such as monitoring occupancy levels, detecting social distancing violations, or identifying security threats. This flexibility makes them ideal for a wide range of applications.
  
  

Read this post about privacy and security for workplace sensors from XY Sense for a more complete review of computer vision and alternative technologies.

Workplace analytics solutions measure a range of data metrics to provide insights into workplace performance and productivity. These may include the following:

• Occupancy Rate: The occupancy rate is the percentage of occupied versus available space. This metric helps organizations understand how efficiently they are using their space.
• Peak Occupancy: Peak occupancy is the highest level of occupancy observed during a specific period. This metric helps organizations identify high-traffic areas and plan for peak usage.
• Utilization Rate: The utilization rate is the percentage of time a space or resource is used versus the total available time. This metric helps organizations identify underutilized spaces and optimize their use.
• Dwell Time: Dwell time is the length of time that people spend in a particular area. This metric helps organizations understand how people use different areas of their space.
• Movement Patterns: Movement patterns refer to the flow of people through a space, including how they move from one area to another. This metric helps organizations understand how people use different areas of their space and identify areas for improvement.
• Occupant Density: Occupant density refers to the number of people in a specific area at a given time. This metric can help organizations ensure compliance with safety regulations and identify areas where social distancing measures may be necessary.
  
  

These metrics identify areas for improvement and optimization within the workplace, leading to increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and overall business success.

Download our buyer’s guide to workplace utilization technology to learn more about the salient metrics.

When choosing a workplace analytics solution, there are several factors to consider, including:

• Accuracy: The accuracy of the solution is critical in ensuring that the data collected is reliable and can be used for decision-making. Look for a solution that uses reliable and accurate sensors and algorithms to ensure accurate data collection. We recommend and use computer vision sensors because of their superior accuracy. XY Sense is far better suited than infrared sensors at pinpointing the precise number of people in a space and offers superior accuracy at identifying their precise locations (<1ft) with our exclusive Area Sensors. 
• Range: Broader coverage area per sensor means fewer sensors – and lower installation and maintenance costs. For example, XY Sense offers wide-area sensors covering 1000 square feet (95 square meters) versus competitors with a range of only about half that figure. 
• Sustainability: Some systems are better than others at limiting materials usage and e-waste. Wide-area sensors cover a greater office footprint than competitor sensors – 1,000 sq ft, or the area for about 20 desks versus about 500 square feet for typical sensors. That means fewer sensors and less wiring are necessary.  Daisy-chain installation methodology pioneered by XY Sense in our SenseLink solution dramatically reduces wiring and equipment costs for every installation – including up to 90% less cabling. Further, battery-free sensors mean reduced toxic e-waste. For a 20,000-headcount organization, a battery-powered system could mean as much as 1-2,000 pounds of disposable battery waste every two years.
• Integration: The solution should be compatible with the existing infrastructure, including networking, IT, and building management systems. A robust API powering real-time integrations with leading workplace experience and booking applications, including Appspace, Calven, and GoSpace, is highly valuable. This kind of integration can be a great way to boost employee productivity by ending ghost bookings of conference rooms and workstations.
• Security and Privacy: The solution should have robust security and privacy features, including data encryption and access controls, to protect sensitive information. For example, XY Sense offers robust security and privacy protection through multiple means, including leveraging computer vision with “edge processing,” which ensures that no images or other information that could potentially contain proprietary company information or employee personally identifiable information (PII) are stored or transmitted from sensors. Thus, XY Sense offers an unsurpassed combination of privacy and security protection. 
• Data Analytics: Many workplace analytics solutions can provide data, but insight is quite a different thing. The best systems offer a comprehensive insights platform to help make your data actionable. 
• Cost: The solution cost is an essential factor to consider, including the upfront installation and ongoing maintenance costs. Installation costs can vary by $Millions on global installation programs – make sure you factor those into your overall considerations. For example, XY Sense saved a financial services company $12M on a global deployment across its facilities. 
• Support, Service, and Strategic Assistance: The availability of technical support and service is essential in ensuring the continued operation and accuracy of the solution. This kind of human support, combined with real-time data from your solution, can help boost employee productivity, give business leaders critical facts, and power better decisions in many areas.
  
  

Download our buyer’s guide to workplace utilization technology for more ideas and tips to help you choose the best solution for your organization.

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When selecting a workplace analytics solution for your workplace, it is crucial to consider security and privacy. Sensors and associated systems are designed to capture a broad range of information about the environment and individuals within it. You must ensure the data collected is protected from unauthorized access or misuse. 

Fortunately, great workplace analytics solutions are available that offer outstanding privacy and security protections that meet or exceed the most demanding standards. Here are some tips to ensure that the solution you choose provides strong security and privacy protections:

• Choose proven vendors: Look for companies whose solutions have already been reviewed and approved by large enterprise businesses with high-security standards, like financial services companies. 
• Carefully review the data collection methodologies: Do the sensors store or transmit images that could compromise security or privacy? The best providers, like XY Sense, leverage “edge processing”, which analyzes captured images in the device and then deletes them. XY Sense Area Sensors are designed to prevent storing or transmitting images that could compromise employee privacy or company security. The only data transmitted from the unit are the XY coordinates of each individual in the space. Actually, that’s why we call ourselves XY Sense!
• Leverage access controls: Access controls restrict who can see and use sensitive data. Implementing access controls ensures that only authorized personnel can access the data collected by area sensors.
  
  

Download a privacy and security fact sheet now. 

The XY Sense team would be pleased to show you a demo of our sensors and workplace analytics solution. Just contact us using our convenient website form.