Sensors and Cents: The Real ROI of a Data-Powered Workplace

Josh: I think probably much like many young people, I have a very similar story to Phil in that I had a, sporting background and an interest sort of Phil and my past collided in the kind of cross section between, I suppose academia and that kind of high-performance world.

So, we had worked together a little bit at university and then. Worked together in the human performance lab where we were supporting those elite athletes. So very similar background in that sense. I also studied for a PhD in physiology, and I think when Paul and Phil, co-founded ART and offered me the opportunity to get involved, it was, for me a perfect opportunity to, again, very much apply.

Optimizing human performance, but in a slightly different way. And, trying to apply that same science to people, but in, in the workplace environment. that's really been a passion of mine over that period. And that's obviously where I was delighted to join the business and have been on that journey as well, ever since.

Ruth: Fantastic. Both of you have emphasized the importance of using science and data in the workplace. Why is this data driven approach so crucial?

Phill: I'm obviously quite biased in this because of my scientific background, but I think the ultimate answer to this is because. Every organization and every workforce are different.

No two organizations are identical. They have different demographics of people. They have different goals and different missions. They have different real estate; they have different philosophies. The list goes on. Everything is different about organizations. So, if you are trying to influence an organization with some insight from.

A white paper or from another area, you're missing the point. It's, that doesn't represent you that's a cross section of somebody else. So, you really need to understand the influences that affect your organization and your people and your demographic. And for me, the way that you do that is you collect data now.

You must collect data in the right way. And can do so and understand and synthesize that data. But without doing that, you just shot gunning approaching to anything. You're just hoping that you throw somebody at the wall, and it sticks, and from a, again, harping back to the kind of high-performance sport world where we've came from, there's no way you would be doing that. You'd be very, ultra specific about the individuals or the teams that you're working with to try and find out how they're performing, how we can improve that performance and optimize that performance.

And that's through collecting data, understanding that data, donating in a robust scientific method, and then using that insight to make decisions. And it's no different in, any walk of life from my perspective anyway.

Ruth: And what are some of the misconceptions I have the feeling that especially in the recent months, the heated discussion about whether people should return to the office or if remote work is still a thing or if it's only for lazy people has been really heating up again.

So yeah, that is really an interesting topic to discuss. And then obviously also prove with data and. And the concepts you have been building.

Phill: Yeah. maybe I'll take the misconceptions bit, and I'll hand over to Josh around the kind of remote work versus traditional offices, if you like. But from I think misconceptions perspective, I think a lot of organizations and a lot of people, because they're not from the world that we are perhaps in, think it's impossible to measure optimization if you like, how do you do it?

How do you go about it? And, because it's such a, an unknown beast, if you like. We'll stay away from that, and we'll just follow the white paper or something I've read on LinkedIn or something I've read here or there, and it's scary. And possibly there's a, if they do measure things, they might not stack up very well.

And how does that look and how, what do we do with it if that's the case? Okay. But the way I would answer that is. If you want to improve or how are you ever going to improve if you don't try and understand where your starting point is and how you currently operate and are performing from that side of things.

And that's where the benchmarking, the measurement and understanding your work workforce, your workplace comes into it. Yeah, I think there's a couple of misconceptions. We are very much. Operate in that arena and are willing able to help people with that. So, I'll pass over to Josh in terms of the remote versus traditional office setups.

Josh: Yeah, so I think, obviously Phil and I in two separate spaces today, give a good example of that where our days at, in a remote or traditional office will look very different. But I think what's important is not necessarily determining which of those is, better, from a holistic perspective, but understanding kind of more of the nuance of the strengths and weaknesses of each.

So that helps people, both organizations and employees, optimize their, daily schedules and their working week to get the best out of whatever that looks like for them. So, I think for some of our, key health metrics, when we look at the differences, we know that people are more active in the office, so they get around two to 3000 more steps per day.

Now that's probably due to the kind of natural activity that you get through the commute, through more movement from a larger, floor plan, versus just having to go downstairs to grab a drink or, go to the toilet, those spaces are just bigger in the office.

But then on the flip side, we know that people get around 20 minutes more sleep per night when working from home. And again, that probably relates to the fact that people don't have to commute. they're able to save that time and, attribute that to other areas. Now those might sound like quite small differences daily, but I think added up over, the course of a year or, a longer period they do really make a significant difference.

That could be the equivalent of performing several marathons worth of, steps more than you would've otherwise done, or even achieving around four to five extra nights worth of sleep. Whilst, that narrative can sometimes be quite polarized.

Yeah. You'll often hear from Phil and I, the phrase probably it depends in terms of, which is better. And I think for any organization or any individual to truly achieve those high levels of wellbeing performance, it's about bringing, awareness to the impact of, how these things, play out in your daily lives.

Yeah. Bringing attention to what you can do and then, and obviously then controlling the factors that you have, so for example. Knowing what I know about remote work and that's associated with being more sedentary. I can incorporate a walk in the morning to simulate my commute.

I can get out at lunchtime or have a walking meeting with a colleague. So, I'm able to build some of the things in alone that I know can mitigate those. those detrimental effects.

Ruth: Why do you think this discussion is so polarized?

Phill: That's a good question. I would suggest that's probably to do with.

To an extent, generational opinions on things and what work was and what it should be. you read a lot of things in the media and then, particularly in social media around X, y, or Z organization, we're going all going back to the office. So, we're all going to work from home, and it grabs attention.

And I think there's a thirst for that attention sometimes because they want to be seen as that leader and that, shining light Whilst they do get that attention and it feeds that cycle, we would always argue that those polarized opinions and thoughts on things are not the optimal strategy for an organization, and they certainly shouldn't be necessarily put on a pedestal as the right opinion just because Spotify decide they're going totally remote. That doesn't mean everybody else should go totally remote just because they have a successful organization. They've obviously got the capacity or their leadership, anyway, feels like they've got the capacity to be able to work that way. And it grabs headlines and everyone's yeah, let's all work from home and where we're new company and this is the way forward, but.

Probably argue if they really dug into the detail around their workforce and their people and the needs of their people, that probably isn't right for all their people. And there would be a better way that is, more blended in their approach. But I. Like I say, I think there's a, let's say a thirst for, headline, grabbing a bit of a generational thing around what work should be it.

All the generations who tend to be leadership should be in the office, stereotypically speaking. Not saying that for everybody, but I. I'd say those two are big influential pieces on the polarization problem.

Ruth: But it's good then that, your work and yeah, the trends and findings you have come across are data proven and then it's no more guessing and no more attention grabbing possible.

So that's nice.

Phill: A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

Ruth: And I imagine it also has not only influence on the workforce itself, but also. The society. I just remember that, during the pandemic, my doctors would be happy that everybody was working from home because their commute became just so much easier because there were no more traffic jams because the workforce that did not necessarily have to commute but was forced to be in an office.

Yeah. Was Cramming up the motorways and he was happy about it. And he said he should always be like that. Yeah. and for him it made it so much easier because obviously he could not work from home, being a dentist, so even online consultation wasn't an option for him. But yeah, that's, interesting concepts where then the philosophy of the workplace also spills into other industries.

Phill: Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. There's a perfect example thereof, horses for courses in that sense. not every organization can work from home, even if they think they can. And we as, leaders, we must really. Think about the decisions we're making around our working strategy for our people and try and make it the most optimal environment created to people to flourish in the roles that they do.

Ruth: Absolutely.

Josh: I think, for anyone who does want to, I. Still an avail of those quieter commuting times. Monday and Friday, still, see, lower turn up rates in the office. So, I think that's something that people really benefit from is, they find that there's a quieter commute, there's a quieter environment in the office, so they get the benefits of the office space, but with a, reduced, head count there.

So, I know, that's something that typically Monday and Fridays are, days that people don't go into the offices so much. So, for anyone who does prefer those routines, they, those are good days to hit.

Ruth: Yeah, that's right. There's just so many ways now to make it flexible and create an environment where everybody can, work to their best ability and productivity.

Yeah. So, it's always interesting that it's now more flexible and there's just so many angles to look at this topic, right? A hundred percent. Aside from the home office versus. In office discussion. You also mentioned elements like lightning, noise levels, and even nutrition when it comes to employee performance and wellbeing.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Josh: Yeah, so I think that there's. a good amount of research, both, in, in the industry and in academic research as, as well as some of the findings that we've collected that, strongly demonstrate how your environment, the workplace design or your ways of working, can you significantly impact your productivity and wellbeing.

To give a few examples, probably one of the most studied is, for example, the impact of CO2 levels. in relation to cognitive performance. that's going to be going to be really of interest for organizations if they want their people to be as productive as possible.

But I. Also, for, yourself if you want to, be able to think clearly, to focus, to be able to really do your best work. I've just recently got an air quality monitor myself, and it's been interesting to see that, sat here in my home office.

When I closed the door, how the, the CO2 levels go up quite quickly, over a thousand parts per million, within probably an hour. And you know that it's at those levels when. you can start to see impacts to, to cognitive performance and health. So having that data and knowing that, that helps me influence my behaviours, where I might, open the door every so often if, If I need that quiet time, but just to refresh and bring some, fresh air into the room. But I think one of the, the biggest benefits that we've seen from our data as well is, the impact from natural light or, office conditions that simulate natural light. So, things like circadian lighting systems, which, mimic the fluctuations in the colour temperature of light throughout the working day to, ma more closely match people's biological rhythms.

In, in our projects we've seen that has a significant impact on people's content performance, particularly the decision making. I think from a behavioural perspective, we know people naturally gravitate towards the outskirts of buildings, towards areas where there is more natural light.

And that really does have a significant effect. So being able to position your home desk in, a in an area where you're facing a window is key. Or being able to find a space in an office where you have that natural light is going to be important as well. And then in terms of the overall design, there's, many other aspects such as biophilia, connection to nature or plants in the office, different types of furniture.

And things like providing sit stand desks, so being able to influence people's sedentary time, we know is one of the biggest risk factors for, office-based workers. but being able to provide this variety of furniture and workstation settings and giving people, a kind of connection to nature and, high-quality environmental conditions help, really reduced stress, improved people's comfort, and ultimately enhance their performance and productivity.

Ruth: Interesting. And how do you collect that data?

Josh: So, for, us as an organization, we've built our service offering around, a holistic approach to really understand some of the key health and performance metrics. At ART we can collect wearable data, so information from things like Fitbit, from Garmin, from Apple Health that, pull possibly that data from employees either.

Provided by an organization or cell phone, devices into our process and platforms, we're able to understand how key health metrics, like physical activity, how steps resting heart rate is physiological indicator, and then things like sleep, are being impacted by the workplace.

We also have our proprietary smartphone application where we're able to, our reference being able to measure cognitive performance. That's how we, objectively measure that. So, we've taken tasks that are typically performed in, academic settings and implemented them into a smartphone application, which gives us, a validated way to really measure.

Cognitive performance. So, things like people's focus, their working memory, their reaction time, or their decision making and, really understand how that can be impacted by the workplace. And then we supplement that with, both in-app and, more general workplace experience surveys.

And then the sort of fourth stream, if you like, is, being able to integrate with building sensor data. So, things like air quality monitors. Occupancy data. But the real, secret sauce and magic is where those things come together. So being able to understand how. the environment that someone working in is impacting them on their sleep levels or, how

The different types of routines that people have are impacting upon their cognitive performance. So, the correlations and your ability to understand the interactions of those different metrics is really what I. Brings that to life and ultimately it gives us a great lens into how the workplace itself is impacted upon people, and particularly those key health and performance metrics.

So really putting a human feel on that and being able to inform organizations. From that human experience perspective.

Ruth: Have you come across a finding, set piece of data that really surprised you in your research?

Josh: I think often it's, the evidence that comes through is I. It's sometimes impactful because you might have a hypothesis, but when you conduct a, a piece of independent research, you obviously are led by the data.

So, I think being able to see in, in plain kind of, hard evidence, how something comes about that can be powerful. A good example is just recently we conducted our own internal study looking at the impact of taking an active break. So, Joe Wicks, who's, a big personal trainer and influencer here in the UK was running a movement hour.

So, he was encouraging corporate organizations to try and get active, to, to demonstrate the benefit of movement. So, we, we aligned with that. We got involved as an organization. We conducted our own, research study around that. So, we looked at conducting our own baseline.

So, we, had a week where we didn't perform the active breaks. We assessed our cognitive performance, our stress levels, and various other things. And then we repeated that. After conducting that, that movement hour where we all took part in different types of high intensity workouts. Some people went for a walk, others went to the, the gym and did a weight session and it was, to be honest, amazing to see the impact where it.

Produced a, a tangible benefit to people's cognitive performance. So, we were seeing people, after the break, had higher levels of decision making of focus of their working memory, but it also improved people's stress levels. people were less stressed. And they were happier. But I think the key thing as well with that was that in the, in the baseline week, there was sometimes that people reported feeling, tired or, slightly fatigued, but.

That went, that number went to zero, when after the active break. just by getting out and doing that activity in whatever form it might be really, demonstrate how it can energize people so that as a kind of concept, we, we would hypothesize based on what we know that that, should have a benefit.

But being able to see those numbers, is sometimes exciting to, to be able to then talk about.

Ruth: That's cool. And it's probably not only about. The hour or the importance of physical movement but just taking small breaks in general.

Josh: Absolutely. Yeah. So, the concept of, micro breaks, which is essentially, a short break that could be, as little as a few minutes really can have a powerful impact.

The active break is something that can be done in those sorts of times, but similarly mindful micro breaks is again, an area of that we've investigated and seen positive effects. So just being able to take. The time to, to go through a breathing exercise or to go through a mindfulness routine again within 10 minutes can have a tangible impact on reducing stress levels.

And again, giving people that clarity of mind to be able to improve their, their thought process, their cognitive performance. There are many ways that you can implement a break, but those short micro breaks are a great tool. Whether it's, being active, being mindful, just giving you that short moment to pause and reset throughout the day.

And, going back to a. A sporting context, it's very common that no one would expect that you would exercise continuously and never rest and recover. you must get those periods of rest and recovery in and in a workplace environment, being able to get those in, in, in small snippets throughout the day will without doubt improve, improve your longevity in your performance.

Ruth: I wonder if we now must get up and stretch or do something to get quite helpful to get, because we've been sitting here concentrated and focused for half an hour now,

Phill: probably wouldn't be a bad thing.

Ruth: But do you have a small tip for probably especially remote workers when you are glued to your conferencing software for eight hours straight and must Yeah, carefully ask for a bio break.

What can they do?

Phill: I think it's about, for me, it's about being disciplined with how you organize your diary to an extent and have that championed as well through the leadership within your business. So

Friends of mine, who work remotely, who are eight hours a day is stuck in this position and it's, not healthy, it's not good.

And they should be planning their doubts that doesn't happen. But I guess one way that can be, or tip if you like, is to have meetings that are 50 minutes or 55 minutes or 25 minutes where there is that opportunity to get up, walk around. Make a cup of tea, go to the toilet, whatever it may be.

And that is not a workplace benefit as such. It's part of your culture. It's, it's championed by your leadership. And they would do the same thing, rather than every, somebody thinking, oh, I need to sneak off to do this, that, that shouldn't be the case. This is about, creating a culture that supports wellbeing and ultimately supporting wellbeing supports performance.

So, it shouldn't, it's not a leap of faith and a leadership. Team needs to take to encourage that. Yeah. It's beneficial to them as a leadership and getting more out of their people. So, it's changing that mindset of, people aren't sneaking off. They're doing this to help the business themselves and ultimately the business.

Ruth: That's great. I just add that, it's, it's very much a. A two-way street. as Phil rightly says, the organization can set the culture, but ultimately the individuals must, take accountability themselves as well. You can't really have one without the other.

Josh: So, I think it's about, setting the culture, demonstrating the behaviour from a leadership perspective, but then also from a, from an individual perspective, living and breathing that as well, and taking the accountability to look after yourself as well, which, which does mean.

Being, proactive, as Phil said, organizing your diary, taking those breaks where needed. Speaking with colleagues, if there is an opportunity to take a walking meeting or to, do something slightly more social because the o often those conversations really spark, that kind of snowball effect where others see that and then start to feel more comfortable to do it themselves.

And it's, amazing what. Those small actions can build up into, once you really get going with things.

Ruth: It's also interesting once you work in a, in an organization that has, more cultural diversity, not only within the teams, but as an organization.

If you have like entities in different countries, then you have a meeting in an Asian country and then there's, it's common to just have a nap at your desk for 15 minutes and then be refreshed again. Yeah. Where the Western colleagues are, like, are we allowed to sleep at work? What? it's completely natural and there's no one looking weird at you.

Phill: Yeah. I think that's an interesting example you gave and really plays into the point, what I spoke about earlier, about understanding your demographic and culture. If, your entire workforce, if you've got a global workforce, you can have a multitude of different expectations. From both sides of the table, from a, a local leadership versus a local workforce in Singapore versus somebody over in the US versus somebody in the UK.

It's all very, different. So, taking a broad-brush approach to absolutely anything, never mind health, wellbeing and, the likes of that. Just doesn't make sense. You've really got to understand your reality and your people to decide that's going to have a positive impact.

Ruth: Absolutely. But as you said, adopting this cultural shift, it requires a change of mindset, which is hard to achieve in any organization, at least the ones I have seen. It can be really exhausting to try and. Initiate a culture change and get everybody on board, and then actually also make it tangible that it sticks After all the consultants have left.

What strategies do you recommend?

Phill: Yeah, I think it, it the leadership buy-in and, getting a champion at a senior level is important. Now, that's not always easy, but. In an ideal world, leadership who, make decisions on pretty much everything in the business, informed by data.

If they're not using data to make decisions around workplace experience, workplace performance, health, wellbeing, then it's contrary to what the used data on to, to financially forecast or. Understand sales and marketing strategy and success. So operational efficiency. So, if they're using data in that sense, in that world, then it shouldn't be a big leap of faith to start, using a, using data in the health, wellbeing, and experience world.

Now that's an ideal world to get a champion at that level, and it's. Not always the case. And I think from, our experience, we often get lots of buy-in from middle management who are really forward thinking. They might be slightly, again, stereotyping a slightly younger generation who've got, a slightly different view on the world and what's important.

And, but they are the future leaders as well. And we often, Try and empower them with the tools, the information, the knowledge to be able to try and get that senior leadership buy-in. and what we found is once you get that senior leadership buy-in And you can collect it and we can get, solid results to take back and convince and, take people on that journey, that's when it starts to have the impact.

It's, not an easy in and an easy culture change in certain instances, but if you do get. The ideal situation where you can marry up an enthusiastic and enthusiastic, middle manager and leader who is forward thinking, and you marry those two things together.

That's, where the beautiful stuff flows and to get the change.

Josh: I just, I think as Phil said, we've, got lots of learnings from this over, our journey over the last seven or so years. both in terms of things that worked well, as Phil's just said, but also things that, can be, learned from.

And I think a nice summary, that I suppose I'll direct people to, if they want to read a bit further into this, is a McKinsey report that's just recently been released at the start of the year on thriving workplaces. And they, talk about these sorts of six evergreen principles, if you like, for how to, how can organizations truly address workforce health.

And they talk about how there's no one size fits all and, every organization is very different. So very much, aligning to, the sort of the narrative that we talk about and really play out in terms of our, own work. But some of these things include, really understanding the baseline status of your employees.

So being able to. From a, a data perspective helps you then inform where to, where to go. Being able to develop those initiatives to drive a sustainable and healthy workforce is going to be key. I. Piloting and testing interventions to test and learn. Again, investments in these things can often, be significant and the decision making there for comes with significant risk.

But if you're able to test that on a small scale before, rolling something out more broadly, you can help really inform those decisions. And the concept of fail fast, you can be attributed there as well. Another one is, tracking key metrics. So, three to five key metrics that, really measure that success.

So, you're able to, as Phil said in from a. Typically in a financial or a, sales and marketing perspective, you would have those metrics. So being able to have those in this environment, it helps, form, your key performance indicators, we've talked about ensuring the leadership commitment and sponsorship.

And then the last one is, really embedding that into the organizational culture. What, comes, within those is, is, nuanced and, requires a bit more depth. But I think that's a nice starting point as a report for people to go to, just to Start to understand some of those things, in a bit more detail.

And I think, is a nice summary from, what we've seen over the years that we've been working in this field and, align very much to what we are about as well.

Ruth: Cool. I'll make sure I'll, link the report in the show notes so people can read up on it. Before we wrap up, where do you see your approach headed in the next five to 10 years?

What are your plans? What are your visions? I.

Phill: I think, generally we're, the space we're talking about, the space we're working in is something that is gaining a lot of traction. People are starting to understand the importance and the impact of it, because of that snowball effect, we, we see a bright future for the workplace.

I think if I was going to, advise upon what, you should be doing as an organization now, if you want to, really, s. maintain your position in the market is, start to really understand your real-world scenario. What workplace experience, health, wellbeing. Is in your, current real-world scenario.

It's, as I talked about earlier on in the show, it's very different for every single organization. So, it's great that there is a, movement and an understanding that this is important, but now it's about, if you want to stay ahead and compete in this war for talent and create a workplace where people want to, come and work for you, you really need to start to understand how you can optimize it.

That starts with understanding where your, baseline is and something that Josh talked to there with the evergreen principles. You can argue the employee is a consumer now, and they're going to have a decision to make around, particularly in your high performing, know, high talent people.

They're going to choose not necessarily on how many pounds or euros that you, give them. It's going to be the whole package. What, can you do for me that is going to maintain my health wellbeing, and what is my experience going to be like working for you versus your competitor down the road.

So, there's a big business case to get on board with this. Obviously, we're slightly biased in that because that's what we do, and we can help people create those better workplace experiences through data. If you listen to everything of what we've talked about in this podcast, the business case is there now it's about, taking that.

Next step forward in, in investing in it.

Josh: I think my prediction really is that this data-driven workplace health and performance is, only at the beginning. I think we are just scratching the surface. I think, from an applied research, organizations like us, but also others in the field are starting to really bring about these kind of powerful case studies that, you know, as Phil said, really.

Can tangibly demonstrate the business case, to a point where it's, it's just become so, so much of a win-win for organizations because I think there is a lot of untapped potential, out there. In terms of where organizations can see a benefit, not only just for happier and healthier employees, but ultimately higher performance, which is going to impact the bottom line, So I think as we start to move the dial, we. as a, as an industry create more robust case studies for this effect. I think, more and more will get vol involved in it, and I think the key. For, any organization. thinking about, what, step they could take is that taking one step is the most important thing to do because I think if you stand still, you will fall behind.

Organizations that are prioritizing this are starting to see how they can attract and retain, the top talent. we know that it's starting to impact on business performance and ultimately, I think whilst we're in that. the infancy of that moving forward in the field, it's going to soon become a time when that isn't so new and if you're in the minority, you're going to be left behind a hundred percent.

Ruth: Terrific. And if you had to pick a song for the soundtrack of this episode, what would you put on it?

Phill: On Josh, I'll let you go on that

Josh: One. I'm interested to what we both pick. I'm going to go with Human by the Killers.

Ruth: Okay, cool.

Josh: So, you, obviously, you know what we're about is, is data, but really making it human.

Ruth: Nice.

Phill: I came up with power by Kanye West, and I think it's because I think we all have the power

To make a difference and do something about this there now as a leadership, community if you like. And we have the power to make a difference. We just need to take that step forward and do it.

Ruth: Terrific. That those songs will be a lovely addition to our playlist. You can listen to it on Spotify and on YouTube. Phil, Josh, this has been incredibly insightful. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Josh: Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks very much, Ruth. A pleasure.