What is an activity analysis?

An important source of information when conducting a workplace analysis and developing a workplace strategy is to understand which activities employees are engaged in and to what extent. The activity analysis is important because it gives the workplace strategist an understanding of which activities are central to the business, and therefore which behaviors the work environment should be created for. The activity analysis is particularly important in the development of a workplace strategy or a workplace concept for an activity-based or hybrid approach.

Activity analyses can be carried out in different ways

Different activity analyses map activities in different ways. A common way is to break down our daily work-day activities into the most basic behaviors or components. This type of activity analysis usually asks questions about the extent to which employees engage in activities such as writing, counting, drawing, coding, discussing, reading, gathering information, etc., and how important and demanding these activities are.

Although the approach claims to be comprehensive and capture a detailed picture, many of our activities consist of a series of sub-activities that we do more or less simultaneously or that we quickly jump between. For example, when writing a report, we may have to jump between reading, writing, and retrieving information. It can therefore be difficult for individual employees to break down their activities into their parts, and to make a fair estimate of how much time they devote to each sub-activity. Furthermore, the same sub-activity can be very demanding or less demanding depending on what the overall activity is. For example, writing an email can be demanding in one context and less demanding in another.

The activity analysis is part of the workplace analysis and an important basis for the workplace strategy

Another way to conduct an activity analysis is to keep the focus on the overall level. Instead, such analyses ask employees to estimate how much time they spend on certain demanding tasks, certain tasks where they can be available to others, and meetings and collaborations. The individual can then reflect on how much they want to sit in complete privacy and with others, which is easier to estimate.

Things to consider when developing a workplace strategy

Att ha i åtanke vid framtagning av en arbetsplatsstrategi att kartläggningsarbetet är ett flerraketsarbete där varje del ger en pusselbit som tillsammans skapar en god förståelse för verksamhetens behov som arbetsplatsstrategin kan appliceras på. Andra centrala analyser är närvaromätningar, beläggningsgradsmätningar, fysiskmiljöanalyser, visionsworkshops med beslutsfattare samt intervjuer med chefer och andra intressenter.

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