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专栏
2024年10月24日
专栏
Josh Bersin:Digital Twins, Digital Employees, And Agents Everywhere2025 年，数字员工和人工智能助理的崛起将彻底改变人力资源运营，改变招聘、数据分析和员工管理等任务。 这些技术包括数字双胞胎和智能代理，它们将与人类专业人员一起工作，以提高生产力和优化工作流程。 随着人工智能工具成为日常业务不可或缺的一部分，人力资源领导者必须拥抱这些创新，同时继续关注技能培训、心理健康和包容性工作环境。 向人工智能的转变还将重塑团队动态，这对人力资源部门重新设计角色和流程以保持竞争力提出了挑战。
I recently heard Elon Musk predict that every citizen would have multiple Optimus robots in their homes within five years. And while I often ignore his predictions because they’re exaggerated, I think he’s on to something. We are about to witness an explosion of Digital Employees in our companies, and these may be the “robots” we’ve heard about for years.
Let me explain. This week I talked with dozens of vendors and clients at Unleash and then visited our development partner Sana Labs in Stockholm. It’s now clear that we’re going to be working with multitudes of “digital employees” in the year ahead.
(And as Dario Amodei, the founder of Anthropic explains, AI can do many more positive things in business, science, and health than we ever imagined.)
By “digital employee” I mean a software powered agent that can talk with us, answer detailed questions, solve complex analytic problems, and navigate a multitude of systems. ChatGPT and its peers, which introduced the idea of an agent, has now spawned dozens of “agentic” use cases, which I’d be willing to refer to as personalities.
Let me start with a “Digital Twin.” Imagine you have a superb customer service agent with years of experience helping your most demanding clients. If you load the last five years of their emails, coupled with all their internal documentation, and a log history of their last two years of service calls, you can essentially “create him or her” digitally with all the knowledge, style, and internal contacts this person has developed. This twin, which may look initially like an AI assistant, could then carry on this employee’s work when the real life worker is on vacation.
One of our clients, a large insurance company, has already built “digital twins” for claims processing. If you think about the complexity and workflow of processing a claim, much of it could be learned by an agent, making the “claims robot” an expert on this important process. And as you change claims rules and limits, the agent will learn new guidelines in only seconds.
Our AI assistant Galileo, a trained expert on HR (Galileo is trained on 25 years of research and thousands of conversations with clients and vendors), is essentially a “digital twin” of me and the other analysts in our firm. I’m not saying Galileo is as fun to talk with as we are, but I can assure you that he (or she) is as knowledgeable and supportive. And Galileo is even smarter than I am: he has instant knowledge of skills models, compensation benchmarks, turnover statistics, and other data bases which I can only access by looking them up on demand.
And using the Sana platform we can configure Galileo to have multiple personalities. Galileo the “Recruitment Agent” might have in-depth knowledge of screening, interviewing, and candidate skills assessment and he may have direct linkage to SeekOut, Eightfold, or any other sourcing applications. In his candidate facing personality he may be able to answer candidate questions, explain shift schedules, and “sell” the company to top job candidates. (This is what Paradox has done for years and vendors like Eightfold and LinkedIn are launching now.)
But there’s more. Imagine that this “digital twin” or “digital employee” has intimate knowledge of Workday, SuccessFactors, or a variety of other systems. Now the assistant can not only answer questions and help solve problems, he can also process transactions, look things up, and run reports against multiple system. The digital employee has turned into a “digital analyst,” who can find things and do work for you, saving you hours of effort in your daily life. (Vee from Visier is designed for this.)
Suppose you ask your digital friend to attend meetings for you, participate in conversations on certain topics, and alert you in real time when urgent issues come up for discussion. He could help you scale your time, keep you informed about decisions you need to know about, and help you manage your action items. And the list goes on and on and on.
Best of all, what if your digital twin can talk to you. Suppose he “checks in” with you about the project you asked for help with last week, so you inform him how things are going and he gets “smarter” about what you may need next. Galileo does this today, prompting you to dig into a problem and explore areas you may not have considered. And if you ask him about management or people issues, he could give you advice and coaching, based on the leadership models or even CEO interviews in your own company. (BetterUp, Valence and others are working on this.)
This is not science fiction, my friends. All this is becoming reality and will certainly be common next year.
Every vendor has a slightly different focus. The Microsoft Copilot specializes in MS Office-related activities, ServiceNow’s focuses on internal service and support, Galileo is focused on the needs of HR, and Joule is an expert on all the functions of SAP. Each of these “digital employees” needs training, feedback, and connections to stay current and relevant. So it’s doubtful that one digital employee will do everything. (Training a digital employee means managing his or her corpus of information, which will be a major new role in HR.)
One thing is very clear: we are going to be living and working with these guys. And as we use them and see what they’re capable of, we’re going to redesign work. Little by little we’ll offload tasks, projects, and workflows. And as we do, we’ll get smarter and smarter about redesigning our teams.
I liken the process to that of a carpenter who gets a new multi-function power drill. Before the drill he may have manually drilled holes, carefully selecting the drill bit and the level of pressure based on wood density. Now he drills holes faster, more accurately, and with more precision. Soon he just speeds through the process, spending more time on cabinet fit, finish, or design.
The same thing will happen to our HR tasks, projects, and designs. And these new digital employees are programmable! So once we figure out what they’re capable of we can adjust them, customize them, and connect them together. Eventually we’ll have intelligent assistants that operate as entire applications. And that’s the threat to incumbent software companies – the agents hollow out many of our existing applications.
How Do Our Digital Employees Impact Our Own Work?
One more observation. Many a few of the clients I talked with kept asking “what about our softskills?” What work is truly human?
I think that’s the wrong question. Rather we should ask the opposite: how much can I delegate to my new friends as fast as possible!
Have you been upset that your vacuum cleaner took away the rewarding human work of sweeping a floor? How much joy do you get from washing dishes? Did your dishwasher make you feel deflated when you stopped splashing around in the soapy water?
Of course not – these tools eliminated tasks we considered to be “drudgery.”
Well today, thanks to digital assistants, creating a pivot table to do cross-tab analysis has become drudgery. You can stop getting your hands wet with that task – ask Galileo or Copilot to analyze the data, and then ask him to chart it, add more data, and try new assumptions. The more we learn to use these new digital employees the more “drudgery” we can stop doing.
And consider complex “human-centered” activities like “change management.” A client asked me “how could Galileo help me with change management for our new HCM system?”
I answered her with dozens of ideas: ask Galileo for case studies of other companies and have it build a checklist to consider based on what other companies did. Then ask Galileo to build a training plan; ask it to read the user documentation and create a table of what features are new; then ask Galileo to rewrite that change plan by role. And finally ask Galileo to write a press release about success, craft some compelling communications to employees, and ask it to compute the ROI of all the steps eliminated.
These are all “manual” human tasks we do today and they take time and ingenuity to figure out. If you went through this process in Galileo you could ask your digital employee to save these steps and prompts in a “template,” and you have just taught your digital employee how to do change management. The next time you need him he can step you through the process.
As I started to explain this to my client I stopped and said: wait a minute. I can’t possibly show you everything Galileo can do. You have to try it for yourself.
And that’s my big message. Don’t wait for a vendor to drop a finished solution in your lap. These are intelligent, trainable, digital experts. You have to get to know them so you can figure out where they fit in your job, your projects, and your company. Just like you do with any new hire.
I say it’s time to get started. No more sweeping floors or washing dishes by hand. Let’s meet our digital employees, tell them about our projects, and ask for their help. Step by step, day by day, we can redesign our jobs to be more more productive, liberating us to do greater things.
The best HR & People Analytics articles of September 2024
September has been a phenomenal month. Indeed, in the ten years I’ve been writing the Data Driven HR Monthly, I can’t recall a month when there has been so much insightful content to choose from. I believe this is indicative of the journey HR is on from its traditional role as a support function to becoming a true strategic partner to the CEO and the board. As Janine Vos, Managing Board Member and CHRO at Rabobank, highlighted this past week at the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, people analytics has an important role to play in elevating the HR function and enabling it to successfully navigate this transition:
People Analytics helps give the chief human resources officer credibility (with the executive team and board).
This edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is sponsored by our friends at Worklytics
A New Way to Approach Manager Effectiveness
If you’re using eSat scores to evaluate Manager Effectiveness, you’re moving too slowly.
eSat scores are a lagging indicator of how it’s going. And in today’s distributed work environment, you can’t afford to wait.
Instead, use ONA-powered outcome driver analysisto identify what your best managers are doing differently.
You might measure behaviours like:
Manager Cross-Department Connectivity
Co-Attendance in Directs’ Meetings
Manager-Driven Disruptions (Slack DMs)
Curious to see what that looks like in practice? Find out how your managers stack up.
To sponsor an edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, and share your brand with more than 135,000 subscribers, send an email to dgreen@zandel.org.
The Changing Role of the People Analytics Executive
My personal highlight of September was the 7th annual Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, which took place from September 24 to 26 at the Duin en Kruidberg for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®. I’ll share more about the Retreat in a separate blog in a few days time, but for now I'll highlight this year’s theme: The Changing Role of the People Analytics Executive, and the stellar cast of inspirational speakers:
Janine Vos discussed the strategic influence of the CHRO and the close partnership she has at Rabobank with the people data and innovation team led by Marc Jansen.
Prasad Setty shared insights from his 14 years leading people analytics at Google as well as painting a vision of the future of people analytics in the age of generative AI.
Kevin Friesen, Neora Myrow PhD, and Nancy Duarte delivered an interactive workshop on influencing through data storytelling.
Erin Meyer ended proceedings with a tour de force masterclass on leading across cultures I global organisations.
The Retreat is one of the services included as part of the Insight222 People Analytics Program. If you are a people analytics leader and would like to find out more, you can contact the team here.
Attendees at the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat 2024, Duin en Kruidberg, Amsterdam
September and October World Tour
As well as the Retreat, I’m speaking at and attending a number of events in October. This week, I’m in New York, moderating a panel on Workestration at the New York Strategic HR Analytics Meetup (Sept 30), and chairing People Analytics World (Oct 2 and 3). The next stop after that will be Paris, where I’ll once again have the privilege of hosting the main stage at UNLEASH World (Oct 16 and 17) - thanks to Marc Coleman and the team. Then it’s back to the US for the North America Peer Meeting for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®, which will be hosted by Phil Willburn and his team at Workday in Pleasanton (Oct 22 and 23). I hope to see some of you at one of these events. Thanks too to Marcus Downing for hosting me at the recent Mercer event in London where I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA (see here), and Jennifer Neumann for inviting me to speak at Workday Rising in Las Vegas (see here), where it was great to meet up with the likes of Priyanka Mehrotra, Richard Rosenow, and Cory Edmonds.
Speaking onstage at Workday Rising, Las Vegas, 2024
Register for an Insight222 webinar on October 10: Building the People Analytics Operating Model
Join me and the Insight222 team on October 10 when we’ll be hosting a webinar on the recently published research on. You can register for the webinar here.
Share the love!
Enjoy reading the collection of resources for September 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 August’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 published every Tuesday – subscribe here.
HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
ANDY JASSY - Message from CEO Andy Jassy: Strengthening our culture and teams | JOSE MARIA BARRERO, NICHOLAS BLOOM, SHELBY BUCKMAN, AND STEVEN J. DAVIS - The Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes – September 2024 | ANNIE DEAN – Lessons Learned: 1,000 Days of Distributed at Atlassian
This special on hybrid work was inspired by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s announcement that Amazon is going back to five days in the office: “to further strengthen our culture and teams.” This comes hot on the heels of KPMG’s CEO Outlook Survey, which finds that CEOs are hardening their stance on returning to pre-pandemic ways of working, with 83 percent expecting a full return to the office within the next three years. Forensic analysis by Bruce Daisley (here), Phil Kirschner(here) and Nick Bloom (here) examines Amazon’s move and the validity of KPMG’s claim. This confirms that (1) Amazon is an outlier. (2) The findings by KPMG contradict the WFH Research that Nick is publishing every month, which shows working from home has remained flat since early 2023 and has stabilised at around 25% (see FIG 1). As Bloom suggest “shock sells,” which explains the extent of the media coverage about Amazon and the KPMG survey. To balance things out, I recommend reading about Dropbox’s Virtual First model (which chief people officer, Melanie Rosenwasser explains has “led to clear benefits, including higher employee engagement and retention.”). I also recommend reading a new report authored by Annie Dean summarising the findings from the first 1,000 days of Atlassian’s Team Anywhere approach to distributed work. As Rabobank’s CHRO Janine Vos urged in her session at Insight222’s Global Executive Retreat this week, the role of HR and People Analytics teams is to provide data that steers executive decision making around hybrid and return to office. It would be interesting to learn what data (if any) was used to inform Amazon’s decision to return to the office five days a week.
FIG 1: WFH is stable at c35% of days (Source: WFH Research)
BCG HENDERSON INSTITUTE - GenAI Doesn’t Just Increase Productivity. It Expands Capabilities
The ability to rapidly take on new types of work with GenAI - particularly tasks that traditionally require niche skills that are harder to find, such as data science - can be a game-changer for individuals and companies alike.
The BCG Henderson Institute follow-up their first landmark study on GAI in the workplace (see: How People Can Create - and Destroy - Value with Generative AI). The sophomore experiment tests how workers can use GenAI to complete tasks that are beyond their current capabilities. The findings from the study are illuminating: (1) Participants were able to instantly expand their aptitude for new data-science tasks, even when they had no prior experience in coding or statistics. (2) Those with moderate coding experience performed better on all three tasks, even when coding was not involved. This suggests that an engineering mindset - which coding helps develop - could be a key success factor for workers adapting to GenAI tools. The article also provides guidance on: When and how to pair humans with GenAI (see FIG 2), as well as visualising and detailing the workforce change-management implications (see FIG 3). (Authors: Daniel Sack, Lisa Krayer, PhD, Emma Wiles, Mohamed Abbadi, Urvi A., Ryan Kennedy, Cristián Arnolds, and François Candelon).
FIG 2: When and How to Pair Humans and GenAI (Source: BCG Henderson Institute)
FIG 3: Workforce and Change-Management Implications (Source: BCG Henderson Institute)
GARTNER - Hype Cycle for the Future of Work, 2024
Only 14% of organizations have reached the level of maturity where they are able to empower workers to embrace new ways of working.
Gartner’s inaugural Hype Cycle for the Future of Work (see FIG 4) highlights the core technologies set to transform how work is done by augmenting and enhancing human capabilities with intelligent technology. Five standouts from the analysis are: (1) Workers want a more personalised experience, and are building it for themselves. (2) CEOs are captivated by AI and are investing in new strategies. (3) Low digital workplace maturity is a barrier to improving worker productivity and time to competency. (4) Data Storytelling and Generative AI (already!) have entered the Trough of Disillusionment. (5) Hybrid Work and Self-Service Analytics are on the Slope of Enlightenment. The article also contains some illuminating analysis on a number of the ‘on the rise’ innovations including Exoskeletons (Tori Paulman), Cyberpsychology (Cynthia P.), Digital Twin of the Employee (Helen Poitevin) and Workforce Nudgetech (Rania Stewart). Thanks to Phil Kirschner for alerting me to this work in his excellent LinkedIn post on the study, which linked to an insightful article Phil co-authored with Natasha Ouslis, PhD and Dr. Julia Sperling-Magro on applying behavioural science and nudging to the workplace.
FIG 4: Hype Cycle for the Future of Work, 2024 (Source: Gartner)
NICKY DRIES, JOOST LUYCKX, AND PHILIP ROGIERS - What 570 Experts Predict the Future of Work Will Look Like
While it’s impossible to know exactly what the future of work will look like, it doesn’t stop (lots of!) people from having opinions. In their study, Nicky Dries, Joost Luyckx, and Philip Rogiers from KU Leuven, asked 570 experts to rank the likelihood of predictions made by technologists, economists and journalists. They landed on the sequence of events laid out in FIG 5, which get increasingly concerning and dystopian by the decade. Not one for the faint hearted!
FIG 5: A timeline of future of work predictions (Source: Dries et al)
MCKINSEY - Charting a path to the data- and AI-driven enterprise of 2030
Generative AI has increased the focus on data, putting pressure on companies to make substantive shifts to build a truly data-based organization.
These are the opening words to a recent article by McKinsey’s Dr. Asin Tavakoli, Holger Harreis, Kayvaun Rowshankish, and Michael Bogobowicz, which provides guidance on seven essential priorities for leaders to focus on to realise the data-driven enterprise of 2030. They argue that the key enabler to realising the potential of GenAI is data: “Without access to good and relevant data, this new world of possibilities and value will remain out of reach.” Three of the seven priorities outlined are (1) Data Leadership (“Companies need to find leaders skilled in governance and compliance, engineering and architecture, and business value"). (2) Talent (see FIG 6), and (3) Digital Trust.
FIG 6: New skills to manage GenAI will likely lead to both expanded and new data roles (Source: McKinsey)
PwC - 2024 Workforce Radar Report Executive Summary | Full Paper
The workforce of today won’t become the workforce of tomorrow unless businesses act right now.
But how? That’s the exam question that PwC’s inaugural Workforce Radar study attempts to answer across an insightful and thought-provoking report of 48 pages. The research identifies five workforce signals (see FIG 7) that business leaders and chief people officers can use to deliver enterprise-wide transformation. (1) Taking both a talent magnet and talent factory approach (e.g. levers such as meaningful work, skill-building, and culture). (2) Devising a location strategy that appreciates over time. (3) The intelligent enterprise – through HR harnessing and taking the lead on GenAI (see FIG 8). (4) Empowering transformation with a workforce balance sheet. (5) Investing in building transformative leadership. Kudos to the authors: Anthony Abbatiello, Julia Lamm, Reid Carpenter, Craig O'Donnell, and Christopher Hannegan.
FIG 7: Five Workforce Radar Signals (Source: PwC)
FIG 8: Emerging areas for Leading Digital HR Leaders to lean-in (Source: PwC)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
NAOMI VERGHESE, JONATHAN FERRAR, AND JORDAN PETTMAN - Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v2.0 ARTICLE | FULL REPORT
In the August edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I highlighted the new Insight222 study on the evolution of the people analytics operating model. This month I’d like to highlight one specific aspect of the report about the role of the people analytics leader. The research, which was conducted by my colleagues, Naomi Verghese, Jonathan Ferrar and Jordan Pettman, found that three profiles of people analytics leader are emerging (see FIG 9): (1) Data and Analytics Specialist Leader (focused on a scope for data and analytics research, insights and analytical product development and deployment). (2) Analytics-led Strategy Leader (encompassing a broad set of analytics responsibilities: consulting, research, employee listening, product development, reporting, data governance, workforce planning and AI). (3) Portfolio Analytics Leader (responsibility for people analytics and one or more other closely associated topic, such as people strategy, HR technology, HR operations, skills management, or employee experience). Read the report for more detail on each of the profiles together with examples of each leader persona Featuring Anthony Ferreras, Aashish Sharma, and Alexis Saussinan.
FIG 9: Responsibilities of the three people analytics leader personas, aligned to the People Analytics Ecosystem (Source: Insight222)
COLE NAPPER, JIN YAN, AND BEN ZWEIG - What is happening to people analytics? A 15- year trend (Part 1)
How has people analytics employment changed in the last 15 years, and specifically how has the environment changed in the last two years? That was the question that Cole Napper along with Jin Yan and Ben Zweig sought to answer after being inspired by Alexis Fink to analyse these topics. The study identified a number of interesting – and perhaps counterintuitive – findings. These include: (1) People analytics positions in the US have actually declined in the last two years – the data suggests more than 1,000 people have left the field during this time (see FIG 10). (2) 83% of people leaving the field move to roles outside people analytics but mostly in HR. (3) People analytics positions are sensitive to changes in interest rates and money supply.
FIG 10: People analytics positions have been decreasing in the last two years (Source: Revelio Labs)
PIETRO MAZZOLENI - People Data Excellence: Driving Quality through Empowerment, Standardization, and Automation
Ensuring high-quality (people) data is crucial for building leaders' trust in data-driven talent decisions and reducing the need for manual reconciliation. Moreover, maintaining top-tier data quality is essential for the successful implementation of AI and GenAI technologies.
In the latest edition of his excellent People Data Platform newsletter, Pietro Mazzoleni breaks down the three ingredients IBM brought together to build Workforce 360, IBM’s internal people data platform, and deliver people data excellence: (1) Empowerment (“Putting Data & Knowledge in the Hands of Users”). (2) Standardisation (“Establishing a Unified Approach for data and processes”). (3) Automation (“Enhancing Efficiency Through Technology”).
FIG 11: Source – Pietro Mazzoleni
HENRIK HÅKANSSON - People Analytics: Generative AI | AMIT MOHINDRA – Definitions of People Analytics | KEITH MCNULTY - The Three Most Common Statistical Tests You Should Deeply Understand | LAURA HILGERS - How to Measure Quality of Hire, According to 4 Experts | JILL BARTH - How people analytics transformed this org’s HR from old-school to inspirational
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) Henrik Håkansson highlights a common predicament for people analytics leaders – stakeholder requests to implement GenAI. He offers sage advice on the ideal response: “GenAI is a solution. So naturally I ask: What is the problem? What is the value? Why would GenAI be better than what we are doing today? Are we trying to save money and cut costs, or actually do things better or faster?” (2) Amit Mohindra assembles a handy list of definitions of people analytics. (3) As Keith McNulty explains, hypothesis testing is one of the most fundamental elements of inferential statistics. In his article, Keith uses an example to show three common hypothesis tests (Welch’s t-test, Correlation test, and Chi-square test of difference in proportion) and how they work under the hood, as well as showing how to run them in R and Python and to understand the results. (4) Laura Hilgers’ article on the elusive quality of hire metric is a must-read for people analytics and talent acquisition professionals. It features guidance from four experts in the field: Hung Lee, Tim Sackett, SPHR, SCP (see FIG 12 for Tim’s equation to measure quality of hire), Stacey A. Gordon, MBA, and Jennifer McClure. (5) Finally, Sonia Boyle, CHRL - chief people officer at Gore Mutual, explains to Jill Barth HR Tech Editor how people analytics has been at the centre of the company’s HR transformation.
FIG 12: How to measure Quality of Hire (Source: Tim Sackett)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
DAVE ULRICH - Realizing Talent Advantage: Evidence and Implications from the Organization Guidance System
In 2020, Dave Ulrich and his colleagues at The RBL Group, developed the Organization Guidance System (OGS), which was designed to align desired stakeholder outcomes across four human capital pathways: talent, organisation, leadership and human resources. Five years on, in a new series of articles, Dave provides an update on the key findings to date. In this article, Dave focuses on the talent pathway, highlighting ten talent investments that deliver stakeholder value, and then presents analysis from 187 companies on the relative impact of these investments across five stakeholder outcomes (see FIG 13). The article then describes how individual companies can use the OGS to guide investment in the areas that will provide them with the greatest return.
FIG 13: Heatmap of impact of ten talent initiatives on five stakeholder outcomes (Source: Dave Ulrich)
JILL GOLDSTEIN, CHRIS HAVRILLA, CHACKO THOMAS, AND CATHY FILLARE - Reimagine human potential in the gen AI era: Revolutionizing work to boost business value
With their unique perspective and understanding of organizational culture, workforce needs, skills development, and change management, HR leaders are well-positioned to take a leadership role in their organization’s future of work strategy.
A new study by the IBM Institute for Business Value and Oracle, highlights the top concerns facing executives around the future of work, including the need for a skills-focused foundation and a well-defined strategy. The big takeaway for HR leaders is that while executives acknowledge that HR contributes to their organisation’s future of work strategy, not enough of them are in the driver’s seat. Only one in five executives say HR owns the future of work strategy in their organisation today. The report provides guidance to HR leaders on possible actions: (1) Build a future-ready culture that encourages experimentation. (2) Give your workforce a voice in the future of work strategy. (3) Drive technology transformation and champion AI use case adoption. The report also highlights critical workforce skills that will increase in demand by 2026 (see FIG 14). (Authors: Jill Goldstein, Chris Havrilla, Chacko Thomas, and Cathy Fillare).
FIG 14: Critical workforce capabilities—increases from today to 2026 (Source: IBM Institute of Business Value)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
MCKINSEY - The gen AI skills revolution: Rethinking your talent strategy
Developing the software talent companies need to grow means thinking in terms of skills rather than roles to navigate this period of uncertainty around talent.
According to McKinsey research, nearly 70 percent of top economic performers, versus just half of their peers, use their own software to differentiate themselves from their competitors. GenAI offers an opportunity to multiply this value. In the article, Alharith Hussin, Anna Wiesinger, Charlotte Relyea, Martin Harrysson, Suman Thareja, Prakhar Dixit and Thao Dürschlag, provide guidance on: (1) The new skills software teams will require. (2) How their evolution will alter roles and risks. (3) How companies can orient their talent management practices toward developing skills for greater flexibility and responsiveness. This includes grounding strategic workforce planning in business needs and skills.
The talent transformation starts with HR leaders developing a strategic workforce plan that’s built around skills.
FIG 15: Generative AI affects every phase of the software development life cycle (Source: McKinsey)
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
VOLKER JACOBS – Squaring the Circle: Why the old promise of P&O transformation –more for less – can finally be fulfilled
With effective, generative AI, P&O transformations can deliver a better, friction-free work experience for managers and employees. With a friction-free experience for managers and employees, we enable higher productivity and engagement levels. And it goes without saying that with AI taking on P&O tasks we can reduce cost of the function: More for less. Squaring the circle. Three ingredients: Data, AI, and EX.
In his thoughtful paper, Volker Jacobs, CEO at employee experience experts TI PEOPLE, highlights how HR transformations have historically undelivered their promise of more business value at lower cost. Instead, Volker argues, with the capabilities offered through AI and digitisation allied to rising expectations for better work experiences, the scene is now set to realise the dream of ‘more for less’. The catalyst? A shift from transformation focus on process to data as one of three ingredients to square the circle: Data, AI and Employee Experience leading to the business outcomes including improved productivity, better customer experience, and lower cost (see FIG 16).
FIG 16: Shifting HR transformation focus from process to data (Source: Volker Jacobs, TI People)
MALISSA CLARK - A Workaholic’s Guide to Reclaiming Your Life
In the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review, the Big Idea Series focuses on an increasingly important topic: Overcoming Overwork and Workaholism. Workaholism is defined in the lead article, by Malissa Clark, as: “Workaholism is when work dominates your thoughts and your activities, to the detriment of other aspects of your life, including but not limited to your relationships and your health.” Does that sound uncomfortably familiar? If so, like me you’ll probably welcome the six coping strategies Malissa outlines in her article: (1) Redefining “urgent”. (2) Reinventing the to-do list (see FIG 17). (3) Learning to say “no” and delegate. (4) Fixing the workaholic clock. (5) Controlling rumination. (6) Embracing rest and recovery.
Through mechanisms such as redefining what is and is not urgent, fixing the workaholic clock, and embracing rest and recovery, workaholics can unlearn toxic behaviors and reclaim their time and lives.
FIG 17: The Eisenhower Matrix (Source: Marissa Clark, Harvard Business Review)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND LEARNING
PER HUGANDER AND AMY EDMONDSON - Skills Training Links Psychological Safety to Revenue Growth
Organizational performance can be improved by viewing psychological safety as a trainable skill that individuals develop with practice.
Hugander Per and Amy Edmondson present a case study from Nordic bank SEB where training for executives on psychological safety and perspective taking was identified as the catalyst that enabled the investment bank to achieve revenues 25% above yearly targets in a strategically important market segment. The article provides four recommendations for leaders who want to make progress on strategic challenges and improve financial results by leveraging psychological safety and perspective-taking: (1) Focus on two levels in parallel: individuals and teams. (2) Expand leadership responsibility. (3) Keep strategy and performance front and centre. (4) Link skills to short-term gains to counteract perceived costs. For more on psychological safety, tune in to Amy’s conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How Learning to Fail Can Help People and Organisations to Thrive.
ANDREW WHITE, ADAM CANWELL, AND MICHAEL SMETS - Is Your Organizational Transformation Veering Off Course?
Leaders who achieve successful transformations create and maintain an environment where people can experiment, learn, and take ownership of their work — and ultimately feel good about their effort
According to a study by Andrew White, Adam Canwell and Michael Smets, 96% of all organisational transformations face significant challenges that can derail the whole program. Their research identified that changes in a team’s emotional energy (“the collective mood, vibe, and intensity of emotions within a group”) can signal when a transformation is in danger (see FIG 18). They then reveal the three-step process successful leaders use to navigate a turning point – increasing transformation performance by 12 times from 6 to 72 per cent: (1) They look for shifts in the team’s emotional energy (e.g. lack of clarity on how to proceed, ineffective collaboration, decreased engagement). (2) They dig into the underlying issue at play – by involving the whole team to decide the course of action. (3) They get to action — quickly (e.g. by creating team alignment, adjusting organisational priorities, and investing in the skills and mindset required for the transformed company).
FIG 18: How emotional energy can signal a transformational turning point (Source: White et al)
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
LORI NISHIURA MACKENZIE, SARAH A. SOULE, SHELLEY J CORRELL, AND MELISSA C. THOMAS HUNT - How DEI Can Survive This Era of Backlash
When they’re given adequate support — like protected time, advancement opportunities, leadership development, and compensation for their DEI work — ERG leaders can act as a strategic conduit between employees and organizational leaders.
Despite recent backlash against and cuts to organisational DEI initiatives, researchers from the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab - Lori Nishiura Mackenzie, Sarah Soule, Shelley J. Correll, and Melissa C. Thomas-Hunt - argue in their Harvard Business Review article that DEI isn’t dead in the U.S. Instead, they say it’s experiencing a period of what social movement scholars call “closed doors,” where the obvious route for change is no longer easily accessible. They recently convened a gathering of 14 chief diversity officers (CDOs) to unpack what’s happening in their world. In the article, they highlight the striking similarities between current DEI strategies and the tactics used by feminist movement builders during times of closed doors — and present four strategies for continuing the important work of DEI while it’s under attack: (1) Sustain networks of people engaged in DEI work. (2) Preserve the collective memory. (3) Reframe and rename the work for survival. (4) Nurture the collective identity within the DEI community.
HR TECH VOICES
Much of the innovation in the field continues to be driven by the vendor community, and I’ve picked out a few resources from September that I recommend readers delve into:
JASON CORSELLO AND THOMAS OTTER | ACADIAN VENTURES - 2024 Future of Work 100 - An excellent resource compiled by Jason Corsello and Thomas Otter of Acadian Ventures counting down the top 100 venture-backed companies building businesses that make work better, fairer, more meaningful, and ultimately more productive. Together, the Future of Work 100 has raised a cumulative $29.5 billion with a total market valuation over $140.3 billion.
FIG 19: Source – Acadian Ventures
PHIL WILLBURN - Global Workforce Report: Top Talent Is Hard to Find, Harder to Keep – Phil Willburn, head of people analytics at Workday summarises the key findings of the recently released Workday Global Workforce Report: Restoring Trust Before Your Top People Leave covering hiring, turnover of top performers, meaningful work, and internal mobility. Phil also highlights the key actions for business leaders: (1) Rebuild trust through transparency. (2) Make work meaningful. (3) Personalise your employee experience efforts based on tenure. (4) Embrace AI strategically. An absolute must-read.
FIG 20: Current use of AI and ML for recruiting (Source: Workday)
CATHERINE COPPINGER - Manager Facetime: Why It's Useful and How to Measure It – The latest in a series of insightful articles by Catherine Coppinger of Worklytics analyses the importance of manager facetime and provides guidance on how to use the insights identified to improve team effectiveness.
FIG 21 – Source: Worklytics
BEN COWAN - You Don’t Need to Abandon Jobs to Become a Skills-Based Organization – Ben Cowan of Degreed explains that while jobs aren’t likely to disappear this shouldn’t hinder efforts by companies to adopt skills-based talent practices: “The reality is that moving away from jobs is not something most organizations are likely to do in the near term and it does not need to hold you back from adopting other skills-based practices.”
FRANCISCO MARIN - Towards a Network-First Future of Work – Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions provides an insightful breakdown of the differences between Hierarchy-First and Network-First approaches across then organisational concepts (see FIG 22): “While hierarchies have long been the norm, favoring clear lines of authority and collaborative control, the network-first model prioritizes collaborative freedom, decentralization, and the strength of informal relationships.”
FIG 22: Hierarchy-First vs. Network-First Approach (Source: Francisco Marin)
PODCASTS OF THE MONTH
In another month of high-quality podcasts, I’ve selected five gems for your aural pleasure: (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):
JEREMY SHAPIRO AND CHRIS SHULTZ - HR, Workforce Automation, and GenAI at Merck – Jeremy Shapiro and Chris Shultz join Stacia Sherman Garr and Dani Johnson on RedThread Research’s Workplace Stories podcast to share how (and why) Merck is embracing AI to streamline HR processes, support innovation, and maintain ethical considerations.
COURTNEY MCMAHON – People Analytics at Colgate-Palmolive – Courtney McMahon joins Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD on the Directionally Correct podcast to discuss how to get a smaller people analytics function to punch above its weight, and how Colgate-Palmolive is using One Model to scale people analytics to HRBPs and the business.
KEITH MCNULTY – Applying Mathematical Principles to People Analytics Part 1 | Part 2 – In a two-part episode, Keith McNulty joins hosts Matthew Lampe, PsyD, Natasha Ouslis, PhD, and Bilal Alperen Ergun on the ScienceForWork podcast to discuss how mathematical principles can be applied to organizational data and people analytics.
JEFFREY PFEFFER - How Modern Work is Creating a Health Crisis - Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behaviour at Stanford University and author of Dying for a Paycheck, joins Lars Schmidt on Redefining Work to discuss employee well-being and explore the harmful effects of workplace stress and poor working conditions on employee health.
SUE CANTRELL AND TRAVIS DION - Beyond productivity: Rethinking performance metrics – In an episode of Deloitte’s Capital H podcast, host David Mallon, talks to Susan Cantrell, and Travis Dion about moving beyond traditional employee productivity metrics —followed by a roundtable discussion featuring David, Sue, Julie Duda, and Diane Sinti.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
LASZLO BOCK - Former Google exec talks about what makes a strong CHRO candidate
In an interview with Human Resource Executive, Laszlo Bock, former Head of HR at Google and a arch proponent of people analytics, provides guidance on what makes a strong chief people officer. He emphasises the need for HR executives to develop their understanding of business beyond a simple familiarity with their company’s products and services: “It’s not that (CHRO candidates) don’t understand that we make widgets. It’s that they don’t understand why we’re willing to pay $1.3 billion to buy a company but not $1.4 billion.” For aspiring chief people officers, I’d also recommend investigating the Berkeley Transformative CHRO Leadership Program, where Bock is co-faculty director.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
RAVIN JESUTHASAN AND TANUJ KAPILASHRAMI – The Skills-Powered Organization: The Journey to the Next-Generation Enterprise
Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA and Tanuj Kapilashrami provide a step-by-step guide to designing, implementing and activating the skills-powered organisation. They outline why and how jobs are giving way to skills as the currency of work and why this pivot requires us to rethink everything we know about work. The inspiring cases presented in the book discuss how leading companies are reinventing themselves to be skills-based organisations and how this is helping them to transform value for customers, communities, and stakeholders.
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
MARGRIET BENTVELZEN, CORINE BOON, AND DEANNE N. DEN HARTOG - A person centered approach to individual people analytics adoption – In their paper, Margriet Bentvelzen, Corine Boon, Deanne Den Hartog study people analytics adoption through the lens of the implementation of people analytics technology. They identify four profiles related to differences in user satisfaction and the frequency and versatility of PA technology use. They demonstrate that performance benefits, social influence, required effort, and facilitating conditions jointly affect the use of PA technology, but that the latter two might be the most influential factors. FIG 23 demonstrates the four user profiles identified in the paper: the skeptic diplomats, the optimistic strugglers, the optimists, and the enthusiasts. Thanks to Dirk Jonker for highlighting this insightful contribution to the field.
FIG 23: Source – Bentvelze, Boon and Den Hartog (2024)
FROM MY DESK
September saw the return of the Digital HR Leaders podcast after its summer sojourn with the first four episodes of Series 41, kindly sponsored by our friends at Visier Inc.. Thanks to Adedamola Adeleke and the team.
LYNDA GRATTON AND DIANE GHERSON - The Key Role of HR In Successfully Integrating a Blended Workforce – Lynda Gratton and Diane Gherson join me to discuss the impact of a blended workforce on organisational structures, the evolving role of managers, and the opportunities and challenges for HR.
ANGELA LE MATHON - How GSK is Using Data, Analytics and AI to Drive its HR Transformation - Angela LE MATHON, Vice President of People Data and Analytics at GSK, joins me to explore how GSK is utilising data-driven strategies and AI integration to future-proof their HR initiatives.
KEITH BIGELOW - HR’s Strategic Role in Managing the AI-driven Talent Restructure – Keith Bigelow, Chief Product Officer at Visier, joins me to explore the critical role HR plays in leading digital transformation—and how AI is changing the game.
TANUJ KAPILASHRAMI AND RAVIN JESUTHASAN - How to Build the Skills-Powered Organisation – Tanuj Kapilashrami and Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA join me to share insights from their book, The Skills-Powered Organisation: The Journey to the Next-Generation Enterprise (see Book of the Month). Tanuj also shares insights from the skills journey at Standard Chartered, including how the bank quantified a saving of $60,000 per person by upskilling and reskilling employees to redeploy talent from sunset jobs to sunrise jobs.
Skills [are] becoming the currency of work and work flowing not to jobs, but to skills... If done well, it has the massive power to unlock untapped productivity potential within the company.
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 close to 500 roles – and has now been developed into a LinkedIn newsletter too.
THANK YOU
Srikant Chellappa and the team at Engagedly Inc for including me in their 8th annual list of the 2024 Top 100 HR Influencers
Hallie Bregman, PhD for her wonderfully generous post following our meeting at the Boston People Analytics MeetUp organised by Ramesh Karpagavinayagam – Hallie, it was wonderful to meet you too.
Paul Daley for referencing the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton in his post on how HR strategy needs to support the independent / blended / contingent workforce of the future
Similarly thanks to Olimpiusz Papiez for his post sharing his takeaways from the podcast episode with Diane and Lynda
Thanks also to Jaqueline Oliveira-Cella for her post, are you ready for the shift, which was also inspired by the podcast episode with Diane and Lynda
Piyush Mathur for providing his takeaways on insight without outcome is overhead in relation to his speaking sessions at the Peer Meetings in New York and Vevey for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
Esther Abraas for including my article, The role of Organisational Network Analysis in People Analytics, in her excellent list of ONA resources.
Wayne Tarken for his post on How AI can Help HR, which was informed by the digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Nickle Lamoreaux on how AI is transforming HR at IBM.
Thomas Kohler for including the podcast episode with Keith Bigelow in his weekly round-up of future of work resources.
The Talent Games for including me in their list of HR Leaders redefining the Future of Workin recognition of HR Professionals Day.
Finally, a huge thank you to the following people who shared the August edition of Data Driven HR Monthly and other content in the last few weeks. It's much appreciated: Craig Forman Zornitza Iankova, SPHR Brandon Merritt Johnson Hrvoje Bulat Rebecca Hone Michael Arena Emma Mercer (Assoc CIPD, MLPI) Dr. Max Muge Bakkaloglu Priyanka Mehrotra Kerry Ghize Deviprasad Panda Richard Stein Stela Lupushor David Balls (FCIPD) Emily Ricci Danielle Farrell Dan George Patrick Coolen Catriona Lindsay Katrina A. Stevens, CHRE Kouros Behzad Kathleen Kruse Martha Curioni Adam McKinnon, PhD. Greg Newman Dr Philip Gibbs Sally Smith Hanadi El Sayyed David van Lochem Amardeep Singh, MBA Rick Rome Ken Oehler Vaibhav Deshmukh María Victoria Sáinz Roshaunda Green, MBA, CDSP, Phenom Certified Recruiter Aysun Öz Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. Nelson Spencer Tristan Hack Penny Newman Vivek Ojha Aravind Warrier Francisca Solano Beneitez Kalifa Oliver, Ph.D. Stephanie Murphy, Ph.D. John Healy Greg Pryor Lewis Garrad Jose Luis Chavez Vasquez Audrey Burke-McCarthy, MBA, Adv Dip Coaching, MII Grad Aurélie Crégut Max Blumberg (JA) ?? Vanessa Monsequeira Shujaat Ahmad Jeff Wellstead Jackson Roatch Maria Alice Jovinski Rafael Uribe Truong Hong Ha (Mr Niem Tin) Dan Weiss David Hodges Toby Culshaw David McLean Dr. Peter Schulz-Rittich Timo Tischer Stephanie Denino Jacqui Brassey, PhD, MA, MAfN ?️ (née Schouten) Gianni Giacomelli Terri Horton, EdD, MBA, MA, SHRM-CP, PHR Placid Jover Andrews Cobbinah, MLPI, ACIHRM Emily Killham Al Adamsen Tim Frazier Tim Peffers Julie Asselin Chandresh Natu Anabel Fall Ralf Buechsenschuss Anna A. Tavis, PhD Marcela Niemeyer Meta McKinney, MLIS Aritra Majumdar Gustavo Araujo Vijaya Das Kirsten Edwards Graham Tollit Joy Kolb Remco van Es Ahmed Salah ?? Sebastian Knepper Melissa Beasley Bo Vialle-Derksen Malgorzata Langlois Abhilash Bodanapu Isabel Naidoo Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi Nirit Peled-Muntz Ron Ben Oz Littal Shemer Haim (ליטל שמר חיים) Joseph Frank, PhD CCP GWCCM Bob Pulver Jaejin Lee Kristhy Bartels Geetanjali Gamel Chris Hare Alicia Roach Caitie Jacobson John Gunawan Doug Shagam Davey Nickels Paul Davies Tatu Westling Mia Norgren Nick Lynn Alexandra Nawrat Gal Mozes, PhD Dave Millner Prachi Agasti Jacob Nielsen Matt Elk Chris Long Kimberly Rose Ilse Venter Søren Kold Irada Sadykhova Dave Fineman Agnes Garaba Sebastián Mestre Victoria Holdsworth Elpida Ormanidou Megan Buttita, MLIS Danielle Bushen Robert Bolton Stephen Hickey Dolapo (Dolly) Oyenuga Higor Gomes Irene Wong Ludek Stehlik, Ph.D. Sonia Mooney Mariami Lolashvili Joonghak Lee Raja Sengupta Swechha Mohapatra (IHRP-SP, SHRM-SCP, CIPD) Alfonso Bustos, Ph.D. Marcela Mury Olivier Bougarel Martijn Wiertz Veronika Birkheim
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 90 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222, David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast and is an instructor for Insight222's myHRfuture Academy. His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar, Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value was published in the summer of 2021.
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 2024:
September 30 - New York Strategic HR Analytics MeetUp - Workestration: Working across human, digital and physical workplace dimensi (New York)
October 2-3 - People Analytics World (New York)
October 16-17 - UNLEASH World (Paris)
October 22-23 - Insight222 North American Peer Meeting (hosted by Workday in Pleasanton, CA) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
November 12-14 - Workday Rising EMEA (London)
November 19-20 - Insight222 European Peer Meeting (hosted by Merck in Darmstadt, Germany) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
More events will be added as they are confirmed.
专栏
2024年09月29日
专栏
【重磅】北美地区最大的华人人力资源盛会-2024北美华人人力资源年度峰会10月硅谷举办，日程嘉宾发布2024 NACSHR Annual Conference -The Largest Chinese HR event in North America
2024北美华人人力资源年度峰会-北美地区最大的华人人力资源盛会
北美地区最大规模的华人人力资源盛会——2024北美华人人力资源年度峰会，将于10月在硅谷盛大举办，诚挚邀请您共襄盛举！
自2016年成立以来，北美华人人力资源协会（NACSHR）一直致力于为华人HR专业人士和职场高管精英打造一个卓越的交流平台。多年间，NACSHR年度论坛已发展成为北美最具影响力的人力资源活动之一，吸引了无数行业领导者和HR专家的关注与参与。
2024年，NACSHR年度论坛将升级为北美华人人力资源年度峰会，规模更大，内容更丰富，形式更多样，话题更专业，汇聚更多杰出的HR代表。我们诚挚邀请您加入我们，共同参与和创造这一盛会！
十月硅谷，我们将再次迎接全球华人人力资源专业人士和从业者齐聚一堂，延续我们成功的传统。即将到来的峰会将包括专业小组讨论、实用工作坊、行业大咖演讲、年度奖项评选、企业参观、晚宴酒会等丰富多彩的交流活动。这些会议不仅旨在提供最新的行业知识和趋势，还为与会者提供了与顶尖专业人士近距离交流的宝贵机会，并帮助与同行建立或加深联系。
Stay Together Stay Powerful
NACSHR2024年度峰会不仅是学习和交流的场所，更是启迪和灵感的源泉，为华人HR同仁搭建了通向职业新篇章的桥梁。我们期待全球华人HR同事们共聚一堂，共同探索和塑造未来人力资源的新趋势。
加入我们的NACSHR2024年度峰会，共享思想的碰撞和心灵的触动。我们期待您的参与，共同见证这一人力资源盛会的精彩时刻！
2024北美华人人力资源年度峰会 2024 NACSHR Annual Conference
时间：10月5日-6日 周六周日 October 5-6, 2024 （9:00-17:00）
地点: Crowne Plaza Silicon Valley North （ Union City）
(32083 Alvarado-Niles Rd. Union City CA 94587)
报名：https://www.nacshr.org/Survey/418189BC-FF9F-D9B7-B7F8-8E5980AAFFA1
费用：400美元/人 （10月4 日前报名支付） 现场门票：500美元/人
晚宴：150美元/人（不单独销售，需购买门票，名额有限，售完为止 参与者为分享嘉宾、特邀专家、VIP参会等40人规模）
合作伙伴：Law Office of Xiaomin Hu P.C.、 中国南方航空 、LYD Law、虚位以待
会议形式：专业论坛、年度评选、晚宴酒会、参访交流、职业机会等
注：不含会议午餐和参访期间交通 (付款方式及报名后的注意事项：https://www.nacshr.org/2022.html)
10月5日周六第一天日程安排
10月6日周日第二天日程安排
NACSHR年度峰会同期活动：
·北美HR采购指南—NACSHR图谱登记：https://www.nacshr.org/2063.html
·北美HR招聘平台: https://www.nacshr.org/job
你为什么不能错过NACSHR峰会：
聆听行业大咖的精心分享：
演讲嘉宾包括成功的企业家、重量级的行业内大咖、优秀的人才战略专家。
他们精通中国以及北美的人力资源市场，乐于分享他们的观点和经验。
确保您能听到行业内最专业成功人士的分享。
学习新知识，掌握新动态：
不论您是职场老将还是新兵，更新知识库是一个永恒的课题。
峰会设置了多种会议形式，各种方式获取行业动态和职场经验。
有行业内大咖的独家分享，帮助您打开新视野，更具竞争力。
职业发展新机遇，更广泛的选择：
NACSHR设置了北美地区HR岗位需求，现场更有机会面对面沟通交流。
非正式的会议交流，更有益深入交流，为您的职场铺就成功之路。
北美地区最大的华人HR行业盛会：
聚焦北美华人人力资源行业精英，汇聚北美职场华人力量。
汇集首屈一指的企业家、创业家和行业先锋，打造北美唯一、最大的华人HR盛会。
交流新资讯，结交新伙伴：
探讨行业热点话题，激发创新思维，共同推动HR行业的发展。
利用大会机会结识北美地区的华人HR同仁，拓展个人交际圈。
启发职场新思维，实现职业新突破：
探讨华人管理者如何实现职场发展目标。
设有职场人讨论环节，与嘉宾、行业专家和同行伙伴一起探讨如何在美国职场实现自我价值。
如何可以参与NACSHR峰会？
作为人力资源服务机构，有多种方式可以参与共襄盛举。你可以选择各种赞助形式，如钻石赞助、演讲赞助、设置展位、Demo展示，年度合作等多种方式，具体可以联系我们。
另外亦可参与NACSHR年度评选!
参展赞助与合作：
Annie annie@nacshr.org
或者点击这里：https://www.nacshr.org/Survey/CDBE9324-6291-EB0E-3E50-91532A2A70BB
参与分享演讲：（仅限 inhouse HR）
Gavin nacshr818@gmail.com
嘉宾申请链接： https://www.nacshr.org/1732.html
The Largest Chinese HR event in North America, —the 2024 North American Chinese HR Conference — will be held in Silicon Valley this October. We warmly invite you to join us!
Since its inception in 2016, the North American Chinese Society of Human Resources (NACSHR) has been dedicated to creating an exceptional platform for Chinese HR professionals and executive elites to connect and exchange ideas. Over the years, the NACSHR Annual Summit has grown into one of the most influential HR events in North America, attracting numerous industry leaders and HR experts.
In 2024, the NACSHR Annual Summit will be upgraded to the North American Chinese HR Conference, featuring a larger scale, richer content, more diverse formats, and more professional topics. We sincerely invite you to join us in participating and creating this grand event!
This October in Silicon Valley, we will once again welcome Chinese HR professionals and practitioners from around the world to gather together, continuing our tradition of success. The upcoming conference will include professional panel discussions, practical workshops, keynote speeches from industry leaders, annual awards, company visits, gala dinners, and other diverse networking activities. These sessions are designed not only to provide the latest industry knowledge and trends but also to offer attendees valuable opportunities to engage closely with top professionals and build or strengthen connections with peers.
Stay Together Stay Powerful
The NACSHR 2024 Conference is not just a venue for learning and networking; it is also a source of inspiration and ideas, serving as a bridge for Chinese HR colleagues to embark on new career chapters. We look forward to seeing Chinese HR professionals from around the globe come together to explore and shape the future trends of human resources.
Join us at the NACSHR 2024 Conference to share in the exchange of ideas and the touching of hearts. We eagerly anticipate your participation in witnessing the exciting moments of this HR grand event!
2024 North American Chinese HR Conference
Date: October 5-6, Saturday-Sunday (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM)
Location: Crowne Plaza Silicon Valley North （ Union City )
(32083 Alvarado-Niles Rd. Union CityCA 94587)
Registration: https://www.nacshr.org/Survey/418189BC-FF9F-D9B7-B7F8-8E5980AAFFA1
Fee: $300 per person for early bird tickets (before September 1)
Why Attend the NACSHR Event?
Gain Insights from Industry Experts:
Our speakers include successful entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and top talent strategy experts. With deep knowledge of both the Chinese and North American HR markets, they are eager to share their perspectives and experiences, ensuring you gain valuable insights from the best in the field.
Learn New Knowledge and Stay Updated:
Whether you are a seasoned professional or new to the field, updating your knowledge base is a perpetual endeavor. The summit features various session formats to provide industry updates and practical career insights. Exclusive shares from industry experts will help you broaden your horizons and enhance your competitiveness.
Discover New Career Opportunities:
NACSHR highlights HR job opportunities in North America, offering a unique chance for face-to-face networking. Informal networking sessions facilitate deeper connections, paving the way for your career success.
Participate in North America's Largest Chinese HR Industry Event:
Focused on elite Chinese HR professionals in North America, the event brings together the strength of Chinese professionals in the workplace. Featuring top entrepreneurs, innovators, and industry pioneers, NACSHR stands as the largest and only Chinese HR event in North America.
Exchange New Information and Build Partnerships:
Explore industry hot topics, stimulate innovative thinking, and collectively drive the HR industry forward. Use the event to connect with fellow Chinese HR professionals in North America and expand your personal network.
Inspire New Career Thinking and Achieve Breakthroughs:
Discuss how Chinese managers can achieve their career development goals. With dedicated discussion sessions, engage with speakers, industry experts, and peers to explore ways to realize your potential in the American workplace.
往届回顾：
https://www.nacshr.org/762.html
https://nacshr.org/1991.html
专栏
2024年09月23日
专栏
ADP Lyric HCM, The Next-Gen HR Platform Many Have Waited ForJosh Bersin 写文章介绍了ADP的 Lyric HCM，给予了高度评价。ADP于2018年启动了一项秘密项目，目标是开发下一代企业人力资源管理平台。这个项目最终被命名为ADP Lyric HCM，它的设计旨在应对当代灵活多变的工作环境。Lyric HCM基于高度可扩展的微服务架构，能够处理包括全职、兼职、临时工、自由职业者等多种员工类型，同时支持多重管理结构。该平台具有灵活性，可帮助企业快速适应组织重组、兼并收购等变化，且能够实现全球薪资和税务管理，提供符合各地法律法规的自定义规则。
Lyric HCM的设计不仅注重系统的灵活性，还融入了大量的AI功能，使其在用户体验上更加智能化和易用。通过ADP Assist这一AI工具，用户可以通过自然语言与系统互动，轻松进行复杂的HR操作。此外，Lyric HCM还提供实时的行业基准数据，帮助企业根据最新的薪酬和岗位信息做出决策。该系统的“人本位”架构使其更具灵活性，相比传统以职位为基础的系统，它可以更好地满足当代企业多重任务、多角色管理的需求。
Lyric HCM不仅支持多种HR功能，如招聘、绩效管理、培训和发展，还拥有一个统一的员工体验平台，员工可以通过简单的查询完成例如婚假申请等事务。此外，ADP还建立了强大的全球服务团队，确保客户获得定制化的实施和长期支持。
自上线以来，ADP Lyric HCM已经吸引了超过120个大型客户，证明了其系统的稳定性和可扩展性。其核心市场定位是为全球化、分布式的企业提供服务，尤其是在零售、医疗保健、餐饮等行业。作为一款融合AI技术的全新平台，Lyric HCM展示了未来人力资源管理系统的潜力，并成为Workday、Oracle、SAP等主要HCM供应商的有力竞争对手。
In the Spring of 2018 I attended a confidential meeting in New York City to learn about a project called Lifion. ADP had hired a new team of engineers convened in a secret mission to build the “next-generation platform” for ADP’s offerings in the enterprise market.
This new system, designed ten years after the release of Workday, was intended to be a highly scalable, configurable, micro-services based system, capable of managing payroll, HR processes, and all talent applications for any category of employee. The system had to support dynamic teams, many worker modalities (full-time, part-time, hourly, gig, contract), and enable a company to manage many organization structures within its corporate function, each with different business rules and overlapping employees.
It was designed, in a sense, for the highly flexible, dynamic companies of the post-pandemic era.
In addition to this flexible architecture, the system was designed to support workers with multiple managers (and multiple time sheets), dynamic reconfiguration for M&A or new business entities, and global payroll and tax services with custom business rules that might be variable across the company. It needed to include a recruiting module, a variety of options for goals and performance management, tools for onboarding and development, excellent reporting, and an easy-to-use narrative interface that let any employee, manager, or HR professional use, configure, or run reports on the system.
In my initial meeting I walked away impressed, and I wrote an article describing this project. Today, almost six years later, this product has a name (ADP Lyric HCM) and it has reached general availability for ADP customers with 1,000 customers or more.
Today ADP has 120+ large accounts so the system is proven. And since its inception Lyric HCM has been infused with extensive AI features (ADP Assist is on par with SAP Joule as a true AI interface) and benchmark information from ADP’s data cloud.
In other words, this system has the potential to be a “The Next Generation” HCM platform in the market.
What Is ADP Announcing And Offering
The core HR system has to do a lot of things. Not only does it have to manage payroll, benefits, and tax rules (in a global, constantly changing regulatory environment), it has to be flexible, easy to configure, and filled with easy-to-use interfaces for employees and HR. And by “flexible” I mean the system has to make it easy to open a new org structure, move employees around, and create multiple modes for a “manager” or supervisor.
Almost all traditional HCM providers, Workday, Oracle, and SAP, were not designed to work this way. These vendors built contract work add-ons but in most cases when you want to flatten your organization, merge with another company, or reorganize roles it’s difficult. Flattening the organization often means “re-implementing” your HRMS. Most companies only do it once a decade.
ADP Lyric HCM is designed to fix this. Imagine a company like Gold’s Gym where the company is constantly opening new Gyms and hiring new managers, with employees dual reporting to multiple managers.
I talked with Gold’s Gym and as you can imagine the company went through a transformation during the pandemic. Started as a Southern California fitness company, Gold’s was acquired and is now a global organization branching into many new offerings. Facilities were consolidated and each local fitness center operates with a lot of management independence.
For example, an employee who is a trainer in one gym with one manager may also be a trainer or support staff in another gym with another manager. This type of “work-centric” (as opposed to “job-centric”) operation is becoming very common. Lyric HCM supports these multi-manager work models, including features for performance management, time tracking, and contract workers.
Think about any retailer, healthcare company, or other highly distributed operation. One Gold’s Gym may pay overtime in one way, another in a different way. You can imagine the permutations. Every company has situations like this.
I was recently at Rolls-Royce where they are centralizing engineering teams away from product groups, making 30 to 40% of their engineers “floaters.” Rolls has enormous contracts with government and commercial customers, each with different financial models. They need a system like this just like a gym, restaurant chain, or elder care network.
There’s more. In addition to these HRMS and global payroll features, ADP has built an employee experience platform, employee communications system, and learning and development system. You simply type a query like “I’m getting married” and the system shows a page that consolidates tasks and resources in one place. If an HR manager wants to “pay a bonus” the system asks what organization, shows a list of people, and lets the manager define the bonus without hunting for menus and panels.
Highlights Of The Next Gen Approach
Since this system was architected in the age of AI, it has some very unique capabilities out of the box.
First, in the area of flexibility, this is a “person-based” architecture, as opposed to a “role-based” architecture. That feature alone enables all these features to be possible.
Second, in the area of usability, the system is among the most “AI-enabled” interfaces I’ve seen. While most HCMs are building assistants to speed through transactions, Lyric HCM literally “learns” what you’re trying to do and prompts you through the process. Remember these HCM systems are complex (Workday’s “Users Guide” is 2500 pages long), so we want the system to feel approachable not intimidating.
As you can see from this slide, ADP also offers embedded benchmarks as well as a nudge engine. The benchmarks come from ADP’s data cloud, giving companies up to date salary ranges and other metrics by job title and job level (no other HCM platforms do this). The nudge engine is used for Lyric HCM’s onboarding and development system, reminding users of tasks or activities they need to perform.
ADP Assist, the company’s Gen AI tool, lets you ask questions about any employee or group, legal and tax issues, and payroll or financial data. It’s quite powerful and I would say it rivals Joule as a conversational interface for HCM.
Third, the system has a novel and approachable interface for employees. Rather than offer people a variety of “centers” or “portals” to find things, the system is smart enough to give employees exactly what it thinks they need. Typical HR transactions like changing your family status or address, or looking at benefits or pay are simple. Persona-based dashboards are designed for payroll or tax managers. And any HR professional can customize the interface for their use.
Because the system is so dynamic, users can set up smart reports and other views to pinpoint the data and organizational unit they’re interested in. And ADP has built a management development tool (to take newly promoted supervisors through development), an onboarding system, and many features for performance and goal management.
Where Will This Go? ADP Services
When we think about ADP’s platforms we have to remember that ADP is not just a cloud software company. Most of the company’s revenue comes from services: payroll, PEO, and license fees around those offerings. This means ADP’s sales and service organization is very service-centric and highly trained in all areas of HR. (Most HR software sales teams are not HR domain experts.)
To support Lyric HCM the company put together a global service team combined with dedicated client success executives to make sure each customer has a personalized, outcome-based implementation plan. This means ADP Lyric HCM is not just a great platform, but a set of people to help with configuration, utilization, integration, and long-term planning. ADP is starting to work with integrators, but likely will handle most of their customer implementations themselves.
Impact On The Market.
At this point Lyric HCM is positioned as an offering for mid to large companies headquartered in the United States with global workforces. This means Lyric HCM is directly positioned to compete with UKG, Ceridian, Workday, Oracle, SAP, and vendors like Darwinbox, HiBob (which is going upmarket), Lattice, and others. The “Pay” companies (Paychex, Paycor, Paycom) are focused primarily on smaller companies, but as they grow their offering they may compete as well.
That is not to say ADP can solve every client need. These platforms mature over many years and each vendor has different industry and focus features. At this point I believe ADP will most likely win in industries like retail, hospitality, health care, and other distributed, hourly workforce companies. And given ADP’s focus on small and medium business, it will take time for ADP to reach large companies.
Nevertheless, it’s time for change in HCM. Designed for agility and infused with AI, ADP Lyric HCM shows us a future we’ve been looking for.
专栏
2024年09月23日
专栏
AI Agents, The New Workforce We’re Not Quite Ready For (Agentic AI)Josh Bersin 刚刚谈到：AI代理人的兴起标志着工作方式的一次革命。这些AI代理人不仅仅是工具，而是未来的团队成员。从开发培训课程到管理招聘过程，AI代理人的能力正被企业系统广泛利用。科技领袖和投资者对此展现出了极大的兴趣和投资。企业需要为这种变革做好准备，包括安全性和管理实践的更新。
我们一起来看下，英文原文附录链接在最后！
AI智能体，新一代劳动力，我们还没有做好准备
智能体正在到来，智能体正在到来。
如果你关注AI技术市场，你就会知道，最近有很多关于“智能体AI”的讨论。换句话说，我们的AI助手开始拥有更多自主能力。不再只是回答问题和写诗，它们现在可以代表我们“做事情”。
这正是长久以来预测的AI下一个大趋势。埃里克·施密特最近谈到了这一点，微软也在讨论，像Mayfield这样的投资者正在投入资金。而这种演变确实将彻底革新我们的系统。
可以这样想：“大语言模型”是我们过去两年一直在学习的内容，它们现在正逐步转变为“大行动模型”。智能体不仅仅会回答问题，它还会为我们做事情。
消费场景是无穷无尽的：为我预订航班，为我买票，向我的朋友发送电子邮件。但在商业领域，这种转变将颠覆并破坏我们的许多企业系统。它还将改变我们工作的方式、管理的方式以及我们对团队的思考方式。
考虑我们与供应商讨论的两个HR用例。
学习与发展（L&D）AI智能体
想象一下，你指示一个L&D AI智能体“为我们的销售人员创建一个15分钟的课程，以教授他们如何定位我们的新产品”。AI智能体将根据你的输入（课程时长、目标受众等），向主题专家发送电子邮件，视频记录他们的评论和专业知识，整合新产品信息，构建课程，并将其发送给L&D负责人进行验证。作为经理，你可以审查课程，并指示智能体收紧信息或添加更多主题，课程将重新创建，然后你可以说“可以上线了”。智能体随后会将课程发布到学习管理系统（LMS）中，向所有销售人员群发电子邮件，并开始监控学习活动。几小时后，智能体会运行分析，并向经理反馈进展情况。
是的，这在今天完全可能。而且很快就会启动。
再来看第二个例子。
招聘AI智能体
人才招聘负责人收到了大量关于高级软件工程师的职位要求。她指示招聘AI智能体开始搜索。智能体询问招聘人员的地点偏好、职位级别选择、薪资范围和技能要求，然后开始工作。智能体扫描LinkedIn和其他招聘工具，查看ATS中的现有候选人，同时也查看所有内部员工的合格技能。智能体随后优化这份名单，创建一个“面试候选人短名单”，并回到招聘负责人那里征求意见。在就地点和薪资范围达成一致后，智能体返回并向这些候选人发送了一封富有吸引力的电子邮件，并附上一个视频面试门户链接，让他们进行面试。面试被录制下来，AI智能体使用面试智能工具来评估和筛选候选人，询问他们的时间安排，并为他们安排现场面试。在此过程中，AI智能体会查看他们的背景，搜索社交媒体，查看他们的各种联系，并可能查看他们的GitHub等平台和其他凭证，然后为每位候选人创建一个档案。
这些智能体很快就会出现，对我们许多人来说，它们看起来和感觉上会像“员工”一样。我们将不得不对它们进行培训、入职和指导。随着它们在各自的角色中“成熟”并成长，我们将它们连接到更多的系统、更多的人和更多的数据上。
Lattice的首席执行官萨拉·富兰克林大约一个月前实际上提出了这个概念，尽管遭到了反对声音，但我认为她是对的。这些智能体实际上将属于组织结构图的一部分。我们的工作将是管理它们，确保它们的安全，并监督它们的安全性。
还有更多内容即将到来
虽然感觉像科幻小说，但这一切正在发生。而且它不仅将改变我们的HR技术堆栈，还将改变整个企业技术格局，也让我们的HR角色变得更加轻松。
原文来自: https://joshbersin.com/2024/09/agentic-ai-ai-agents-the-new-workforce-were-not-quite-ready-for/
专栏
2024年09月06日
专栏
Cornerstone Galaxy: Acquisition Of SkyHive Could Pay OffCornerstone在人力资源技术领域长期以来一直是学习管理系统（LMS）的领导者。公司最近推出了Galaxy，这是一个集成了人工智能的全新人才管理平台。这一重大进展是在一系列收购之后实现的，尤其是最近收购了SkyHive，显著增强了公司的数据处理能力。Galaxy平台通过提供全面的技能发展、绩效管理和员工晋升系统，为HR技术空间树立了新标准。
Galaxy区别于市场上其他基于技能的或智能平台，例如Eightfold主要从人才获取开始，而Gloat着眼于人才流动性。Galaxy则从另一个角度出发，即员工发展，这是由Cornerstone在学习与发展（L&D）领域深厚的背景所支撑的。Galaxy系统内置了完整的用户界面，能够推断技能，让员工标记和评估自己的技能，帮助员工找到并完成各种学习形式，管理合规性和认证程序，通过任务、评估或管理辅导提升技能。
通过整合性能管理、发展计划、继任计划，以及招聘过程，Galaxy使公司能够通过绩效管理推动技能发展。在收购SkyHive之前，Cornerstone试图仅使用其LMS信息的数据集来实现这一目标，但这些数据并不足以构建完整的人工智能语料库。通过这次收购，Cornerstone获得了一个完整的劳动力市场数据系统、一个公司中立的职位架构以及大量行业技能，使Galaxy能够与其他主要的人才智能和人才市场供应商直接竞争。
Cornerstone spent the last decade acquiring LMS and talent software companies, all in a goal to build an integrated skills platform. Finally, after years of hard work and integration, the company introduces Galaxy, an advanced offering in the world of AI-powered HR systems.
Before I explain Galaxy, the history is important. Founded in 1999, Cornerstone started as an e-learning platform company (CyberU). The company established a foothold in the emerging LMS market and grew through strong marketing, sales, and product innovation. Since then the company has gone public, reached a $5.2 billion valuation, and was then acquired by a private equity firm (Aug. 2021, three years ago).
The new management team continued to acquire companies (EdCast, SumTotal, Talespin, and most recently SkyHive) and has now stitched these systems together into a unified platform called Galaxy. Galaxy, as I show below, is a skills-powered integrated talent management platform, built around the core of learning management. And this is what makes it unique.
The other talent intelligence or skills-based platforms started elsewhere. Eightfold started in talent acquisition; Gloat started in talent mobility; SeekOut started in recruiting; Beamery started in CRM; and players like Retrain.ai and NeoBrain started in more vertical domains. Each of these companies use large-scale profile data to infer skills, give companies tools to find and match candidates, and eventually to deliver learning.
Cornerstone, with deep background in L&D, is coming at this from another direction: employee development. The Galaxy system, which is built into a complete user interface, infers skills, lets employees tag and assess their skills, helps employees find and complete many forms of learning, manage compliance and certification programs, and advance skills through gigs, assignments, assessments, or management coaching. And since Cornerstone is an integrated talent suite, the system lets companies drive skills through performance management, development planning, succession planning, and also recruiting.
Before the acquisition of SkyHive, Cornerstone was trying to do this with its own data set of LMS information. This data, which includes billions of learning records, was simply not sufficient to build out the entire AI corpus. By acquiring SkyHive, Cornerstone gained an entire labor market system of data, a company-neutral job architecture, and lots of industry skills. This brings Galaxy into direct competition with the other major talent intelligence and talent marketplace vendors.
I have not yet talked with Galaxy customers, but the user experience is integrated and shows the sophistication of thinking under the covers. Remember that Cornerstone acquired Evolv, Clustree, and EdCast before acquiring SkyHive, so the team has been building AI capabilities and use-cases for several years. And now that Cornerstone has a VR platform for learning, more use-cases are coming.
While I don’t know Cornerstone’s revenues, the leadership team assures me that the company is growing and the profitability is high. This means the company has long-term sustainability and despite its many acquisitions, is likely to evolve to “Oracle-like” status. (Oracle has acquired hundreds of companies over the years and now looks at M&A as one of its core strengths).
Here’s the major play in the market. With 7,000+ customers, Cornerstone has many customers shopping for new tools. If Galaxy is as solid as it looked in the demos, some percentage of these buyers could upgrade to Galaxy and avoid the purchase of Gloat, Eightfold, or another LMS. While we cannot be sure where Galaxy will play, for companies that want to deploy a skills architecture across all talent practices, it looks like a solid option.
Cornerstone Vision:
Cornerstone User Experience
Cornerstone Career and Talent Marketplace
Cornerstone Performance Management
Skills in Goal Management
Why Cornerstone Still Matters
Cornerstone has a massive customer base. The users of Cornerstone, Saba, SumTotal, Lumesse, and Halogen include many of the world’s largest companies and thousands of mid-market organizations as well. These organizations have invested billions of dollars into learning infrastructure, content, and user portals to reach employees. If Cornerstone Galaxy delivers on its promise, the company can help many of these organizations avoid buying lots of standalone new tools. And given Cornerstone’s size, the company could become, as I mentioned above, the “Oracle” of the space.
And note, by the way, that a recent survey by HR.com found that the top rated HR tech issue to address is L&D infrastructure, so this issue is on everyone’s mind.
While the market is highly competitive and there are many skills-based tools in the market, Cornerstone’s focus on L&D is unique. None of the other major LMS vendors have the skills infrastructure of Cornerstone today.
If your skills strategy is focused on building skills, Galaxy may be the answer.
More to come as we talk with more Galaxy customers.
Additional Information
专栏
2024年09月03日
专栏
David Green:The best HR & People Analytics articles of August 2024
I’ve just returned from a three-week family holiday in the South of France and am feeling refreshed, recharged and ready for the final four months of the year. These are invariably the busiest for the team at Insight222, and 2024 is set to be no different.
The Digital HR Leaders podcast returns from its summer sojourn on September 3 with a special episode on how HR can help their organisations embrace the blended workforce, featuring Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton, and based on their brilliant recent HBRarticle,
The Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, which we host annually for leaders of 100+ companies that are part of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, takes place in Amsterdam from September 24-26 with guest speakers including: Erin Meyer, Prasad Setty, Janine Vos, and a workshop on storytelling with Duarte, Inc..
The fifth annual Insight222 People Analytics Trends report, which studies how leading companies are using people analytics to generate business value will be published in October – you can read the 2023 study here.
Additionally, I will be speaking at a number of conferences before the end of the year including Workday Rising (Las Vegas, September 16-19), People Analytics World (New York, October 2-3), UNLEASH World (Paris, October 16-17), and Workday Rising EMEA (London, November 12-14).
This edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is sponsored by our friends at 365Talents
365Talents goes beyond traditional approaches, offering more than just technology for Skills-Based Organizations. Our approach is not just about managing skills; it's about making the entire process seamless, effective, and enjoyable. Picture real-time insights into your workforce's skills, coupled with the expertise to implement strategic HR projects aligning with your business goals.
Our experience in talent mobility and skill development contribute to creating a more democratic, inclusive, and future-ready world of work where every individual has the power to shape their professional path. Start your skills journey with 365Talents today and join the ranks of trailblazers like Veolia, SLB, TotalEnergies, SocGen, and more! To find out more click here: https://www.365talents.com/en/lp/experience-365talents
2024 Skills Impact Report
In today’s fast-paced and increasingly disruptive environment, companies need to adopt a more flexible approach that puts its people and their skills at the center of its talent management strategies. This has become more and more imperative as:
59% of the global workforce are disengaged.
69% of job candidates say they would reject a job offer from an employer with a negative reputation, even if they were unemployed.
87% of organizations currently have an existing skills gap or expect to within the next two to ten years.
Enter the 2024 Skills Impact Report. It explores the business imperative of talent experience for Skills-Based Organizations, the impact it has on your employees, the pillars of design thinking for HR and how to start applying it to your strategy with 5 intuitive roadmap worksheets.
CASE STUDY: SEGULA Technologies Group
In 2020, as the world faced significant engineering transformations, the COVID crisis, talent shortages, and the rise of AI, SEGULA Technologies Group launched a strategic initiative to plan and manage the resources and skills of its workforce. The goal of this ambitious project was to identify and leverage the talents of the Group's 15,000 employees across 30 countries, using AI to drive innovative skills management and enhance overall performance.
Read the Case Study to learn all the steps and actions taken to successfully tackle the challenge!
To sponsor an edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, and share your brand with more than 130,000 Data Driven HR Monthly subscribers, send an email to dgreen@zandel.org.
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Enjoy reading the collection of resources for August 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 July’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 published every Tuesday – subscribe here.
NEW: Insight222 research report on the People Analytics Ecosystem
Access the new Insight222 study here: Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v 2.0.
HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
MCKINSEY - Gen AI’s next inflection point: From employee experimentation to organizational transformation
HR plays an especially important role in gen AI, both by transforming the people domain and by acting as a gen AI copilot for all employees. One executive noted that for every $1 spent on technology, $5 should be spent on people.
A new study by McKinsey finds that to generate value from the momentum associated with GenAI, businesses must transform their processes, structures, and approach to talent. The article, penned by Charlotte Relyea, Dana Maor, Sandra Durth, and Jan Bouly, outlines the key findings from the research: (1) Employee use is at an inflection point, while their organisations lag behind. (2) The next inflection point will see organisations shift from individual experimentation to strategic value capture. (3) Reinvent domains by translating vision into value. (4) Reimagine talent and skilling by putting people at the centre (see FIG 1). (5) Reinforce the changes to continue transforming (“To make gen AI changes stick, organizations need the right infrastructure to support continuous change and win over hearts and minds”).
FIG 1: Early adopters prioritise talent and the human side of GenAI more than other companies (Source: McKinsey)
DAVE ULRICH - How are You Doing at AI for HR? A Ten-Item Assessment to Evaluate Your Progress
Getting started in AI for HR often begins with initiatives that can be done relatively quickly and easily.
Dave Ulrich shares key takeaways from a recent deep-dive, he and his colleagues at The RBL Group facilitated with senior HR leaders on AI in HR. He distils these into ten dimensions designed to help HR leaders assess how they are doing at applying AI for HR to their organisation (see FIG 2). These include: (1) Articulate a business case. (2) Develop Talent who can ‘do’ AI. (3) Create Responsible AI policies. (4) Create metrics to guide and measure success. (5) Start with low-hanging fruit.
FIG 2: Criteria to evaluate how well your organisation is using AI for HR (Source: Dave Ulrich)
DUNCAN HARRIS AND KATE ZOLNER - 5 Employee Fears of AI and How to Overcome Them
If companies want to get the most out of AI, they need employee trust. Securing it is not easy. More than three-quarters of employees don’t think their organization’s future use of the technology will be ethical.
Duncan Harris and Kate Zolner present the findings of Gartner research on the five main employee fears of AI use by their organisations (see FIG 3), which have a negative impact on employee trust. They then explain how leaders can address these fears through initiatives in areas such as learning, co-creation, effective communications, ethics and data privacy. As well as enabling the organisation to benefit from AI, Harris and Zolner argue that these solutions will lead to higher levels of inclusion, engagement and effort.
FIG 3: Five Employee Fears of Organizational AI Use (Source: Gartner)
STACIA GARR - How is HR using Gen AI today? | MAX BLUMBERG - GenAI in HR: Slashing Costs, Boosting Efficiency | SWANAND DEODHAR, FAVOUR BOROKINI, AND BEN WABER - How Companies Can Take a Global Approach to AI Ethics | BAIN - AI Survey: Four Themes Emerging
Four more resources tracking topics related to GenAI in HR. (1) Stacia Sherman Garr’s LinkedIn post summarises RedThread Research analysis of how HR is using GenAI today (see FIG 4). (2) Max Blumberg (JA) ?? provides a summary of his report on Slashing HR Costs: The Ultimate Blueprint for Implementing GenAI in HR, which provides guidance on implementing GenAI to transform HR cost efficiency, and includes Max’s GenAI HR Cost Reduction Maturity Model (see FIG 5). (3) Ben Waber teams up with Swanand Deodhar and Favour Borokini in a Harvard Business Review article offering guidance on how companies can take a global approach to AI ethics: “Because AI and related data regulations are rarely uniform across geographies, compliance can be difficult. To address this problem, companies need to develop a contextual global AI ethics model that prioritizes collaboration with local teams and stakeholders and devolves decision-making authority to those local teams.” (4) Gene R., Sanjin Bicanic, Jue Wang, Richard Lichtenstein, and Arjun Dutt share the four key themes that emerged from Bain’s recent AI survey, which includes that the emphasis has shifted from experimentation in 2023 to delivering real value 12 months later – thanks to Hung Lee for sharing Bain’s research in a recent edition of Recruiting Brainfood.
FIG 4: How HR is using GenAI (Source: RedThread Research)
FIG 5: GenAI HR Cost Reduction Maturity Model (Source: Max Blumberg)
MARC EFFRON - Above the Fray: What We Know About How WFH and Hybrid Affect Work
We should approach solving this problem in the same intelligent way as we suggest all human problems be solved – start with the science.
As his article on skills-based organisations testified, Marc Effron has a penchant for cutting through the hype and getting to the heart of an issue. As such, I highly recommend digging into his new analysis on what the science and evidence says are the trade-offs among WFO, WFH and hybrid work. Firstly, Effron dispels four myths propagated by proponents and opponents on CEOs, real estate, proximity bias and employees who prefer WFH. Then he examines the consequences of different work arrangements on (1) performance, (2) creativity, (3) innovation (4) work relationships, (5) collaboration, and (6) managing based on the emerging knowledge available via Google Scholar.
LYNDA GRATTON - Seven Truths About Hybrid Work and Productivity | BRIAN ELLIOTT - Hybrid Work: How Leaders Build In-Person Moments That Matter | REBECCA KNIGHT - 17 Team-Building Activities for In-Person, Remote, and Hybrid Teams
To get the most from hybrid work, leaders should prepare for trade-offs, make expectations clear, and think harder about how productivity is measured.
Three more resources on hybrid work to read in conjunction with Marc Effron’s article above. First, Lynda Gratton unveils seven key findings from what she is seeing from experiments in hybrid working including: (1) Hybrid work is a continuum. (2) Productivity is usually challenging — and measurement is always complex. (3) It’s useful to view hybrid work as fundamentally a job design option. Second, Brian Elliott provides guidance on the four essential times leaders should be intentional about building moments that matter for hybrid workers: (1) Team development (“Get people together three or four times a year, with a 50-50 mix of business and social”). (2) Onboarding and training. (3) New-team formation and major-initiative kick-offs (“Grapple together over the objectives and norms of a project”). (4) Business-function-specific activities (“Let teams figure out the best in-person schedules for their needs”). Finally, Rebecca M. Knight provides guidance to leaders on team-building activities for in-person, remote and hybrid teams.
FIG 6: Focus on Productivity, Not Physical Presence (Source: Brian Elliott, Future Forum)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
NAOMI VERGHESE, JONATHAN FERRAR, AND JORDAN PETTMAN - Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v2.0 ARTICLE | FULL REPORT
One of the questions we get asked most by the people analytics leaders and chief people officers we work with at Insight222 is: What capabilities do I need to build into our people analytics function? Based on research of more than 250 companies, focus interviews with 20 organisations, and our experience of working with more than 120 global companies as part of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, my colleagues Naomi Verghese, Jonathan Ferrar and Jordan Pettman have developed a new report: Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v 2.0. The executive article provides a summary of the key highlights, while the full report breaks down the six elements of the People Analytics Ecosystem (see FIG 7): (1) A Value Chain: from client drivers to business outcomes. (2) People Strategy at the Centre: a symbiotic relationship exists between people strategy and people analytics. (3) Five Core Capabilities: consulting, data science and research, employee listening, analytics at scale, adoption. (4) Four Additional Capabilities: reporting, data governance, workforce planning, AI strategy. (5) Internal Partnerships: HR and other business stakeholders are key to operational effectiveness. (6) External Partnerships: external suppliers and expertise are important for enabling success.
FIG 7: The People Analytics Ecosystem (Source: Insight222 Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v 2.0)
NELSON SPENCER - Introducing the S.T.A.R.T. Framework
The strategy pillar is all about aligning with your overall HR and Business goals. You should be able to connect how your strategy is driving business outcomes.
Nelson Spencer, who has worked in both sports and people analytics, presents his S.T.A.R.T Framework (see FIG 8), which is designed to solve a perennial problem for many HR functions: the disconnect between analytics, technology and operations. As Nelson explains, S.T.A.R.T has been designed “to consider these three critical functions holistically, acknowledging that they are part of a bigger puzzle and are all deeply interconnected.” The five pillars, which Nelson describes in detail in his article, are: (1) Strategy, (2) Technology, (3) Analytics, (4) Results, and (5) Transformation. He then provides guidance on how to implement the framework in organisations of varying sizes, from small to large.
FIG 8: The S.T.A.R.T Framework (Source: Nelson Spencer)
MICHAEL LUCA AND AMY EDMONDSON - Where Data-Driven Decision-Making Can Go Wrong
When making decisions (using data), managers should consider internal validity—whether an analysis accurately answers a question in the context in which it was studied. They should also consider external validity—the extent to which they can generalize results from one context to another.
Drawing on their research and work with companies, Michael Luca and Amy Edmondson present an approach that considers internal validity and external validity that leaders can apply to discussions of data to support better decision-making. This approach is designed to help leaders avoid five common pitfalls (see FIG 9) associated with data-driven decision-making.
FIG 9: How to avoid predictable errors (Source: Michael Luca and Amy Edmondson)
WILLIS JENSEN - Building a Network View of Data | MARTHA CURIONI - Supporting HR Adoption of People Analytics | JACKSON ROATCH - Your Best Career Move could be Going for a Run | SERENA HUANG - The Future of Work is Wellbeing | JASPAR SPANJAART - How NVIDIA's Talent Intelligence approach helped fuel its trillion-dollar rise | TOBY CULSHAW - The Talent Nexus: Redefining Business Agility for the 21st Century CEO
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. Six are highlighted in this month’s edition. (1) In another excellent edition of his Making People Analytics Real blog, Willis Jensen discusses how to get a network view of data: “Linking your data together should be a top priority for any people analytics team.” (2) Martha Curioni provides guidance on how to support HR to adopt people analytics harnessing insights from the likes of Isabel Naidoo, Patrick Coolen, Greg Newman, and Amit Mohindra. One of Martha’s tips focuses on the importance of including HRBP’s rather than going around them. (3) As someone whose best ideas invariably come when I’m on a run, I particularly enjoyed Jackson Roatch’s article exploring the link between physical exercise and workplace learning, performance and thriving. (4) In an edition of her From Data to Action blog, Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. explores how AI can support wellbeing and lays out a ten-point plan on responsible AI principles for workplace wellbeing (see FIG 10). (5) NVIDIA’s Meta McKinney, MLIS and Nickolas Dowler, MBA explain to Jasper Spanjaart how the company’s Talent Intelligence strategy helped fuel its growth: “A winning Talent Intelligence strategy requires several key ingredients: data-driven and tested theories, meticulous and thoughtful research, reliable data, creative problem-solving, clear communication of the rationale, trusted relationships with business leaders, and the financial support and freedom to execute.” (6) Toby Culshaw provides a compelling breakdown of what he describes as The Talent Nexus: “The Talent Nexus represents a revolutionary approach to talent management and acquisition in the modern business landscape. It's an AI-driven, quantum-computing-enhanced ecosystem that transforms how organizations interact with, deploy, and develop talent.” A must-read for all those involved in talent intelligence, people analytics and workforce planning.
FIG 10: Responsible AI Principles for Workplace Wellbeing (Source: Serena Huang)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
RAVIN JESUTHASAN - The AI revolution is coming to L&D
AI will empower the L&D function to support strategic workforce planning through skills-related insights and interventions. This will help organizations shift from costly ‘churn and burn’ strategies to more cost-effective and sustainable reskilling and upskilling programs.
Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA examines how AI is set to transform the learning and development function. He highlights Mercer analysis that finds that AI and automation will likely augment some L&D activities (see FIG 11), as well as outlining four potential AI uses cases for corporate L&D: (1) Producing L&D content. (2) Personalising L&D delivery. (3) Driving the skills-powered revolution. (4) Democratising knowledge. For more from Ravin, watch the recent LinkedIn Live on Skills-Powered Organisations in the Age of AI, which I moderated and featured Ravin alongside Tanuj Kapilashrami.
FIG 11: Time by task: L&D versus AI and Automation (Source: Mercer)
NANCY DUARTE - Are Your Presentations Too Emotional — or Too Analytical?
When making a presentation, leaders need to balance appeals to both logic and emotion — the head and the heart.
Nancy Duarte provides invaluable guidance on how to strike a balance between logic and emotion when making a presentation, and how credibility plays a crucial role in this balancing act. She explains that the first step in achieving this balance is understanding the audience: “Are they data-driven decision makers who thrive on statistics and factual evidence? Or are they more likely to be swayed by personal stories and emotional connections?”
FIG 12: An Analytical and Emotional Balance That’s Just Right (Source: Nancy Duarte)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
SANDRA LOUGHLIN – Seven Elements of Skills Data Quality
Skills data quality isn’t talked about much despite being the foundation for the SBO value proposition, a critical input to selecting and gaining value from skills tech vendors, and arguably the most difficult part of a skills transformation.
These wise words open Sandra Loughlin, PhD’s excellent article, where she outlines seven aspects of skills data quality, why they matter and their trade-offs: (1) Relevance (“Skills that are tracked should be the skills that need to be tracked—there’s no point in collecting skills data that won’t help you make better business decisions”). (2) Accuracy. (3) Validity. (4) Completeness. (5) Consistency (“Skills data should be consistently defined, recorded, and categorized across systems and within the organization”). (6) Timeliness. (7) Uniqueness. Thanks to Victoria Holdsworth for highlighting Sandra’s article.
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
CATHERINE COPPINGER - Introducing Two New Metrics: Fragmented & Interrupted Time
Catherine Coppinger from Worklytics introduces two new metrics: (1) Fragmented Time (“the sum of the total number of hours people have in blocks of time that are too short to get any deep work done”) and (2) Interrupted Time (“a metric designed to measure those periods of the day where people keep getting interrupted and just can’t find enough concentrated time to finish an important task”). Understanding these can help individuals and managers organise time more productively while enhancing employee wellbeing (see FIG 13). Read as a follow-up to another recent article by Catherine: 4 New Ways to Model Work, which featured in the July edition of Data Driven HR Monthly.
FIG 13: Source: Catherine Coppinger, Worklytics
MCKINSEY - What employees say matters most to motivate performance
Performance management is most effective when it features strong, consistent internal logic that employees understand
In their article, Asmus Komm, Brooke Weddle, Dana Maor, Katharina Wagner and Vivian Morrow Breaux present the findings of a McKinsey study of more than 1,000 employees across the globe on what matters most to motivating employee performance. The findings provide insights to employers to guide their approach with regards to performance management. These include: (1) Performance management frameworks should be consistent and clearly articulated. (2) Goal setting has impact when goals are measurable and clearly linked to company priorities (see FIG 14). (3) Performance reviews with skilled managers are crucial to employee performance. (4) Rewards that include nonfinancial incentives provide a boost.
FIG 14: Employees are motivated by measurable goals linked to company/team (Source: McKinsey)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND LEARNING
MEGAN REITZ AND AMY EDMONDSON - When a Team Member Speaks Up — and It Doesn’t Go Well
Speaking up — and being heard — in organizations is critical. What gets said, and what doesn’t, directs ethical behavior, innovation, inclusion, and performance.
In their article for Harvard Business Review, Megan Reitz and Amy Edmondson explore how 'conversational failures' often cause breakdowns in psychological safety rather than being used as opportunities to learn and develop. They discuss why they occur and the reasons why it is difficult to learn from these failures, before providing guidance on how these failures can become ‘intelligent’: (1) Prepare to learn from conversations. (2) Notice critical moments. (3) Implement process tools. (4) Attend to learning over the long term. For more on ‘intelligent failure’, tune in to Amy’s conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How Learning to Fail Can Help People and Organisations to Thrive.
If you’re not failing, you’re not journeying into new territory
JAMIE SMITH - How boards can champion a resilient talent strategy
Talent strategy is increasingly vital to driving overall strategy.
Based on a study of by EY and Corporate Board Member magazine of US public company directors across a range of industries, Jamie Carroll Smith presents analysis of the four opportunities identified in the research for boards to champion a resilient talent strategy: (1) Gain deeper insight into the employee experience. (2) Enable a workforce for the future (“Directors recognize that AI developments demand a reskilling of the workforce”). (3) Harness the value of diversity, equity and inclusion (“The future talent pool may depend on companies prioritizing DEI”). (4) Identify opportunities to strengthen talent governance. Thanks to Brian Heger for highlighting in an edition of his excellent Talent Edge newsletter.
FIG 15: The biggest impacts of AI on company workforce strategy (Source: EY)
JEN FISHER, SUE CANTRELL, JAY BHATT, AND PAUL SILVERGLATE - The important role of leaders in advancing human sustainability
More than eight out of 10 executives surveyed say a stronger commitment to prioritizing a positive human impact would increase their company’s ability to attract new talent (82%), appeal to customers and clients (81%), and profitability (81%).
Jen Fisher, Susan Cantrell, Jay Bhatt, and Paul Silverglate outline the key findings from Deloitte’s third annual Workplace Wellbeing report. The primary finding suggests that leaders can play a key role in prioritising and advancing a human sustainability agenda, particularly when it comes to measuring outcomes and holding their organizations accountable for progress. Insights identified in the study include: (1) The three trends impacting today’s workforce the most are skills, burnout and mental health. (2) The modern work experience doesn’t promote human sustainability but C-suite leaders aren’t seeing it. (3) While three out of four executives believe workforce wellbeing is excellent or good, workers are having a different experience (see FIG 16). The article then provides guidance on the metrics companies can implement to measure human sustainability including on skills development, purpose, DEI and societal impact.
FIG 16: Source – Deloitte Wellbeing at Work survey, 2024
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
JANINE LEE - Breaking Down Barriers to Belonging for Women of Color in Tech
In her article in Harvard Business Review, Dr. Janine Lee, MBA, Ed.D. Global Head of L&D at Google, outlines the findings from her doctoral research on workplace belonging for women of colour in the tech industry. Janine highlights the top belonging contributors and detractors identified in the study (see FIG 17), and then offers three recommendations to boost workplace belonging: 1) Invest in programs that foster peer-based relationships, 2) Enable sponsorship and mentoring opportunities, and 3) Hold leaders accountable to “walk the talk.”
FIG 17: Sense-of belonging contributors and detractors (Source: Janine Lee)
HR TECH VOICES
Much of the innovation in the field continues to be driven by the vendor community, and I’ve picked out a few resources from August that I recommend readers delve into:
GURU SETHUPATHY – Understanding the EU AI Act in Four Handy Charts – Guru Sethupathy of FairNow provides an invaluable breakdown of the EU AI Act and its implications.
FIG 18: The four risk levels under the EU AI Act (Source: FairNow)
EMILY KILLHAM - How to Build a Better Boss: What Leaders (and Their Teams) Need Now to Thrive – Emily Killham delivers a new study by Perceptyx identifying five key behaviours for managers, the positive and negative impacts of manager behaviour on employees and organisations, and the role of employee feedback in help managers take corrective action.
FRANCISCO MARIN - The Role of Active and Passive Organizational Network Analysis in Cybersecurity – Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions breaks down how active and passive ONA can support organisational cybersecurity initiatives including the detection of anomalous communications, enhancing incident response and tailoring security strategies.
LOUJAINA ABDELWAHED - How To Lose an Employee in 10 Days – Loujaina Abdelwahed, PhD presents analysis by Revelio Labs highlighting the negative impact of return to office on employee reviews and attrition.
FIG 19: Negative reviews of RTO correlate positively with attrition (Source: Revelio Labs)
ALICIA ROACH – Not all ‘Workforce Planning’ is the Same – If you are interested in workforce planning and don’t follow Alicia Roach of eQ8 on LinkedIn, you really should. In her recent post, Alicia reflects on her ‘triangle of workforce planning’ (see FIG 20), which skilfully illustrates the value of ‘strategic’ workforce planning.
FIG 20: Source – Alicia Roach
PODCASTS OF THE MONTH
In another month of high-quality podcasts, I’ve selected six gems for your aural pleasure: (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):
EMILY HACKER AND DAN WEISS - The Critical Role Data Plays in Skills Development - Emily Hacker, CPTD and Dan Weiss share insights from MetLife's skills journey with Stacia Sherman Garr and Dani Johnson of RedThread Research on the Workplace Stories podcast. The key learning from the conversation is that your skills data doesn't need to be perfect to benefit employees, improve talent acquisition, and enhance workforce planning.
JOSH BERSIN - The Future Of The Workforce Has Arrived, Can’t You See It? – Inspired by his recent trip to Europe, Josh Bersin explains why the traditional industrial work model has ended, gig work is now mainstream, reskilling should be given primacy, and why HR professionals need to reskill in AI to stay relevant.
BRYAN HANCOCK AND EMILY FIELD - Managing in the era of gen AI – In this episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, Bryan Hancock and Emily Field, two of the authors along with Bill Schaninger, Ph.D. of Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work, join host Lucia Rahilly to explain why middle managers matter, what leaders could do differently to make more of the managers on their teams, and how gen AI could change middle managers’ jobs—for the better.
ANSHUL SHEOPURI - How Mastercard is Training Employees for the AI Era – Anshul Sheopuri, EVP People Operations and Insights at Mastercard, joins Christopher Rainey on the HR Leaders podcast to shares insights on leveraging AI in HR and the importance of continuous learning.
JAMES GALLMAN - Bridging HR Technology, Analytics, AI Agents, LLMs, & Nudging at NetApp - James Gallman , VP HR PMO, Systems and Analytics at NetApp, joins hosts Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD on the Directionally Correct podcast to discuss the overlap between HR technology and people analytics.
LILY ZHENG - Ground Your DEI Efforts in Data – In an episode of Women at Work, DEI strategist and consultant Lily Zheng joins hosts Amy Bernstein and Amy Gallo to explain the role of data and analytics in DEI, and the importance of measuring outcomes to make lasting progress.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
JULIET SCHOR - Smarter Work for a Better World?
Studies suggest that the Four Day Week may reduce burnout and depression, while also offering significant opportunities to reduce our collective carbon footprint.
One of my favourite sessions at this year’s Wharton People Analytics Conference saw Professors Juliet Schor and Iwan Barankay discuss what we know about the four-day work week and share their different perspectives on what this alternate structure might mean for organisations and their employees.
BOOKS OF THE MONTH
One of the benefits of being on holiday the past few weeks has been that it enabled me to catch up on some reading, hence there being two books of the month for August:
NICK VAN DAM – Boosting Your Well-being: The Best Version of Me - A wonderful book – and a wonderful cause with 100% of the book’s royalties being donated to the e-Learning for Kids Foundation. Written by Prof. dr. Nick van Dam, and 20 co-authors, this is a comprehensive book on professional wellbeing. It delves into the interconnected aspects of four key dimensions: body, mind, purpose, and environment, and offers a compelling approach to self- improvement. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on resilience and adaptability (written by Jacqui Brassey, PhD, MA, MAfN ?️ (née Schouten) ), sleep (Dr Els van der Helm) and contribution (Emily Ricci). An uplifting and potentially life-changing read.
KALIFA OLIVER – I Think I Love My Job: Secrets To Designing A People-Centered Employer Value Proposition - At times a powerful and relatable story of the ups and downs of corporate life, and at others a compelling narrative on how to approach work, harness data and build a world-class employee experience. Kalifa Oliver, Ph.D. combines both an academic and a practitioner mindset that empowers the reader to take charge of their career, challenge workplace norms, and use data to revolutionise the employee experience.
FROM MY DESK
August saw us reach a notable milestone on the Digital HR Leaders podcast – our 200th episode, and we celebrated in style with a special guest, Amy Edmondson, Thank you to Louis Gordon and the team at HiBob for sponsoring series 40 of the podcast.
AMY EDMONDSON - How Learning to Fail Can Help People and Organisations to Thrive – Harvard professor, pioneer of psychological safety and Thinkers50 #1, Amy Edmondson joined me for our 200th episode, where we discussed intelligent failure, and how failing well can drive individual and organisational success.
DAVID GREEN - What key elements do you believe are essential to building a strong company culture? - A round up of series 40 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, with insights from John Winsor, Maureen N. Dunne, Ph.D., Nirit Peled-Muntz, Heidi Manna and Amy Edmondson.
DAVID GREEN - Five Key Elements For Building a Strong Company Culture? – A recent article for myHRfuture, where I break down five elements in building a strong company culture including aligning with organisational mission and using people data as your GPS.
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 close to 500 roles – and has now been developed into a LinkedIn newsletter too.
THANK YOU
Wayne Tarken for kindly writing a post about me on LinkedIn: Curious About People Analytics? - What Leaders Can Learn from Thursday's Thought Leader.
Ester Martinez and her team at People Matters for including the Digital HR Leaders podcast in their list of 100 must-read resources for HR and talent leaders.
Rachel Collins for her post emphasising the need to move from employment to employability, inspired by the LinkedIn Live I hosted recently with Ravin Jesuthasan and Tanuj Kapilashrami.
Similarly, thanks to James Elliott for also posting here about the LinkedIn Live with Ravin and Tanuj.
David McLean , whose post on learning from your failures references the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Amy Edmondson.
Veronika Birkheim , whose post on Culture Diagnostics, references the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Heidi Manna.
Andrew Gadomski for his post on how he uses the Data Driven HR Monthly as a learning tool at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Irada Sadykhova for her post on how to build a strong company culture, which was inspired by a recent series of the Digital HR Leaders podcast.
Ashley Utz for her post reflecting on the recent Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Nirit Peled-Muntz.
HR Executive Leadership Exchange for including me in their list of the Top 10 HR Leaders You Should Follow.
Mirro.io for including me in their list of Top HR Leaders to Follow in 2024.
Daniyal Wali and The Talent Games for including me in their list of the Top 10 HR Tech Leaders to Follow in 2024.
Finally, a huge thank you to the following people who shared the July edition of Data Driven HR Monthly. It's much appreciated: Jaqueline Oliveira-Cella Andrés García Ayala Kristhy Bartels Sandy Zou Danielle Farrell, M.A. David Hodges Jeff Wellstead Gord Johnston MA, BHJ, BA, CHRP Debbie Harrison Dave Millner Sharna Wiblen Aizhan Tursunbayeva, PhD, GRP Catriona Lindsay Amardeep Singh, MBA Walter Maes Marcano Gert-Jan Tretmans Tim Peffers Kouros Behzad Adam Tombor (Wojciechowski) Lewis Garrad Sebastian Szachnowski Bob Pulver John Golden, Ph.D. Ben Wigert, Ph.D, MBA Ken Oehler Alexis Fink Katia Simões Francisca Solano Beneitez Abbas Qaidari Onno Bouman Aravind Warrier Kathleen Kruse Adedamola Adeleke ☁️ Elodie MENAGER Susan Knolla John Healy David Simmonds FCIPD Andrews Cobbinah, MLPI, ACIHRM Deviprasad Panda Vanesa C. David McLean Timo Tischer Prachi Agasti Maria Alice Jovinski Tristan Hack Adam McKinnon, PhD. Nicole Hazard Michael Arena Andras Vicsek Jane Kuhn Emily Pelosi, PhD Malgorzata Langlois Ahmed Salah ?? Swechha Mohapatra (IHRP-SP, SHRM-SCP, CIPD) Paul Daley Kyle Forrest Shivaani Talesra Ryan Wong Shujaat Ahmad Tessa Hilson-Greener Vivek Ojha Jacob Nielsen Søren Kold Tobias W. Goers ツ Terri Horton, EdD, MBA, MA, SHRM-CP, PHR Galo Lopez Noriega Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi Alexandra Nawrat Marian Stancik Hanadi El Sayyed Marcela Niemeyer Higor Gomes Kirsten Edwards Andreea Lungulescu Bradford Williams Faiza Tasneem(Associate CIPD) Alysson DuPont, SHRM-SCP, MBA Dr. Peter Schulz-Rittich Joaquin Hernandez Doug Shagam Mariami Lolashvili Caitie Jacobson Jaap Veldkamp Jaejin Lee Yvonne Bell (She/Her) John Gunawan Roberto Amatucci Philipp Heller Tina Peeters, PhD Gianni Giacomelli Lina Makneviciute Roshaunda Green, MBA, CDSP, Phenom Certified Recruiter Jacob Bradburn, Ph.D. Ying Li Phil Inskip Jack Liu Jonathan Berríos Leiva Stephen Hickey Lars Schmidt Geetanjali Gamel Dan George Anabel Fall Alejandra Barbarelli Adam Gibson Mia Norgren David van Lochem Nick Lynn Silja Kupiainen Heather Whiteman, Ph.D. Meghan M. Biro Martijn Wiertz Agnes Garaba Dolapo (Dolly) Oyenuga Laurent Reich Sebastian Kolberg Sebastián Mestre Chris Long Penny Newman Ralf Buechsenschuss Sebastian Knepper Marcela Mury Joseph Frank, PhD CCP GWCCM Dave Fineman Ron Ben Oz Danielle Bushen Kimberly Rose Daorong Lin Sukumaran Mariappan Abhilash Bodanapu Sonia Mooney Kerrian Soong Jay Polaki⚡️ SHRM-SCP/SPHR Remco van Es Ken Clar Matt Elk Aulia Raubien Natalie Wiseman Graham Irene Wong David Balls (FCIPD) Olivier Bougarel Ramesh Karpagavinayagam Oliver Kasper Andrew Kilshaw Nick Hudgell Gal Mozes, PhD Tatu Westling Brandon Merritt Johnson
UNLOCK THE POTENTIAL OF YOUR PEOPLE ANALYTICS FUNCTION THROUGH THE INSIGHT222 PEOPLE ANALYTICS PROGRAM
At Insight222, our mission is to make organisations better by putting people analytics at the centre of business and upskilling the HR profession The Insight222 People Analytics Program® is your gateway to a world of knowledge, networking, and growth. Developed exclusively for people analytics leaders and their teams, the program equips you with the frameworks, guidance, learnings, and connections you need to create greater impact.
As the landscape of people analytics becomes increasingly complex, with data, technology, and ethical considerations at the forefront, our program brings together over one hundred organisations to collectively address these shared challenges.
Insight222 Peer Meetings, like this event in London, are a core component of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®. They allow participants to learn, network and co-create solutions together with the purpose of ultimately growing the business value that people analytics can deliver to their organisations. If you would like to learn more, contact us today.
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 90 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222, David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast and is an instructor for Insight222's myHRfuture Academy. His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar, Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value was published in the summer of 2021.
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 2024:
September 11 - Productivity, Purpose, and Profit: How to thrive in ‘25 (London)
September 16-19 - Workday Rising (Las Vegas)
September 24-26 - Insight222 Global Executive Retreat (Colorado, US) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
October 2-3 - People Analytics World (New York)
October 16-17 - UNLEASH World (Paris)
October 22-23 - Insight222 North American Peer Meeting (hosted by Workday in Pleasanton, CA) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
November 12-14 - Workday Rising EMEA (London)
November 19-20 - Insight222 European Peer Meeting (hosted by Merck in Darmstadt, Germany) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
More events will be added as they are confirmed.
专栏
2024年09月03日
专栏
Josh Bersin: With Thoughtful Design And Culture, Dropbox Proves Remote Work Is A WinnerDropbox, a company with a $7 billion market cap and over $2.5 billion in revenue, has adopted a "Virtual First" strategy in response to the pandemic, transforming its work model from lavish San Francisco offices to a remote-first approach. This shift was led by CEO Drew Houston and Chief People Officer Melanie Rosenwasser, moving away from an office-centric culture to enhance productivity and teamwork through remote work. The strategy includes home office stipends, Dropbox Studios for face-to-face interactions, and innovative meeting management services. Despite initial challenges, this approach has led to high employee satisfaction and a strong talent strategy, allowing Dropbox to thrive in a competitive tech landscape.
One of the most interesting tech companies we’ve studied is Dropbox, a $7 billion market cap rocket ship generating more than $2.5 billion in revenue. This kind of company, which sells a platform that competes with Microsoft, Google, and other major players, lives in a world of brutal competition: competition for product leadership, sales deals, and talent. And today, as AI engineers are in short supply, Dropbox has to attract the best and brightest to continue its growth.
In its early days, Dropbox was a typical San Francisco-based tech company with gourmet food, gorgeous offices, and a culture of lavish benefits. In the pre-pandemic 2010s this was the rage, and Dropbox became a hot place to work.
The pandemic upset that applecart. Not only did “work at home” obsolete the company’s real estate and gourmet investments, it forced the company to rethink its culture. The Chief People Officer, Melanie Rosenwasser, told me that the first few months of the pandemic were traumatic. Employees were upset by working at home and weren’t sure what the company stood for. She and Drew Houston, the CEO, had to rethink the whole operating model.
As Melanie described it to me, they took a risky, irreversible move. They decided to totally shift their operating model from that of “San Francisco gourmet offices” to “energized, empowered, team-based, remote work.” Not an easy decision.
Note that just this week Eric Schmidt, the ex-CEO and board member at Google, blamed Sundar Pichai for “remote work laziness” as cause for Google’s “falling behind in AI.” So the debate about remote work continues, and some of the most successful leaders still haven’t figured it out.
Well Drew, Melanie, and the Dropbox team placed a bet. Knowing that the pandemic had interrupted their campus investments, they dramatically shifted to a “Virtual First” strategy. And they told the company “we are moving away from an office-centric culture” and going to a model of remote-first work. And this included converting offices to Dropbox Studios as well as a carefully architected approach to teamwork, collaboration, and periodic face-to-face activity.
Rather than ask people to “come in 3 days a week” (this kind of policy bugs people because they drag themselves into the office just to zoom with others at home), they designed one of the most sophisticated approaches I’ve seen. Employees receive a generous stipend for home office improvements and the company now offers a series of programs, services, and tools to make team and personal productivity thrive.
While it seemed risky it worked exceedingly well. By holistically thinking about culture, management, teamwork, and productivity, the company developed a set of innovations that empower people to work at their best, meet with their teams at least one week per quarter, and come together when and where it makes sense. And this model, which looks like an HR innovation, became a business innovation that helps the company thrive.
While Dropbox lost a significant number of employees at first, now the company has one of the highest Glassdoor ratings in its industry (4.3, 85% recommend CEO, higher than Google). Dropbox wins awards for employment brand. And not only does Virtual First create productive operations, it helps the company build “tools for the new world of work,” which is where every company is going.
Work at home is complicated. In between dogs, kids, gardeners and delivery people we’re futzing with MS Teams, Zoom, Webex, Google Docs, and dozens of other tools. Most of them work well but they’re each different and inconsistent. Dropbox, as a “system designed for remote work” simplifies this enormously. Virtual First helps Dropbox test its products on itself.
Why has Virtual First succeeded? As Melanie and the team explains, the shift turbo-charged its talent strategy. Now Dropbox can hire people from any geography in the world (reducing labor cost) and they look for high-energy, passionate, high-performers (not employees who like the offices). Teamwork is stronger than ever.
I know, from our company, that this works well. We have 40+ people in our organization and we rely on frequent face-to-face meetings, an open culture, and tremendous amounts of training and communication to grow. Back when I ran our company in an office we hardly talked with each other unless we had a meeting. Things are much more collaborative and productive now.
Dropbox has proven this at scale.
You can read about Virtual First on the Dropbox website, but one of the innovations I want to point out is the company’s “concierge service” for meetings. (The Offsite Planning Team.)
When you as a leader want to have a meeting, this team helps you decide your objectives, reviews the outcomes you want to achieve, and then puts together a detailed plan (location, logistics, agenda, tools) to help you make it work. This removes enormous amounts of wasted time from managers and helps the company operate productively.
I cannot tell you how much time I’ve wasted “managing offsite meetings.” To have a seasoned, professional group that helps with this entire strategy in process is a godsend. For Dropbox, this team now knows precisely how the teams work and can continuously improve its consulting services to make sure face-to-face meetings are impactful. A “new manager introduction” meeting, for example, is different from a “get product ready for launch meeting” as you can imagine.
How does this apply to your company? Regardless of industry, I guarantee you have remote work teams. Many companies have front line workers (healthcare, retail, manufacturing, transportation) who have to locate with customers. But think about finance teams, IT teams, scientific teams, and HR. We all need productive remote work practices, and Dropbox has proven that a strategic focus on this area will pay off.
Melanie and I will be doing a webcast in the near future and she is joining us at our Irresistible 2025 Conference as well. Dropbox has taken the lead in this new world, and they want to share their learnings with all of us.
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