HR is the CEO’s right-hand in enlightened organisations.
Those were the words of Barbara Lavernos, Deputy CEO at L’Oreal, while speaking as part of a panel of CEOs on the main stage at the recent UNLEASH World in Paris. The declaration captures one of my key takeaways from the show: HR has made significant progress in its journey from support function to strategic partner.
One of the key drivers enabling this journey is people analytics. Two of the findings in the 4th Annual Insight222 People Analytics Trends study, are: (1) 21% of people analytics leaders now report directly to the chief people officer (compared to 13% in 2020). (2) People analytics teams have grown by 43% since 2020. As Isabel Naidoo, chief people officer at Wise, said recently at the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat in Colorado:
People analytics is the fastest route to credibility as a chief people officer.
One of my highlights from October was hosting the Main Stage at the aforementioned UNLEASH World show in Paris. I've shared my key learnings from UNLEASH in a LinkedIn post, but would like to highlight what makes UNLEASH unique: a vibrant mix of content, learning, community, and innovation topped off with fabulous production. A huge thank you to Marc Coleman, Paige Richmond, Amelia Donovan, Zoltán Kőváry and Nidal Elfadil – it was a joy to work with you all again. See more on Day 1 and Day 2 at UNLEASH World.
The next few weeks are set to be busy. I’m currently in Chicago ahead of a Peer Meeting for North American members of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, hosted by Berube, Derek and his team at McDonalds. In mid-November, I’ll be speaking on the key findings of the Insight222 2023 People Analytics Trends at Workday Rising EMEA. On November 21 and 22, I’ll be in Copenhagen for another Insight222 Peer Meeting, this time for European members of the People Analytics Program. Finally, on November 30, I’ll be in Bangalore to speak at Indeed FutureWorks. If any of you are going to these events, I look forward to seeing you there.
I’d like keep highlighting the wonderful resource created by Richard Rosenow and the One Model team of open roles in people analytics and HR technology, which now numbers over 450 roles, as well as now also including roles for interns.
RedThread Research is collecting data to understand the Modern Work Experience and how it has changed over the last year. This study is for individuals employed full-time at organizations with more than 100 people and will remain open until Monday, November 13, 2023. As a thank you for every response collected, RedThread will:
Enjoy reading the collection of resources for October and, if you do, please share some data driven HR love with your colleagues and networks. Thanks to the many of you who liked, shared and/or commented on September’s compendium including those highlighted in the comments below.
If you enjoy a weekly dose of curated learning (and the Digital HR Leaders podcast), the Insight222 newsletter: Digital HR Leaders newsletter is published every Tuesday – subscribe here.
DIANE GHERSON – The New Deal of Work | DAVID ROCK – Irreconcilable Differences | JOSH BERSIN - The Pixelated Workforce Has Arrived ... Are We Ready? | RJ MILNOR – Fractional Work and Your Talent Strategy | JUDITH WIESE – Growth Talks
I can’t recommend the Fall edition of SHRM’s People + Strategy on Rethinking Work and the Workplace highly enough. The guest editor is Diane Gherson, one of the deepest and most original thinkers about the future role of HR. As Diane articulates in her editor’s preface: “New work models, new business requirements and new employee expectations are coming together at full speed, putting at risk our status quo arrangements in the organization—and even the role and scope of HR.” These themes flow through all of the articles in the edition – all of which I happily recommend, they include. (1) David Rock highlights what neuroscience can teach us about the tug of war between employers and employees particularly with regards to the return to office debate. (2) Josh Bersin examines the implications for organisations of the “blowing up” of the traditional model for full-time long-term employees (FIG 2). (3) RJ Milnor highlights four questions for CHROs about the growth of fractional work and its impact on talent strategy. (4) Judith Wiese explains how Siemens replaced performance reviews with a new concept built on dialogues focused on growth.
New work models, new business requirements and new employee expectations are coming together at full speed, putting at risk our status quo arrangements in the organization—and even the role and scope of HR
FRANÇOIS CANDELON, LISA KRAYER, SARAN RAJENDRAN, AND DAVID ZULUAGA MARTÍNEZ - How People Can Create—and Destroy—Value with Generative AI
Together with a group of scholars from Harvard, MIT, Wharton, and the University of Warwick, BCG conducted an experiment on 750 of its own consultants around the globe to test the use of generative AI (GAI). The results, as documented in the article by François Candelon, Lisa Krayer, Saran Rajendran, and David Zuluaga Martínezfind that people mistrust GAI in areas where it can contribute tremendous value and trust it too much where the technology isn’t competent. For example, 90% of participants improved their performance when using GenAI for creative ideation. However, on the flip side, when the consultants participating in the study where focused on business problem solving, a task outside the tool’s current competence, many participants took GPT-4's misleading output at face value. Their performance was 23% worse than those who didn’t use the tool at all. The article also examines some key guidance on related topics including data strategy, roles and workflows, strategic workforce planning and experimentation.
LYNDA GRATTON - Want More Clarity on Generative AI? Experiment Widely | LIZ GRENNAN, ANDREAS KREMER, ALEX SINGLA, AND PETER ZIPPARO - Why businesses need explainable AI—and how to deliver it | DONNA SCAROLA - What Most People Get Wrong about AI & Bias | FANGFANG ZHANG AND SHARON K. PARKER - How ChatGPT Can and Can’t Help Managers Design Better Job Roles | KEVIN OAKES - Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
Many of the topics discussed at Unleash World were related to the remarkable acceleration of AI tools and technologies, and their impact on work, organisations and workers. I recommend digging into these five resources: (1) Lynda Gratton shares insights from a webinar she recently ran with 260 global executives, which highlighted that: “Figuring out the right approaches to generative AI is a process replete with ambiguity, experiments, and changes of mind.” Lynda also provides details on what companies are already using generative AI for in HR with the top two areas being internal knowledge management and recruitment. (2) Writing for McKinsey, Liz Grennan, Andreas Kremer, Alex Singla, and Peter Zipparo break down explainable AI (see FIG 5), and why it is important Including to enhance productivity, build trust and deliver value. (3) Donna Scarola provides a helpful primer providing guidance on how to prevent bias – including the creation of an ethics committee. (4) Fangfang Zhang and Sharon Parker unveil their research, pros and cons, and guidance for using ChatGPT for work design and job roles (see FIG 6). (5) Finally, Kevin Oakes summarises the key findings from i4CP’s recent study: Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution? Thanks Erik Samdahl for the heads up.
People use what they understand and trust. This is especially true of AI
DAVE ULRICH AND NORM SMALLWOOD - Six Actions for HR to Create More Stakeholder Value
How can HR create more value for all stakeholders? This is the exam question Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood seek to answer in their article. The article highlights six specific actions and questions that enable organisations to create more value from HR (see FIG 7). The six actions are: (1) Articulate a point-of-view. (2) Define, seek, and track outcomes more than activities. (3) Prioritise what matters most. (4) Apply innovative and relevant methodology. (5) Translate to stakeholder value. (6) Scale, leverage and improve work.
ROB BRINER - Aligning HR with the business through the evidence-based HR process
Rob Briner makes the case for evidence-based practice and how it applies to HR, explaining what it is and why it is effective. Rob breaks down six key steps in the evidence-based HR process (see FIG 8). He then applies the evidence-based approach to a case study to understand and solve high employee turnover.
NAOMI VERGHESE - The Growing Influence of People Analytics in Strategic Business Decisions
In a taster from the Insight222 People Analytics Trends report, Naomi Verghese digs into one of the key findings from the study: developing relationships with C-suite and senior stakeholders. The article focuses on four key elements of influence. (1) What ‘influence’ means in the context of people analytics. (2) Data on how people analytics as a field has grown in influence (including FIG 9, which highlights the growing number of people analytics leaders reporting directly to the CHRO). (3) How a people analytics leader can gain access to senior business stakeholders. (4) Why it is important that a people analytics leader has executive-level influence in organisations today.
THOMAS RASMUSSEN, MIKE ULRICH, AND DAVE ULRICH - Moving People Analytics From Insight to Impact
While I wouldn’t normally include a resource that isn’t open access in this compendium, I’m making an exception for this must-read paper by Thomas Hedegaard Rasmussen, Mike Ulrich and Dave Ulrich, which can be accessed for a fee of a very worthwhile £29.00. The abstract to the paper (see below), which can be considered a follow up to the seminal paper, authored by Thomas and Dave, which was published in 2015: How HR analytics avoids being a management fad, provides a compelling narrative.
KEVIN METHERELL - Intentionality Matters - a GER2023 review | JAY DORIO - How to Get Remote and Hybrid Working Right | HEIDI BINDER-MATSUO - From People Analytics to Chief People Officer: How to Effectively Influence the C-suite JASDEEP KAREER - Why is Adaptive Teaming and Intentional Collaboration Important in a New World of Work?
Perhaps the highlight so far of my year was the recent Insight222 Global Executive Retreat in Colorado. It has already inspired several articles, which are collected here. (1) Kevin Metherell, one of the people analytics leaders present, summarises his takeaways from the three days with the linking thread being the “need for intentionality in everything we do” (2) Jay Dorio explores ways to get remote and hybrid working right through intentionally co-ordinating in-person days, encouraging collaboration by scheduling in-person meetings, and setting the standard that attendance on anchor days is mandatory. (3) Heidi Binder-Matsuo provides insights on what CEOs and CHROs are looking for from their people analytics leaders. (4) Jasdeep Kareer, PhD (née Bhambra) breaks down the role of collaboration modes (see FIG 10) and provides ten steps people analytics professionals can take to gain a deeper understanding of collaboration within their organisations.
LYDIA WU - Seven Lessons I Learned About People Analytics | ADAM TOMBOR – People Analytics Hands-On | ANKIT SAXENA - How does a Global Head of People Insights create a people analytics roadmap? | JACKSON ROATCH - The Lindy Effect in People Analytics | JENNA EAGLESON - R Toolkit for People Analytics: Telling Your Headcount Story JAEJIN LEE - What Career and Academic Backgrounds Do People Analytics Leaders Possess? (Analysis of 279 Global People Analytics Leaders)
October has seen a number of people analytics leaders publishing articles, which is always to be encouraged as insights from practitioners really help the field advance. Six leaders are featured here. (1) As part of her excellent 'Oops, did I think that out loud' series of articles, Lydia Wu documents seven lessons she has learned from working in the people analytics field – my favourite is: “Stakeholders are more important than numbers”. (2) Adam Tombor (Wojciechowski), Global Head of People Analytics at Julius Baer, shares how the three key ingredients of the right technology, the right process and the right skills have helped reshape people analytics at Julius Baer. (3) Ankit Saxena, MBA shares his methodology for developing a progressive people analytics roadmap. (4) Jackson Roatch breaks down The Lindy Effect by using a powerful example using turnover (look at FIG 11 – and decide which worker has the highest turnover risk before reading Jackson’s article). (5) Jenna Eagleson provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to tackle a common people analytics challenge: telling the story of company headcount entirely in R. (6) Jaejin Lee analyses the career and academic backgrounds of 279 people analytics leaders.
MAX BLUMBERG - What to Avoid When Choosing a People Analytics Operating Model
A short but instructive article by Max Blumberg (JA) ?? on the key areas to consider when evaluating whether to implement a people analytics model including trust, investment and the extent of change management required.
Regulations continue to evolve - models that appear compliant today may not be tomorrow.
STEPHANIE DENINO, ANDRÉ FORTANGE, TIMO TISCHER, AND MARIS GARCIA - The APEX model: How organizations can systemically improve employee experience Website | Summary Report
I always learn from TI PEOPLE’s research and analysis on employee experience ever since the company was formed by Volker Jacobs in 2016. In their new study, the team of Stephanie Denino, André Fortange, Timo Tischer and Maris García, present the APEX (Activities driving the Practice of EX) model, which is comprised of 3 focus areas, 6 goals and 28 activities (see FIG 12) which uncovers what it takes to improve EX in ways that are sustainable and replicable. This model, based on research with dozens of global EX leaders and vast client experience, highlights two important threads that run through the model: being data-driven and human-centered. The report also covers big questions like “Is an EX leader essential?” and explains that guided by this model, EX leaders can bring about an EX-centric operating system in their organisations.
BASTIAAN STARINK AND JAN WILLEM VELTHUIJSEN - What every HR leader needs to show the CFO | The benefits of investing in People Where should companies invest to improve the employee experience?
I was drawn to this study, authored by Bastiaan Starink and Jan Willem Velthuijsen for PwC, by one of the key findings: Making investments in 11 key areas of employee experience can yield savings equivalent to 12.6% of revenues (see FIG 13) encompassing reducing absenteeism, reducing employee turnover and boosting productivity. Two additional findings are: (1) Out of the eleven employee experience drivers analysed in the study, well-being, developmental opportunities, and training lead to the best outcomes in terms of benefits. (2) Companies will always have to analyse their own employee experience - effective interventions can only be made on that basis.
KATHI ENDERES - Building the Dynamic Organization: Critical for the Post-Industrial Era | ANN ANN LOW - Unlocking Talent Agility to Future-Proof Organizations
Kathi Enderes breaks down the recent research she and Josh Bersin have conducted with Gloat. It highlights that instead of designing a company around jobs, Dynamic Organizations instead organise around people and skills. Kathi’s article provides a framework (see FIG 14), a maturity model, and data on the impact of Dynamic Organizations. Agility is also a key feature of Ann Ann Low’s article, which summarises the recent talk by Amy Schultz of Canva at LinkedIn Talent Connect including their 5Bs Framework (see FIG 15).
JONATHAN KNOWLES, B. TOM HUNSAKER, AND MELANIE HUGHES – The Role of Culture in Enabling Change
While culture is often described as “how we do things around here”, Jonathan Knowles, Dr. Tom Hunsaker, and Melanie Hughes argue in their article that “It’s more helpful to think of culture as the nervous system of an organization.” They highlight that one of the most important responsibilities of HR is to analyse the aspects of culture that are enabling or hindering performance. They proceed to explain that the first step is to investigate the type of change the team, business unit or organisation requires, and then document three approaches to making such changes: (1) Reinforce magnitude. (2) Reimagine activity. (3) Rethink direction (see also FIG 16)
FRANCES X. FREI AND ANNE MORRISS - Storytelling That Drives Bold Change
“Research has shown that storytelling has a remarkable ability to connect people and inspire them to take action,” write Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, in the cover article of the current issue of Harvard Business Review. In the article, which is a taster from their new book, Move Fast and Fix Things, the duo outline an effective way to leverage the power of storytelling, through four key steps: (1) Understand your story so well that you can describe it in simple terms, (2) honour the past, (3) articulate a persuasive mandate for change, and (4) lay out a rigorous and optimistic path forward. Then they explain how emotions can bring your story to life and help drive stakeholder commitment to change, and highlight ten underrated emotions in change narratives (see FIG 17).
EMILY FIELD, BRYAN HANCOCK, MARC METAKIS, AND DONNIE STUART - Activating middle managers through capability building
As one of the best books I’ve read this year – Power to the Middle (by Bill Schaninger, Ph.D., Bryan Hancock and Emily Field) - outlines middle managers who are equipped with the skills and support they need to succeed can reduce friction, accelerate action, and ensure that an organisation achieves its vision. This article, by Emily and Bryan together with Marc Metakis and Donnie Stuart, provides examples of companies that have built the capabilities of their middle managers (including a global not-for-profit who broke the problem-solving process into seven actions and four distinct phases for their middle managers – see FIG 18), common hurdles to doing this successfully, and how these obstacles can be overcome.
Middle managers can accelerate the execution of a company’s strategy by translating ideas between layers of hierarchy and solving problems with data.
MICHAEL ARENA - The Ripple Effect: Understanding organizational behavior contagion to cultivate culture at scale
Michael Arena summarises the findings of a study he undertook to investigate the impact of behaviour contagion (the notion that behaviours are akin to contagious viruses within social networks) on organisational culture. The study was based on a comprehensive360-degree review to assess individual behavioural strengths combined with organisational network analysis techniques. The results confirmed that all cultural attributes were contagious to some extent and transmitted among direct employee connections. Moreover, the contagion effect extends up to three degrees of separation in professional networks – ‘The Ripple Effect’. Michael also examines the implications for companies, and how they can harness The Ripple Effect to build a positive workplace culture including identifying key influencers and nurturing strong connections. FIG 19 provides an example of how ‘strong judgement’ spreads across the network.
EMILY FIELD, ALEXIS KRIVKOVICH, SANDRA KÜGELE, NICOLE ROBINSON AND LAREINA YEE - Women in the Workplace 2023
The ninth edition of the annual Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey and LeanIn.Org is based on analysis from 276 participating companies employing ten million people between them, and a survey of 27,000 employees and 270 senior HR leaders. It finds that while there have been gains at the top, with women’s representation in the C-suite at the highest it has ever been, progress in the middle of the pipeline is lagging—and with a persistent underrepresentation of women of colour—true parity remains painfully out of reach. The article by Emily Field, Alexis Krivkovich, Sandra Kuegele, Nicole Hardy Robinson and Lareina Yee, focuses on four myths about women at work that the study debunks. (1) Myth: Women are becoming less ambitious. Reality: Women are more ambitious than before the pandemic—and flexibility is fuelling that ambition. (2) Myth: The biggest barrier to women’s advancement is the “glass ceiling.” Reality: The “broken rung” is the greatest obstacle women face on the path to senior leadership (see FIG 20). (3) Myth: Microaggressions have a ‘micro’ impact. Reality: Microaggressions have a large and lasting impact on women. (4): Myth: It’s mostly women who want—and benefit from—flexible work. Reality: Men and women see flexibility as a ‘top 3’ employee benefit and critical to their company’s success.
Much of the innovation in the field continues to be driven by the vendor community, and I’ve picked out a few resources from October that I recommend readers delve into:
In another month of high-quality podcasts, I’ve selected four gems for your aural pleasure: (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):
ANNE-MARIE ANDRIC AND GARY MUNRO – Bounce. A place to go, know and do
One of the people I was glad to catch up with at Unleash was Katarina Berg, Chief People Officer at Spotify, who shared insights from the company’s Work from Anywhere program on the main stage. One of Katarina’s team – Gary Munro, the Head of People Analytics, is the brain behind Bounce, an ingenious new platform that brings together all relevant workplace content in one place and offers employees a personalised experience. Read Gary’s article on the Spotify HR Blog, and then watch his discussion with the brilliant Anne-Marie Andric on an episode of HR The Real Deal.
ADAM GRANT – Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
The new book by Adam Grant is brilliantly written, sprinkled with humour, and incredibly insightful. In Hidden Potential, “Grant explores how to build the character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.” The book is also immensely readable – I read over half of it on my flight to Chicago yesterday. I also listened to the highly insightful and at times hilarious podcast on the book, where Grant talks to his old sparring partner, Malcolm Gladwell: Unlocking Hidden Potential with Malcolm Gladwell. A must-read and a must-listen.
YANQUI TAO, LONGAI YANG, SONIA JAFFE, FERESHTEH AMINI, PETER BERGEN, BRENT HECHT, AND FENGQI YOU - Climate mitigation potentials of teleworking are sensitive to changes in lifestyle and workplace rather than ICT usage
Nick Bloom highlighted this fascinating paper during his recent talk at the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, and summarises some of the key findings in his LinkedIn post here. The main finding of the paper is that, in the United States, switching from working onsite to working from home can reduce up to 58% of carbon footprint of work. Indeed, it finds moving to two days working from home a week reduces carbon use by 11% (see FIG 25). An important paper that highlights how hybrid and remote working can contribute to efforts to reduce an organisation’s carbon footprint.
October saw the final episode of Series 33 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, sponsored by Visier Inc., and the first two episodes of Series 34, sponsored by our friends at eQ8. Thank you to Adedamola Adeleke at Visier, and Chris Hare, Alicia Roach and Angela Shori at eQ8.
KAT BOOGAARD AND DAVID GREEN - 5 common people analytics challenges (and how to overcome them) – An interview with Kat Boogaard for Culture Amp, on the challenges today’s HR teams face in leveraging people analytics – as well as how they can effectively overcome them.
WENDY CUNNINGHAM AND PETER MEYLER - How to Achieve Data-Driven HR Excellence in a Highly Regulated Environment – Wendy Cunningham and Peter Meyler join me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast to share the evolution of people analytics at the Phoenix Group, how it supports the people strategy, and the role of technology.
NICK DALTON – Seven Waves: The Past, Present and Future of HR – Nick Dalton, formerly EVP of HR at Unilever and co-author of The HR (R)Evolution: Change the Workplace, Change the World, takes us on a journey through the past, present and future of the human resources function.
PIYUSH MEHTA - How to Create Personalised Employee Experiences – Piyush Mehta, chief human resources officer at Genpact, describes how the company uses technology and analytics to enhance and personalise the employee experience for its 120.000 employees: “The role of the CHRO is to make sure that the organisation has top-quality talent at the right place and at the right time, and then find a way to enable that talent to be able to stay on in the company and continue to build that talent engine.”
JESS VON BANK AND DAVID GREEN – Now of Work: Learnings from Unleash – I had the pleasure of joining the Mercer | Leapgen Now of Work Digital MeetUp to discuss learnings from Unleash with JESS VON BANK. Thanks to Jess and Jason Averbook for inviting me.
DAVID GREEN - Influencing the World of Work: Key learnings from The Insight222 Global Executive Retreat 2023 – My round-up of the key learnings from the recent Insight222 Global Executive Retreat in Colorado, which was attended by 60 people analytics leaders and senior HR executives from global organisations.
Finally, this month I’d like to thank:
David Green is a globally respected author, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As Managing Partner and Executive Director at Insight222, he has overall responsibility for the delivery of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which supports the advancement of people analytics in over 90 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222, David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast and is an instructor for Insight222's myHRfuture Academy. His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar, Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value was published in the summer of 2021.
I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work, and data driven HR at a number of upcoming events in 2023:
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