#PandaPounds: Ecommerce Analytics Employee Insights in 2018

Ecommerce Analytics employees are required to stay at the top of their game! We see year on year new processes, programmes and techniques being put in place but how does this affect our analytics professionals? How are they feeling when it comes to maintaining a work-life balance as more is asked from them? In our next instalment of the #PandaPounds special, we are going to look at the insights of Analytics professionals within the Ecommerce industry.

We all face challenges in the workplace and we are all aware of the very hot topic debate on men vs. women in the industry. But what are the analytic savvy pros thinking? Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Work-life balance for ecommerce analytics employees

For most of us, the importance of a work-life balance is discussed daily, especially when it comes down to thinking of ways to improve it. Do you find you are working until the early hours of the morning? Are you staying in the office when everyone has left? Do you dream about numbers and statistics? Find on your weekends you look up at the clouds (when you are not looking at your emails) and see pie graph shaped clouds?

We had the opportunity as part of our 2018 ecommerce salary survey & insights report to ask the analytics employees of the ecommerce industry what they thought of their work-life balance.

A surprise, even to us, is that 78% of the analytics employees we spoke to are happy with their work life balance. This may be the highest we have seen yet from our #PandaPounds specials. What makes analytics professionals so happy with their balance? Is this because a lot of their work requires you to be within office hours? Or have they discovered a trick to staying on top of everything?

13% are unhappy with their work-life balance, perhaps these professionals are working within a sector in the Ecommerce industry that struggles to cope with all that is asked of them? It is never nice to hear that professionals are unhappy and perhaps those individuals should have a look at our work-life balance tips blogs!

Finally, 9% of analytics employees were unsure about their work life balance. If you are unsure as to whether you are happy – then perhaps that is question you should be asking yourself.

Overtime: how much is being done?

A lot of us find that sometimes it is hard to switch of when we leave the office. In most cases it puts our mind at ease to work some overtime, finish those last few tasks so we can go home with a clear mind so that we do not have to stress before the next working day.

But how long are your analytics employees staying behind or how early are they getting in? Are you doing enough or too much and are they making you look bad in your boss’s eyes? Maybe we can argue that if you have your work-life balance nailed then you know how much overtime you need to do to be a good employee.

Let’s start at the lower end and work our way up! Do not worry, your managers cannot see these results, but 15% of analytics employees confirmed they do not do any overtime at all. These could be junior employees who are working their way up or in their first position. Alternatively, they are super heroes in the office and get their work done before they leave (Pssst, we want tips please!)

22% stated they work overtime a few minutes here and there, mainly to check work emails. We can all agree on that one - it is hard to switch off sometimes and the worry of missing out on something important compels us to check our emails even on the weekend or before we go to sleep.

2% of analytics professional’s work around half an hour extra overtime and 13% complete around an hour. We can assume this is more than just working on emails, it may be completing a task that overrun the work day or wanting to get a head start to save time.

A lot of the time, it would appear managers and directors of a business or brand will work the most overtime. More responsibility falls on their shoulders so, 7-8 hours in a typical working day is nowhere near enough. 26% work 2 – 3 hours extra overtime and 11% complete an impressive 3-5 hours work of extra time. For those working those 3-5 hours extra; Do you remote work? Head up a business? Need to look at why you are doing so much more? Are you picking up the slack your team is not completing?

Analytics team challenges

This is a new topic for our #PandaPounds 2018 questionnaire! It is interesting to see what challenges analytics employees face. Whether you are a client or team member, if we can see first-hand what the challenges are – surely, we can improve? (Note: Respondents were invited to select more than one challenge, so totals will not equal 100%)

• Hiring the right people: 35%
• Getting support for the Ecommerce function: 20%
• Staff retention, keeping the team engaged and valued: 37%
• Global competition: 33%
• International politics (Brexit): 15%
• Company direction (falling behind in digital): 24%
• Customer acquisition: 46%
• Customer retention: 48%
• GDPR: 37%

The results above surprised us here at cranberry panda. Especially looking at team challenges and discovering some of the highest percentages are down to customer acquisition and customer retention. So, we can conclude briefly from this that now new business and maintaining old clients is causing problems within analytics professionals.

Just as surprising staff retention and hiring the right people followed closely together – a correlation that perhaps needs to be monitored from a manager and director level.

Analytics: Male vs. Female

Whether it be within Ecommerce or the travel, sports industry for example, the debate between males and females is always a relevant topic. From as far back as the industrial revolution, women have been working their way up and making their mark in the working world is always closely monitored.

Referring to our Ecommerce Analytics topic, 66% of professionals from our data are men and 35% are women. Unlike most industries where the scales are tipping more towards women taking the lead, it seems in this case our analytics employees are led by men.

This can be broken down into seniority, what percentage of men and women are either Executives through to Manager. (Of course, this does not reflect the whole industry, but it gives an insight into those we gained feedback from.)

Women Analytics Employee Job Titles:

• Assistant: 5%
• Executive: 25%
• Senior Executive: 10%
• Junior Manager: 10%
• Manager: 35%
• Senior Manager: 10%
• Head Of: 5%
• Director/VP: 0%
• Owner/Partner: 0%

Men Analytics Employee Job Titles:

• Assistant: 3%
• Executive: 22%
• Senior Executive: 17%
• Junior Manager: 8%
• Manager: 22%
• Senior Manager: 13%
• Head Of: 6%
• Director/VP: 6%
• Owner/Partner: 3%

Long story short from the above, there is a higher percentage of men in the analytics employees and a higher percentage even from those that are in Director/VP and Owner positions. It is worth having a look at our 2018 ecommerce salary survey & insights report to see on a bigger scale if women are in the higher seniority positions. Are you a woman and wondering if you have the chance to become a Director or VP?

Stick around for more employee insights!

If you have not been overloaded with information (which there is a very high possibility), then stick around for our continued look into each specialism within Ecommerce and what insights we have to offer. Remember to download our 2018 ecommerce salary survey & insights report if you haven’t already!