The best HR & People Analytics articles of July 2025HR如何在AI时代掌握主动?David Green发布的7月《Data Driven HR Monthly》汇集全球顶尖报告与实践,聚焦“技能+任务”新范式、AI对员工体验与倦怠的双面影响,以及CHRO在企业AI战略中的领导地位。BCG数据显示,印度AI使用率达92%,但全球员工对AI培训满意度仅36%。Upwork报告揭示:高效AI用户更易疲惫离职。McKinsey与Gartner呼吁HR重构组织模型与人才规划体系。本期还探讨神经多元、NASA人才图谱与“Vibe Coding”等创新实践。
I always enjoy spending time in India, so I was delighted to arrive in Delhi yesterday ahead of People Matters Tech HR later this week. I’ll be delivering the opening keynote on how HR leaders can ace the next curve of change as well as leading a workshop on the science of better decisions. I’m looking forward to catching up with fellow speakers such as Jason Averbook (tip: subscribe to his Now to Next blog, if you don’t already), Pushkaraj Bidwai, Mukesh Jain, and Shefali Raias well as immersing myself in what is happening in the Indian HR tech scene.
In this month’s edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, which comes against the backdrop of CEOs flexing on the impact of AI on jobs, I’ve included new research from BCG and Upwork on AI at work, and the role of HR. Marc Effron is spot on here with his assessment that CHROs need to be leading the strategic conversation with the executive team on their desire to reduce costs through job reduction enabled by AI: “CHROs can lead this conversation through organization, operating model and job design, where we should be experts.”
I expect plenty of discussion at Tech HR on this topic as well as the wider impact of AI on work, the workforce, and the workplace. One of the messages, I’ll look to get across in my keynote is:
AI guides, but humans decide. We must prioritise the ‘H’ in HR.
This edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is sponsored by our friends at TechWolf
Skills, Tasks, and Workforce Intelligence: Navigating the AI Transformation
This month’s edition highlights an important conversation from the TechWolf Podcast, recorded live in New York, featuring Marc Steven Ramos, global learning leader with 25+ years’ global transformation experience with Google, Microsoft, Accenture, Novartis, Oracle, and Cornerstone, and Jeroen Van Hautte ?, CTO & Co-Founder of TechWolf.
The discussion explores how task-based intelligence complements skills data to create a complete view of workforce capabilities, empowering organizations to navigate one of the largest business transformations in history: the AI-driven redefinition of work.
Skills without context can be ambiguous. Tasks ground them in real work, and that’s where change, productivity, and AI come together — Marc Ramos
Why This Matters Now:
The pace of change in the workforce is unprecedented. Leading enterprises are already recognizing that workforce intelligence - the ability to understand, predict, and act on how work is changing in real time - is no longer optional.
From skills to skills + tasks + jobs: Combining these data points allows organizations to connect individual capabilities to tangible outputs and outcomes.
AI as a catalyst: AI is accelerating job evolution, making real-time visibility into tasks and skills essential for workforce planning and redeployment.
Strategic urgency for boards: Workforce automation isn’t a distant trend — it is reshaping workforces today, creating pressure on executives to act on reskilling, redeployment, and workforce design at speed.
To really understand a skill, you need to understand the context in which it’s applied — the tasks. And that’s where AI can add transformative clarity — Jeroen Van Hautte
For HR leaders, this is an opportunity to lead. With skills and tasks as the foundation, HR is uniquely positioned to drive cultural alignment, manage change, and deliver on the board-level mandate to prepare workforces for the AI era.
Listen to the Episode: ?️ Marc Ramos & Jeroen Van Hautte on Tasks, Skills & the Future of Work (TechWolf website summary)
To sponsor an edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, and share your brand with more than 145,000 Data Driven HR Monthly subscribers, send an email to dgreen@zandel.org.
JULY ROAD REPORT
Until flying to Delhi yesterday, as mentioned above for Tech HR India later this week, July had been a light month of travel other than a short trip to Switzerland to run an AI workshop with the HR leadership team of one of the companies that are part of the Insight222 People Analytics Program. For those interested, one of my speaking engagements from earlier this year, at the Wharton People Analytics Conference, is now available to view (see below). In the talk, I explore the critical role of data democratisation and adoption in driving workforce insights, enhancing decision-making, and scaling HR’s strategic impact. I also share best practices from our work and research at Insight222 for making people analytics accessible to leaders and employees alike, the challenges of adoption, and the key investments required to unlock the full potential of workforce data. Enjoy!
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Enjoy reading the collection of resources for July 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 June’s compendium.
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HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
BCG - AI at Work: Momentum Builds, but Gaps Remain | JOHN BRAZIER AND NICK SOUTH - BCG’s AI at Work 2025 report: Four takeaways for HR leaders
Companies are realizing that merely introducing AI tools into existing ways of working isn’t enough to unlock their full potential. The real magic happens—and value generated —when businesses go further and reshape their workflows end-to-end.
BCG’s annual AI at work global survey of employees is packed full of insights and guidance for business and HR leaders looking to maximise value, adoption and employee experience with AI. The key takeaways include: (1) AI is now part of our daily work lives: 72% of respondents are regular AI users (although adoption amongst frontline employees has stalled at 51%). (2) Investment in training, leadership support and access to the right tools can break this ceiling: Yet only 36% of employees are satisfied with their AI training. (3) The Global South is showing higher adoption of AI. India leads the pack with 92% of regular users compared to the US (64%), UK (68%) and Japan (51%). (4) The next frontier: from adoption to value with end-to-end redesign. One-half of respondents say their company is starting to reshape processes. These companies also invest more in their people – and it pays off (see FIG 1). (5) AI agents are not widely deployed. Only 13% see agents integrated into broader workflows (see FIG 2). Kudos to the authors: Vinciane Beauchene, Sylvain Duranton, Nipun Kalra, and David Martin. For HR leaders, I also recommend reading John Brazier’s interview with BCG’s Nick South about the implications of the report’s findings for HR on the UNLEASH blog.
FIG 1: The relationship between workflow redesign due to AI and investment in people (Source: BCG)
FIG 2: Use of AI agents (Source: BCG)
GABBY BURLACU AND KELLY MONAHAN - From Tools to Teammates: Navigating the New Human-AI Relationship
Full time employees getting the most done with AI are also the most burned out, disengaged, and disconnected from their teams.
In their study for the Upwork Research Institute, Gabriela (Gabby) Burlacu and Kelly Monahan, Ph.D. identify a crucial message for the future of work: while AI is undeniably boosting productivity – with a reported 40% jump for many workers – it's also creating a human paradox. Alarmingly, top AI performers are experiencing high burnout (88%) and are twice as likely to leave, often feeling disconnected from strategy and even trusting AI more than human colleagues (see FIG 3 and 4). The report offers three urgent calls to action for business leaders: (1) Redesign work for human-centered, AI-empowered talent and workflows, prioritising autonomy, trust and psychological safety. (2) Cultivate flexible and resilient talent ecosystems, combining full-time employees, freelancers, and AI capabilities to create agile, resilient, and high-performing teams. (3) Redefine AI strategies to focus on the end-to-end human experience, including new roles, norms, and governance. For HR leaders, these findings are a wake-up call. We must prioritise the relational side of AI, ensuring human connection, well-being, and purpose are augmented, not eroded. It's about preventing burnout in our most productive AI users, fostering alignment, and learning from agile models like freelancers to build a truly sustainable human-AI collaborative future.
FIG 3: The human cost of AI productivity (Source: The Upwork Research Institute)
FIG 4: The rise of human-like relationships with AI (Source: The Upwork Research Institute)
COBUS GREYLING - Do AI Agents Substitute Human Workers — Or Enable Humans To Succeed In New Ways? | L. ELISA CELIS, LINGXIAO HUANG, AND NISHEETH K. VISHNOI - A Mathematical Framework for AI-Human Integration in Work
AI Agents are good at tasks not jobs…
In his article, Cobus Greyling provides an insightful and accessible analysis of a new study by Elisa Celis, Lingxiao Huang, and Nisheeth Vishnoi, which presents a mathematical framework that models jobs, workers, and worker-job fit, and introduces a novel decomposition of skills into decision-level and action-level subskills to reflect the complementary strengths of humans and GenAI. Greyling’s incisive analysis offers a helpful perspective for HR leaders navigating the future of work. His core message is clear: AI agents are fantastic at tasks, not entire jobs. They're not just substitutes, but powerful amplifiers of human capability, especially for less experienced workers, effectively compressing productivity gaps and fostering extraordinary collaboration. Here are four key learnings for HR: (1) Agentic AI Augments Human Potential: AI agents boost efficiency and performance, particularly for junior talent, by handling structured tasks and freeing humans for higher-order work. (2) Redefine Skills & Development: While AI takes on the mundane, HR must strategically ensure continuous skill development, focusing on uniquely human capabilities like judgment, creativity, and complex problem-solving. (3) Design for Human-AI Synergy: Organisational design must pivot to foster premium collaborations between humans and AI. It's about combining complementary strengths to achieve outcomes greater than the sum of the parts. (4) HR Leads Strategic Integration: Our role in HR is pivotal. We must orchestrate the strategic integration of agentic AI, balancing its efficiency gains with the imperative to preserve and nurture human ingenuity, driving both innovation and connection.
FIG 5: Al for work: skill difficulty continuum (Source: Cobus Greyling)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
KETAKI SODHI AND COLE NAPPER - Who Needs a “Human in the Loop” When AI Gives Itself Feedback
Ketaki Sodhi, PhD, Program Owner for Agentic Listening and Analytics at Microsoft, and Cole Napper provide a fascinating perspective on the "human in the loop" concept for Generative AI, provocatively asking: which human, and how? This isn't just a technical question; it's where I/O Psychology and People Analytics come into their own. The article frames AI "evals"— the systems for assessing whether AI outputs are useful, accurate or aligned —as essentially performance management for Large Language Models. Just as we've wrestled with defining "good" in complex human knowledge work for decades, we now face the same challenge in building AI systems. In a world of infinite " " answers, AI evals demand the same nuance we apply to human systems: competency models, multi-rater input, calibration, and context. One of the key takeaways from Ketaki and Cole is that true success lies not in chasing perfect answers from AI, but in designing smart, human-informed systems. These are the systems that can discern between good, better, and what genuinely drives impact for your organisation. For people analytics leaders and I/O psychologists, this is a clarion call to leverage their deep expertise in human performance to shape the very fabric of our AI-driven future.
FIG 6: Source – Ketaki Sodhi
BEN BERRY - The future is built by everyone: What is Vibe Coding and why should People Analytics teams adopt it | ROSARIO GERMINO - From People Analytics to People Economics and Impact | ADRIAN PEREZ – GitLab People Analytics Team Handbook | DOMINIK TOMICEVIC - Can NASA’s People Graph and LLMs Revolutionize Workforce Planning? | MORGAN DEPENBUSCH - How to let color do the storytelling
In each edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I feature a collection of articles by current and recent people analytics leaders. These are intended to act as a spur and inspiration to the field. Five are highlighted in this month’s edition: (1) In a particularly insightful piece, Ben Berry examines whether vibe coding, a product management practice of using AI tools to rapidly build functional prototypes to help turn rough ideas into working concepts, should be adopted in people analytics. (2) In her thoughtful article, Rosario Germino argues that to elevate people decisions to the same level of strategic investment as product or finance, we need a new way of thinking—and a new kind of function – People Economics and Impact, which she then breaks down into the why (see FIG 7 on the multi-dimensional aspect of informed decision making), what and how. (3) In a recent post, Adrian M. Pérez provides open source access to GitHub’s People Analytics Team Handbook, a rich resources covering areas such as (i) data governance framework, (ii) tools and methodologies, (iii) survey administration, and (iv) Tableau dashboard strategies. (4) Dominik Tomicevic provides a compelling account of how NASA’s People Graph is supporting a range of priorities from upskilling to workforce planning – with insights from the NASA team of David Meza, Madison Ostermann and Katharine Knott, MBA: “Knowledge graphs offer flexibility, since you don’t need a full schema upfront. We began with known relationships and expanded as we uncovered more insights in the data.” (5) In an edition of her excellent Trending Up newsletter, Morgan Depenbusch, PhD offers some compelling guidance on the use of colour in data visualisation and storytelling.
FIG 7: Informed decisions are multi-dimensional. Financial logic makes them investable (Source: Rosario Germino)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
MCKINSEY - HR Monitor 2025
The gap is widening between what is needed from an efficient, effective HR function and what most organizations currently offer
McKinsey's HR Monitor 2025 benchmark study of workforce and HR trends across Europe, delivers a sharp analysis of the critical shifts shaping the HR profession, emphasising that the next 12-24 months are decisive for the function. The report identifies five key trends: (1) Workforce planning is not approached strategically enough – see FIG 8 - (“…with rapid changes driven by gen AI and shifting skill needs, workforce planning must move beyond short-term staffing forecasts to include a longer-term view and future-scenario planning”). (2) Talent acquisition is becoming more complex: with only 56% offer acceptance rates, 18% of new hires leaving during their probationary period and the overall hiring success rate in Europe standing at a lowly 46%, a more strategic and coordinated approach to attracting and hiring talent is required. (3) Employee development continues to be highly fragmented (“To prepare the workforce for future challenges, organizations must connect performance management, learning and development, and talent development in one cohesive strategy”). (4) Employee experience is essential—and underdeveloped (“A more tailored, data-driven approach to the employee experience is needed to build motivation and long-term commitment to employers”). (5) Gen AI and shared-services centres could boost efficiency and effectiveness (“HR departments must modernize their operating models by expanding SSC adoption and using automation and gen AI to increase speed, scalability, and strategic impact”). For Chief People Officers, the message is clear: You must align HR strategy directly with business priorities, strengthen your HR operating model, and aggressively build digital and AI skills within HR. This is about laying the foundation for a modern, AI-enabled HR function that is both deeply people-centric and laser-focused on organizational performance. Kudos to the authors: Julian Kirchherr, Vincent Bérubé, Charlotte Seiler, Dr. Kira Alexandra Rupietta, Kristina Stoerk, Nina-Marlene Senst, and Simon Gallot Lavallée.
...with rapid changes driven by gen AI and shifting skill needs, workforce planning must move beyond short-term staffing forecasts to include a longer-term view and future-scenario planning
FIG 8: Engagement in workforce planning (Source: McKinsey)
FIG 9: Predicted impact of gen AI on HR department (Source: McKinsey)
ESER RIZAOGLU AND STEPHANIE CLEMENT - How CHROs Can Prepare Their Function and the Enterprise for AI Transformation
CHROs play a key role in safely using AI at scale to deliver business outcomes.
Recent research by Eser Rizaoglu and Stephanie Clement for Gartner provides a helpful roadmap for CHROs steering their organisations through AI transformation, by focusing on HR's pivotal role in shaping the future of work. The report highlights three key actions for CHROs to enable their organisation's AI approach: (1) Assist in delivering business outcomes using AI: Leverage GenAI for HR productivity first, then expand to drive enterprise-wide improvements with a broader AI portfolio. (2) Manage behavioural outcomes of AI: Cultivate a culture of innovation, build human-centred change management plans, and introduce new HR roles to foster human-machine partnerships. (3) Enable workforce readiness for AI: Implement AI literacy programs for all (see FIG 10), while targeting upskilling efforts on segments most impacted, building empathy, and tracking readiness indicators. For CHROs in Steady-AI-Pace organisations, the focus is on foundational AI literacy and policy. Those at an Accelerated-AI-Pace must deepen this by targeting high-impact workforce segments and deploying AI champions to drive effective, human-centric change.
FIG 10: AI Literacy Program Roadmap (Source: Gartner)
DAVE ULRICH - Navigating Eight Paradoxes of AI for HR
When algorithms combine with human empathy, judgement, and creativity, sustained progress occurs.
In his article, Dave Ulrich highlights eight paradoxes on the AI for HR agenda that he believes business and HR leaders need to navigate to move up the s-curve and waves of HR impact (see FIG 11) to deliver more value. As Dave explains: “Navigating (not just managing) paradox means highlighting and working through opposing ideas—each of which is valid—that combine to create more value.” The eight paradoxes identified in the article are: (1) AI and AI: Artificial Intelligence * Authentic Intimacy. (2) Remove jobs and redefine work. (3) Bottom line efficiency and top line growth. (4) Distribute and concentrate power. (5) Lower and increase risk. (6) Expand perspective and reduce cognition. (7) Provide answers and explore questions. (8) Isolate and connect.
FIG 11: Five stages of AI for HR evolution (Source: Dave Ulrich)
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
JARED WEINTRAUB - A day in the life of a GenAI-enabled workforce
Deloitte forecasts that 25 percent of companies currently using GenAI will launch agentic pilots this year, rising to 50 percent by 2027
Jared Weintraub, PhD, SPHR's article for Deloitte paints a tantalising picture of a 'Gen-AI enabled workforce,' showcasing how AI agents are already transforming our daily work. Through a fictional Fortune500 company, Jared brings to life three key personas: (1) New Hire (Riley): Experiences personalised onboarding, with AI agents helping her navigate culture and quickly excel in her role. (2) VP (Taylor): Sees optimised leadership workflows, receiving instant summaries, personalised action items, and even real-time feedback on calls. (3) CEO (Angelina): Gains powerful support for strategic decision-making, with AI agents providing real-time insights and even coaching for high-stakes events like public town halls. These examples demonstrate AI's profound potential not to replace workers, but to fundamentally enhance human potential, leading to a significantly improved employee experience where individuals, teams, and organisations can thrive and perform at their absolute best. Thanks to Brian Heger for highlighting in his excellent Talent Edge Weekly.
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
SCOTT REIDA AND KRISTIN SABOE - Applying the Rule of 72 to Workforce Skill Obsolescence and Productivity Degradation
Amazon's Scott Reida and Google's Kristin Saboe, Ph.D. introduce a powerful financial concept to HR: the "Rule of 72." Traditionally, it's a shortcut to estimate how long an investment takes to double, by dividing 72 by its annual growth rate. They ingeniously flip this, applying it to skill evolution: by dividing 72 by a role's weighted average 3-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of its skills, one estimates the "years to obsolescence" if no upskilling occurs. This provides critical directional clarity on how fast job competencies are shifting. Their framework, illustrated in FIG 12, categorises skills into four key zones: (1) Emerging (low adoption, high growth, representing the cutting edge). (2) Table Stakes (widely adopted, foundational must-haves with steady growth). (3) On the Cusp (moderate adoption, sustained expansion, offering long-term value). (4) Sunset (declining demand, requiring intentional upskilling). This enables smarter workforce planning. HR can now target training budgets where skill erosion is rapid, shifting from reactive to proactive strategies. It transforms talent into a dynamic portfolio , informing sharper hiring and career development in our accelerating world.
FIG 12: Categorising skills into four key zones (Source – Scott Reida and Kristin Saboe)
McKINSEY - The new rules for getting your operating model redesign right
When people feel invested in and supported, they are more likely to embrace change, contribute meaningfully, and sustain the behaviors that drive long-term impact.
New research from McKinsey updating their nine golden rules for operating model redesign, which finds that five original (evergreen) rules have stood the test of time while four new (evolved) rules have emerged (see FIG 13). The study identifies a key finding: redesign success jumps from 59 percent when using all nine original rules to 97 percent when using all nine in the refreshed set. The article also presents four broad redesign themes for leaders to focus on: (1) Create alignment among leaders and decision-makers, grounded in strategy. (2) Invest deeply in rewiring workflows. (3) Make significant investments in people. (4) Create a performance-oriented culture for durable impact. For Chief People Officers, the key takeaway is that they need to become the architects of dynamic, human-centric operating models. Their focus shifts from traditional talent management to proactively designing how work gets done, emphasising skills and capabilities over static roles. CPOs should also lead on ethical AI integration, foster a culture of continuous learning, and empower leaders. This creates a workforce built for perpetual reinvention, driving sustained value in an increasingly uncertain world. Kudos to the authors: Brooke Weddle, J.R. Maxwell, Tristan Allen, Deepak Mahadevan, Elizabeth Mygatt, and Olli Salo.
FIG 13: The refreshed golden rules of organisational redesign (Source: McKinsey)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND LEARNING
JEFF WETZLER - The Right Way to Prepare for a High-Stakes Conversation
Curiosity increases your ability to process new information and respond creatively to complex problems. It activates the brain’s learning and reward centers, increasing your capacity for insight and creative problem-solving.
In his recent HBR article, Jeff Wetzler introduces a helpful concept for leaders: The Curiosity Check (see FIG 14). This diagnostic is designed to fundamentally shift your mindset from defensive certainty to productive curiosity, and so improve your effectiveness in high-stakes discussions and boost your influence. It’s all about unlocking crucial, often hidden, insights. Wetzler outlines three actionable steps: (1) Choose Curiosity Over Certainty: Actively ask yourself "What am I missing?" challenging your assumptions. (2) Make It Safe to Speak Up: Create an environment where people feel secure sharing their true thoughts, proving safety through action, not just words. (3) Pose Quality Questions: Shift from shallow or leading questions to open-ended, neutral, and deeper inquiries that encourage genuine reflection. Wetzler brings this to life with examples, highlighting how leaders often miss critical information when they assume team alignment, never probing for the "unspoken thoughts" that hold the real insights. This approach empowers you to tap into wisdom you might otherwise completely overlook. Thanks to Amy Edmondson for highlighting.
FIG 14: The Curiosity Curve (Source: Jeff Wetzler)
MCKINSEY RESEARCH AND INNOVATION LEARNING LAB – Reimagined: Development for the Future of Work – Evolving Trends in L&D Article | Full report
Leaders must prepare for a future defined by radical candor regarding the impacts of AI on work and the workforce.
The 2025 McKinsey Learning Perspective spotlights three interconnected themes crucial for people development in a rapidly changing world: (1) Fluid Development Ecosystems: Organisations must design work to be inherently developmental, shifting from rigid structures to dynamic, data-driven ecosystems. This means de-siloing HR functions and embedding learning into daily work, making growth continuous and seamless. The goal is to make daily challenges catalysts for growth, supported by real-time data and foresight. (2) Responsible AI Adoption: This defining moment demands leaders preserve employee trust by showing AI will help them thrive, not just automate work. It's about fostering powerful human-AI collaboration, offloading repetitive tasks to AI to unlock human creativity and higher-order skills. Responsible adoption hinges on equipping employees with uniquely human capabilities like critical thinking and judgment. (3) Resilient and Adaptable Individuals and Organisations: Thriving organisations anticipate challenges, adapt, and grow, building structural and cultural foundations for resilience. This involves unlocking the potential of diverse, multigenerational workforces, supporting recuperation to prevent burnout, and enabling organisational resilience through sustainable workflows. It means seeing resilience as a shared, cultivated capability, not just an individual trait. Read the article by Heather Stefanski, Benjamin Hall, Jake Gittleson, and Jessica Glazer, and then dive into the full report, which also includes contributions from the likes of Sandra Durth.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING
ROBERT D. AUSTIN, NEIL BARNETT, CHLOE R. CAMERON, HIREN SHUKLA, THORKIL SONNE, AND JOSE VELASCO - How Neuroinclusion Builds Organizational Capabilities
Leaders should consider neuro-inclusion as a strategic capability-building opportunity rather than a diversity initiative
In a rapidly evolving world, neuro-inclusion is emerging as a critical organisational capability, as highlighted by Robert Austin, Neil Barnett, Chloe Cameron, Hiren Shukla, Thorkil Sonne, and Jose Velasco in the MIT Sloan Management Review. This isn't merely a diversity initiative; it's a strategic imperative that unlocks competitive advantage by leveraging the rich, natural variation in human cognition. By intentionally designing processes for neurodistinct individuals, organisations can profoundly improve: (1) Hiring, by tapping into overlooked talent pools with unique skills (as seen with SAP attracting highly credentialed candidates often missed by traditional interviews); (2) Innovation, through diverse perspectives that spark novel solutions (Microsoft's Teams ‘Blur’ feature emerged from a neurodistinct engineer's insights); and ultimately, (3) Culture, by fostering a more adaptive and truly inclusive environment for everyone. As the article reveals, EY, Microsoft, and SAP are prime examples of organisations already reaping these benefits, demonstrating that embracing neurodiversity enhances collective intelligence and drives superior business outcomes.
FRANK DOBBIN AND ALEXANDRA KALEV - Achieve DEI Goals Without DEI Programs
Many management innovations designed to improve performance actually boost workforce diversity as well, without inviting the backlash of formal DEI programs.
Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, in their recent HBR article, challenge the traditional view of DEI. They argue that as formal DEI programs face headwinds, HR leaders can still drive significant diversity, equity, and inclusion by focusing on high-performance management techniques that naturally foster inclusion and improve business outcomes, all without the ‘DEI program’ label. They highlight five powerful techniques and provide examples of how these have been implemented by companies: (1) Referral programs: Companies like Oracle use these effectively, often boosting representation organically. (2) Skills upgrading: Walmart exemplifies this, investing in employee upskilling that broadens opportunities for diverse talent (see FIG 15). (3) Mentoring programs: IBM has long leveraged robust mentoring to support career progression across all groups. (4) Scheduling flexibility and stability: Gap demonstrates how providing predictable yet flexible schedules empowers diverse workforces. (5) Performance-based retention: Amazon uses data-driven approaches to identify and retain top performers, inherently benefiting those who excel regardless of background (also see FIG 15). This approach embeds DEI within the fabric of how we manage and develop our people, making it an undeniable component of business success. It’s about doing good by doing well.
FIG 15: Walmart and Amazon’s changing workforces (Source: Dobbin and Kalev)
HR TECH VOICES
Much of the innovation in the field continues to be driven by the vendor and analyst community, and I’ve picked out a few resources from July that I recommend readers delve into:
LISA K. SIMON - How Much Is a Skill Worth?
In her article, Lisa K. Simon, Chief Economist at Revelio Labs, presents the findings of a new paper, she co-authored with David Dorn, Ludger Woessmann, Moritz Seebacher and Florian Schoner, which finds that the number and type of skills workers report are strong predictors of how much they earn: “In fact, differences in skills predict earnings better than differences in education or past experience. Workers who list more skills tend to be in better-paid jobs. On average, each additional skill listed on a resume is associated with 0.67 percentage points higher earnings.” Another finding is that not all skills are valued equally, with occupation-specific and managerial skills providing the largest boost to income, while a higher prevalence of general skills is associated with lower earnings (see FIG 16). Thanks to Seth Hollander, MBA for highlighting the article and paper.
Workers who list more skills tend to be in better-paid jobs. On average, each additional skill listed on a resume is associated with 0.67 percentage points higher earnings.
FIG 16: Only having general skills on a resume is associated with lower earnings (Source: Revelio Labs)
WARDEN AI - State of AI Bias in Talent Acquisition
This is an excellent new report from Jeffrey Pole and the team at Warden AI, which provides a comprehensive and data-driven review of AI bias, compliance and responsible AI practices in talent acquisition – the area of HR, which perhaps has the most significant adoption of AI. With a foreword by Kyle Lagunas, and contributions from the likes of Hung Lee (see quote below) and Sarah Smart, Sultan Murad Saidov and Trent Cotton, key findings include: (1) 75% of HR leaders say bias is a top concern when adopting AI. (2) 15% of AI systems fail to meet fairness metrics for one or more demographic group. (3) AI scores 0.94 vs 0.67 for humans, outperforming on average across fairness metrics (see FIG 17). (4) AI is up to 45% more fair than humans for women and racial minority candidates. Congrats too to Jeff and the team for raising $1.6m in a recent funding round.
We are right to worry about AI bias, but we should not forget that the baseline, human only judgment, is far from bias-free - Hung Lee
FIG 17: AI outperforms humans across fairness metrics (Source - Warden AI, State of AI Bias in Talent Acquisition)
COLE NAPPER - From HR Skills…to HR Jobs
When new trends emerge at work, they are likely to first appear as skills. As skills evolve, they consolidate into job titles and full occupations.
The prolific Cole Napper highlights Lightcast data to paint a compelling analysis on the journey of people analytics, workforce planning and talent intelligence from trends to skills to jobs: “When new trends emerge at work, they are likely to first appear as skills. As skills evolve, they consolidate into job titles and full occupations.” In the article, Cole presents data visualisations and analysis on how job postings mentioning each of the three skills fluctuated over time, how this translated into job titles, and the wage premium (see FIG 18) that these three categories have on HR salaries in general (on the theme of people strategy and analytics salaries, read this post by Pallavi Narang) Look out for Cole’s book, People Analytics: Using data-driven HR and Gen AI as a business asset, which is available for pre-order now ahead of being published on August 26.
FIG 18: Median salaries in HR areas (Source: Lightcast)
PODCASTS OF THE MONTH
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):
PETER FASOLO - Leading with impact as a chief human resources officer – In this must-listen episode of Capital H, Peter Fasolo, Ph.D., former chief human resources officer at Johnson & Johnson, joins host Kyle Forrest to discuss the power of systems thinking, board collaboration, aligning your people agenda with enterprise strategy, and more.
ANGELA LE MATHON - AI-Native HR Operating Model & AI Agents for Skills/Tasks – The brilliant Angela LE MATHON joins Cole Napper to discuss how AI is transforming the work that people analytics does and how the function operates as well as envisioning a new AI-native operating model for HR.
SVENJA GUDELL, BROOKE WEDDLE, AND BRYAN HANCOCK - What the labor market isn’t telling you—yet – Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Indeed, joins Brooke Weddle, Bryan Hancock, and host Lucia Rahilly, on an episode of McKinsey Talks Talent to help leaders make sense of the current collision of labour market trends: generative AI, agentic AI, an aging workforce, shifting priorities, and more.
BEN WEIN – How Bristol-Myers Squibb used skills data to solve a life-or-death talent shortage – Ben Wein, Director of Workforce Skills Enablement at Bristol Myers Squibb, joins Julius Schelstraete ? on The TechWolf Podcast to share how BMS is becoming a skills-based organisation—starting with a business-critical talent shortage in cell therapy manufacturing. Ben explains how BMS uses skills data to drive faster hiring, smarter workforce planning, and ultimately, patient impact.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
DJ PATIL - Data, Decisions, and the Future of Work: How AI and Curiosity Are Redefining Careers
Many of the videos of the talks at the recent Wharton People Analytics Conference are now available on the Wharton School YouTube channel, including my talk on How Top Companies Scale People Analytics Adoption. There are some wonderful talks from the likes of Amy Edmondson, Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA, Ben Waber, Karalee Close, Guru Sethupathy and Michael Fraccaro, but perhaps my favourite session of the two days was former US Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil’s fireside chat with Eric Bradlow on how firms can harness data science to navigate the future of work. They explore the evolving relationship between AI and human collaboration, the promises and pitfalls of algorithmic management, and how leaders can build ethical, resilient, and high-performing organizations in an increasingly data-driven world.
BOOKS OF THE MONTH
Given it’s the summer in Europe and North America, here are two books to read while you are getting some well-earned relaxation time:
PETER HINSSEN – The Uncertainty Principle - Peter Hinssen's The Uncertainty Principle, his fifth book, is a vital read for HR leaders. It argues we're in a "Never Normal" world, where constant change is inevitable. Hinssen transforms uncertainty from a threat to an opportunity, urging us to move faster and think bigger. For HR, this means embracing ambiguity, leading cultural shifts, leveraging people data, and redefining talent and leadership for relentless evolution. It's about equipping our people to thrive and transform every challenge into a strategic advantage. For a preview of the book, I recommend Peter’s recent discussion with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: Uncertainty as an Opportunity: HR's role in Shaping the Future.
JENNY DEARBORN AND KELLY RIDER - The Insight-Driven Leader: How High-Performing Companies are Using Analytics to Unlock Business Value - Jenny Dearborn, MBA and Kelly Rider's The Insight-Driven Leader is an inspirational guide to unlocking serious business value through people analytics. This book shows how to transform raw data into powerful workforce insights, solving critical challenges and driving success. You'll learn: (1) How to move beyond traditional rear-view HR metrics to actionable insights. (2) Real-life case studies from leading organisations, as well as cautionary tales. (3) Recommendations for becoming an insights-driven organization using workforce analytics. The book is a must-read for leaders aiming to align data with strategy and build a truly insight-driven culture.
FROM MY DESK
July saw four new episodes of the Digital HR Leaders podcast – all sponsored by our friends at Mercer (thanks IŞIL ÇAYIRLI KETENCI):
ANSHUL SHEOPURI - How People Analytics is Powering Business Strategy - Anshul Sheopuri, Executive Vice President of People Operations & Insights at Mastercard, joins me for a conversation on how to embed analytics into enterprise-wide decision-making at scale. Thanks to Sasha Houlihan for organising.
PETER HINSSEN - Uncertainty as an Opportunity: HR's role in Shaping the Future – As highlighted in the Books of the Month above, Peter Hinssen joined me to discuss what it really takes for HR to embrace uncertainty and lead in this era of the ‘Never Normal.’
RAVIN JESUTHASAN AND BRIAN FISHER - The Skills Revolution: Your Playbook for Workforce Agility – Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA and Brian Fisher join me to explore why skills-based workforce planning has surged to the top of the HR agenda - and what leading companies are doing to turn intent into action.
AMY BAXENDALE - How Arcadis Built a Skills-Powered Organisation – Amy Baxendale , Global Future of Workforce Director at Arcadis, provides a detailed guide on the journey the company has embarked to become a skills-powered organisation. The episode includes discussion on the business case, securing sponsorship, setting up governance, the partnership with Mercer and Eightfold, and the early benefits:
We are early in the journey, but we are seeing some promising signs of progress. Our time to hire is trending downwards - that has a direct commercial impact for the business. We've also actually been able to calculate the financial impact of work that's being completed through gigs and show the actual impact on EBITDA
LOOKING FOR A NEW ROLE IN PEOPLE ANALYTICS OR HR TECH?
I’d like to highlight once again 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 525 roles with half of these being new.
THANK YOU
To HR magazine and Charissa King for including me again in their annual HR Most Influential list as one of the ten most influential practitioners
The Talent Games for including the Digital HR Leaders podcast at #6 in its 27 Best Leadership Podcasts for HR Leaders.
Steve Sands for including my work as part of his Human Resource Management Analytics night class at the National College of Ireland.
A huge thank you to the following people who either shared the June edition of Data Driven HR Monthly and/or posted about the Digital HR Leaders podcast, conferences or other content. It's much appreciated: Emmanuel Duncan, Rob Baker, FCIPD, MAPP, Richard Hall, Robert Rogowski, Catherine de la Poer, Caroline Lambe, Jeremy Sholl, Narelle Burke, Edan Halili, Francesca Caroleo (SHRM-SCP, ICF-ACC), Uwe Gohr, Joseph Frank, PhD CCP GWCCM, Randeep Kaur, Aaron Chasan, Danial Singh Kang, Jorge-Luis Gonzalez, Anisha Moosaأنيشا موسى?????, Carlos Lopes, Danielle Farrell, MA, CSM, Kris Saling, Hiroyuki MIYAI, Ph.D., Yukiko Hosomi, Dr. Christoph Spöck, Joachim Rotzinger, Kevin Le Vaillant, Seung Won Yoon, Alexis Fink, Timo Tischer, Dr. Tobias Bartholomé, Jose Luis Chavez Vasquez, Meg Bear, Abhinav Tiwari, Esther Abraas, Gareth Flynn, Elizabeth Musso, Jana Glogowski, Maarten van Beek, K Nair, Joonghak Lee, Sameer Tahir, Robert Allen, Volker Jacobs, Bilal Laouah, Florent Maire, Oliver Kasper, Jaap Veldkamp, Patrick Coolen, Jeff Wellstead, Jean-Francois (Jeff) BOUBANGA MIGOLET, Dan George, Shujaat Ahmad, Alexandra Nawrat, People Edge Consulting Ltd., Andrew Spence, Roshaunda Green, MBA, CDSP, Phenom Certified Recruiter ?, Austin Brockert, MBA, Dan Riley, Sanja Licina, Ph.D., Anna A. Tavis, PhD, Stela Lupushor, Jeremy Shapiro, David Simmonds FCIPD, Catriona Lindsay, Aravind Warrier, Michael Arena, Greg Pryor, Isabella Cheshire, Amardeep Singh, MBA, Aline Costa, Anis Alexandros El Namparaoui, Adam Treitler, Helder Figueiredo, Sebastian Knepper, Sebastian Kolberg, Lewis Garrad, Kerry Ghize, Preetha Ghatak Mukharjee, Jacob Nielsen, Pete Jaworski, Søren Kold, Prabhakar Pandey, Avani Solanki Prabhakar, Ian Grant FCIPD, Erik Samdahl, Max Blumberg, Sergey Puchka, Romy Hobson, Bettina Dietsche, Hernan Chiosso, CSPO, SPHR ?, Paola Alfaro Alpízar, Sergio Garcia Mora, Hanadi El Sayyed, David van Lochem, Maria Nolazco Masson, David McLean, Clara W Estanqueiro, Shonna Waters, PhD, Kevin Martin, Kathi Enderes, Serena H. Huang, Ph.D., Smadar Tadmor, Tobias W. Goers ツ, Dr. Denise Turley AI.Impact.Equity, Stella Ioannidou, Apeksha Awaji, Evan Franz, MBA, L N Divya Mudundi, Ross Sparkman, Salman Farooq, Megan Reitz, Todd Tauber, Heather Muir, AJ Herrmann, Priyanka Mehrotra, Oliver Auty, Priya Subrahmanyan, Naotake Momiyama, Bill Banham, Matthew Yerbury, Prachi Agasti, Robin Haag, Fabian Stokes, MBA, SWP, Monika Manova, Barry Swales, Dean Carter, Ian OKeefe, Ying Li, Alexandre Monin, Mike Zarrilli, Natasha Fearon, Pedro Pereira, David Balls (FCIPD), Naomi Verghese, Geetanjali Gamel, Frankie Close, Warren Howlett, Stephanie Murphy, Ph.D., John Gunawan, Jesse Clark, MBA, Caitie Jacobson Mikulis, Meghan M. Biro, Dan Trares, Kouros Behzad, Kathleen Kruse, Nick Lynn, Mariana Allain Carrasqueira, Marina Pearce, PhD, Dawn Klinghoffer, Raquel Mitie Harano, Delia Majarín, Deborah M. Weiss, Courtney McMahon, Nirit Peled-Muntz, Hanne Hoberg, Adam McKinnon, PhD., Don Dela Paz, Matt Elk, Sophia Houziaux, Danielle Bushen, Nabil Dewsi, Sai Bon Timmy Cheung 張世邦, Dolapo (Dolly) Oyenuga Agnes Garaba, Wouter Minten, Olly Britnell, Nick Hudgell, Roxanne Laczo, PhD, Claire Masson, Daisy Grewal, Ph.D., Laura Cole, Brian Elliott, Erin Eatough, PhD Henrik Håkansson Gabe Horwitz Russell Klosk (智能虎)
The final note this month is a sad one - rest in peace Diogo Jota and André Silva.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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 100 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.
MEET ME AT THESE EVENTS
I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work, and data driven HR at a number of upcoming events in 2025:
July 31 - August 1 - People Matters TechHR India 2025, Delhi
August 13-16 - GCHRA Africa, Accra, Ghana (I will join virtually)
September 25 - Visier Outsmart Local London, London
October 7-9 - Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, Atlanta (exclusive to the people analytics leader in member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®)
October 15-16 - People Analytics World, New York
October 21-22 - UNLEASH World, Paris
November 12-13 - HR Forum 2025, Oslo
More events will be added as they are confirmed.
David Green
2025年07月27日
Josh Bersin
Josh Bersin:人工智能能战胜人类直觉做决策吗?不可能
多年来,我们一直在争论 AI 是否能用于人类决策,比如:该雇佣谁?该提拔谁?薪酬多少合适?以及数百种其他决策。领导者每天都面临复杂、艰难的抉择——我们能信任 AI 来替我们做决定吗?
我的观点是:不能。这正是我最新一期播客的主题。
什么是直觉?什么是情绪?
我们都知道所谓“第一类思维”(Type 1 Thinking)——也就是直觉反应——在我们日常生活中扮演着主导角色。比如你见到一个人、坐在一个会议中,突然就知道“该雇谁”或“该怎么做”,即使数据很难查证。
我最近深入研究了遗传学、情绪与直觉,并得出结论:再强大的 AI “超级智能”,也无法替代我们的情绪。而这些情绪,来自我们的成长背景、过往经历,甚至基因组成——往往比数据更具洞察力。
作为一名工程师,我当然推崇数据与科学,因此并不是在否定算法与数据驱动决策。但我在人力资本领域的研究一再证明,是“人类直觉”在补充、辅助,并最终确定那些 AI 给出的建议。
AI 做决策的局限性在哪里?
AI 系统依赖“概率神经网络”进行训练,模型会从已有数据中学习,再用来判断新信息——写一段代码、生成一张图、创作一篇文章,它做得确实很出色。这是因为它可以瞬间把所有训练内容当作一个巨大的“数据集”,并用向量计算给出答案。
但这都基于一个假设:数据本身就足够全面,能够包含足够多的观点和洞察。如今,大多数大型 AI 实验室已承认“可索引的数据已经用尽”,所以开始制造“合成数据”——也就是 AI 用已有数据生成新数据,以此来扩充模型。
问题来了:这些数据缺失了什么?
如果你研究情绪理论(至少有六种主流理论),你会发现大多数观点都认为,一个人“对一件事的感觉”源于其生活经历、刺激源(所见所闻所感)以及基因。而“基因”这个维度,则是几百万年人类进化的产物。
所以即使某个商业决策在逻辑上是合理的,但我们每个人对数据的解读都是不同的,而我们的反应也由经验和人性所驱动。这就是为什么在一个高管会议上,大家面对同一组营收与市场数据,却会得出完全不同的结论:
比如一个人说:“我们做得不错,该庆祝!”另一个则说:“为什么没更快增长?我们本可以更好!”
为什么人类决策更有优势?
人类互动千差万别,有人积极进取,有人保守稳重。这种“直觉差异”正是一些公司在市场中脱颖而出的关键。
那这种直觉来自哪里?来自我们几百万年的进化历史与独特的“表观遗传能力”(epigenetic capabilities)。换句话说,人类智能与直觉,源于我们的家族基因、成长经历与历史背景。
以我自己为例:父亲那边是音乐家与科学家,母亲家族是商人。我最终成了一个热爱商业与人力工作的工程师。而因为父母都是企业家,我也成了一个有野心、敢冒险、喜欢挑战的人。
这些人类“能力”,本质上是历史和基因的组合,它们在我们的情感、直觉、性格和智慧中展现出来。
AI 决策能超越人类吗?绝不可能。
很多人用丹尼尔·卡尼曼的书《思考,快与慢》来解释这个问题。书中提出:
“快速思维”是直觉,
“慢速思维”是分析。
尽管这个划分广受欢迎,但现实更复杂。AI 在“慢速分析”方面确实做得不错,但仍然极其“幼稚”。
比如让 Grok 来解释“杰弗里·爱泼斯坦事件”,它会给出一段生硬的描述,但完全没有触及人类直觉所捕捉到的“这是个肮脏、混乱、令人羞耻的丑闻”。
我想表达的是:无论 AI 如何发展,也无论企业在数据中心上投入多少资金,它都无法复制人类在基因、历史与演化层面累积的智能。
举几个例子你就明白了:
当你开车经过街口,看到一个小孩站在路边,你的本能反应是“她可能会突然冲出来”。
当你在会议中感到“这个决策不对”,你会下意识决定“我们先别急,明天再看看感觉”。
而 AI 呢?它只会基于逻辑推演立即给出一个“答案”。
总结:人类直觉,在AI时代更重要
这种“情绪 + 本能 + 遗传”的判断力,正是人类与众不同的关键所在。
正因如此,我们才会有乔布斯与盖茨的不同,马斯克与奥特曼的差异。我们必须正视并尊重这些“人类智能”的组成部分,它们比以往任何时候都更重要。
Josh Bersin
2025年07月27日
NACSHR活动
【评选】2025北美华人人力资源年度大奖提名开始,期待您的参与!北美华人人力资源协会(North American Chinese Society of Human Resource,简称 NACSHR)于2025年7月正式启动2025北美华人人力资源年度大奖(2025 North American Chinese Human Resource Awards)评选。我们的使命是发掘和表彰华人HR在人力资源管理领域的卓越实践,认可在专业领域表现杰出的华人HR经理人、HR管理团队和HR服务机构。通过这一享有盛誉的评选活动,我们致力于展示华人HR的专业能力和贡献,提升华人人力资源品牌及其在职场的影响力,促进行业的交流、发展和进步。
NACSHR2016年发起成立,一直致力于搭建华人HR专业交流和发展的平台,更好的帮助和团结在北美的华人人力资源工作者以及在北美职场的华人。我们相信通过本次评选活动将发掘更多优秀的华人HR专业人士和管理人员、服务机构,可以树立良好的典范,激励同行,推动所在行业持续发展!
2025北美华人人力资源年度大奖是卓越和成就的象征,为组织和个人提供了在全球范围内获得认可的平台。赢得这一奖项不仅代表着在行业内的卓越表现、创新和成功,还能激励其他人追求卓越,设定新的基准。
通过2025北美华人人力资源年度大奖,NACSHR致力于表彰和鼓励在职场上展现出色的华人HR专业人士和机构,促进华人在北美职场的交流、合作与发展。
诚挚邀请参与2025北美华人人力资源年度大奖的提名
2025北美华人人力资源年度大奖奖项设置
▶面向华人优秀的HR和HR团队
Best HR Practice Award (最佳人力资源实践奖)
Best HR Leader Award( 最佳人力资源经理人奖)
Best HR Team Award(最佳HR团队奖)
▶面向华人HR服务机构及其创业者
Best HR Entrepreneur Award(最佳人力资源创业者)
Best HR Service Provider Award(最佳人力资源服务机构)
Innovative HR Service Provider Award(创新人力资源服务机构奖)
评选对象
2025年北美华人人力资源年度大奖面向华人HR、HR团队、华人人力资源科技或服务群体设置不同的细分奖项,参评的主体更加丰富和多元化,并提升更广泛的行业和职场影响力;
·北美地区华人HR专业人士或者HR管理团队
·为北美华人HR同仁提供人力资源产品或服务的华人人力资源机构或创业者
评选流程
评选启动:7月25日
报名阶段:7月25日至11月1日
评审阶段:11月1日至12月1日
颁奖论坛:12月12日 周五 加州硅谷
参与提名链接:https://www.nacshr.org/Survey/F618BF01-8AC0-8CC8-E821-4A59C7763DE3
颁奖论坛报名:https://www.nacshr.org/Survey/32D13F1A-609B-F6DC-8A63-1CB9D7DDDBD6
具体流程:
1.提名参与评选,HR及HR团队免费提名参与
2.收到提名后内部初步审查,预计3-5个工作日
3.内部审查通过后,需要提交参评案例
4.专家评审和工作人员回访
5.大众评审和综合评审
6.颁奖论坛,现场表彰
注意
1.参评申请一经提交,可在截止日期前撤回。
2.提交评选申请的主体需在北美地区有团队或公司;如果您意向为您的客户提交评选,我们建议您客户自行提交申请信息。
3.初审通过后需根据申请的奖项提供实践案例(企业实践、机构实践、个人实践)作为佐证信息。
参与奖项评选的收益
参与北美华人人力资源协会年度评选为个人和机构带来了诸多收益。以下是一些关键优势:
1. 荣誉与声望:赢得北美华人人力资源协会奖项是一项极具声望的荣誉,能够提升您的行业声誉和信誉。它将您与竞争对手区分开来,突显您的领导力和创新精神。
2. 曝光与可见性:该评选计划为您的品牌、产品或服务提供了宝贵的曝光机会,能够吸引行业专业人士和潜在客户的关注,开启新的机遇、合作和伙伴关系。
3. 卓越的验证:北美华人人力资源协会奖项是对您辛勤工作、奉献和成功的外部认可,证明您在您的领域中表现卓越并产生了积极影响。
4. 交流机会:参与评选可以让您与多元化的行业专业人士、思想领袖和影响者建立联系和互动,创造有助于新业务联系、合作和伙伴关系的网络机会。
5. 学习与对标:北美华人人力资源协会奖项为您提供了向行业内最佳实践学习的平台。通过研究和对标其他优秀的参赛作品,您可以获得洞察、启发和最佳实践,从而推动组织内部的持续改进和创新。
6. 员工士气与动力:通过北美华人人力资源协会的认可可以提升员工士气和动力。这种认可能激发员工的自豪感和成就感,进而提高员工满意度、留存率和忠诚度。
7. 营销与推广:作为北美华人人力资源协会评选的参与者或获奖者,您可以利用这一认可来增强您的营销活动、网站、社交媒体、新闻稿和其他沟通渠道,吸引更多的客户和利益相关者。
参与北美华人人力资源协会年度评选能够为您的专业声誉、业务增长和行业地位带来积极影响,是展示您成就并获得应有认可的宝贵机会。
奖项评选的影响力与影响
赢得北美华人人力资源协会奖项对个人或组织的成功有着重要的影响力和影响。以下是一些关键方式:
1. 行业认可:赢得北美华人人力资源协会奖项将您定位为行业内公认的领导者和创新者,建立信誉并增强您的声誉,使您更容易吸引新客户、合作伙伴、投资者和其他利益相关者。
2. 品牌可见性提升:获奖所带来的认可和宣传能显著提升您的品牌可见性,打开媒体报道、演讲机会和行业活动的大门,使您能够接触更广泛的受众并获得宝贵的曝光。
3. 竞争优势:赢得北美华人人力资源协会奖项赋予您相对于竞争对手的竞争优势,证明您的卓越表现、产品或服务的优越性,有助于在竞争激烈的市场中吸引和留住客户。
4. 客户信任与忠诚:北美华人人力资源协会奖项是卓越和质量的象征,通过获奖,您能够获得现有客户的信任和忠诚,并吸引新客户。客户更倾向于选择获得认可的企业。
5. 员工动力与参与:赢得北美华人人力资源协会奖项可以提升员工士气和动力,认可他们的辛勤工作和奉献,激发自豪感和成就感,从而提高员工参与度、生产力和留存率。
6. 商业机会与合作伙伴关系:与北美华人人力资源协会奖项相关的认可和声誉可以为新商业机会和合作伙伴关系打开大门,吸引潜在的投资者、合作伙伴和战略伙伴,他们希望与成功和创新的组织结盟。
7. 持续改进与创新:赢得北美华人人力资源协会奖项证明您对卓越的承诺,鼓励组织内部的持续改进和创新。这种认可可以成为进一步增长的催化剂,激励您不断突破界限,追求更大的成就。
赢得北美华人人力资源协会奖项的影响力和影响不仅限于即时的认可,它可以塑造您的职业或业务轨迹,对您的声誉、品牌和行业成功产生持久的积极影响。
附录其他常见问题和如何赢得大奖
*北美地区包含加拿大、美国、墨西哥、危地马拉、萨尔瓦多、伯利兹、 洪都拉斯、尼加拉瓜、哥斯达黎加、巴拿马、巴哈马、古巴、牙买加、海地、多米尼加共和国、安提瓜和巴布达、多米尼加联邦、圣卢西亚、圣文森特和格林纳丁斯、巴巴多斯、格林纳达、特立尼达和多巴哥、圣克里斯托弗和尼维斯联邦等23个独立的国家。
如何赢得2024北美华人人力资源年度大奖
赢得2024北美华人人力资源年度大奖需要在各自的类别中展示卓越和创新。
以下是一些可能增加您获奖机会的步骤:
了解奖项类别和评选标准
熟悉奖项类别:了解各奖项类别,如2024最佳人力资源实践奖、2024最佳人力资源经理人奖、2024最佳HR团队奖、2024最佳人力资源创业者奖、2024最佳人力资源服务机构奖和2024创新人力资源服务机构奖。
评选标准:确保您的公司、产品、个人或团队成就符合奖项的评选标准和目标。
突出您的成就
清晰展示成就:明确且有效地传达您的成就和成果,展示其如何满足或超越奖项的评选标准。每个类别只需提名一项关键成就。
突出影响力:强调您的成就对组织、行业或社区产生的积极影响。
收集支持性证据
提供证据:为您的成就提供支持性证据,如客户推荐信、统计数据、案例研究和媒体报道,以证明您的卓越表现。
真实可信:确保所有提供的证据真实可信,能够客观支持您的申报内容。
提交强有力的申请
结构合理:提交一个结构清晰、专业的申请材料,有效展示您的成就并证明您符合奖项评选标准。
突出重点:在申请中突出您的关键成就和其独特性,确保评审委员能够一目了然。
合理的展示:你可以提交案例的文本版本,也可以是PPT版本,也可以是视频解说
寻求推荐
行业推荐:寻求行业专家、客户、合作伙伴和其他利益相关者的推荐,以增强您的申请力度。
多方支持:获得多方位的支持和认可,进一步证明您的卓越表现和行业影响力。
NACSHR活动
2025年07月23日
Josh Bersin
员工体验平台的演进:推动 AI 转型的关键引擎Josh Bersin 公司发布新研究指出:员工体验平台(EXP)正在成为企业 AI 转型的关键基础设施。EXP 不再只是HR工具,而是推动组织学习、透明沟通和员工赋能的核心平台。研究提出五大战略:以人为本、自下而上、持续学习、透明沟通和实时优化。案例包括 Microsoft 的 HR AI 转型、ASOS 的 AI 自动化、Clifford Chance 的法律文书 AI 起草。EXP 赋能组织实现敏捷变革和AI落地。
AI 正在快速改变职场——不仅是技术,更是组织文化与工作方式的深刻变革。
人工智能(AI)的广泛应用为生产力、效率和业务增长带来了前所未有的机遇。然而,AI 转型并不仅仅意味着“部署新技术”,它实际上深刻地重塑了员工体验,影响着组织文化、团队协作方式与工作流程。
在这一转型过程中,员工体验平台(Employee Experience Platform,简称 EXP) 正逐渐从传统的 HR 工具,演进为推动企业成功实施 AI 的关键引擎。EXP 不再只是一个用于请假或查政策的门户,而是集成沟通、学习、协作、数据与自动化的智能化平台,帮助组织推动 AI 采纳、提升员工准备度,并确保 AI 真正带来业务价值。
员工体验平台的演进
EXP 的初始功能主要是处理事务性流程,如请假申请、薪资查询等。但如今,随着 AI 技术的发展,EXP 已演变为智能化的交互中心,集成以下核心功能:
跨系统的员工沟通与协作
提供关于 AI 使用和员工情绪的实时洞察
支持个性化的学习与技能建设
自动化重复任务,让员工专注于更有价值的工作
同时,得益于 AI Agent 的融入,如今的 EXP 变得更易使用,员工可通过自然语言与系统交互,实现跨系统流程操作,无需再进入多个事务性系统。
因此,EXP 不再是“可有可无”的系统,而是 企业 AI 成功转型的关键基础设施。
企业 AI 转型案例
我们调研了三家具有代表性的公司,探讨他们在 AI 转型中如何借助 EXP 实现落地与成效:
1. ASOS(线上时尚零售)
部署 Microsoft Copilot 与 Microsoft Viva 赋能多业务部门
用 AI 驱动 HR 案例处理工具,提升服务效率
通过自助服务门户精简事务流程
用自定义 AI bot 自动完成可持续认证流程
成果:员工生产力提升、参与度增强、AI 无缝落地
2. Microsoft(打造 AI 驱动的 HR 部门)
通过 Viva 学习模块开展 AI 培训
自助 HR 工具增强员工支持体验
实时分析 AI 使用情况,持续优化策略
成果:HR 效率显著提升,数千名 HR 领导参与 AI 社群
3. Clifford Chance(国际律所)
用 AI 起草法律文件,为律师提供初稿
借助 AI 语言工具跨越法律语境差异
利用 AI 管理法律知识,快速找出相关案例
成果:文书效率提升、知识共享加速、决策更精准
AI 转型的敏捷性要求
与传统变革不同,AI 推广不是一次性事件,而是一个 持续试验、迭代和适应的过程。因此,企业需具备“变革敏捷性”(Change Agility),用灵活的机制推动员工学习和组织协同。
借助 EXP 实现 AI 成功的五大战略
我们总结出五个成功企业在 AI 转型过程中普遍遵循的策略,而 EXP 是支撑这些策略实施的核心平台:
1. 以人为本与目标导向(Focus on People and Purpose)
AI 的导入需与组织使命、价值观和员工需求保持一致。EXP 可确保所有 AI 工具围绕员工体验设计,提升参与度、工作效率和福祉。
? 案例:Microsoft HR 借助 Viva Amplify 定制 AI 推广内容,让 HR 团队及时获取战略沟通信息,确保 AI 项目与业务目标保持一致。
2. 采用自下而上的迭代方法(Bottom-Up, Iterative Approach)
AI 转型不能靠高层指令推动,而应依赖一线员工的反馈与试验。EXP 通过实时反馈与学习机制,让员工在实际工作中试用、迭代与优化 AI 工具。
? 案例:ASOS 借助 Viva 社区功能发起“Work Smarter”活动,员工可在平台上公开交流 AI 使用案例,形成知识共享文化。
3. 鼓励透明沟通与试验精神(Transparent Communication and Experimentation)
员工需要明确知道 AI 工具的使用场景、目的与风险,才能建立信任并积极参与。EXP 提供结构化、公开的试验机制,确保过程透明。
? 案例:Clifford Chance 在 Microsoft Viva 中嵌入 AI 工作流程,员工可以实时测试 AI 辅助起草功能,同时了解其运行逻辑。
4. 推动持续学习与技能建设(Continuous Learning and Skill-Building)
员工必须掌握 AI 基本素养,才能有效融入 AI 工具。EXP 提供基于角色定制的学习路径,支持技能升级与长期成长。
? 案例:Clifford Chance 借助 Viva Learning 培训员工 prompt 工程、AI 素养与数据分析技能,为 AI 工具的使用打下基础。
5. 实现实时度量与持续优化(Real-Time Measurement and Improvement)
与传统 IT 项目不同,AI 推广必须持续监测并快速调整策略。EXP 提供实时分析能力,帮助企业追踪员工情绪、生产力与 AI 使用情况。
? 案例:Microsoft HR 借助 Viva Insights 实时追踪 AI 使用频率、员工负荷减轻情况与情绪变化,以便动态调整 AI 战略。
HR 在 AI 转型中的新角色
在 AI 重构工作的过程中,HR 部门不再只是支持者,而是:
主导员工技能升级与再培训
协助重塑岗位定义与工作流程
在 HR、IT 与业务之间架起 AI 战略桥梁
落实负责任 AI 政策,确保 AI 应用符合伦理与企业文化
HR 将在未来的 AI 时代中扮演 “战略引导者 + 管理变革催化者” 的核心角色。
行动建议与未来展望
企业若想在 AI 转型中取得成功,应当:
✅ 采用“变革敏捷”思维,持续学习、实时迭代
✅ 建立 AI 驱动的员工体验平台,支持流程与文化融合
✅ 打破 HR、IT、业务之间的壁垒,实现跨部门协同
✅ 实施实时度量机制,根据反馈不断优化 AI 战略
EXP 已成为企业迈入 AI 未来的基础设施。
AI 将持续重塑职场,但决定 AI 成败的关键并非技术本身,而是组织是否能让员工真正拥抱 AI、用好 AI。
EXP 不再只是一个 HR 工具,而是打造学习型组织、推动信任建设和灵活变革的“中枢神经系统”。企业若想在 AI 驱动的时代中保持竞争力,就必须把员工体验放在战略核心位置。
作者:Kathi Enderes | 全球研究与行业分析高级副总裁 | Josh Bersin Company
Biden tells HR professionals that real leadership is all about getting personal在2025年SHRM大会现场,美国总统拜登向全球人力资源专业人士发出温暖呼吁:“真正的领导力,是走心的。”他强调,好的HR和管理者,应该关心员工的家庭和人生,而不仅仅是绩效和产出。拜登以自身经历为例,曾为女儿生日搭乘火车返家,仅为陪她吹灭蜡烛,再连夜赶回国会。他还曾明确告诉副总统团队:“如果因为我错过了重要的家庭时刻,那将令我深感失望。”在AI和效率至上的今天,拜登提醒HR,“记得员工的生日”或许比一个季度报告更重要。他用亲情与共情定义了新时代的人力资源领导力。
By Ginger Christ — Published July 2, 2025
SAN DIEGO — Remember their birthdays. President Joe Biden told a packed room of human resources professionals on the final day of SHRM 2025 that being a great leader means getting to know workers and colleagues.
“You know better than anyone, the strength of a team comes down to the individual people on that team, whether they feel valued, whether they feel supported,” said Biden, who quipped that being the country’s chief executive is essentially being the ultimate chief people officer.
He urged the HR leaders in attendance to make time for human connections and to lead by example.
“Too often we try to separate people into categories: They’re work, or they’re family. We say it's business; it's not personal,” Biden said. “Real leadership is all about getting personal… It's about connecting. It means having empathy.”
It means remembering their birthdays, he said.
An unwritten rule during his time in office was that any member of his family would be put through immediately when they called — unless they specified that it wasn’t important.
On the day of an important vote in Congress that he couldn’t miss, Biden took the train back home to Delaware, watched his daughter blow out candles on the platform for her eighth birthday and jumped back on a train southbound to the nation’s capitol.
“We tell ourselves, ‘I have to be at that meeting, have to get that report done. I have to take that trip.’ Then, we tell ourselves, ‘My wife will understand, my kids will understand. We can make it up later,’” Biden said. “But deep down, we know we're killing ourselves. It does matter for moments you'll never get back. You might never know how much it mattered to your loved one.”
Efforts like that, or commuting two hours home every day showed his staff that he wanted them to put their life, their family first, he said.
After becoming vice president, Biden sent a memo to his team that said:
“I do not want you to miss important family obligations for work. These include, but are not limited to birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, religious ceremonies, graduations, times of need, such as illness and loss. This is very important to me. In fact, I'll go so far as I say, ‘If I find out you are working with me while missing an important family responsibility, it will disappoint me greatly.’”
Workers will give their all, he said, when they know you care not just about them but about their families, too.
Josh Bersin
2025年07月02日
David Green
David Green: The best HR & People Analytics articles of June 2025
AI is reshaping industries, companies, workforces and the way we work. As with previous industrial revolutions, this will mean that companies will need fewer people to perform some tasks, and more people to undertake other (including many new) tasks. Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, addressed this very topic in a recent message to Amazon’s employees while recent remarks by Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment by 10-20% in the next one to five years have been widely reported. The truth is that it is probably too early to judge how this will play out over time, and whether this industrial revolution will differ from all others in history by being a net destroyer rather than a net creator of jobs. Whatever direction we go in, it’s clearly going to be a disruptive few years ahead. HR needs to play an active role in terms of leading organisational transformation, redesigning work, upskilling the workforce, building a culture of continuous agility, and transforming the HR function itself. HR can be the crucial link ensuring employees can thrive alongside technology.
This month’s collection of resources addresses many of these topics, and if I could highlight one in particular, it would be a new Stanford paper on the Future of Work with AI Agents, which amongst other findings lays out a framework for human-agent collaboration. Enjoy!
This edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is sponsored by our friends at Draup
Prepare your workforce for the AI Era
Prepare your workforce for the AI era | Strategic HR Insights | Etter
Etter is Draup’s flagship AI transformation engine designed to help enterprises systematically reimagine job roles, skills, and workforce structures in the AI era. Built as an adaptive, modular solution, Etter integrates proprietary labor intelligence, enterprise data, and market signals to provide hyper-contextual, execution-ready recommendations for HR and business leaders.
Etter’s methodology is anchored on three foundational pillars:
Draup Models: This includes the Role Disruption Index, Workload Disaggregation, Skills Evolution, and Talent Density Models to identify which roles are most susceptible to AI disruption, what tasks can be automated or augmented, and how skills are shifting across industries. It generates AI-ready job descriptions and quantifies AI’s productivity and time-saving impacts at a task level.
Agentic Workflows: These simulate real-time strategic decisions—like reskilling paths, CoE creation, and role redesign—tailored to the organization’s structure, metrics, and technology ecosystem. They dynamically adapt to changes in business strategy or external environments such as regulatory shifts.
Sustainability Engine: Ensures responsible transformation by embedding fairness, inclusion, and long-term workforce resilience into every recommendation. Real-time dashboards track transformation maturity and enable scenario planning to balance automation with talent retention.
The document details advanced models like Tech Stack Mapping, Similar Role Identification, and Location Optimization to help organizations design AI-augmented ecosystems. It also outlines the data needed—from job descriptions to transformation signals—and a 4–6 week pilot approach to assess 10–12 roles for quick wins.
Etter moves beyond theoretical AI strategy to deliver measurable, role-level change—empowering CHROs, CTOs, and transformation teams to redesign workforces that are future-proof, agile, and ethically AI-enabled. Learn more about Etter here.
To sponsor an edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, and share your brand with more than 140,000 Data Driven HR Monthly subscribers, send an email to dgreen@zandel.org.
Invitation: If you are a people analytics leader, participate in the 6th annual Insight222 People Analytics Trends survey...
The Insight222 People Analytics Trends study is now in its sixth year, and has grown to be the biggest and most important annual study in the field of people analytics. The survey for 2025 is open, and is intended to gain insights into: (1) HR's role in shaping your AI strategy. (2)AI usage & adoption (3) Upskilling and enabling factors, and AI outcomes
If you are the people analytics leader at your company and would like to participate in the People Analytics Trends study for 2025, click this link and please join over 400 companies and complete the survey by the new closing date of July 6.
JUNE ROAD REPORT
A trio of highlights from June:
I finally got to attend TALREOS, which is curated and organised annually by Deborah M. Weiss and Derek Gundersen at Northwestern in Chicago. It proved to a memorable three days, with 200 participants and plenty of learning, collaboration and networking. I had the privilege of speaking on two panels. The first, hosted by the inimitable Ian OKeefe, and also featuring Dan Trares, Nicholas Garbis and Cole Napper, discussed how to build a successful people analytics function. The second, which I moderated, and featured Dean Carter, Courtney McMahon and Ryan Colthorp, discussed the critical topic of how to create and measure the value of people analytics.
Participants at TALREOS 2025
From Chicago, it was a short hop to Toronto for the first ever Canadian Peer Meeting for 40 members of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which was hosted by Don Dela Paz and the team at RBC. Speakers over the two days included Don as well as Ujjwal Sehgal, Maria Grazia (Grace) Guma, Rachel Beaulieu-Salamido, Kunal Thakkar, MS, PMP, Rob Dees, Travis Windling, Patrick Joseph Tuason, David Holmes, Foteini Agrafioti and Arjun Asokakumar, MMA, CHRL.
Participants at the Insight222 Peer Meeting at RBC in Toronto, June 2025
Finally, last week saw David Duewel and his team at BT Group host a Peer Meeting for more than 60 European members of the Insight222 People Analytics Program in London. Speakers over the two days included: Elaine Bergin, Julie-Anne Sivajoti, Fiona Vines, Stefaan De Keyser, Julien Legret, Stefanos Adamantiadis, Nick Hudgell, Mariana Allain Carrasqueira, Olly Britnell and Ashar Khan.
Across all three events I left with a number of reflections including: (1) When people analytics is closely with business strategy it delivers exponential value. (2) AI is elevating and disrupting people analytics in equal measure. (3) Employee listening is the 'human' face of people analytics.
Just to highlight to my Indian network and readers that I'm speaking at TechHR India 2025 in Delhi, which is organised by People Matters, at the end of July. I'll be delivering a keynote on July 31 after a pre-conference workshop on July 30 on The Science of Better Decisions - I hope to see some of you there.
Share the love!
Enjoy reading the collection of resources for June 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 May’s compendium.
If you enjoy a weekly dose of curated learning (and the Digital HR Leaders podcast), the Insight222 newsletter: Digital HR Leaders newsletter is usually published every other Tuesday – subscribe here – and read the latest edition.
HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
IBM - 5 Mindshifts to Supercharge Business Growth
It’s no longer a question of whether to use AI—but where AI will give you the greatest lift and how you should redeploy your people to accelerate growth.
IBM’s recently published 2025 CEO Outlook is required reading for all chief people officers and heads of people analytics. The study highlights that talent recruiting and retention is ranked #2 in the top challenges of CEOs (see FIG 1). The report highlights five mindshifts to supercharge growth in the age of AI – all of these apply for HR too: (1) Make courage your core (“The power and potential of AI is pushing organizations to transform faster, even if they’re not sure what exactly what that entails.”) (2) Embrace AI-fuelled creative destruction (“Establish metrics and monitoring systems to assess AI effectiveness and create a culture of accountability.”) (3) Cultivate a vibrant data environment (“Start with data. If CEOs get their data environment right, they can accelerate change, impact, and stakeholder value.”) (4) Ignore FOMO, lean into ROI (“Only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI—and only 16% have scaled enterprise-wide. Fail fast and move on.”) (5) Borrow the talent you can’t buy:
CEOs are looking to reskill the talent they already have (build), hire the talent they need (buy), add AI assistants and agents to workflows wherever they can (bot), and rely on partners to borrow what they can’t find another way (borrow).
FIG 1: Top CEO Challenges 2025 (Source: IBM Institute for Business Value)
MCKINSEY - Seizing the agentic AI advantage
To realize the potential of agents, companies must reinvent the way work gets done—changing task flows, redefining human roles, and building agent-centric processes from the ground up.
According to McKinsey, there is a ‘GenAI paradox’ with nearly eight in ten companies reporting they are using Gen AI—yet just as many reporting no significant bottom-line impact. To break out of this morass, the authors argue that Agentic AI—autonomous, goal-oriented systems—is the true game-changer, poised to automate complex processes and fundamentally transform workflows. For HR leaders guiding workforce transformation, the core insight of the study is profound: successful integration means redesigning work around AI agents, not merely layering AI onto old processes. This strategic pivot promises enhanced operational agility, accelerated execution, and newfound organisational resilience. However, realising this potential hinges on critical human factors. Driving adoption and earning trust are paramount, alongside robust governance for agent autonomy. This necessitates a shift from fragmented AI initiatives to strategic, cross-functional programs, coupled with significant upskilling across the workforce. While the article doesn't explicitly detail the Chief People Officer's role, the implications are clear: HR must champion the human-AI partnership, ensuring ethical deployment and preparing talent for this profound evolution of work. Kudos to the authors: Alexander Sukharevsky, Dave Kerr, Klemens Hjartar, Lari Hamalainen, Stéphane Bout, and Vito Di Leo, with Guillaume Dagorret.
HR must champion the human-AI partnership, ensuring ethical deployment and preparing talent for this profound evolution of work.
FIG 2: Maximising value from AI agents requires process reinvention (Source: McKinsey)
STANFORD - Future of Work with AI Agents: Auditing Automation and Augmentation Potential across the U.S. Workforce Project | Paper | COBUS GREYLING - The Future of Work with AI Agents — Insights from a Stanford Study | SERENA HUANG - AI Agents Are Ready to Work With Us, but Are We Ready to Work with Them?
[As] AI agents start to enter the workforce, key human competencies may be shifting from information-processing skills to interpersonal and organizational skills.
For anyone looking to understand how the AI agents might shape the future of work, I recommend diving into a new study from Stanford University – warning, you may get lost as the paper is absorbing! The paper presents a framework, the Human Agency Scale (HAS – see FIG 3), which has a five-level scale from H1 (no human involvement) to H5 (human involvement essential) and is designed to help quantify the desired level of human involvement across various tasks. Other findings from the study include: (1) Lack of trust (45%) is the most common fear workers have about AI automation in their work. (2) Workers want automation for low-level and repetitive tasks with 46.1% expressing positive attitudes towards AI automation. (3) Workers generally prefer higher levels of human agency, potentially foreshadowing frictions as AI capabilities advance. Kudos to the authors of the Stanford Study: Yijia Shao, Humishka Zope, Yucheng Jiang, Jiaxin Pei, David Nguyen, Erik Brynjolfsson, Yang Diyi. I also recommend the shorter and more accessible summaries of the key findings from the paper and their potential implications by Cobus Greyling and Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. (see links above) as well as Ross Dawson (see here).
FIG 3: Levels of Human-Agency scale (Source: Stanford University, Shao et al)
PETER CAPPELLI AND RANYA NEHMEH – Hybrid Still Isn’t Working | BRIAN ELLIOTT - When Academics Ignore Research (and Reality)
The contentious debate about the merits – or otherwise – of hybrid work continues as these two articles demonstrate. Firstly, in their article for Harvard Business Review, Peter Cappelli and Ranya Nehmeh present the case that hybrid is harming collaboration, deepening social isolation, weakening culture, and is leading to lower performance. They argue that this is primarily because of the way that many companies manage hybrid and remote workers: “You can’t effectively manage remote and hybrid workers using the same methods you did when employees were still all together in the office.” They then suggest eight strategies including: creating and enforcing rules, revamping performance appraisals, and establishing in-office anchor days. Brian Elliott, who along with the likes of Nick Bloom (see latest WFH Research here) and Annie Dean (listen to my podcast discussion with Annie on using behavioural science for distributed working) is one of my go-to experts on hybrid and distributed work, provides a 'teardown' (his words!) of Hybrid Still Isn’t Working. He examines some of the research cited in the HBR article and compares this to the available data e.g. contrary to everyone going back to five days in the office, Brian highlights Flex Index data (see FIG 4) showing that hybrid dominates at 43% of firms. Brain also highlights that the article ignores research on return to office mandates such as: “no financial benefit, no stock market boost, but declining engagement and retention issues among experienced talent and women at 3X the rate of men.” I’ll let readers make their own minds up but recommend that any companies considering a change in their approach analyse their own data and make considered decisions. As Brian concludes in his article:
Instead of debating days per week, focus on what drives results: clear team goals, intentional collaboration rhythms, and management practices that work anywhere. The magic isn't in the location—it's in how well you lead distributed teams doing complex work.
FIG 4: Structured Hybrid continues to dominate as the preferred work model for US companies (Source: Flex Index)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
MICHAEL ARENA AND AARON CHASAN - The social signals behind employee retention
Research has long shown that employees at the center of an organizational network—those with many active connections—are 24 percent less likely to leave.
In their article, Michael Arena and Aaron Chasan highlight an important insight: employee connection, not just engagement, is the true bedrock of retention: “In today’s networked workplace, social withdrawal is often the first—and most reliable—indicator that someone’s already halfway out the door.” For HR to genuinely impact business performance and employee experience, we must leverage social signals to build robust internal networks. The authors outline four high-impact ways HR can proactively employee connection and significantly reduce attrition: (1) Utilise network analysis: Identify early flight risks by spotting employees with few or declining connections. (2) Facilitate connection moments: Deliberately create opportunities for interaction, especially in hybrid settings, using tools like interest-based matching. (3) Support relationship-rich teams: Encourage cross-functional initiatives and invest in psychologically safe team cultures. (4) Routinely pulse central employees: Their engagement profoundly influences the entire network.
In today’s networked workplace, social withdrawal is often the first—and most reliable—indicator that someone’s already halfway out the door.
PIETRO MAZZOLENI AND ERIC BOKELBERG - The right owner, the right impact: mastering people analytics accountability
Clear ownership ensures that sensitive data is handled responsibly, analytics initiatives are aligned with business priorities, and AI solutions deliver trustworthy, actionable insights.
Pietro Mazzoleni and Eric Bokelberg provide guidance on mastering people analytics by defining clear ownership – a cornerstone for unlocking business value from people data. Many organisations falter due to unclear accountability, risking inefficiencies and mistrust. Pietro and Eric outline four essential domains for assigning ownership: (1) Data Governance. (2) Stakeholder Management. (3) Data & AI Platforms. (4) Functional AI. They then recommend ownership across five key functional roles: the People Analytics Team, CHRO and HR Leadership Team, Business Function Leaders, Chief Data Office, and IT/AI Technology Team. By aligning accountability with expertise, HR leaders can ensure data is handled responsibly, initiatives drive strategic priorities, and AI delivers trustworthy, actionable insights, ultimately generating real business impact.
LUDEK STEHLIK AND COLE NAPPER - Beyond Prediction: Exploiting Organizational Events for Causal Inference in People Analytics | KEITH MCNULTY – R for People Analytics | MARIA NOLAZCO MASSON - The People Analytics Staircase | PATRICK COOLEN – People Analytics Spotlight: Oliver Kasper, Giovanna Constant, and Marcela Mury
In each edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I feature a collection of articles by current and recent people analytics leaders. These are intended to act as a spur and inspiration to the field. Four are highlighted in this month’s edition: (1) Ludek Stehlik, Ph.D. and Cole Napper examine one of the Holy Grails of people analytics – understanding causality, including exploring why randomised experiments (see FIG 5) are the ‘gold standard’ (but rarely feasible), and how real-world organisational events can be used as natural experiments. (2) Keith McNulty offers a set of open source materials for a 2-day course on explanatory technical methods in People Analytics using R. (3) For anyone early in their people analytics career and looking to accelerate their development, I recommend diving into Maria Nolazco Masson’s excellent series: The People Analytics Staircase, which provides a practical framework to advance in People Analytics, from foundational concepts to deep strategic dives. (4) Finally, in this section, I recommend checking out Patrick Coolen’s excellent People Analytics Spotlight Series, which to date has insights from Oliver Kasper, Giovanna Constant and Marcela Mury.
FIG 5: Randomised controlled trial (Source: Simply Psychology)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
MICHELLE CHAN CROUSE, TED MOORE, ANNA PENFOLD, BRAD PUGH, AND ALISON HUNTINGTON - The CHRO of the future: How CHROs and organizations can prepare for what’s next
The CHRO role is no longer just about managing human capital—it's about unleashing the potential of your workforce, whether they’re a human or a bot.
This report by Russell Reynolds Associates dissects the evolving role of the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and provides a helpful guide on how the CHRO can lead workforce transformation. It is structured into three chapters: (1) How the CHRO role has changed: highlighting the CHRO's transition from operational support to a strategic leader, now deeply embedded in C-suite succession, transformation, and even technology, crucial for organisational stability. (2) Who will be the CHROs of the future? capturing the need for a new CHRO profile, demanding broader strategic, technological, and operational experience beyond traditional HR, coupled with acute emotional intelligence to navigate complex stakeholder landscapes. This chapter also highlights new roles and responsibilities that may emerge in the HR function including a ‘Chief HR Bot’ reporting to the CHRO and responsible for data-driven decision making. (see FIG 6). (3) How CHROs and organisations can prepare for the future: with actionable guidance, emphasising the responsible integration of AI, significant investment in HR data and analytics, and clear communication around workforce transformation, ultimately elevating HR's strategic influence. This analysis by Michelle Chan Crouse, Ted Moore, Anna Penfold, Brad Pugh and Alison Huntington reinforces that the future CHRO is a critical architect of business success, leveraging data and strategic acumen to shape adaptive, resilient organisations.
FIG 6: Potential roles in the HR team of the future (Source: Russell Reynolds)
DAVE ULRICH, DICK BEATTY, AND PATRICK WRIGHT - What Competencies Define an Effective HR Professional? Past, Present, and Future
In their article, Dave Ulrich, Dick Beatty, and Patrick Wright analyse a number of different HR competency models including their own, which has been developed through eight studies since 1987 across 120,000 participants. Their analysis leads them to recommend expected and emerging competencies across six HR skills domains (see FIG 7): (1) Accelerate business, (2) Advance human capability, (3) Make change happen, (4) Use GenAI and analytics for information, (5) Create organisation culture, and (6) Demonstrate personal proficiency. For HR leaders and professionals looking to learn more, I recommend learning about the Global HR Learning Experience programthat Dave, Dick and Patrick have developed.
FIG 7: Expected and emerging competencies for HR professionals (Source: Dave Ulrich et al)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
JEN STAVE, RYAN KURT AND JOHN WINSOR – Agentic AI is Already Changing the Workforce
AI agents are fast becoming much more than just sidekicks for human workers. They’re becoming digital teammates—an emerging category of talent.
The advent of Agentic AI is no longer a distant future; it's here, fundamentally reshaping our workforce. In their article, Jen Stave, PhD, Ryan Kurt and John Winsor explain that these autonomous, goal-oriented AI systems aren't just tools; they're becoming digital colleagues, capable of complex tasks and decision-making. For HR and business leaders, this demands a seismic shift in how we approach talent, roles, and organisational design. The article outlines seven critical actions to help your organisation thrive: (1) Map work tasks and outcomes (“Deconstruct each role or project into its component tasks and outcomes.”) (2) Assess AI capability. (3) Integrate your hybrid team (“Develop a hybrid-workforce strategy to define which tasks AI will own, which tasks people will own, and how the escalation of problems should happen.”) (4) Redesign your business and workforce model (“Envisioning new ways to procure and deploy talent, including full-time employees, temporary hires, freelancers and AI.”) (5) Set legal and ethical ground rules. (6) Capture value continuously as it evolves. (7) Remain human-centric (“AI reduces the need for people to conduct mundane tasks and elevates the importance of high-value, human-led tasks.”). For more from John Winsor, I recommend listening to his conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: Addressing the Global Skills Shortage with Open Talent Strategies.
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
MICROSOFT WORK TRENDS INDEX - Breaking down the infinite workday
The future of work won’t be defined by how much drudgery we automate, but by what we choose to fundamentally reimagine.
In this follow-up to their recently published 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report, this article from Microsoft exposes the modern "infinite workday" – a relentless cycle starting pre-dawn, peppered with incessant emails and messages, hijacked by meetings, and relentlessly spilling into evenings and weekends (see FIG 8). It's a chaotic, fragmented existence that HR leaders, focused on productivity and wellbeing, must address. The critical insight is that AI demands rethinking how work is structured and experienced. This isn't about simple automation; it's about fundamentally redesigning the rhythm of work. The article proposes a clear "path forward" with three vital starting points: (1) Follow the 80/20 rule: Leverage AI to streamline low-value tasks, allowing focus on the 20% that drives 80% of outcomes. (2) Redesign for the Work Chart: Shift from static teams to agile, outcome-driven units, using AI to bridge skill gaps. (3) Become an agent boss: Empower employees to utilize AI agents to supercharge their work and focus on high-quality insights. While the article itself doesn't explicitly detail the opportunity for HR and People Analytics to lean in and shape this future, the implications are clear: these functions are pivotal in orchestrating this transformation, ensuring a focused, productive, and ultimately more human-centric work environment.
FIG 8: The infinite workday bleeds into evenings and weekends (Source: Microsoft Work Trends Index)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND LEARNING
MEGAN REITZ AND JOHN HIGGINS - Create Mental Space to Be a Wiser Leader
We live in complex times that demand complex thoughts and conversations — and those, in turn, demand the very time and space that is nowhere to be found.
In their article for MIT Sloan Management Review, Megan Reitz and John Higgins explain the need for leaders and workers to balance ‘doing’ and ‘spacious’ modes (see FIG 9) and present their research that finds in our rush to do more we’re losing the critical space to think deeply. This has a detrimental effect on leadership and organisation effectiveness. In order to help leaders develop the capacity for the spacious mode, the authors present their SPACE Framework (Safety, People, Attention, Conflict, Environment). By consciously creating environments that foster reflection and broader thinking, HR can empower leaders to transcend short-term noise, perceive critical interdependencies, and ultimately drive superior business outcomes and a more human-centric employee experience.
FIG 9: The Attentional Mode Framework (Source: Reitz and Higgins)
ROB CROSS AND MOLLIE LOMBARDI - Leading from Anywhere: Driving Results in the Age of Distributed Work
Improving the performance of bottom-quartile leaders yields a 32% productivity impact.
In their recently released study for The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), authors Rob Cross and Mollie Lombardi highlight that leading distributed work is a greater challenge than is commonly acknowledged. While 86% of organisations say work has become more distributed, 58% of leaders admit they are only "somewhat" effective in this new environment, which increases burnout and limits productivity. The paper identifies six capabilities of leadership effectiveness of top-performing leaders that help employees thrive in a distributed work environment (see FIG 10). Three other key insights from the report are: (1) Fix the bottom, not just the top: Elevating poor managers to just average can result in a 32% productivity gain—and a 33% boost in engagement. (2) Culture is the new productivity engine: Leaders who curate healthy team cultures see a 34% overall market performance lift. (3) Distribute leadership, not just work: Empowering teams with ownership and shared leadership responsibilities is key to sustainability and innovation. Thanks to Heather Muir and Kevin Oakes for highlighting the study.
FIG 10: Capabilities that most distinguish high-performing leaders (Source: i4CP)
KATHI ENDERES AND STELLA IOANNIDOU - Pacesetters in the Superworker Era: The Six Secrets of High-Performing Organizations
Pacesetters are reimagining HR through systemic approaches that integrate talent management, workforce planning, and organizational development to drive AI-powered transformation
Kathi Enderes and Stella Ioannidou present the findings from a four-year collaborative study between The Josh Bersin Company and Eightfold, which analyses the leadership and HR strategies of ‘Pacesetter’ companies - the top 5% performers in every industry – with regards to AI transformation. The article – and paper – identifies six secrets as being key to AI transformation, which these companies approach as a people – rather than technology – transformation: (1) AI Transformation for Growth, Not Cost Control (“[Pacesetters] use AI to improve forecasting, personalize the employee experience, and significantly boost productivity across the enterprise”). (2) Continuous Innovation at the Core (“Pacesetters embed innovation skills, experimentation platforms, and design thinking capabilities across the entire organization”). (3) Productivity-Based Work Redesign (“Instead of layering new tools on top of old workflows, they strip out bureaucracy, clarify accountability, and focus on high-value, meaningful work”). (4) Talent Density: Skills Quality over Quantity (“[Pacesetters] continuously redesign work: removing friction, unlocking capability, and structuring around value rather than legacy” – see FIG 11). (5) From Change Management to Change Agility (“Pacesetters excel at identifying and nurturing the skills needed to navigate change, ensuring their workforces are equipped to adapt to new technologies and processes”). (6) Systemic HR®, Powered by AI (“Pacesetters are reimagining HR through systemic approaches that integrate talent management, workforce planning, and organizational development to drive AI-powered transformation”).
FIG 11: The Four Stages of Work Redesign (Source: The Josh Bersin Company)
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING
CURTIS L. ODOM, CHARN P. MCALLISTER, AND RYAN SOFFER - Why Belonging Matters More Than Just Diversity
When leaders commit to fostering a culture of belonging, the connection between management practices and diversity-related outcomes becomes clearer
In their article for MIT Sloan Management Review, Curtis Odom, Ed.D., Charn McAllister and Ryan Soffer argue that belonging and psychological safety are the true strategic goals of DEI. For HR leaders focused on impact, this is key. The authors critique the common misstep of viewing diversity as an end in itself, stressing that its value only materialises when people feel genuinely included and safe. Crucially, it outlines three targets for effective DEI. First, establishing belonging and psychological safety as the ultimate aim. Second, urging organisations to move beyond single-approach diversity practices, advocating for a multifaceted, integrated strategy. And third, emphasising the need for persistence to sustain diversity efforts through consistent, long-term action. This isn't just about ticking boxes; it's a strategic imperative for HR to unlock human potential, drive innovation, and deliver tangible business outcomes through a truly inclusive culture.
HR TECH VOICES
Much of the innovation in the field continues to be driven by the vendor and analyst community, and I’ve picked out a few resources from June that I recommend readers delve into:
GABE HORWITZ – The Evolution of the People Analytics Leader - In a great post, Gabe Horwitz of Paradox, breaks down the evolution of the people analytics leader from ‘The Data Analyst’ of 2020 to ‘The Decision Architect’ of today (see FIG 12).
FIG 12: The evolution of the people analytics leaders (Source: Gabe Horwitz)
RICHARD ROSENOW - The Uncharted Path of a People Analytics Career - Richard Rosenow examines what a career in people analytics looks like (see FIG 13), why the path to leadership is still mostly undefined, why it's hard to grow and provides some tips on how to overcome these challenges.
FIG 13: The People Analytics Leader's Journey (Source: One Model)
ZANELE MUNYIKWA - White-Collar Workers Are Getting the Blues – Zanele Munyikwa shares more insightful research from Revelio Labs highlighting a slowing of demand and stagnating wages for white collar jobs with the latter being more pronounced for early career roles (see FIG 14).
FIG 14: Wage stagnation is most pronounced in early-career roles (Source: Revelio Labs)
DEGREED – How the Workforce Learns GenAI in 2025 – According to this new report by Degreed, while 48% of surveyed professionals expect their responsibilities to shift due to GenAI, 78% lack the confidence and skills to use Gen AI tools. The report urges collaboration between CHROs, CLOs and CIOs, and highlights that: “When CHROs and CIOs align on AI upskilling, cross-functional collaboration, and ethical governance, companies are three times more likely to develop a Gen AI-ready workforce.” Thanks to Todd Tauber for sharing.
FIG 15: How to build GenAI confidence (Source: Degreed)
LACE PARTNERS - What are sunrise and sunset skills and how do you use them? – A helpful primer from LACE Partners on ‘sunrise’, ‘evergreen’, and ‘sunset’ skills (see FIG 16) and when to use them. Thanks to Aaron Alburey for highlighting.
FIG 16: Skills mapping horizon (Source: LACE Partners)
PODCASTS OF THE MONTH
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):
JORGE AMAR, BROOKE WEDDLE AND BRYAN HANCOCK - The future of work is agentic – In a fascinating episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, Jorge Amar, Brooke Weddle, and Bryan Hancock join host Lucia Rahilly to discuss AI agents, how they’re being used, and how leaders can prepare now for the workforce of the not-too-distant future.
KRIS SALING - The US Army & Data Driven Talent Management – Kris Saling, Director of Talent Innovation at the U.S. Army, joins host Cole Napper on the Directionally Correct podcast to discuss her book, Data Driven Talent Management, implementing people analytics in the US Army, and integrating data and analytics into talent management programs.
ALEXIS FINK, SEUNG WON YOON, AND BRAD SHUCK – How to Implement People Analytics – In this masterclass masquerading as a podcast, Alexis Fink, Seung Won Yoon, and Brad Shuck discuss how to implement people analytics.
BAS DEBBINK - Stop Guessing: How J&J Gets Precise About Skills – Bas Debbink, learning strategist at J&J, joins Stacia Sherman Garr and Dani Johnson on Workplace Stories to discuss how J&J utilises both talent leader insight and AI-driven inference to build a skills-based ecosystem that actually works, without overwhelming employees or managers.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
NICKLE LAMOREAUX AND TEUILA HANSON: How IBM built a skills-based organisation
LinkedIn has recently released an excellent report, CHRO Case Studies: Leading from the Front, which features case studies from five top-notch CHROs, which examine how BCG (Amber Grewal) has fully embraced AI; how IBM (Nickle LaMoreaux) has rethought performance management; how leaders at Allianz (Bettina Dietsche) are modelling the change they want to see; how Wood ( Marla Storm ) is addressing burnout and well-being; and how LinkedIn ( Teuila Hanson ) has introduced Coaching for All. The video featuring Nickle speaking to Teuila, provides a snapshot of the content in the report, and focuses on how IBM has built a skills-based organisation by starting with the data and tracking how skills are changing for each and every job role.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
ROSS SPARKMAN - Strategic Workforce Planning: Developing Optimized Talent Strategies for Future Growth
Ross Sparkman is widely recognised as one of the most accomplished expert practitioners in workforce planning, and the first version of Strategic Workforce Planning was an excellent guide to the fundamentals of this critically important business practice. The second edition provides a deep dive into what it takes to embed SWP and provides new guidance on areas such as: SWP in the age of GenAI, skills-based SWP, leading the SWP function and the future of SWP.
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
FRACTIONAL INSIGHTS – The Adaptive Organization: Building and Evolving Culture Across Growth Stages
The latest white paper from the Fractional Insights team of Shonna Waters, PhD, Laura Lomelí Russert, Ph.D. and Erin Eatough, PhD, provides an immensely helpful, research-backed framework for building and evolving culture intentionally, as your business scales. The paper details a stage-based model to guide culture through four stages of growth: early, growth, mid-size and enterprise as well as tools to align systems, behaviours, and values, practical insights from organisational psychology and systems thinking, and pitfalls to avoid as complexity increases.
FROM MY DESK
June saw four new episodes of the Digital HR Leaders podcast – three sponsored by HiBob (thanks Louis Gordon ), and a special bonus episode sponsored by Gloat (thanks Ruslan Tovbulatov ), as well as a round-up of series 47, and a role-reversal as I guested on the HR Leaders podcast.
JANINE VOS – The CHRO’s Playbook: How to Build an Agile and Data-Driven HR Function – Janine Vos, Chief Human Resources Officer and Managing Board Member at Rabobank, joins me to discuss how she has built an HR function that's not only agile and data led but also grounded in trust and strong relationships across the business.
MATTHEW BROWN - From Deployment to Impact: Maximizing Business Value with HR Tech - Matthew Brown, Director of Research, HCM at ISG (Information Services Group) joins me to discuss why the disconnect between HR and tech adoption persists, and how to bridge it.
RAMI TZAFRIR – Why HR must confront 'Covering' to build inclusion and psychological safety - Rami Tzafrir, Senior Director of Talent, Organisation and Learning at HiBob, to unpack powerful new research on covering in the workplace. Together, we explore why this behaviour is not just a personal issue but a signal of deeper organisational challenges - and what HR can do about it.
PATRICIA FROST AND RUSLAN TOVBULATOV - The AI Pivot: Seagate’s Workforce Transformation in the Age of AI - Patricia Frost, Chief People and Places Officer at Seagate Technology, and Ruslan Tovbulatov, Chief Marketing Officer at Gloat, the platform partner behind Seagate’s internal talent marketplace, TalentLink, join me to share insights from Seagate’s workforce transformation journey.
DAVID GREEN - How can HR use AI to improve Employee Experience and Wellbeing? – Highlights from series 47 of the podcast featuring episodes with Dave Ulrich, Volker Jacobs, Janine Vos, Matthew Brown, and Rami Tzafrir.
DAVID GREEN - How people analytics is driving organizational excellence – At the recent UNLEASH America show in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of speaking to Christopher Rainey as part of a marathon series of interviews he conducted at the event for HR Leaders and Achievers. Chris and I discussed the past, present and future of people analytics and evidence-based decision making in HR.
BONUS RESOURCES
There continues to be so much interesting content around on AI and its impact on business, leadership and HR that this month’s bonus resources are all focused on aspects of this topic:
ANNA OTT - How AI is Rewriting the Playbook for Talent in European Tech Startups - Anna Ott analyses a dataset of 1,800+ job postings across nearly 100 European startups in HV Capital's portfolio to answer the question: How should founders and HR leaders adjust their workforce planning to this new landscape?
ETHAN MOLLICK - Using AI Right Now: A Quick Guide - Wharton professor Ethan Mollick's One Useful Thing is the go-to blog for all things AI. In a recent post, Ethan examines what AI tool you should use for specific tasks (see FIG 17) with Claude, Gemini and Chat GPT being the three systems he recommends.
FIG 17: Source - Ethan Mollick
LASZLO BOCK - The Impact of AI on the Future of Work - Laszlo Bockshares the deck he is using to speak about AI and the future of work. As Laszlo astutely observes:
HR is uniquely positioned to make sure the future of work is both productive and humane.
TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC - Want to Use AI as a Career Coach? Use These Prompts - As ever, Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic provides an insightful guide on how you can use Gen AI tools for career coaching, with practical prompts and strategies to maximise your experience, learnings, and success.
STEVEN KIRZ - Why CHROs are critical to unleashing the transformational productivity of AI - Writing for UNLEASH, Steven Kirz explains why when CHROs treat AI as another tech tool, they are missing out on opportunities. Instead, he urges, they need to see AI as a form of talent, not a technology, particularly in this new era of AI agents.
LOOKING FOR A NEW ROLE IN PEOPLE ANALYTICS OR HR TECH?
I’d like to highlight once again 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 500 roles with 60% these being new.
THANK YOU
Million Podcasts for including the Digital HR Leaders podcast at number 6 in their list of the Top 100 Future of Work Podcasts of 2025
Max Blumberg for conducting and publishing an experiment: ?????? ????? ????? ??????? ??'? ????: ??? ????? ????????? ?????? ???????????
Alexandra Nawrat for including my contribution in her article summarising some of the key takeaways from the recent UNLEASH America: Analyst takeaways: UNLEASH America 2025 raised ‘the bar for what a HR technology conference should be’
Finally, a huge thank you to the following people who either shared the June edition of Data Driven HR Monthly and/or posted about the Digital HR Leaders podcast, conferences or other content. It's much appreciated: Charlotte Copeman Gareth Flynn Gulce Guleli Scott Rogers Piyush Mathur AJ Herrmann James Griffin Hernan Chiosso, CSPO, SPHR ? Rochelle Carland Jesse Clark, MBA Miralem Masic Helder Figueiredo Kevin Le Vaillant Emily Killham Marina Pearce, PhD Lida Chahipeyma Dr. Christoph Spöck Dr. Tobias Bartholomé Sergio Garcia Mora Shujaat Ahmad Ali Nawab Lindsey McDevitt Cristian Gabriel Alvarez Nirit Peled-Muntz William Werhane Amardeep Singh, MBA Tsevelmaa Khorloo Debbie Harrison Aravind Warrier Scott Reida Joy Kolb Emily Klein Graham Tollit Dan George Sai Bon Timmy Cheung 張世邦 Margad B Catriona Lindsay Erin Fleming Fiona Jamison, Ph.D. Lewis Garrad Francesca Caroleo (SHRM-SCP, ICF-ACC) Judi Casey Kouros Behzad Rupert Bader Rosemary Byde Preetha Ghatak Mukharjee Amy Huber-Smith Danielle Farrell, MA, CSM Aline Costa Timo Tischer Meghan R. Lowery, Ph.D., M.S. David Simmonds FCIPD Prabhakar Pandey Adam McKinnon, PhD. Greg Newman Kyle Forrest John Barrand Elson P. Kuriakose Jeffrey Pole David van Lochem Hanadi El Sayyed Matt Elk Al Adamsen Kyle Winterbottom Luka Babic Eric Guidice Monika Manova Ankit Saxena, MBA Kirsty Coral Baynton ??? Irada Sadykhova Dawn Klinghoffer Dr. Denise Turley AI.Impact.Equity Evan Franz, MBA Philip Arkcoll Toby Culshaw Dan Riley Sanja Licina, Ph.D. Daniyal Wali Azima Mavlonazarova Julius Schelstraete ? Angela LE MATHON Joonghak Lee, Serap Zel, PhD, Milou Wesdijk, Ingi Finnsson ?, Joanna Thompson (Kempiak), Heather Muir, Summer Pan, Anna Kuzmenko, Olivier Bougarel, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi, Tobias W. Goers ツ, Bence Gősi, Roxanne Laczo, PhD, Michelle Deneau, Don Gray, Marc Caslani, Claire Masson, Fabian Stokes, MBA, SWP, Delia Majarín, Barry Swales, Narelle Burke, Stela Lupushor, Anna A. Tavis, PhD, Jeremy Shapiro, Kanwal Rai, Patrick Davis, Placid Jover, Francisco Marin, Matthew Shannon, Rashmita Lenka, Henrik Håkansson, Alexandre Monin, Dale Clareburt, Dana Shoff, Warren Howlett, Agnes Garaba, Greg Pryor, Phil Inskip, Stephanie Murphy, Ph.D., Gaëtan Bonny, Nicola Forbes-Taylor FCIPD, Ian Grant FCIPD, Neil Vyner, Joseph Frank, PhD CCP GWCCM, Mila Pascual-Nodusso, Adam Treitler, Fábio Priori, Johann Cheminelle, Alex Browne, Dolapo (Dolly) Oyenuga, Megan Kraus Langdon, Bill Banham, Tom Reid David Balls (FCIPD) Juan Antonio Vega Frankie Close Asaf Jackoby, John Gunawan, Daisy Grewal, Ph.D. Amit Mohindra Sonia Mooney Oliver Auty Caitie Jacobson Mikulis Pedro Pereira Ben Berry Natasha Fearon Andrew Spence Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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 100 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.
MEET ME AT THESE EVENTS
I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work, and data driven HR at a number of upcoming events in 2025:
July 31 - August 1 - People Matters TechHR India 2025, Delhi
August 13-16 - GCHRA Africa, Accra, Ghana (I will join virtually)
September 25 - Visier Outsmart Local London, London
October 7-9 - Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, Atlanta (exclusive to the people analytics leader in member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®)
October 15-16 - People Analytics World, New York
October 21-22 - UNLEASH World, Paris
November 12-13 - HR Forum 2025, Oslo
More events will be added as they are confirmed.
David Green
2025年07月01日
Josh Bersin
The Workday Economy – A Bold New Strategy EmergesBy Kathi Enderes, SVP Research and Global Industry Analyst with comments by Josh Bersin
The Workday Innovation Summit 2025 was more than an analyst meeting: it was a signal that Workday is attempting a full-scale reinvention. Under CEO Carl Eschenbach and Board Chair Aneel Bhusri, Workday is shifting from a product-centric model to an open, partner-driven, AI-powered ecosystem they call “The Workday Economy.”
Let’s explain what the company is up to.
Strong Financial Performance
Now on its 20th birthday, Workday is in a position of strength:
– $7.7 billion in subscription revenue
– 16.9% year-over-year growth
– 11,000+ customers in 175+ countries
– 70 million users
– 93% customer satisfaction.
The company’s goal is to reach $10 billion over the next few years, which means continuing this level of growth.
Workday is banking on a few big bets: aggressive partnerships and industry solutions, building Agentic AI, investment in Workday Financials, and a mid-market offering. Let’s look at each of the components in detail.
The Platform Play: From System to Ecosystem
Workday’s legacy as a highly integrated, proprietary stack (or “walled garden”) worked for years, but now it slows innovation. Now, with intention to make Workday an open platform, the company is expanding its Built on Workday program and expanded Workday Marketplace, to build a “Workday Economy.” Partners and customers can use Workday Extend to build applications natively, with low-code tools and lots of support.
Comment by Josh: Workday Extend is a massive priority, but building Workday apps is difficult. With 87 partners now, how big can this app ecosystem become? And just as Apple tightly controls apps for the i-Phone, can Workday do the same with such complex industry partners? They’re definitely going in the right direction.
Partnerships as Engine of Innovation
Workday’s partner ecosystem is now front and center, supporting ISVs, advisory firms, system integrators, and co-innovation partners. A new Clear Skies Initiative is supposed to prevent channel conflict, ensuring partners can build without competing with Workday’s core offerings.
Strategic alliances with Randstad, TechWolf, and five new Workday Wellness partners (including MetLife) are examples. Can Workday use these partnerships to drive real, measurable results? Many partner programs are simply referral relationships: how will sales and service teams invest in the success of these partnerships? This is a new muscle for Workday to build.
Comment by Josh: This is big. I think Carl understands that Workday’s “market power,” built through its reputation over 20 years, lets the company pick winning partners and resell their offerings, invest in them, and stop trying to build or compete with everyone in this market. This is the type of behavior a $20-30 Billion company demonstrates, and I hope it continues. (ADP white labels many products and their business never stops growing.)
Agentic AI: The Next Frontier
Agentic AI is clearly core to the strategy. The Workday Assistant, powered by Illuminate, lets employees interact with HR and finance in natural language, across Microsoft Teams, Slack, and more.
Early agentic applications like the Payroll Agent, Employee Self-Service Agent, or Recruiting Agent are promising, but the real test will be customer adoption to create business value.
As companies deploy more specialized agents, Workday’s Agent System of Record aims to manage all agents, not just the ones created on Workday. With big players like Microsoft, Google, and ServiceNow aiming for the same level of control, this will be a tough battle to fight.
Comment by Josh: I’m not really convinced that Workday can be a system of record for agents, when the system is missing so much data. I would bet on Microsoft, Google, Okta, or others to dominate the agent governance market. On the other hand, agents that work with Workday (recruiting agents, L&D agents, pay agents, etc.) do have to integrate with Workday somehow, so to me this is a way to integrate, not “govern” agents.
Agent Extensibility and Customization
The new Workday Assistant Studio lets partners and customers build agents to fit unique workflows. This extensibility is good news for customers, but it comes with risk. How well will these interfaces work and how easy will it be for vendors to build integrated apps? Workday now has direct integration with Microsoft Copilot and Google, but most Agent-builders are going after customers directly, and they may or may not want to be held hostage within the Workday Assistant.
Comment from Josh: Right now SAP Joule is a year ahead of Workday in ERP/HCM Assistants. Most Workday clients I talk with are afraid to even let employees touch the system and they’re deploying Copilot, ChatGPT, Galileo, or other dedicated assistants. The Workday Assistant strategy needs a bold new move, and Studio alone may not be enough. I think Workday may be better off focusing on optimizing its utility within other more broad AI assistants. (What happened to Workday’s big alliance with Salesforce I wonder.)
HCM Innovation: Industry Focus and Acquisition Integration
Workday’s HCM suite remains the company’s core, with a focus on practical AI and the employee experience. Industry-specific solutions for higher education, healthcare, and financial services are expanding, offering another path to growth and becoming indispensable for clients.
Recent acquisitions like HiredScore, VNDLY, and Evisort can add mature AI-driven capabilities that can bring the HCM product (built 20 years ago) into the latest AI era, given the competition in this space. (Workday now resells Evisort.)
Comment from Josh: Workday HCM product teams understand what customers need. The challenge they face is “getting there from here,” so I would bet we see many more acquisitions. If you read our latest research on the Revolution in Corporate Learning, for example, you see that Workday has missed this market. Ditto many recruitment features (high-volume, online job previews, AI-assessment.) So I would expect Workday to do more deals like HiredScore, where they get an AI product base and some amazing HCM product talent.
Strong Focus on the Financial Suite
Workday’s financial management suite is now central to its growth story, with over 35% of new customers choosing it. The company is pushing industry-specific financial applications, automation, and real-time insights. But the finance function can often be conservative and risk-averse, and the promise of truly integrated HCM and Finance solutions is still a dream for most customers.
International Expansion
Workday’s global ambitions are bold. New offices, expanded partnerships, and talent programs in EMEA are all part of the plan. Today only 25% of revenue comes from international markets so the company will need to invest heavily here. SAP and Oracle are quite dominant in some countries, so the company has to pick its markets carefully.
And remember local players. As Workday courts the Global 2000 (including First-Citizens Bank & Trust, UnityPoint Health, and Toyota), the company definitely needs to build out support, partnerships, and presence in these geographies.
Comment from Josh: There are many geographies (Asia, UK, Eastern Europe) where Workday is not well entrenched. While SAP and Oracle dominate some of these markets, if Workday builds a strong partnership model (ie. exclusive SI partnerships in these geos, etc.) they can double their growth rate in these sectors. Look at how well Workday has done in Australia (a fairly small market).
Is the Mid-Market Ready for Workday?
Expanding to the mid-market is another tenant of Workday’s growth plan. With WorkdayGo, the company is adapting its enterprise playbook to leverage partners. With players like UKG, Rippling, ADP, Dayforce, and HiBob providing tailored, right-sized solutions designed for this segment, Workday will find lots of resistance in this market. (SAP tried this years ago.)
Comment from Josh: This is a push for me, I’m skeptical. I love Workday as a product but it’s very complex and needs major administrative support. I doubt Workday can effectively compete with HiBob, UKG, and the others Kathi mentions without building or buying a new product. Years ago Taleo (pioneer in ATS) acquired a separate company to launch Taleo Business Edition and that product sold like hotcakes. I have a hard time seeing how pre-configured Workday SKUs make it that much easier to administer. But who knows, maybe an AI-powered “configurator” could fix that up.
Customer-Centric Innovation
The 2025 Spring Release delivered over 350 new features, shaped by customer feedback. AI-powered talent rediscovery, simplified workflows, and industry-specific enhancements are all on the list. Customers are reportedly happy and shaping the roadmap. This pace of innovation requires companies to keep up with Workday, often not an easy feat, especially in the AI areas, where adoption still lags the many capabilities Workday offers. A focus on supporting AI transformation will be key to drive real value.
Josh’s Perspectives
Workday is an ambitious, well run, culture-driven company. These announcements signal a major shift from “technology-based” to “market-based” growth. There’s no question in my mind that thousands of ISVs and integrators would love to build businesses around Workday. The only question is how quickly Workday can make this easy and profitable (for them).
As far as AI goes, the market is very competitive. SAP’s AI strategy quite far along (Joule is more extensible than the Workday Assistant), and many AI startups are reinventing the HCM market from scratch. So while the Workday Agent System of Record makes sense, many new “Agent-core” or “AI-native” HCM apps will chip away at Workday’s footprint.
That all said, this is an exceptionally well run, strong, “Irresistible Organization”. With a new CTO and strong focus on global growth, I see no reason Workday can’t achieve its $10 Billion target in the next 3-4 years.
Josh Bersin
2025年06月12日
Josh Bersin
Yes, HR Organizations Will (Partially) Be Replaced by AI, And That’s GoodI adore the human resources profession. These folks are responsible for hiring, development, leadership development, and some of the most important issues in business. And despite the history of HR being considered a compliance function, the role is more important than ever. CHRO salaries, for example, have increased at 5-times the rate of CEO pay over the last twenty years, demonstrating how essential HR has become.
That said, we have to be honest that AI is going to disrupt our role. This week IBM formally announced that 94% of typical HR questions are now answered by its AI agent, and the role of HR Business Partner is all but eliminated except for very senior leaders. As a result the CEO plans to reduce HR headcount and shift that budget towards sales and engineering.
Let’s accept the fact that we are in a time of increasing acceleration. In other words, the capabilities of AI are growing much faster than our organizations” ability to adapt, so we have to lean forward and start redesigning our companies. In the case of HR, our Systemic HR model (which we launched two years ago) is now being fully automated by AI.
I know IBM’s story well, and I think it explains where all HR teams are going. Many years ago Diane Gherson (prior CHRO) started AI projects to automate recruitment, pay analysis, and performance management. She spoke at our conference eight years ago and shared how IBM’s pay tool (CogniPay was launched in 2018) uses AI to make pay recommendations based on skill. This type of tool, which was years ahead of the “skills-based” strategies we see today, essentially automated many of the performance and pay decisions left to managers.
Since then IBM has gone much further, and in my last conversation with Nickle Lamoureux (current CHRO) she told me the AI agent helps write performance reviews, creates development plans, and coaches managers and senior leaders on a myriad of performance based decisions. I totally believe this because I see Galileo doing these kinds of things for companies every day. (Check out the Mercury release.)
How does this impact the roles and jobs in HR? Well it definitely eliminates many.
In the case of L&D or HR business partners, I believe we could see a 20-30% or more reduction in HR headcount per employee. And that means these individuals may wind up managing the AI platforms, moving into roles as change consultants (which AI still can’t do), or move into areas like org design, learning architect, and data management.
I think this is all a good thing. While we all worry about AI taking our jobs, we have to remember that our real job is not to “do things” but to “add value” and bring complex problem solving skills to our companies. And in this journey to “crawl up the value curve,” we all have to learn to use AI, develop AI solutions, and think more systemically about how our companies go to market.
I recently interviewed a brilliant HR leader (podcast coming) at WPP who explained how he and his team rationalized their job architecture from 65,000 job titles to only 600 by using new AI tools from OpenAI and Reejig (a work intelligence vendor). As you’ll hear in his story, this effort was a combination of data management, business analysis, change management, and leadership. The results of this work, which are still ongoing, is the opportunity for WPP to dramatically change its go to market strategy, innovation, and growth.
That’s the kind of thing we want our HR teams to do.
And as these various agents hit the market (see my latest view of the market below), HR professionals are going to have to train them, implement them, and “manage them” for long term success. This means analyzing the cross-functional data they produce, extend them into better decision-making, and move our thinking from dated concepts like “time to hire” and “course completion rates” to meaningful measures like “time to revenue” or “time to productivity” or “time to customer service excellence.”
See where I’m going? In a time of increasing technology acceleration we have to “lean in” as hard as we can.
Stop thinking about how much money we save on headcount (which is a fleeting benefit, by the way) and focus on value creation. That’s the big benefit of AI: customer service quality, time to market, and innovation.
In many ways these “HR downsizing” stories are really stores of “HR crawling up the value curve,” which is really a good thing. And for HR professionals, it’s a time for personal reinvention.
Josh Bersin
2025年05月16日
NACSHR活动
30天倒计时! NACSHR 夏季论坛!30 Days to Connect, Learn, and Lead 2025
欢迎参加2025NACSHR夏季论坛 2025 NACSHR Summer Forum
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报名: https://www.nacshr.org/Survey/B86228DD-27A2-360E-078F-0B57F24B9F7B (因会场空间大小,名额有限,先到先得)
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你为什么不能错过NACSHR峰会:
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