what is the purposes of hard and soft data

While Human Resources managers work with people, and thus often prefer soft data collecting their subjective experiences. Facility managers need to manage buildings and workplaces which have more objectively measurable facts. Hard data is often preferred by Facility managers. We might need to look at job positions in deciding what’s more important: subjective experiences through soft data, or objective facts through hard data. But what is the most important? Facility managers versus Human Resource managers For example when people experience the workplace to be very busy, but objectively measure low occupancy at the same time.

For example, our studies often show a contrast between subjective experience and objective reality. But in organisations, this is quite a practical and common issue. Philosophers have many deep fundamental debates about objectivity versus subjectivity and its relation to truth, quantum mechanics and reality, but the final word hasn’t been said yet (as almost with every philosophical debate). So, the question is now what is more important? Subjective experiences or objective facts?

Hard data is something that people can observe, while soft data is what people experience. So hard data is, for example, data about how many people are present in the workplace or the current room temperature. You (or a sensor) observe what is really happening and this is being collected. With hard data, on the other hand, you gather information about hard facts what is really going on. You gather how they experience the workplace, or how they rate their own performance. With soft data, you gather information about the perceptions of people. And in a sense, this division is quite a philosophical one. So the biggest division is the difference between hard- and soft data. Differences between hard data and soft data In this blog, we show the benefits of using hard and soft data. However, the type of data you gather can have wildly different effects on how you look and whether you actually improve your workplace, with all its accompanying consequences. Data gives you many insights into the workplace and how to improve it. Using data to understand and improve what’s happening at your workplace (instead of just educated guesses) has become a common practice for many organisations.

Data-driven decision-making has become a buzzword that has truth to it.

What is the purposes of hard and soft data