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How to monitor and measure collaboration success

9/29/20 7:26 PM

While collaboration can be viewed as a broad topic, encompassing many communication channels including email, instant messaging and real-time video communication, Digital Workplaces are quickly becoming the go to tool for employees to connect and share ideas in global organizations. 

With remote working set to stay, businesses increasingly need to find ways to improve the way that essential corporate information is communicated, share local updates, help to engage employees and better support their corporate culture.  And in a cost-conscious environment, most organizations would like to monitor and measure their collaboration efforts more effectively.

measure collaboration

Measuring collaboration success

One of the things that we are proud of at Beezy is our ability to constantly listen and respond to customers in an agile way. Our success is based on a collaborative partnership approach.

Our ‘Measuring Collaboration Success’ initiative asked the community to share their thoughts on what defines “collaboration success” by participating in a survey and sharing those results. 

Our aim, as the name implies, was to capture feedback and develop best practices around a shared definition of what makes collaboration successful. We wanted to understand the metrics being used to monitor and measure that success, and identify practical ways that organizations are achieving these goals. While many businesses claim that their internal collaboration efforts have been successful and have provided value, the results of this survey showed that few are able to truly articulate that value.

Building on the initial data, a second survey aimed to understand how organizations monitor and measure collaboration success. We asked respondents to share the quantitative and qualitative metrics that they feel are not being accurately tracked and measured. The results of this survey are available to download here.

Quantitative and qualitative collaboration measurements 

Most platforms and tools provide some level of activity-based metrics, but understanding the true Return on Investment (ROI) is what really makes the difference.  This means creating value-based metrics, which take more time and effort to create and monitor, and may be unique to your business.  

Our surveys were designed to understand detailed information, ranging from definitions to the specific metrics that we use to monitor and measure success. Respondents were asked to identify the out-of-the-box activity-based, or quantitative metrics — such as number of files uploaded, or number of page views — as well as the more results-oriented, or qualitative metrics that help organizations better understand the value being achieved.

For example, the question below asked people to identify the types of value, or qualitative metrics currently being tracked by their organizations. In a follow-up question, people were asked whether, in their view, these efforts aligned with the strategic priorities of their organization. In many cases, a disconnect between what is being measured today versus what the business should be measuring was easily identified.  Respondents were given the opportunity to provide additional comments and suggestions, providing a rich picture of the success (or failure) of any single metric.

measuring collaboration success

“With a vast number of respondents indicating that collaboration is vital to success, I think it would be in each SharePoint businesses’ best interest to start with a collaboration roadmap when they are first implementing SharePoint. By setting up a method to track collaboration from the beginning, I wouldn’t be surprised if a shift in user adoption comes after the first couple of analyses of those metrics.”

Eric Overfield, MVP and CEO of PixelMill

The results of the first survey, which focused on defining collaboration success, can be downloaded here.

The results of the second survey, which focused on monitoring and metrics surrounding successful collaboration, can be downloaded here.

For further guidance on how to measure collaboration success, see our top 5 collaboration metrics to track here

While monitoring and measuring collaboration can be a time consuming task, it will help to drive continuous improvement and create an environment where employees are motivated and productive. The result is the holy grail for every organization – improved customer satisfaction and business growth.

Read more about ways to measure the impact of your Digital Workplace Platform and how to measure the ROI of a Digital Workplace.

digital workplace success

 

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