Help Your Employees Navigate the Crisis of Attention

Analytics can help simplify complex data to prevent distraction and promote productivity

When it comes to business productivity, “attention capital” can be very important. Attention capital is the capacity that individuals have to pay attention to their work, complete tasks, and think deeply to create new value. In recent years, some experts have posited that the distracting technologies of the Network Age may be partially responsible for the sluggish activity of our national economy precisely because of their impact on attention capital:

• Employees can become distracted by non-work-related digital media, like Facebook, news sites, personal email, etc.
• Employees can become distracted by the need to constantly respond to work-related emails, status updates, reports, and other communications. These things dilute their attention, leaving them less able to do the deep thinking required to create new value.

Prior to the Network Age, communication was slow and information was often inadequate, which created work bottlenecks. However, hooking knowledge workers into high speed communication networks has not necessarily improved matters. Instead, it has diluted the available attention capital and hurt productivity.

Fortunately, it’s not digital technology itself, but the overuse of this technology for over-communication that is the problem. This means that you can successfully use high-speed communication networks as long as you are careful to optimize them for productivity by:

• Providing timely access to the right information, rather than ALL the information
• Creating the right conditions to focus on this information effectively

The Right Analytics Tool Can Help

An analytics tool like MyFieldAudits can be extremely helpful for maximizing the ROI on your employees’ attention capital.

First, you can use the tool to collect and analyze data related to your business goals. Using analytics for this purpose is far superior to sorting through all the data manually. Because the process goes faster, you can report on more key performance indicators. This enables you to cast a broader net when searching for things that are affecting your overall business performance. After an area for improvement is discovered, you can then communicate the relevant information to your employees. Remember, you want to give them the right information (how they can change or improve to affect the KPI) rather than ALL the information (all the data behind the KPI).

Secondly, you can use the tool to communicate information in a way that is easy to understand and use. MyFieldAudits’ reporting functions can be customized and sent to a digital dashboard on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. The data visualizations in this dashboard are much more accessible than written reports and help users focus more clearly on the important information. Because MyFieldAudits is a cloud-based software, these data visualizations can be shared with anyone who has access to the system.

Want to Learn More?

If you would like more information about using MyFieldAudits to identify and share actionable insights about your business, please contact us at info@MyFieldAudits.com today.