Keeping the Lights on: How the Electrical Industry Uses Workforce Analytics
An exploration of the features of workforce analytics tools and how they can boost productivity and efficiency in the electrical industry.
In the electrical industry, brightening the spark of performance and productivity is an ongoing challenge.
With thousands of customers to serve, and customer service thus being of paramount importance, there isn’t much tolerance for wasted time.
So the question is, how can the electrical industry thrive behind the scenes and improve employee performance with workforce analytics solutions?
A Brief Introduction to Workforce Analytics
Workforce analytics tools and monitoring software solutions provide companies with an easy way to monitor staff and evaluate individual productivity, for both in-house employees and external contractors.
These computer watching software platforms can be used for a wide variety of reasons, such as the following:
- Enhancing the employee experience
- Identifying trends in individual productivity
- Proactively noticing signs of burnout
- Spotting opportunities for improving performance
- Finding bottlenecks with certain apps and processes
As a result, online employee tracking systems can be incredibly useful for keeping your finger on the pulse of how your workforce currently operates and identifying ways it could be more efficient and productive.
For the electrical industry, workforce analytics can be used for keeping track of employee performance to refine processes at every level of management and offer the best possible service to the customer.
Top 4 Workforce Analytics Features for the Electrical Industry
If you work in the electrical industry, you may be wondering how exactly you can use workforce analytics software to improve operational efficiency and individual productivity.
That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the top five features you should look out for:
1. Automatic Time Tracking
Whether you’ve got electrical engineers out in the field, project managers overseeing operations, or contract specialists handling hiring logistics - you need a centralized way of tracking productivity.
With workforce analytics tools, you can employ automatic time tracking to ensure that an hour at work is an hour worked.
A billable hours calculator can inform you as to how much time each employee has registered on the clock. Plus, you can also track the unbillable hours, sick days, and absenteeism.
You can also set billable rates according to the task being performed or the employee’s role, which can be incredibly useful for calculating payroll accurately - especially when you have engineers who could be on standby working odd hours.
For client-based projects, time data can help you provide accurate timelines for completion and allow you to better allocate your resources.
2. Screenshot Monitoring
Of course, not everyone who works in the electrical industry will have ready access to a computer. If the majority of your team is out in the field, diagnosing and servicing faults in people’s homes, for example, then shift scheduling and automatic time tracking will be the main ways you use workforce analytics to track productivity.
However, if you have project managers and other roles on your books that require access to a computer, then you have the option to set up screenshot monitoring.
By implementing regular screenshots, you can increase company-wide accountability and make sure everyone stays focused on their work throughout the day. Showing up to a shift on time doesn’t imply a high level of productivity on its own, after all.
3. Productivity Insights
If you want to scale your business sustainably and gauge individual performance effectively, you need detailed productivity insights and reports to draw from.
With data-rich reports, you can get a clear overview of how everyone in your company has been working, including project-specific performance. You can use historical data to inform future decisions about personnel and how you work.
It could be that you’re considering a mix-up in your company, and you’ve determined that a different work model could be the way forward. In this case, it’s important that you have a reliable way of tracking productivity levels so you can compare several ways of working.
4. Full Transparency
Whenever you implement any form of employee activity monitoring, it’s essential that you consider the value of transparency.
If you work with clients, you can invite them to share what you can see in order to build trust in your working relationship and give them a reliable indicator of project timelines and completion dates.
You can also ensure that they don’t feel cheated when you invoice them at the end of a project with your billable hours rate - since they can go in and take a look for themselves.
On the topic of transparency, you can also share the productivity data you collect with your employees to create a shared sense of accountability. When employees are made aware of their own numbers at work, it can help them to identify areas for improvement and hold themselves to a higher standard.
Access All These Features and More with Insightful
If you’re curious about any of the employee productivity tracker features we outlined in this guide, you can get them all - and many more- with project time tracker Insightful.
Voted the best employee monitoring tool for privacy and transparency in 2022 by Forbes, Insightful offers a whole suite of tools to help you manage your workforce in the electrical industry. It’s an all-in-one workforce analytics platform that can support your growth and boost productivity levels within your company.