Among the most difficult challenges companies face are slow decision-making processes. They may become even more daunting as they scale up and expand as teams pursue new strategic goals and navigate new communication challenges.
Combined with siloed data and limited access to information, these suboptimal processes may discourage employees and decrease their productivity which of course can hurt your company’s bottom line.
In order to encourage your teams to work together and sustain your competitive edge, introducing Business Intelligence dashboards can empower your teams to be decisive and introduce long-lasting cultural improvements to the way your organization works.
Business Intelligence dashboards provide immediate access and transform raw data into relevant, visually-engaging formats. They allow data customization and organization to be clearly displayed for all employees. The visualization of KPIs, analytics and metrics can facilitate making data-driven decisions.
But how do Business Intelligence dashboards actually create value for a company and make the effort truly worthwhile? Here are the most significant benefits of adopting Business Intelligence solutions.
Timely Access to Information
Among the many benefits of Business Intelligence dashboards are the quick and easy access to information that impacts your employees’ efficiency. Instead of wasting time to track down — or worse, speculate on — key data, workers receive performance metrics data whenever necessary. Well-crafted business dashboards show updates for reports which save precious time and resources. As a result, decision-making time goes down and morale and productivity go up.
The infographic based on a report from Boston University has revealed that 47% of professionals claim that poor access to information hampers making decisions. Business Intelligence dashboards provide data on the basis of which professionals can make informed choices and improve efficiency. Moreover, BI gives makes it possible to examine purchase histories or other customer behavior or make immediate decisions regarding customer service and its potential effects on the company, employees and stakeholders.
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Data-driven decision making
Before the introduction of advanced data analytics, business leaders tended to guess how best to improve business processes. Nowadays, complex analytics provide managers with unique insights into company processes. Data-driven decision making has become the norm, and BI tools keep executives up to date. Those decisions may impact sales forecasts, budget planning, employee bonuses and satisfaction, as well as enhance customer experience. Many of these analyses can lead to company-wide changes which would not have occurred otherwise. Moreover, BI tools function as a platform to build intelligent reports, KPIs and dashboards to keep the team on the same page and allow them to act accordingly.
All you need to do is to share your reports and allow access to your Business Intelligence dashboards. Transparent communication is the key to employee satisfaction and motivation; it also opens up communication and improves your bottom line.
Performance
Among the elements which negatively influences employee productivity are lack of clear goals and an overall sense of purpose. Burnout, frustration, and micr0management are all bottlenecks to effective decision-making. However, BI may prompt both employees and management to overcome these difficulties by optimizing their workdays and reacting quickly to changes. This way, each employee feels responsible for the company’s performance.
As a result, the team becomes more agile and the company much more competitive. Business Intelligence dashboards may turn the chain of command upside down, and instead of top-down management most of the decisions are passed to business managers and frontline reps who have the autonomy to act. Thus there will be an immediate boost in productivity, work quality, and customer happiness.
The increase in employee efficiency is achieved due to the elimination of time-wasting, trivial and redundant tasks such as compiling data from different locations. Employees with Business Intelligence dashboards have all the important information they need at their fingertips. Focusing on important tasks makes the employees more efficient and feel more fulfilled.
Agility
High-performing and efficient workers are also, unsurprisingly, agile workers. Business Intelligence dashboard is also a time-saving tool which compels workers to focus their efforts and attention on finding innovative solutions. Agile and self-organizing teams do not require to be told which task to take on. Business Intelligence dashboards can help outline key parameters concerning management expectations and present employees with hard data.
Among the chief characteristics of data is its objectivity. Numbers are numbers, not feelings. This may be hard to grasp in times when things do not go according to plan and a team which has been working on a project feels disheartened and unmotivated. With all the facts in one place, it’s easier to make conscious decisions and attempt to gain a wider perspective on the situation.
Engagement
Another element on which BI dashboards may have a considerable impact is employee engagement. A clear objective and presentation of relevant data is a key factor behind the commitment to finish a project. BI may just take the team across the tipping point between success and failure.
The transparency provided by BI dashboards not only improves agility and engagement but also inspires friendly competition. Praise is always a motivating factor and seeing the accolades received by co-workers may inspire others to follow their example. This is especially true of new hires, who join the team and want to be viewed as effective contributors. Having a system that displays KPIs and employee goals creates a data-driven environment where everyone values numbers over harder-to-quantify, often subjective feelings.
Motivation
Many companies that successfully adopt BI dashboards for employee motivation display them prominently in the office. Having the company’s key data shown on a large screen helps keep employees updated about the state of the company and may remind them to keep up the good work.
Creating a sense of ownership among workers is essential to motivate hard-working teams. Forbes reports that managers can “increase task identity by involving employees in more aspects of work by having them participate in the planning, reporting, and evaluation of projects rather than just the doing.” Making the team’s activities clear affects the final product and helps place it within a larger context. Business intelligence does just that. Along with displaying key data prominently and fostering a sense of ownership, sharing data reinforces the motivating aspects of transparency and encourages workers to stay focused.
Achievements
It has been already stated that BI dashboards facilitate displaying both goals and tasks, completed or otherwise. This is a reliable source of information about the tasks the teams are currently working on and which may need a helping hand to progress towards significant goals. An employee who uses BI dashboards is able to pinpoint their specific role within a larger project and in the company as a whole. Moreover, BI allows top performers to be tracked and used as examples.
However, BI dashboards may also identify discontent and unproductive employees. In this case BI helps managers see the company’s weakest links. Either way, a BI dashboard is an invaluable tool to show off achievements and employee successes — or uncover challenges to be overcome through reorganized task distribution.
