David Green : The best HR & People Analytics articles of April 2024
My highlight for April, and indeed of the year so far, was the People Analytics Worldconference in London. I first chaired the event in 2014, and over the last decade People Analytics World has established itself as the go-to event in Europe for the field.
The 2024 edition was sold out with close to 400 people attending across the two days (4x compared to 2014!). I had the privilege of co-chairing, along with Cole Napper and Michael M. Moon, PhD and also delivering the opening keynote on how leading companies deliver value with people analytics, based on our research at Insight222.
You can find the slides I shared in the keynote below. These include the results of three polls I ran with attendees at People Analytics World on (1) the current state of people analytics in their organisation, (2) the financial impact of people analytics in the last 12 months, and (3) the data literacy of HR professionals. Additionally, you can also access the Insight222 research I shared here.
The conference only ended a few days ago, but already many of the attendees have shared some of their key takeaways and learnings. Do check out the ones from Patrick Coolen (here), Giovanna Constant (here), Sebastian Knepper (here), Mariana Rossi Campos (here), Fatma Hedeya (here), Pietro Mazzoleni (here), Maria Manso Garcia (here), Ekkehard Ernst (here), Marcela Mury (here) and Jaejin Lee (here).
Finally on People Analytics World, congratulations to Barry Swales and the Tucana team for organising such a successful event, thank you to all those who attended the Insight222 dinner, visited the Insight222 stand and who took the time to interact with me over the two days. Lastly, thank you to all of the brilliant speakers and panellists in the Plenary sessions and Strategy track that I moderated: Richard Rosenow Ian Cook Sue Lam Rob Briner Peter Cheese Aizhan Tursunbayeva, PhD, GRP Abigail Gilbert Alexis Saussinan Michael Cox Gemma McNair David Shontz Amit Mohindra Clare Moncrieff Jo Thackray Lucie Vottova Andrew Elston Rob Etheridge Isabel Naidoo James Fenlon and Ekkehard Ernst.
People Analytics World 2024 | London
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Enjoy reading the collection of resources for April 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 March’s compendium (including those in the Thank You section below).
If you enjoy a weekly dose of curated learning (and the Digital HR Leaders podcast), the Insight222 newsletter: Digital HR Leaders newsletter is published every Tuesday – subscribe here.
HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
DIANE GHERSON AND LYNDA GRATTON - Highly Skilled Professionals Want Your Work But Not Your Job
Without question, there has been a huge shift. Many of the individuals we’re looking to attract—in technology, data sciences, machine learning, blockchain, and the internet of things—have a different mindset now. They want more-flexible working arrangements.
This quote from Peter Fasolo, Ph.D. chief human resources officer at Johnson & Johnson, perfectly captures the challenge that Diane Gherson and Lynda Grattonhighlight in their article for Harvard Business Review: more and more workers want to work as freelancers. As the article highlights, Gartner predict that independent workers will make up 35% to 40% of the global workforce by 2025. Moreover, one-third earn more than $150,000 per year, and just over half were providing knowledge services—such as computer programming, marketing, IT, and business consulting. Integrating and managing what this ‘blended workforce’ will be one of the main managerial challenges in the years ahead. Based on their interviews with executives at leading companies that are experimenting with how best to bring freelancers into their organisations, Diane and Lynda set out some guidance and highlight emerging management practices that forward-looking companies are embracing. These include: (1) Helping freelancers understand and embrace company culture. (2) Following rigorous practices to retain institutional knowledge. (3) Adopting a ‘sponsor’ mindset to guide freelancers’ performance. (4) Leveraging digital workflows and building trust to manage changes in project needs.
FIG 1: The Emerging Blended Workforce (Source: Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton)
LEILA HOTEIT, ANTON STEPANENKO, PAVEL LUKSHA, SAGAR GOEL, AND LEONID GORENBURG - The Next 50 Years of Work
Contrary to popular fears that the future will offer fewer work opportunities for people, most experts anticipate that rewarding work options will be plentiful.
The key finding of a recent BCG study is that workforce experts anticipate that jobs will flourish over the next fifty years, with four boundaries framing the future growth of the economy (see FIG 2). The study, authored by Leila Hoteit Anton Stepanenko Pavel Luksha Sagar Goel and Leonid Gorenburgalso highlights bionic skills (e.g. tech literacy, data-driven decision making, AI-enhanced creativity, and ease with human-machine collaboration) and creativity as the skills that will be in highest demand. But to complement these skills, workers should also cultivate adaptability and the ability to take initiative.
FIG 2: The four boundaries within which the future economy will grow (Source: BCG)
ETHAN MOLLICK - Reinventing the Organization for GenAI and LLMs
Consider this an early eulogy for the traditional organizational structure, which began in 1855 with the first modern organizational chart and thrived, more or less successfully, until the 2020s, when it succumbed to a new technology, the large language model (LLM).
That’s the bold claim by Ethan Mollick in his compulsive article in MIT Sloan Management Review. While he concedes that previous waves of technology have ushered in innovations that have strengthened traditional organisational structures, Mollick makes the case that GenAI and LLMs are different. He then outlines three principles for reorganising work around AI: (1) Identify and enlist your current AI users. (2) Let teams develop their own methods. (3) Build for the not-so-distant future. If you enjoy this article, I recommend subscribing to Mollick’s One Useful Thing blog.
BCG - What GenAI’s Top Performers Do Differently
The top GenAI performers have the biggest lead across five main capabilities: a clear link to business performance, modern technology infrastructure, strong data capabilities, leadership support, and a grounding in responsible AI.
While GenAI is becoming an integral part of business ecosystems, only 10% of companies have mastered scaling GenAI to create value and secure other benefits from this transformative technology (see FIG 3). That’s according to recent research by BCG, which finds that 10% of companies lead in five key areas: (1) a clear link to business performance, (2) modern technology infrastructure, (3) strong data capabilities, (4) leadership support, and (5) a grounding in responsible AI. A helpful read for HR leaders as they think how HR can lead organisational transformation in the age of AI as well as incorporate the technology into HR programs too. (Authors: Amanda Luther Romain de Laubier Nicolas de Bellefonds Tauseef Charanya Suraj Shah Kevin Nnaemeka Ifiora and Patrick Forth)
FIG 3: Three categories of companies in relation to GenAI adoption (Source: BCG)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
PATRICK COOLEN - The 10 golden rules for establishing a people analytics practice
A successful people analytics practice starts with the right people analytics leader
Patrick Coolen’s first iteration of his ’10 golden rules for people analytics’ (one prescient ‘rule’ was to combine strategic workforce planning and analytics) was published in 2014 when he was in the early stages of building the function at ABN Amro. A decade on, Patrick updates his seminal article, with insights from his own career journey, Ph.D research, and the evolution of the field itself. As ever, Patrick is right on the mark with his ten selections including these three: (1) The people analytics leader can make the difference, (2) Create a clear people analytics operating model, and (3) Upskill HR in data-driven decision making.
PIETRO MAZZOLENI - Mastering data governance for effective people data platforms: lessons from what we did at IBM
Data Governance is the process that ensures the availability, usability, integrity, and security of data in enterprise systems
Pietro Mazzoleni shares the three key elements related to ‘governance-by-design’ that together provided the fundamental principles underlying the design and implementation of Workforce360, IBM’s people data platform. In the article, Pietro presents the three elements – trust, transparency and compliance (see FIG 4) – and provides a detailed description of each.
FIG 4: Key governance questions to consider when designing a people data platform (Source: Pietro Mazzoleni)
JASDEEP KAREER - The Importance of Data and Upskilling in Driving Growth
Jasdeep Kareer, PhD (née Bhambra) shares key learnings from the recent Peer Meeting for North American member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which was hosted by Colgate-Palmolive in their global headquarters in New York. The Peer Meeting, which was attended by more than 60 people analytics leaders and practitioners from more than 40 companies was framed on the key findings from the Insight222 People Analytics Trends study for 2023. In her article, Jas highlights five themes from the Peer Meeting: (1) The importance of data and upskilling in driving growth (with insights from Sally Massey). (2) How strategic partnerships and data governance pave the way for successful People Analytics initiatives (with insights from Courtney McMahon Pavel Nouel and Nayana Pai). (3) How insights-driven decision-making and storytelling can drive impactful outcomes in People Analytics (with insights from Durrell Blake Robinson and Mona Routray). (4) Factors influencing the adoption of people analytics (with insights from Patrick Coolen and Brydie Lear). (5) Influencing senior stakeholders with people analytics (with insights from Piyush Mathur). If you would like to learn more about our People Analytics Program, contact us today.
FIG 5: 8 Characteristics of Leading Companies. (Source: Insight222 People Analytics Trends Report 2023)
BURAK BAKKALOGLU – Deploying GenAI in HR | KEITH MCNULTY – How I Created an AI Version of Myself | KATE GUARINO - How to Turn ChatGPT into Your Personal Consultant: A 5-Step Approach | NATALIA GORMANN - Improving Employee Experience with a Solid Data Strategy | PATRICK GALLAGHER - Is It Time to Stop Measuring Employee Engagement?
In recent editions of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I’ve been featuring a collection of articles by current and recent people analytics leaders. These act as a spur and inspiration to the field. Five are highlighted here. (1) Burak Bakkaloglu dedicates an edition of his If Interested blog to the topic of GenAI including breaking down three layers of GenAI for HR (see FIG 6). (2) Keith McNulty provides a tutorial (including code) on how he built a 'Keith-bot' to answer questions on statistics based on the content of his regression textbook, using a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture. (3) Katie Guarino also provides a practical framework on how to use ChatGPT as your personal consultant and coach on any topic, regardless of your expertise in it. (4) Natalia Gormann discusses challenges for people teams to build partnerships with finance before guidance on how to build an effective data strategy to support employee experience strategies. (5) Patrick Gallagher looks at the case for and against measuring employee engagement, concluding that organisations with mature employee listening and PA functions just don’t need it anymore.
FIG 6: Three layers of GenAI in HR (Source: Burak Bakkaloglu)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
VINCENT BÉRUBÉ, BEN FOGARTY, NEEL GANDHI, RAHUL MATHEW, MARINO MUGYAR-BALDOCCHI, AND CHARLOTTE SEILEROUTLINE - Increasing your return on talent: The moves and metrics that matter
An organization that views its employees as its most important resource can maximize its return on talent by following a holistic strategy—with HR in the driver’s seat.
Drawing on McKinsey research that finds companies that put talent at the centre of their business strategy realise higher total shareholder returns than their competitors, Vincent Bérubé Ben Fogarty Neel Gandhi Rahul Mathew Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi and Charlotte Seiler outline five actions organisations can take to maximise their return on talent. The five actions are: (1) Build a skills-based strategic workforce planning capability. (2) Create a hiring engine that brings in the right talent to fill critical roles. (3) Invest in learning and development. ((4) Establish a stellar performance-oriented culture. (5) Elevate HR’s operating model to become a true talent steward.
FIG 7: Factors that drag down employee and organisational productivity (Source: McKinsey)
PETER CAPPELLI AND RANYA NEHMEH – HR’s New Role
If leaders realized that the true cost of turnover is often a multiple of an employee’s annual salary, they would immediately demand changes.
In their thoughtful article for Harvard Business Review, Peter Cappelli and Ranya Nehmeh set out the case for the HR function to return to its roots as employee advocates. They argue that in a period of low unemployment and labour supply shortages, focusing on cost-cutting and restructuring is counterproductive and the onus should instead be on retention and preventing burnout. To realise this, HR needs to change outdated policies on compensation, training and development, layoffs, vacancies, outsourcing, and restructuring. Cappelli and Nehmeh recommend the first step should be for HR to create dashboards with metrics on the true costs of turnover, absenteeism, reasons for quitting, illness rates, and employee engagement. They contend that: “If leaders realized that the true cost of turnover is often a multiple of an employee’s annual salary, they would immediately demand changes." They also outline guidance on why and how to measure employee stress – particularly with regards to AI and restructuring. The article also provides examples of companies with HR functions that are moving to an employee advocacy approach. These include the likes of Walmart and Neiman Marcus (both on compensation and reward), as well as IBM and Unilever (both internal talent mobility).
DAVE ULRICH - Upgrading HR Professionals: How to Develop HR Professionals so They Rise to Their Opportunity
HR matters. Now more than ever.
In a recent article from his Human Capability Impact LinkedIn newsletter, Dave Ulrich explains why HR functions and professionals are rising in importance, and then lays out a playbook, process and assessment designed to develop HR professionals so they can fulfil expectations and rise to the opportunity (see FIG 8).
FIG 8: Summary and assessment of ways to upgrade HR professionals (Source: Dave Ulrich)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
NICK VAN DER MEULEN, OLGERTA TONA, AND DOROTHY E. LEIDNER – Resolving Workforce Skills Gaps with AI-Powered Insights
As Christina Norris-Watts and Doug Shagam shared with me in an episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, Johnson & Johnson has used AI-driven skills inference as part of their skills transformation (see: How Johnson & Johnson are Scaling Their Skills-Based Approach to Talent). In their paper for MIT, Nick van der Meulen Olgerta Tona and Dorothy Leidner provide an in-depth case study on Johnson & Johnson to demonstrate how skills inference can provide detailed insight into workforce skills gaps and thereby guide employees’ career development and leaders’ strategic workforce planning. The paper includes a detailed description of the three steps of the skills inference process (see FIG 9). The sections in the paper on employee trust, privacy and use cases are particularly instructional for companies looking to emulate this work in their organisations.
FIG 9: The three steps of the skills inference process (Source: MIT Center for Information Systems Research)
JORDAN PETTMAN - Workforce Planning: A Beginner's Guide to Strategic Success
Jordan Pettman, one of my many talented colleagues at Insight222, shares some tips and guidance for practitioners looking to start or accelerate their workforce planning efforts. He highlights the Nine Dimensions for Excellence in Strategic Workforce Planning model we use with clients at Insight222 (see FIG 10), explaining that you need to consider each of the decision points that the model presents in terms of getting the foundations right, ensuring your resources are fit for purpose and that you deliver value out of the cycle for the business and employees. Jordan also shares insights from the likes of Jonas Ottiger and Gergo Safar as part of his guidance on two key elements: workforce planning essentials and building skills-based workforce planning.
FIG 10: Nine Dimensions for Excellence in Stategic Workforce Planning (Source: Insight222)
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
EMILY KILLHAM - From Insight to Action: New Data on the State of Employee Listening (Article) | The State of Employee Listening 2024 (Report)
(Leading firms ensure) listening efforts are aimed at the most important business and talent priorities facing their organizations today.
Emily Killham highlights the key findings from Perceptyx’s third annual State of Employee Listening report, which is informed by survey of more than 750 senior HR leaders from global firms with at least 1,000 employees. These include: (1) 78% of firms surveyed conduct some kind of listening event at least once a quarter, compared to 70% in 2023 and 60% in 2022. (2) Nearly 40% of organisations can share listening data with managers within two weeks. (3) When compared with their peers, the most mature listening organisations are 6x more likely to exceed financial targets, 9x more likely to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, 4x more likely to retain talent, even during times of high attrition, 7x more likely to adapt well to change, and 7x more likely to innovate effectively.
FIG 11: Employee Listening Maturity (Source: Perceptyx)
NICK LYNN - Trust and Distrust: Why and how you may need to tackle both
Building trust is not always sufficient, you may also need to tackle the causes of distrust. The problems are not always the same. They may sometimes require different solutions.
Nick Lynn constructs a wonderful treatise on ‘trust’ and ‘distrust’ in organisations and offers potential solutions to build the former and tackle the latter. Through analysing four models to build trust, Nick identifies some common ingredients including: communication, consistency, integrity, fairness, empathy, and psychological safety. When it comes to tackling distrust, he assembles four elements of organisational health: work, total rewards, people, and purpose into a framework of employee experience leadership (see FIG 12).
FIG 12: Driving employee experience through connection and contribution (Source: Nick Lynn)
STEPHANIE DENINO, TIMO TISCHER, AND DAVID GREEN - Moving Towards Excellence in EX Management
In the January edition of Data-Driven HR Monthly, I highlighted the fascinating report State of EX 2023-24 study, published by The EXchange, Inc, TI PEOPLE and FOUNT Global, Inc. In this article, for myHRfuture, I interview Stephanie Denino and Timo Tischer, two of the contributors to the study. We dig into what constitutes ‘excellence’ in EX management, the barriers and how to overcome them, and the priorities for EX teams in 2024 (see FIG 13). Stephanie and Timo also provide tips for organisations looking to manage EX more deliberately, which includes: (1) Identifying the moments that matter, (2) Measuring and listening continuously to people’s experiences across these moments, and (3) Clarifying responsibilities (who ‘owns’ which journeys, moments and/or touchpoints) to ensure accountability, and improving high importance / low satisfaction moments.
FIG 13: Top five priorities for EX teams in 2024 (Source: State of EX 2023-24 study)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND INCLUSION
ANNA BINDER - Build Your Culture Like a Product
Anna Binder, Asana's Head of People, shares her step-by-step guide to intentionally building the company culture, which has helped Asana scale from 100 to over 2,000 employees during the last eight years. The article includes tips on building a people strategy from the ground-up, constructing a culture pyramid to supercharge your organisation (see FIG 14), how to bring conscious leadership to the executive suite, and building trust. A highly insightful and practical guide.
FIG 14: The pyramid of company culture (Source: Anna Binder)
ARNAUD CHEVALLIER, FRÉDÉRIC DALSACE, AND JEAN-LOUIS BARSOUX - The Art of Asking Smarter Questions
Advances in AI have caused a seismic shift from a world in which answers were crucial to one in which questions are. The big differentiator is the ability to craft smart prompts.
The ability to ask great questions is a powerful skill for unlocking value – especially in the age of AI. As such, the cover article of the current edition of the Harvard Business Review by Arnaud Chevallier Frédéric Dalsace and Jean-Louis Barsoux of IMD Business School is well worth digging into. The authors provide a typology of five topics of questions to ask during strategic decision making: (1) investigative, (2) speculative, (3) productive, (4) interpretive, and (5) subjective (see FIG 15). The article also includes a self-assessment that enables readers to evaluate the types of questions that are their strong and weak points, and then provides guidance to help you improve. From completing the assessment myself, it seems I need to work on my subjective questioning technique.
FIG 15: What’s your question mix? (Source: Chevallier et al)
CHRISTIAN HAUDE, IVO BLOHM, AND XAVIER LAGARDÈRE - How Lufthansa Shapes Data-Driven Transformation Leaders
Effective data leaders bridge a crucial gap that still exists in too many organizations. These leaders play a key role in transforming organizations that are leveraging data and AI to increase business value.
An excellent example from Lufthansa on how they created a program to educate leaders on data leadership, and how it provided insights on the roles that people play in data-driven change. In their article, Christian Haude Ivo Blohm and Xavier Lagardere outline the challenge the program was designed to solve, the six different roles for data leaders that were defined (see FIG 16), details of the three training modules: Spark, Inspire and Activate, and four key strategies for success.
FIG 16: Data Leadership: Six key roles (Source: Haude et al)
SHARNA WIBLEN AND DAVID GREEN - Rethinking Talent Decisions and Navigating Subjectivity in HR
Accumulating deliberate, intentional, and informed decisions can unleash exponential returns.
In her book, Rethinking Talent Decisions, Sharna Wiblen highlights an uncomfortable truth: Talent decisions are always subjective. As such, I was delighted to explore this in more depth with Sharna in an article for myHRfuture. In the article, Sharna, an Assistant Professor and Senior Lecturer at Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong, unpacks the nuanced role of subjectivity in talent decisions and the symbiotic relationship between technology and human judgment in the workplace. The uncomfortable truth is that decisions about talent are invariably coloured by personal perceptions, and instead of shying away, Sharna argues that we should lean into this discomfort to emerge with more informed and nuanced strategies.
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 April that I recommend readers delve into:
FRANZ GILBERT, MATTHEW SHANNON, AND ERIN SPENCER - 2024 HR tech predictions: Headless platforms place HR tech in the flow of work – The Deloitte Human Capital Forward team of Franz Gilbert Matthew Shannon and Erin Spencer outline the key HR technology trends they believe will drive innovation in the field in 2024 (see FIG 17).
FIG 17: HR technology trends primed to innovate further in 2024 (Source: Deloitte)
JARED SPATARO, KATHLEEN HOGAN, AND CHRIS FERNANDEZ - Our Year with Copilot: What Microsoft Has Learned About AI at Work - Senior leaders at Microsoft, including Jared Spataro Kathleen Hogan and Christopher J. Fernandezshare insights, learnings and guidance from their experience of using Copilot. For example, Hogan reveals:
Our HR service professionals are able to handle employee inquiries more efficiently. So far we are seeing a 26 percent reduction in initial response time thanks to Copilot.
CATHERINE COPPINGER - Manager Effectiveness: It’s Time for a New Playbook – Catherine Coppinger shares Worklytics research on how companies can understand and improve manager effectiveness. Insights include the impact of isolation on ‘quiet quitting’ and how low manager engagement is a big predictor of isolation (see FIG 18). For more, please listen to Catherine’s discussion with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How to enhance manager effectiveness.
FIG 18: Source - Worklytics
FRANCISCO MARIN - The Role of AI-Powered Passive Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) in Mitigating Burnout, Absenteeism, and Turnover Risk – Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions explains how ONA has emerged as a critical tool in identifying and mitigating the risks of burnout, absenteeism, and turnover.
ANDREW PITTS AND CHAD MITCHELL - Mapping and Understanding the Connections Between SIOP 2024 Conference Presenters – Andrew Pitts and Chad Mitchell provide a practical example of ONA by utilising Polinode to understand and map the connections of the presenters at the recent Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) 2024 conference in Chicago.
PODCASTS OF THE MONTH
In another month of high-quality podcasts, I’ve selected four gems for your aural pleasure: (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):
ANDREW STRAUSS AND MATT ALDER - Talent Lessons From Elite Sport – I’ll happily admit to some green-eyed envy towards Matt Alder for the coup of getting former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss onto his Recruiting Future podcast to discuss what elite sports can teach business about leadership.
JOHANNES SUNDLO AND LARS SCHMIDT - Practical Use Cases for Generative AI in Human Resources – Johannes Sundlo joins Lars Schmidt on his Redefining Work podcast to dig into use cases for GenAI in HR including in learning and compensation.
MALISSA CLARK AND CURT NICKISCH - Companies Can Win by Reducing Overwork - Malissa Clark, associate professor and head of the Healthy Work Lab at the University of Georgia, joins Curt Nickisch on HBR IdeaCast to explain how companies unwittingly create a workaholic culture, and what they can do to change this.
ALAN COLQUITT, COLE NAPPER AND SCOTT HINES - Is Performance Management Fine, Or Rotten To The Core? – An interesting discussion ensues as Alan Colquitt, Ph.D. joins hosts Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD to discuss the pros and cons of performance management.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
ANNA TAVIS AND WOODY WOODWARD - The Digital Coaching Revolution: How to Support Employee Development with Coaching Tech
According to Anna A. Tavis, PhD, and Dr. Woody Woodward, PhD, PCC: “Digital coaching is transforming employee experience and the future of work as we know it.” In their book, The Digital Coaching Revolution, they provide guidance on how to scale digital coaching in your organisation – whether the C-suite is already on board or not. The book features case studies from the likes of Visa, CVS, and Hilton, and is a recommended resource for HR, EX, and L&D professionals looking to understand and/or roll digital coaching within their companies.
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
ROB BRINER – Evidence-Based HR: A New Paradigm
Evidence-based HR (EBHR) is a process which delivers more informed and hence more accurate answers to two fundamental questions: first, which are the most important problems (or opportunities) facing the organisation which are relevant to HR? Second, which solutions (or interventions) are most likely to help?
These are the opening words to a recently published report from the Corporate Research Forum (CRF), authored by Rob Briner, on Evidence-Based HR (EBHR). The report tackles, the why, what, and how of EBHR, explains why it is not the same as people analytics, provides case studies from Thales, Uber and the Financial Conduct Authority, and provides a practical toolkit for practitioners on the EBHR process (see FIG 19). For more, have a listen to Rob speaking to me in a recent episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast: What is evidence-based HR and why is it important?
FIG 19: The Evidence-Based HR Process (Source: Rob Briner, Corporate Research Forum)
FROM MY DESK
April saw three episodes from Series 38 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, sponsored by our friends at Worklytics - thank you to Philip Arkcoll and Laura Morris, as well as a round-up of series 37:
NICKLE LAMOREAUX - How IBM Uses AI to Transform Their HR Strategies – Nickle LaMoreaux, CHRO at IBM, joins me to share how IBM is harnessing AI to transform HR practices, drive business outcomes, and elevate employee experience. One of the examples Nickle shares is IBM’s digital worker, HiRo, which takes on the manual, repetitive tasks of data gathering during our quarterly promotions process and in 2023 saved IBM managers 50,000 hours.
COLE NUSSBAUMER-KNAFLIC - How HR Professionals can Master Storytelling with Data - Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic joins me for a deeply insightful conversation on the transformative power of storytelling in the context of people data and analytics.
CATHERINE COPPINGER – How to Use Passive Data to Enhance Manager Effectiveness - Catherine Coppinger, Head of Customer Insight at Worklytics joins me to discuss her recent research on manager effectiveness, which includes discussion on the impact of network density, team size, and span of control on team and manager effectiveness.
DAVID GREEN - How can HR help create a thriving organisational culture? - A round-up of series 37 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, with insights from episodes featuring Rebecca Thielen Dorie Clark Didier Elzinga Rob Briner Louise Millar and Olivia Edwards.
LOOKING FOR A NEW ROLE IN PEOPLE ANALYTICS OR HR TECH?
’d like to highlight once again the wonderful resource created by Richard Rosenow and the One Model team of open roles in people analytics and HR technology, which now numbers over 550 roles.
THANK YOU
Reem Janho, JD Michael Griffiths Obed Garcia-Colato Kim Eberbach and the rest of the Deloitte team for inviting me to speak at their Workforce Innovation Forumat the Deloitte University in Texas.
Olimpiusz Papiez for sharing his key learnings on advancing your career in people analytics (with insights from the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Serena H. Huang, Ph.D.), on how to quantify the impact of a thriving company culture (with insights from the episode with Didier Elzinga), and on IBM’s HiRo digital assistant (with inisghts from the episode with Nickle LaMoreaux)
Luis Miguel González Soriano for posting about Excellence in People Analytics.
Juliette Matharan for writing about Excellence in People Analytics, and Arnaud COULON for recommending the book to Juliette.
Ancile Digital for including my quote on how HR can harness AI in its post on the best advice for HR professionals.
Mirro.io for featuring me as one of their top HR thought leaders to follow in 2024.
Employ.com for also featuring me as one of their top 16 HR influencers to follow on LinkedIn.
Ganesh Iyer for including the Digital HR Leaders podcast in his list of 25 HR leadership podcasts to subscribe to.
Thomas Otter for endorsing the Digital HR Leaders podcast here.
Kevin Green for recommending series 37 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast.
Thomas Kohler for including the March edition of Data Driven HR in his round-up of recommended HR resources.
Yen Dang for including the Data-Driven HR Monthly in her top 3 newsletters for HR professionals.
Neha Asthana for including me in her group of HR thought leaders and influencers.
Caroline Arora and JooBee Yeow, PhD for recommending me on Mark Shortall’s list of content creators in the people and talent space.
Lars Schmidt for also the Data-Driven HR Monthly (this newsletter!) in his excellent list of HR newsletters to subscribe to.
To the following people who sharing the March edition of Data Driven HR Monthly. It's much appreciated: David Simmonds FCIPD Hafiz Adam Hanafi Reshma Mawji Hakki Ozdenoren Jo Iwasaki Aravind Warrier Katrina A. Stevens, CHRE Muhammad Firdaus Chrechen Jeja Kouros Behzad Arin Buawatthana Abid Hamid Robert Rogowski Terri Horton, EdD, MBA, MA, SHRM-CP, PHR Anvita Patnaik Paola Valerin Francisca Solano Beneitez Beverly Tarulli, Ph.D. Nicola Vogel Alexander S. Locher Kingsley Taylor Jacqui Brassey, PhD, MA, MAfN (née Schouten) Ralf Buechsenschuss Aysegul Tigli Philipe Ferreira Jane Datta Malgorzata (GOSIA) LANGLOIS Karen Edelman Indre Radzeviciute Hallie Bregman, PhD Adam McKinnon, PhD. Amanda Painter Adam Tombor (Wojciechowski) Chris Lovato Nabil Dewsi Tatu Westling Kristina Schoemmel Janeen Rabinowitz Susan Knolla Dan George Catriona Lindsay Patricia Carmona Ulrich E. Basler Caitie Jacobson Warren Howlett Jackson C. Trent Melissa Hopper Fritz Ankit Saxena, MBA Martha Curioni Anna Nord ?? Amardeep Singh, MBA Irada Sadykhova Christina Bui Higor Gomes Tanya Pastor Danielle Bushen Nicole Lettich Ken Clar Kerrian Soong Laurent Reich Stephen Hickey Olivier Bougarel Jana Glogowski Marcela Mury Tina Peeters, PhD Aimee Wilkinson Ludek Stehlik, Ph.D. Phil Inskip Adam Gibson Daniel Bosman Todd Tauber Violeta Lennon Soojeong Bae Aurélie Crégut.
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.
SEE 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:
June 4-5 - Insight222 European Peer Meeting (hosted by Nestlé in Vevey, Switzerland) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
June 25-26 - Insight222 North American Peer Meeting (Minneapolis, US) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
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 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05月02日
专栏
是时候重塑人才招聘了 -Research Shows It’s Time To Reinvent Talent AcquisitionJosh Bersin 的文章 "研究表明，是时候重塑人才招聘了 "强调了人才招聘亟需进行的变革。由于只有 32% 的人力资源高管参与战略规划，而且许多人觉得自己只是个接单员，因此这篇文章呼吁进行战略改革。在劳动力短缺和急需技能型招聘的情况下，目前削减成本和减少招聘力度的方法与对技能型专业人才日益增长的需求相矛盾。文章敦促企业将人才招聘作为一项重要的战略职能，利用现代技术并将其与学习和发展相结合，以提高效率并关注内部人才流动。
原文如下：
This week we published a disappointing research study, Talent Acquisition at a Crossroads. The study, conducted in partnership with AMS, points out that talent acquisition leaders (this is a senior position) are largely left out of their company’s strategic planning process and many feel they operate as “order takers.”
In today’s world of labor and skills shortages, this is a wakeup call for change.
Here’s the data:
Among these 130+ HR executives only 32% are involved in any form of strategic workforce planning, 42% believe their company has no workforce plan at all, and 46% say “they’re running around to keep up.” And when layoffs do occur, often the recruiters go first. (Witness Tesla this week.)
All this is happening in a world where 58% of companies feel skills shortages are significantly impacting their business plans, more than three-quarters believe they must transform their talent practices to grow, and “skills-based hiring” is a top priority yet difficult to implement.
Here’s the paradox: companies are cutting their talent acquisition spending at the same time CEOs feel that skills shortages are getting worse. What’s going on?
Talent Acquisition Needs A Reinvention
Let’s just face it: recruiting as a business function has to change. Once considered the “staffing department,” where companies posted jobs and scanned resumes, talent acquisition has become highly strategic operation. What skills do we need? How do we find people who will fit our culture? What internal candidates should fill our key positions? Who are the right leaders for us to hire?
Unfortunately, almost 80% of talent acquisition functions are quite tactical. PwC’s CEO survey found that CEOs rate “hiring” as the third most bureaucratic process in their companies, tied with “too many emails” and “too many meetings” as a time-wasting process. And that explains why two-thirds of TA leaders are being asked to cut costs.
I had a conversation last week with a former TA leader for one of the Big Three automakers. He told me that in the fervor to hire staff for EV engineering he was asked to hire “any engineer he could find, regardless of skill,” because the company was in such a hurry. No time for skills assessment, competitive planning, or even location analysis. Just “go out there and hire engineers.”
We have been studying the auto industry as part of our GWI study and found that important EV roles (reliability engineer or power plant engineer, for example), are quite specialized and hard to find. Strategic recruiting departments need to understand these roles and source these individuals carefully. Just hiring engineering grads from a local community college is not going to move this needle.
(Consider the data by Draup on what these roles are. Talent Acquisition teams with talent intelligence skills can pinpoint who to hire.)
And it gets worse. In our Dynamic Organization research we found that high performing companies focus heavily on internal hiring, talent intelligence tools to find hidden talent, and continuous internal development to fill skills gaps. We can’t simply throw job requisitions over to the recruiting function any more: the people we need may be buried inside the company.
This week Tesla announced a layoff of 10% of their workforce. Was their time to balance and redeploy talent internally? Absolutely not. According to my sources every business unit had to let 10% go, and and many of the people being fired were talent acquisition leaders, the very people who help with these issues.
We talk with many HR executives and there is an enlightened group. Companies that understand this issue (about one in eight) have elevated Talent Acquisition to a strategic function, they merge or integrate TA with L&D, and they redefine their recruiters as “talent advisors.” Mastercard, as a leader, just renamed their recruiters as “Career Coaches,” demonstrating their role in helping people find the right jobs.
Despite the onslaught of AI, this role is becoming even more human-centric. High-powered recruiting teams source internal candidates, understand company culture, and have a deep knowledge of jobs, roles, and organizational dynamics. When well supported and trained, these professionals are strategic advisors, not just “recruiters.” And companies that understand this often outsource or automate much of the administration in recruiting.
Technology plays a major role in this reinvention. Most large companies have dozens of legacy systems, many of which make the candidate experience difficult. When organizations focus on modernizing and streamlining their technology, talent acquisition can become 10-100X more efficient. This, in turn, gives recruiters and talent advisors the time to search for the right skills, carefully select the best candidates, and focus on internal hiring and development as a strategy.
Technology Is Here But Not The Entire Answer
Of all the HR technology markets, recruiting is the most innovative of all. New AI-powered systems like HiredScore (just acquired by Workday), Paradox (leader in conversational AI), Eightfold, Gloat, Draup, and Lightcast (pioneers in talent intelligence), and many others can reduce time to hire from months to weeks and weeks to days. But none of this technology works if the Talent Acquisition team is left on an island.
In the last year I have met with more than 50 heads of talent acquisition and once the door is closed and we talk honestly, they always tell me the same thing. “We are not treated as a strategic function, we are being asked to cut costs, and we are constantly running from fire to fire to keep executives happy.” This type of “service-delivery” focus simply will not work in the new economy.
What should companies do? As part of our Systemic HR initiative, we help companies evolve their TA Function to operate in a more strategic way. Organizations like Bayer, Verizon, and many others have elevated the role of recruiter to talent advisor, they’re building skills in talent intelligence, and they’re integrating the recruiting function with L&D, career management, and employee engagement.
I’ve always felt that recruiting is the most important things HR professionals do. If we can’t get the “right” people into the company, no amount of management can recover. But what does “right” mean? And how can we source, locate, and attract these particular people?
This is a highly strategic operation, and one that must integrate with internal mobility, culture, and employee experience. I encourage you to read our Systemic HR research, join our Academy, or reach out to us or AMS for advice. In this new era of talent and skills shortages, we simply cannot run recruiting in this tactical way any longer.
专栏
2024年04月24日
专栏
Josh Bersin 谈Workday的创新论坛：Why I’m Bullish On Workday Again: The Innovation Summit本周Workday创新峰会揭示了公司由产品主导向市场主导的战略转型。Workday一直以云技术为核心，自主开发了面向对象的数据系统和全球安全架构。然而，随着市场的演进和竞争的加剧，公司在新任CEO Carl Eschenbach的领导下，开始转向市场导向的商业模式。
在这次转型中，Workday开始拓宽其业务模型，更加开放地与合作伙伴合作。公司不再限制API的使用和合作伙伴的接入，而是致力于构建一个像苹果iPhone那样的开放平台，允许更多的行业应用集成到其系统中。这一策略旨在提供更加灵活和综合的企业解决方案，以适应不同行业的需求。
同时，Workday也大力投入到人工智能技术的开发中，推出了基于企业自有数据的微型机器学习模型（micro-LLMs），并在全球范围内调整这些模型以满足本地客户的需求。此外，Workday正在将其人才智能市场向外扩展，通过与多个行业解决方案提供商的合作，强化其在健康护理和金融等领域的业务。
AI技术的应用不仅仅限于技术层面的改进，Workday还通过这些技术优化了用户体验，使得各种任务的完成变得更加便捷。例如，在Workday平台上，用户可以看到AI图标，通过点击即可获得智能辅助完成工作。
在人才管理方面，Workday引入了许多新功能，如智能工作架构中心（Intelligent Job Architecture Hub）以及加强的Workday人才市场，这些都是为了帮助企业简化和改进职位描述和技能需求。
此外，Workday的领导层也展现出了更开放和实用的态度，这对公司未来的发展是一个积极的信号。总的来说，Workday的这一系列战略调整，旨在更好地适应快速变化的市场需求，提高公司的竞争力和市场份额。
Josh Bersin 写了这篇文章，强烈推荐给大家了解下：以下是中英文的供参考
This week I attended the Workday Innovation Summit and there’s a lot to discuss. Having just celebrated its 19th birthday, the company is embarking on a major transformation . And it’s not just product innovation that’s happening, the company is greatly expanding its business model.
Workday Has Been A Product Led Company
Much of Workday’s success goes back to its focus on being “born for the cloud.” Rather than build business apps in a typical database-centric architecture, Workday developed its own object-oriented data system, integrated workflow system, and global security architecture from scratch. Nobody knew the cloud would be so big nor that we’d have “superscalers” like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon as platforms. Nor could we predict the advent of global data governance, AI, or data and apps distributed across thousands of servers.
Well Workday, led by Aneel Bhusri, pulled this off. And not only did they sell architecture, they sold “the Power of One.” In Workday, unlike other ERP business systems, all the applications were designed to work together. No acquisitions, no integrations, no open systems: just a beautifully designed, easy-to-use, scalable enterprise application. (I noted that it reminded me of the i-Phone at the time: beautiful, easy to use, and closed.)
This “beautiful walled garden” served Workday well. While Oracle, SAP, and other vendors struggled to redesign their client-server apps and acquire missing pieces, Workday grew like wildfire and is now a global ERP vendor with more than $7.3 Billion in recurring revenue, 10,000+ enterprise and mid-market customers, and a brand known for trust, customer focus, and quality. And all this happened with a founding team that was largely still in place.
Last year Workday’s co-founder and CEO Aneel Bhusri decided it was time to step back and the company brought in Carl Eschenbach to be CEO. And now things are starting to change. The company is becoming a “markets-led” business.
The “product-led” focus for Workday was both good and bad. Workday was not easy to integrate, there were few APIs for developers, and the company limited its partners. As part of its mission to be pure, Workday prevented many vendors from “partnering” and forced integrators to pay large fees and certify dedicated teams. This “scarcity” strategy created high demand and high prices, and customers actually appreciated it.
All was good, until things started to change. Today, with many competing vendors at all levels of the ERP stack, Workday is becoming more pragmatic. And as I’ll explain below, they’re changing their message from “The Power of One” to “Workday is a Platform.”
Workday Is Becoming A Markets-Led Company
The HCM and Financials market is complex. There are dozens of sub-markets, application areas, and industry solutions to address. An HR system designed for a large hospital system is unlikely to need the same features as a system for a global insurance company. So Workday started to realize its system, while integrated and highly functional, couldn’t keep up.
And within HR itself there are hundreds of vendors who sell recruiting tools, career systems, learning platforms, engagement tools, mobile apps, benefits, and data analytics systems. And each of these sub-markets are being transformed by AI. (Our upcoming research on Talent Intelligence, for example, will show you how fragmented this is.)
Workday was having a hard time keeping up. The company embarked on a series of acquisitions (Platfora, Mediacore, Adaptive Insights, VNDLY, Peakon, HiredScore, and others). This forced the product teams to focus on user interface and architectural integration, somewhat slowing the feature expansion. And many partners who wanted to integrate with Workday (which customers demand) were ignored.
Well under Carl’s leadership, all this is changing. Workday is now fully open to partners, ISV’s, resellers, and industry solutions. Almost 25% of the entire Innovation Summit was focused on Workday’s open partner strategy. And the big message was this: Workday is not a “system,” it’s a “platform.”
What does this mean? It means that if you buy Workday you’re buying a platform like the i-Phone. It works amazingly well, it’s safe, and will sport a family of industry apps to help you build a total solution. This worked for Apple and Salesforce and it’s likely to work well for Workday. SAP has a similar offering, but its level of integration is far more complex. This lets Workday move deeply into new domains and sub markets. (Workday highlighted its new integrations with Shiftwizard in healthcare, Auditoria and Kyriba in finance, and many others. These are not just ISV relationships: Workday is reselling these products.
But there’s much more.
Workday Unveils Its AI Strategy
At last year’s event Workday really waffled about AI. They gave us a lot of arm waving discussions of “Workday AI” but it didn’t make a lot of sense. Well they’ve figured it out, so let me briefly explain.
Enterprises don’t want AI for its own sake and they definitely don’t want crowdsourced data which creates legal risk. They want AI solutions that work on their own data.
Well Workday has now embarked on a wide variety of AI features, each delivered through its own “micro-LLMs” trained on a company’s own data. (Very similar to how we implement Galileo, our AI HR expert assistant.) And for larger AI capabilities they use a global LLM with local weights and biases for each client. (This is similar to how the Microsoft Copilot works.) So your enterprise data trains your “version” of Workday without sharing any data with others.
In some cases (the Skills Cloud, for example), customers can opt to share data anonymously. This lets Workday build a “global skills database” which everyone can share. Vendors like Eightfold, Lightcast, and Draup do this at a massive scale (far beyond what Workday does today), so Workday is now moving into this “talent intelligence” market. (Lightcast is now a Workday Skills Cloud partner.)
Many of these features are simple (rewriting a job description or matching invoices to purchase orders) but powerful. All over Workday you now see a little AI icon to help you complete a task. In fact Workday has already re-engineered about 280 different tasks and is working on around 2,000 in total.
Customers constantly tell me Workday is difficult to use, and it’s largely just because the system is quite complex. These AI-enhanced experiences are slowly going to make the system more and more “I-Phone like.”
Many New Talent Features
Now that the product teams have a strong underlying architecture, they’re going crazy with features. Workday is introducing a new “Intelligent Job Architecture Hub,” for example, to help companies simplify and improve job names, levels, descriptions, and skills. (It also shows trending skills in the external market.) Everyone is going to use this.
The Workday Talent Marketplace, which is not widely used yet, is being enhanced through HiredScore: employees will get Teams or Slack messages recommending jobs. This is an example of “orchestration,” a new buzz-word among AI systems. (Imagine AI booking your trip including hotels, air, car, etc.)
The Workday Manager Hub now shows managers detailed employee engagement data (Peakon has more than 18 billion responses now) and will gives managers “Conversation Starters” to help them start performance coaching, all based on feedback from other employees.
There is a major focus on contingent, gig, and contract workers. For the first time I believe Workday can handle most professional services businesses (including pricing projects based on staff pricing), healthcare and retail (AI-powered scheduling and shift management), and many deskless worker needs. It turns out that healthcare and retail are two of Workday’s biggest industries, so these talent-constrained industries are now a good market.
Let me talk briefly about HiredScore. This company built an in-line “talent orchestration system” that uses AI to show recruiters who is most suited for a job, explain why it made its decisions, and use this data to find and source internal candidates automatically. While this type of technology is widely used in systems like Eightfold, Beamery, Phenom, and others, the HiredScore system is workflow-oriented. Recruiters love it and it greatly improves hiring speed, quality, and internal mobility.
And by the way, despite lots of complaints from users, Workday Recruiting is starting to dominate the ATS market. With more than 4,000 customers it’s becoming a more “safe buy” as companies rationalize their old ATS systems.
As David Somers (head of product) put it, HiredScore is the acquisition that “keeps on giving.” In other words the AI team at HiredScore is now going to work with Workday’s Skills Cloud team to evolve and improve that system. The Skills Cloud, while beautifully visioned and named, has had limited success. With HiredScore’s help (and the leadership of Athena Karp, founder and CEO), this system will get more attention. (That includes more content partnerships and a broader set of tools.)
This means Workday’s recruiting system (which is one of the most critical business systems in today’s talent shortages) is now highly coupled with the internal mobility and job architecture system, something customers desperately want. I still believe systems like Eightfold and Gloat are far more advanced, but Workday is catching up.
Management Culture And Trust
And then there’s the biggest issue of all: Workday’s leadership. I spent some time chatting with Carl Eschenbach and he has a very different persona than Aneel Bhusri. Carl clearly wants Workday to go after new markets: new geographies (EMEA, Asia, Japan), new industries (healthcare, pharma, retail), the mid-market segment, and channel partners. Workday is now actively searching for resellers, mid-market integrators, and ISVs to round out the solution.
As always, the leadership team at Workday is highly aligned and much more pragmatic. Many times I would attend a Workday event and feel a slight sense of arrogance at the top. As with all successful software companies, it’s easy to think you’re always right when things are going well.
I believe this has changed. I actually found Workday to be humble, attentive to new issues, and open-minded to new ideas, new partners, and self-inspection. This, to me, is a bullish sign. And from top to bottom the company is focused on trust, AI safety, and customer service.
One more thing I want to point out: the “Workday as a Platform” idea. The company now realizes that this highly proprietary, business-optimized system can no longer be sold as a beautifully walled garden. The company is building a massive set of easy to use development tools, expanded APIs, and programs to attract software developers, partners, and integrators. Now, when customers ass for functionality Workday can look for a partner to resell or embed. The company is losing its “if we didn’t build it we don’t trust it” mentality.
I also believe this leadership team really likes each other. As many of you know, team culture is massively important in the tech space. Things change so fast and there are so many competitors the company has to stay aligned. I sense everyone really understands what’s going on.
Growth Potential
Will Workday accelerate its growth above its respectable 17% per year? Well the company has challenges. Many of its legacy clients have found a plethora of advanced tools around Workday and I know large companies that are switching back to SAP. And despite all the new features, Workday is an older, complicated, rigid system.
That all said, I think the company is managing its transformation well. Let’s watch to see how all this plays out.
本周我参加了Workday创新峰会，有很多内容值得讨论。在刚刚庆祝了其成立19周年之际，该公司正在进行重大转型。而且，不仅仅是产品创新在进行，公司的业务模式也在大幅扩展。
Workday一直是一家以产品为导向的公司
Workday的成功很大程度上归功于其专注于“为云而生”。Workday没有采用典型的以数据库为中心的架构来构建商业应用程序，而是从零开始开发了自己的面向对象的数据系统、集成的工作流系统和全球安全架构。没有人知道云计算会如此重要，也没有人预料到我们会有像Google、Microsoft和Amazon这样的“超级计算”平台。我们也无法预测全球数据治理、AI或者跨数千服务器分布的数据和应用程序的出现。
在Aneel Bhusri的领导下，Workday做到了这一点。他们不仅销售架构，还销售了“一体化的力量”。在Workday中，不同于其他ERP商业系统，所有应用程序都被设计为可以协同工作。没有收购，没有集成，没有开放系统：只有一个设计精美、易于使用、可扩展的企业应用程序。（我注意到这让我想起了当时的iPhone：美观、易用且封闭。）
这个“美丽的围墙花园”为Workday服务良好。而Oracle、SAP和其他供应商在重新设计其客户端-服务器应用程序和获取缺失部分时挣扎，Workday却如野火般成长，现在已成为一家全球ERP供应商，拥有超过73亿美元的经常性收入、超过10,000个企业和中端市场客户，以及以信任、客户关注和质量而闻名的品牌。而且，这一切都是在创始团队基本上仍在位的情况下发生的。
去年，Workday的联合创始人兼CEO Aneel Bhusri认为是时候退居幕后了，公司聘请了Carl Eschenbach担任CEO。现在，事情开始改变。该公司正在成为一家“以市场为导向”的企业。
Workday的“以产品为导向”的重点既有好处也有坏处。Workday不容易集成，开发者可用的API很少，公司也限制了其合作伙伴。作为其保持纯净使命的一部分，Workday阻止了许多供应商的“合作”，并迫使集成商支付高额费用并认证专门团队。这种“稀缺”策略创造了高需求和高价格，而客户实际上对此感到满意。
一切都很好，直到情况开始改变。如今，随着ERP堆栈各层面的竞争供应商越来越多，Workday正在变得更加务实。正如我将在下文中解释的那样，他们正在将信息从“一体化的力量”变为“Workday是一个平台”。
Workday正在成为一家以市场为导向的公司
人力资源管理(HCM)和财务市场非常复杂。有数十个子市场、应用领域和行业解决方案需要解决。一个为大型医院系统设计的HR系统不太可能需要与为全球保险公司设计的系统相同的功能。因此，Workday开始意识到，尽管其系统集成且功能强大，但它无法跟上。
而且，在HR本身，有数百家供应商销售招聘工具、职业系统、学习平台、参与工具、移动应用程序、福利和数据分析系统。每一个子市场都在被AI转型。（例如，我们即将发布的关于人才智能的研究将向您展示这是多么的碎片化。）
Workday很难跟上。该公司开始了一系列收购（Platfora、Mediacore、Adaptive Insights、VNDLY、Peakon、HiredScore等）。这迫使产品团队专注于用户界面和架构集成，从而在某种程度上减缓了功能扩展。许多希望与Workday集成的合作伙伴（客户需求）被忽视了。
在Carl的领导下，所有这些都在改变。Workday现在对合作伙伴、独立软件供应商、经销商和行业解决方案完全开放。整个创新峰会将近25%的时间专注于Workday的开放合作伙伴策略。而且重要的信息是：Workday不是一个“系统”，它是一个“平台”。
这是什么意思？这意味着如果您购买Workday，您就是在购买一个像iPhone那样的平台。它运行非常好，安全，并将配备一系列行业应用程序以帮助您构建完整解决方案。这对Apple和Salesforce有效，对Workday来说可能也会很有效。SAP也有类似的产品，但其集成程度要复杂得多。这让Workday能够深入新的领域和子市场。（Workday突出显示了其在医疗保健领域与Shiftwizard、在财务领域与Auditoria和Kyriba的新集成等。这些不仅仅是独立软件供应商关系：Workday正在转售这些产品。
但还有更多。
Workday公开其AI战略
在去年的活动中，Workday对AI真的犹豫不决。他们给了我们很多关于“Workday AI”的手势讨论，但这并没有太多意义。好吧，他们已经想通了，让我简单解释一下。
企业并不是因为AI本身而想要AI，他们绝对不想要可能产生法律风险的众包数据。他们想要的是可以在自己的数据上运行的AI解决方案。
现在，Workday已经开始了各种AI功能，每个功能都通过其自己的“微型大语言模型”交付，这些模型是在公司自己的数据上训练的。（这与我们实现的Galileo，我们的AI HR专家助手非常相似。）对于更大的AI功能，他们使用一个全球大语言模型，为每个客户本地调整权重和偏差。（这与Microsoft Copilot的工作方式类似。）因此，您的企业数据训练您的“版本”的Workday，而不与其他人共享任何数据。
在某些情况下（例如技能云），客户可以选择匿名分享数据。这让Workday能够构建一个“全球技能数据库”，每个人都可以分享。像Eightfold、Lightcast和Draup这样的供应商在大规模（远超Workday目前的做法）上做到了这一点，所以Workday现在正在进入这个“人才智能”市场。（Lightcast现在是Workday技能云的合作伙伴。）
这些功能中的许多都很简单（重写工作描述或将发票与采购订单匹配），但功能强大。在Workday的各个地方，您现在都可以看到一个小AI图标，帮助您完成任务。事实上，Workday已经重新设计了大约280个不同的任务，并且正在处理大约2,000个总任务。
客户不断告诉我Workday很难使用，这主要是因为系统相当复杂。这些通过AI增强的体验将逐渐使系统越来越像“iPhone”。
许多新的人才功能
现在产品团队拥有了强大的底层架构，他们正疯狂地推出功能。例如，Workday正在推出一个新的“智能工作架构中心”，以帮助公司简化并改进工作名称、级别、描述和技能。（它还显示外部市场中的趋势技能。）每个人都将使用这个。
Workday人才市场尚未广泛使用，现在正在通过HiredScore进行增强：员工将通过Teams或Slack消息获得推荐工作。这是“编排”的一个例子，这是AI系统中的一个新的流行词。（想象一下AI预订您的旅行，包括酒店、飞机、汽车等。）
Workday经理中心现在向经理们显示详细的员工参与数据（Peakon现在有超过180亿的反馈）并将给经理提供“对话开始器”，以帮助他们开始绩效辅导，所有这些都基于其他员工的反馈。
还有一个主要关注点是临时工、零工和合同工。我相信Workday首次可以处理大多数专业服务业务（包括基于员工定价的定价项目）、医疗保健和零售（AI驱动的排班和班次管理），以及许多无固定工作场所的工人的需求。事实证明，医疗保健和零售是Workday的两个最大行业，所以这些人才匮乏的行业现在是一个好市场。
让我简要谈谈HiredScore。这家公司建立了一个内嵌的“人才编排系统”，使用AI向招聘人员展示最适合某个职位的人员，解释为什么会做出这样的决定，并使用这些数据来找到并自动获取内部候选人。虽然这种技术在Eightfold、Beamery、Phenom等系统中广泛使用，但HiredScore系统是以工作流为导向的。招聘人员非常喜欢它，它极大地提高了招聘的速度、质量和内部流动性。
顺便说一句，尽管用户有很多抱怨，Workday招聘正在开始主导ATS市场。现在已有超过4,000个客户，随着公司对旧ATS系统进行合理化，它正在成为一个更“安全的购买”。
正如产品负责人David Somers所说，HiredScore是一笔“源源不断的收益”。换句话说，HiredScore的AI团队现在将与Workday的技能云团队合作，以发展和改进该系统。技能云虽然构想得很美，名字很漂亮，但成功有限。在HiredScore的帮助下（以及创始人兼CEO Athena Karp的领导下），这个系统将得到更多关注。（这包括更多的内容合作伙伴和一套更广泛的工具。）
这意味着Workday的招聘系统（这是当今人才短缺中最关键的商业系统之一）现在与内部流动性和工作架构系统高度耦合，这正是客户迫切需要的。我仍然认为像Eightfold和Gloat这样的系统更先进，但Workday正在迎头赶上。
管理文化和信任
然后是最大的问题之一：Workday的领导层。我花了一些时间与Carl Eschenbach聊天，他与Aneel Bhusri的个性非常不同。Carl明确希望Workday进军新市场：新地理区域（EMEA、亚洲、日本）、新行业（医疗保健、制药、零售）、中端市场细分市场和渠道合作伙伴。Workday现在正在积极寻找经销商、中端市场集成商和独立软件供应商来完善解决方案。
一如既往，Workday的领导团队高度一致，更加务实。很多时候，我参加Workday的活动，都能感受到顶层有些自负。就像所有成功的软件公司一样，当事情进展顺利时，很容易认为自己总是对的。
我认为这已经改变了。我实际上发现Workday很谦虚，对新问题很关注，对新想法、新合作伙伴和自我检查持开放态度。对我来说，这是一个看涨的信号。而且从上到下，公司都专注于信任、AI安全和客户服务。
我还想指出一件事：关于“Workday作为一个平台”的想法。该公司现在意识到，这种高度专有的、业务优化的系统不再能作为一个美丽的围墙花园来销售。公司正在构建一套大型的易于使用的开发工具、扩展的API和吸引软件开发者、合作伙伴和集成商的计划。现在，当客户询问功能时，Workday可以寻找一个合作伙伴来转售或嵌入。公司正在失去“如果我们没有构建它，我们就不信任它”的心态。
我还相信这个领导团队真的很喜欢彼此。正如你们许多人所知，团队文化在科技领域非常重要。事情变化如此之快，竞争对手如此之多，公司必须保持一致。我感觉每个人都真正理解发生了什么。
增长潜力
Workday能否将其每年17%的尊重增长率加速？好吧，公司面临挑战。它的许多老客户发现在Workday周围有大量的先进工具，我知道一些大公司正在回归SAP。尽管所有这些新功能，Workday仍然是一个较老、复杂、僵化的系统。
话虽如此，我认为公司正在很好地管理其转型。让我们拭目以待，看看这一切将如何发展。
专栏
2024年04月19日
专栏
BetterUp Manage: Pioneering AI-Powered Platform For Leaders
BetterUp公司最近在其Uplift大会上推出了一个名为BetterUp Manage的领导力发展平台，这一平台采用人工智能驱动的评估和个性化学习方案，彻底改变了专业发展的途径。该平台具有高度的可扩展性和可定制性，能够与Workday、Oracle和SAP等主要系统无缝连接。BetterUp Manage不仅为领导者提供服务，也支持任何寻求发展专业能力的个人。通过整合最新的人工智能技术，BetterUp Manage为传统的领导力培训行业带来了革命性的变革。
这次大会中，BetterUp还邀请了英国的哈里王子Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex 和亚当·格兰特，哈里王子是BetterUp的首席影响官。。。
This week I attended the BetterUp Uplift conference and I really was impressed. This is a company that exploded into the market with an innovative coaching and employee wellbeing network built around an assessment called the “whole person model.” Through a set of shrewd marketing and sales strategies BetterUp established a leadership position in this market, growing to a billion dollar+ valuation.
This success encouraged many competitors to form and now the market for AI-enabled, targeted coaching is large and crowded (vendors include Torch, CoachHub, Growthspace, Sounding Board, Bravely, and a new breed of AI systems).
Essentially what BetterUp did was democratize business and professional coaching. Before this trend coaching was a rarified, expensive offering reserved for under-performing leaders or high-potential executives. Today, with BetterUp, anyone can go through a meaningful assessment, get assigned a relevant coach, and start a coaching session in minutes. The system is well designed and easy to use and BetterUp’s coaches are all trained (most of the coaching vendors use a lot of the same certified coaches – they are not BetterUp employees).
As a corporate solution, BetterUp goes much further. The data collected through assessments is available for analysis (anonymized) so companies can find pockets of stress in the organization. You can look at assessments by team (minimum of 10 people), tenure, level, and other factors. This lets companies like Chevron or Cisco understand the issues new employees or new managers have, for example.
In the last few years the company moved into wellbeing by offering a solution called BetterUp Care, which targets benefits buyers. But the more strategic and interesting offering is the new platform I saw this week, now named BetterUp Manage (it was originally called Connect).
BetterUp Manage is the first highly personalized, scalable management development platform I’ve seen. It brings together AI-enabled assessment, personalized learning, coaching, and AI-driven narrative support. It’s quite an impressive product, much of it was developed by the team at Motive, who was acquired by BetterUp in 2021.
BetterUp Manage is an out of the box personalized leadership development solution. And you don’t need to be a “leader” to use it. The system steps you through the Whole Person assessment, then asks you questions about the types of soft-skills issues you face (many specific scenarios), and then gives you a customized learning path, week by week, along with a professional coach.
Since it’s built on an AI platform there is very little manual work behind the scenes so it’s enormously scalable. Large companies will want to customize it and BetterUp is prepared for some of these requests. And the system connects to Workday, Oracle, SAP to automatically understand your role and level.
The reason I’m so excited is this: the management training industry is a confusing, messy, red ocean. There are thousands of consultants, coaches, books, courses, and executive education programs. L&D executives have to constantly build custom solutions, evaluate vendors, and hope that an offering will stick. This pure complexity, coupled with the fact that every company is unique, has led to many specialized leadership development firms (and some big ones like Franklin Covey).
So what most companies do is mix, match, and custom-build leadership solutions. And they’re not simple: we developed a model we call the 4-E’s to understand this: Education (courses), Experience (developmental assignments), Exposure (mentoring and coaching from leaders), and Environment (a company-wide focus on leadership values and behaviors). All these elements play a role in developing leadership skills.
Companies like IBM, Cisco, and Marriot can afford to custom build these solutions, but many companies don’t have the focus. BetterUp Manage is a way to personalize, scale, and democratize this solution and leverage the increasingly important role of AI.
I met Alexi Robichaux almost a decade ago and his passion and energy still drives the company. While BetterUp is a bigger company going through the growing pains of any $billion valued growth business, the culture and passion for clients is clear.
Remember that buying L&D solutions is not as simple as buying a product and turning it on. Every training solution, platform, or program you buy must be carefully aligned with your company’s culture and rolled out with care. Otherwise people simply say “another training program from corporate I can ignore.”
BetterUp, for all its startup-like innovations, has overcome this problem. Customers value the system, they get strong adoption from employees, and the company works hard to advise and consult.
It has always been interesting to me that very few content companies ever become very big (Skillsoft is the only one that never seems to stop). And the reason for this is simply the nichey, highly diversified needs of many industries and companies. BetterUp, as a platform-centered company delivering a high-touch solution, has the potential to break this paradigm. It has enormous potential, given the rapid acceleration of AI behind the scenes.
I consider BetterUp one of the “Trailblazers” I talk about with clients, and BetterUp Manage is definitely something to watch.
专栏
2024年04月12日
专栏
Will Chatbots Take Over HR Tech? Paradox Sets The Pace.在快速发展的人力资源技术领域，Paradox.ai 已成为领跑者，其先进的对话式人工智能平台彻底改变了招聘流程。通过利用自然语言处理和人工智能，Paradox.ai 提供了一个全面的解决方案，涵盖了从最初的职位申请到入职的整个招聘过程。该平台不仅简化了筛选和面试安排等繁琐流程，还提升了应聘者的整体体验，显著改善了招聘时间和招聘质量指标。
Paradox.ai 由亚伦-马托斯（Aaron Matos）于 2016 年创立，目前为联合利华、CVS Health 和通用汽车等大客户提供服务，实现了 90% 以上的招聘流程自动化。
Paradox.ai 凭借其强大的集成能力和大幅缩短招聘时间、降低招聘成本的能力，在人力资源技术领域充分体现了对话式人工智能的变革力量。
Chatbots used to be tinker-toys. You type, try to get help, but usually result in “please call support.” Well all this has changed.
Thanks to advanced NLP (natural language processing) and AI (retrieval-augmented generation) chatbots are entire applications. They can answer complex questions, search databases, and invoke transactions on your behalf.
Pretty soon we’ll be able to ask our phones “please find me a flight to Los Angeles next Tuesday morning” and the system will check your location and calendar, look at flights, and book you a seat.
Where is this going in HR? Well the leader in this space is Paradox.ai, a company that pioneered the application of conversational AI in recruiting. And their system “defines the category.”
Let me explain.
Recruiting Is The Perfect Market For Conversational AI
Recruiting is a goldmine for automation. When you post a job, applicants want to ask many predictable things: “How much does it pay?” “What are the hours?” or “What uniform do I need” or “What are the benefits?”
The recruiter, a person devoted to filling positions, has to answer all these questions and more. They have to screen candidates, schedule interviews, check for qualifications, and look at credentials, experience, and more. It’s time-consuming, error-prone, and filled with wasted time. (That’s why talent acquisition teams have many “scheduler” and admins.)
The average “time to hire” is over 45 days and often the process goes on for months. And throughout the experience the job seeker is left wondering “when will they call back” or “what else do I need to know?”
(CEOs cite hiring as the third most time-wasting process in companies, following emails and meetings, estimated at “40% wasted time.”)
Paradox uses Conversational AI to solve this problem. And because this is a “narrow but deep” space, the system does many things we can learn from in all our AI efforts.
Paradox was founded by Aaron Matos in 2016. Aaron’s vision was to transform the candidate experience, revolutionizing the way candidates apply to jobs. Today Paradox has become a complete Conversational AI Recruitment Platform (chat to apply, scheduling, candidate support, ATS, assessments, onboarding, career site, and more), serving clients like Unilever, CVS Health, Pfizer, L’Oreal, Nestle, McDonald’s FedEx, Compass Group, Disney, and General Motors.
The platform automates tasks such as screening for requirements, interview scheduling, reminders, offers, and new hire onboarding. And because it’s so easy to use, it helps companies radically improves time-to-hire and quality of hire. Based on my conversations with clients, Paradox can automate more than 90% of the end-to-end hiring process, saving hiring managers hours every week and increasing candidate conversion by more than 10 times.
But this innovation did not happen overnight. As you know, going to a candidate website and looking for a job is a frustrating process. There are often hundreds of jobs listed, a complex scrolling website and very hard to even determine what job to apply for.
You might argue that the website paradigm for job applications was never really a good idea in the first place. People don’t want to browse for jobs: they want to apply for a job that’s best for them. So the first thing Paradox did was create an easy to use assistant (Olivia) so candidates could ask questions and schedule interviews. And this meant that Paradox had to build integrations with every ATS and personal email and calendar tools out there.
Then, as companies started to use Paradox for scheduling, the company added more. Today Olivia, the chatbot, can integrate with background check vendors, schedule interviews, deliver assessments (Paradox acquired a conversational assessment Traitify designed for this), and function as an ATS … all from a mobile phone. In many ways Paradox can be “the integration platform” for candidates and recruiters, stitching together the messy systems behind the scenes.
This turned into a massive opportunity. Just as the Google Assistant or Siri hopes to be our single contact with the internet, Paradox partners with systems of record like Workday, SAP, and Oracle to bring conversational AI to any company. The company’s revenues have grown 11 times in the last four years, and are now nearly doubling each year.
For customers Paradox has been amazing. As the candidate pipeline speeds up (by an order of magnitude), clients get higher quality candidates with dramatically reduced staff. (Staffing administrators can almost go away.)
Consider high-volume hiring companies. These businesses (McDonald’s, Compass Group, Neighborly, FedEx, Disney) hire service-related workers on a regular basis. Their revenue is dependent on having enough people. With Paradox they can set up a “continuous recruitment process,” one that even hires people the same day they apply.
Paradox has become essential to these companies growth, often paying for itself in less than a year (through reduced hiring staff, reduced spend on job ads, and reduced turnover.)
Today, as Paradox built out its ATS, customers can rely on the platform to integrate front end tool (job portals and candidate support) to back end tools scheduling, ATS, onboarding) most of which are legacy. One of our clients has 27 recruiting tools and they anticipate replacing more than half of them with a platform like Paradox.
What about higher level white collar roles? Paradox works here too. General Motors uses Paradox along with Workday (ATS), (branded Evie) to redesign the process.
Interview Scheduling: Evie automates scheduling of phone screens and interviews between recruiters, candidates, and internal teams. This has reduced the time taken for interview scheduling from an average of five days to 29 minutes.
Candidate Experience: Evie interacts with candidates from the moment they land on GM’s career site until the completion of their interview. Candidates appreciate the immediate communication from Evie after they apply or complete an interview, and enjoy the autonomy to select and change interview times.
Efficiency and Cost Savings: The automation of interview scheduling has led to a major reduction in the cost of external contractors for coordination.
Career Site Interaction: Evie sits on GM’s career site, answering questions from potential candidates about jobs, benefits, and company culture. This interaction enhances the candidate’s experience and provides them with immediate responses to their queries.
Where Is Paradox Going
The company is perfectly positioned to continue its growth as companies look for AI solutions to improve the productivity and effectiveness of recruiting. And demand is high: the 2024 PwC CEO survey found that recruiting was considered the #3 “most bureaucratic process” by CEOs (following email and meetings).
The impact on recruiters? All positive. Clients tell us they can redeploy hiring staff to help recruiters focus on the most important part of their job: talking with candidates.
But there’s a much bigger story. When a job candidate is handled efficiently and effectively the process becomes a brand-builder for the candidate, improving quality of hire. Ambitious job seekers will not put up with (or wait for) a messy, confusing hiring process. So not only is the process faster and more efficient, the quality of hire goes up.
Companies are desperately looking for AI solutions that work. As Paradox has proven, when you focus deeply on the problem, conversational AI can be transformational.
Listen to my conversation with Adam Godson (CEO) and you’ll hear the details. This is where the HR Tech market is going.
Josh Bersin :劳动力市场已完全改变：您真的准备好了吗？Josh Bersin 最新撰文谈到，随着以婴儿潮一代为主的劳动力队伍的衰落和具有独特期望和职业模式的新一代的崛起，劳动力市场发生了巨大的变化。这一新劳动力的特点是偏好组合职业和副业，他们要求尊重、灵活性和精心设计工作的机会。企业在适应这些变化时面临着挑战，职位普遍空缺，人员流动增加。文章强调，企业需要采用一种动态的组织模式，优先考虑授权、内部流动性和员工积极性，以便在这个新的劳动力市场中茁壮成长。这种适应的关键在于了解劳动力现在寻求的是成长、灵活性以及他们的价值观与工作之间有意义的结合。
英文原文如下，推荐了解
The labor market has changed before our eyes. Employers and HR teams better watch out.
Over the last five decades baby boomers defined the workforce. Today things could not be more different, and this change impacts all of us.
I was born in the 1950s, growing up in a world where the middle class experienced steadily increasing standards of living. My father was a scientist, my mother sold art, and my brother and I had a nice middle-class life.
This included a three stage career: education | work | retirement. I went to college, studied hard, and got a good job as an engineer. My career went on a predictable path. I worked for Exxon and then IBM – each company giving me training, development, and potential for long-term career. I met many great people, learned about work, got married and had a family.
My cohort, the baby boomers, was huge. Companies built entire talent systems for us – onboarding, training, predictable career growth, developmental assignments, leadership development, and retirement programs. We strapped ourselves in and enjoyed the journey.
Fast forward to now: things are very different.
Today’s working population bulge (median age 33, born in the early 1990s,) entered the workforce in a disrupted world. They joined companies during a boom, experienced the pandemic in their 20’s, and live in a world where everything is on the internet. While my generation revered our employers, these workers see every corporate mistake in real-time. They expect their bosses to earn their respect, otherwise they’ll “quietly quit” or start moonlighting on the side.
While my generation expected to work for only a few employers during a career, today people build what Lynda Gratton calls “a portfolio career.” More than 2/3 of workers have side-hustles and their resume is filled with projects, businesses, activities, and professional interests. If you look at the LinkedIn profiles of most high performers they look like personal journeys, far different from the linear career paths we had in the past.
While most of these changes came slowly, the end result is profound: the expectations, needs, and demands of workers are different. And businesses have struggled to keep up. Companies have vast amounts of unfilled positions, we suffer high turnover in almost every role, and labor unions are growing in number.
What do companies do? We have to accept and understand that the labor market has totally changed.
We live in a world where employees will live into their 100s. Young workers are postponing getting married and having children and they see their career as a long series of experiences. The norms of a long-term linear career have ended: people try new things, change industries, and live in what I call a “pixelated” job market.
And rather than blindly trust employers, people bring high expectations to work. Young workers don’t expect to “become the job,” they want the job to “become them.” (Often called “job crafting.”) And given the shortage of workers in every role, this trend is just getting bigger.
While economists believe the job market will soften and employers will have more power over time, I think those days are over. Life just isn’t going back to the way it was. Despite the growth of AI, companies are more dependent on their workforce than ever. And with 70% of the jobs now service-related (healthcare, retail, hospitality), employees really are our product.
I look at it this way. Companies and employers live in a pool of labor: it’s the needs and expectations of people who decide what we can and should do. People are upset about inflation. They’re worried about climate change. They want CEOs to behave ethically. And they want flexible work that lets them live a joyful life.
And every year the workforce becomes more educated and connected. (The percentage of US workers with degrees has gone up to 54%, up from 38% fifteen years ago.) People know about the company’s financial results or other issues far before an announcement even comes out.
While many of these trends are obvious, many companies aren’t ready. Last year I talked to the CHRO of Boeing and he told me the problems were highlighted by employees years ago. They simply were not listening, and now they’re a company in crisis. And that leads to the topic of “employee activation.”
In the old days senior leaders made decisions, workers carried out the orders. Ideas and strategies were “top-down.”
Today much of the intelligence we need to grow our companies is sitting with front-line workers. We need to “activate employees” and listen to them directly. The worker in the store, plant, or front office who feels frustrated by some system or process is the person who should advise us what to do. The old idea of “management by walking around” must come back. (Our Org Design Superclass explains this in detail.)
I don’t mean chaos, holacracy, or lack of controls. Successful companies have a clear mission, a series of strategic initiatives, and budgets to hold people accountable. But they empower everyone to be a leader, unleashing power from the bottom up. (Come to Irresistible and learn about how Marriott and Delta airlines exemplify this model.)
The key is building what we call a “Dynamic Organization” – one which is flat, team-centric, connected, and accountable. Our research shows that only 7% of companies operate this way: most are still very hierarchical and slow to adapt. But change is coming, as companies like Delta, Marriott, Telstra, Unilever, Novartis, Seagate, and Bayer have found out.
(This week the CEO of Bayer announced a radical transformation to a team-centric management model, dramatically reducing the number of “bosses.”)
A dynamic organization does two things well. First, it adapts to change, sees new markets, and mobilizes quickly for change. But even more importantly, it empowers people, encourages internal mobility, and focuses on meritocracy, skills, and collaboration to thrive. (Read about Talent Density to learn more.)
While these ideas are not new, urgency is critical. Employees demand growth, flexibility, and agency – and we can’t deliver it unless our reward and development systems change. Today more than 70% of US jobs are in the service sector: health care, retail, entertainment, and transportation. If we don’t empower people in these roles our products and services will suffer.
Let me conclude with this: we just woke up in a totally new labor market. If you don’t focus on empowerment, growth, and employee activation, talent will just go elsewhere.
专栏
2024年03月31日
专栏
推荐：The best HR & People Analytics articles of March 2024024年3月，David Green带领我们深入了解了人力资源和人力分析的最新趋势。在欧洲和美国的几场关键活动中，他强调了人力分析在提升员工体验、AI在工作场所的角色、以及四天工作周趋势的增长中的转型作用。此外，Culture Amp对Orgnostic的收购和在Culture First Leaders Forum上的见解，突出了培养适宜的组织文化对于未来工作的战略重要性。Green的观点强调了HR需要采用数据驱动策略，以实现有效的劳动力规划、技能发展和组织增长。
2024 HR TRENDS AND PREDICTIONS
KATE BRAVERY, JOANA SILVA, AND JENS PETERSON - Workforce 2.0: Unlocking human potential in a machine-augmented world – Mercer Global Talent Trends 2024
The world of work is in full metamorphosis, forever changed by the seismic shifts of the past few years and accelerated by the imminent human-machine teaming revolution. Just as organizations were settling into a new normal — with a focus on hybrid working, comprehensive health and well-being, digitalization, and upskilling — Generative AI (Gen AI) burst onto the scene.
Those are the opening words from the Mercer Global Talent Trends 2024 report, which has recently been published. As ever, the study, which is based on a survey of more than 12,000 executives, HR leaders, employees, and investors, and is authored by Kate Bravery Joana Silva and Jens Peterson is an absolute must-read. The study highlights a disconnect between what HR is prioritising for the 2024 people agenda and the initiatives that executives believe will have the most impact on business growth (see FIG 1). The study highlights four priorities that firms that outpace their competitors are focusing on: (1) Driving human-centric productivity. (2) Anchoring to trust and equity. (3) Boosting the corporate immune system. (4) Cultivating a digital-first culture. My tip to enjoy the study: find a couple of hours, make yourself a cup of tea and have a pen and paper to hand.
FIG 1: HR priorities for the 2024 people agenda (Source: Mercer Global Talent Trends 2024)
FIG 2: Drivers and drainers of employee productivity(Source: Mercer Global Talent Trends 2024)
HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
BRIAN ELLIOTT - Return-to-Office Mandates: How to Lose Your Best Performers
There is mounting evidence that mandates don’t improve financial performance. Instead, they damage employee engagement and increase attrition, especially among high-performing employees and particularly those with caregiving responsibilities.
That’s according to Brian Elliott in his latest column in MIT Sloan Management Review, which highlights that the workers most likely to be turned off by return-to-office mandates are the company’s highest performers. Elliott highlights the link between factors such as pressure from investors and the CEO echo chamber with RTO pronouncements, as well as how only one in three executives believe that RTO has had even a slight impact on productivity. He recommends instead focusing on productivity rather than physical presence (see FIG 3) and how this can inspire a boom loop in engagement as opposed to a doom loop in trust. Finally, Elliott presents findings from the Future Forum and i4CP, highlighting the negative impact of RTO mandates, before offering guidance on how to build an outcomes-driven organisation: “The bottom line is that when trust is balanced with accountability, people and organizations will thrive.”
FIG 3: Focus on Productivity, Not Physical Presence (Sources: Future Forum, Centre for Transformative Work Design, and Slack)
AARON DE SMET, SANDRA DURTH, BRYAN HANCOCK, MARINO MUGAYAR-BALDOCCHI, AND ANGELIKA REICH - The human side of generative AI: Creating a path to productivity
As teams start using gen AI to help free up their capacity, the middle manager’s job will evolve to managing both people and the use of this technology to enhance their output.
A fascinating new study from McKinsey, which provides analysis on workers who are at the forefront of gen AI usage (which as FIG 4 shows is dominated by those in non-technical roles) and dives into the job factors and skills these workers say they need. The authors emphasise how firms can enhance productivity by crafting jobs that put people before tech – rather than the other way around. They conclude that companies that set a people-centric talent strategy will give themselves a competitive edge as more workers and jobs are affected by the changes gen AI brings. The article is rich with data and powerful visualisations – kudos to the authors: Aaron De Smet Sandra Durth Bryan Hancock Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi and Angelika Reich ).
FIG 4: Workers who use generative AI as part of their jobs comprise a much larger group than those who hold traditionally technical roles (Source: McKinsey)
PETER CAPPELLI, PRASANNA (SONNY) TAMBE, AND VALERY YAKUBOVICH - Will Large Language Models Really Change How Work Is Done?
LLMs are much more complicated to use effectively in an organizational context than is typically acknowledged, and they have yet to demonstrate that they can satisfactorily perform all of the tasks that knowledge workers execute in any given job.
In their article, Peter Cappelli Prasanna Tambe and Valery Yakubovich look at the use and challenges of integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) in organisations, and present practical recommendations on how to work with LLMs successfully. The five challenges outlined in the article are: (1) The Knowledge Capture Problem. (2) The Output Verification Problem. (3) The Output Adjudication Problem. (4) The Cost-Benefit Problem. (5) The Job Transformation Problem – How will LLMs work with workers? Guidance includes developing and circulating standards for the use of LLMs in organisations, establishing a central office to produce important LLM output, and providing training to users.
NICK BLOOM – Why WFH is a win-win-win | WFH research update (March 2024)
Nick Bloom’s recent post on LinkedIn highlighting his research on why remote working is a win for firms (due to increased productivity of $20,000 a year for each remote day a week), employees, and society is extremely compelling. I also recommend reading Nick’s latest monthly data for March, which includes numerous insights such as that workers in their 50s and 60s are fully onsite more often than younger workers. For more from Nick, please tune in to his discussion with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: Unmasking Common Myths Around Remote Work.
FIG 5: Workers in their 50s and 60s are fully onsite more often than younger workers (Source: WFH Research)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
PIETRO MAZZOLENI - Transforming HR: How IBM measures the success of its people data platform investments
For those of you who haven’t already subscribed to Pietro Mazzoleni’s People Data Platform newsletter, where he unpacks insights from transforming IBM's internal data platform for people analytics, I highly recommend you do. In this edition, Pietro walks through the three tiers of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) IBM uses to evaluate investments in Workforce 360, its people data platform (see FIG 6). Watch out for an upcoming episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, where I discuss with CHRO Nickle LaMoreaux how IBM is augmenting HR programs with AI. The episode will air from April 9.
FIG 6: Three tiers of KPIs to evaluate investments in a people data platform (Source: Pietro Mazzoleni)
NAOMI VERGHESE - Influencing C-Suite and Board Decisions with People Analytics Insights
Naomi Verghese shares key learnings from the recent Peer Meeting for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, hosted by HSBC in their global headquarters in London. The Peer Meeting, which was attended by over 60 people analytics leaders and practitioners from more than 40 companies focused on two of the key findings from the Insight222 People Analytics Trends study for 2023: influencing senior stakeholders and measuring value. In her article, Naomi covers four topics: (1) how to implement a people analytics operating model that drives business outcomes (based on insights shared at the Peer Meeting by Rob Etheridge and Bec Aoude). (2) how to use AI to democratise insights from people data, using an example of work Andrew Elston has led at HSBC. (3) how Microsoft’s employee listening ecosystem (see FIG 7) helped the firm identify the moments that matter for in-person collaboration (insights from a session led by Dawn Klinghoffer), and (4) how to influence the board of directors, with insights from Justine Thompson. If you would like to learn more about our People Analytics Program, contact us today.
FIG 7: Microsoft’s employee listening ecosystem (Source: Dawn Klinghoffer, Microsoft)
BRENT DYKES - The Future Of Data Storytelling Is Augmented, Not Automated
Brent Dykes continues his rich vein of writing with an article exploring whether AI tools should be used to automate data storytelling. He provides reasons why data storytelling can’t or shouldn’t be automated including for reasons of oversimplification, transparency and trust, and the fact that storytelling is essentially a human skill. Instead, Brent advocates that the path forward should be augmented data storytelling, and lays out a powerful illustration of how this would work (see FIG 8)
The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.
FIG 8: Data storytelling comparisons: Humans vs. AI (Source: Brent Dykes)
HALLIE BREGMAN – Where should People Analytics sit in an Organisation? Part 1 & Part 2 | WILLIS JENSEN – Can Data Cleaning be Automated? | COLE NAPPER - Universal Models & People Analytics | ALEXANDER LOCHER - How to harness the value of people data and operational HR insights | ANGELA LE MATHON, STACIA GARR, AND DANI JOHNSON - Generating Value from People Data
In recent editions of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I’ve been featuring a collection of articles by current and recent people analytics leaders. These act as a spur and inspiration to the field. Five are highlighted here. (1) If you don’t already follow Hallie Bregman, PhD on LinkedIn, you really should. Hallie regularly publishes thoughtful and insightful posts on topics important to the field. The two I’ve included here look at the pros and cons of situating people analytics in or outside HR. (2) Willis Jensen analyses whether AI will reduce the amount of data cleaning undertaken by people analysts given that much of this work involves judgement without hard, fast or consistent rules. (3) Cole Napper, who I’m looking forward to co-chairing People Analytics World with in London in April – also with Michael M. Moon, PhD – explains how many of the models we use in people analytics are borrowed from other disciplines. (4) Alexander S. Locher highlights some of the current trends in people analytics (see FIG 9) and offers guidance on how to harness value from your people data. (5) Angela LE MATHON, VP People Data and Analytics, shares how GSK generates value with their people data, how they’re using AI to gather information, and how skills verification ties in with Stacia Sherman Garr and Dani Johnson of RedThread Research.
FIG 9: Current trends in people analytics (Source: Alexander Locher, EY)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
JO IWASAKI, KAREN EDELMAN, AND YASMINE CHAHED - Time to rethink talent in the boardroom
Just over a third of board and c-level executives believe their workforce related discussions are adequate to meet their organisation’s needs. That’s the standout finding from a new global survey by Jo Iwasaki Karen Edelman and Dr Yasmine Chahed for Deloitte of 500 board members and C-suite executives in more than 50 countries on corporate governance and talent. The three top insights from the study were: (1) Many boards could be focusing more on talent-related issues. (2) Most organisations are just starting to think about their AI strategies. (3) Amplifying the talent experience will require boards to adopt a broader perspective.
FIG 10: Workplace related topics that are top board priorities (Source: Deloitte)
DAVE ULRICH - Pre-flections on GenAI and HR: Where to Go and How to Get There
GenAI will help shape HR’s future by offering both information symmetry to synthesize and optimize the past and present and information asymmetry to create and guide the future.
Dave Ulrich offers some initial reflections on what the journey could look like for applying GenAI to HR work, as well as some possible actions to drive progress (see example in FIG 11 for ‘Talent’). Dave also highlights four important considerations to manage the risk and realise the opportunity of GenAI in HR. (1) Who should champion, sponsor, participate in, and be accountable for this journey? (2) What individual skills and organisation capabilities will be required to make GenAI in HR happen? (3) What will be the regulatory and legal policies and risks associated with the effort? (4) What metrics of value-added GenAI for HR will be most useful and tracked?
FIG 11: Examples of GenAI/HR initiatives in the Talent domain (Source: Dave Ulrich)
HEIN KNAPPEN - How HR Adds to Enterprise Value
Hein J.M. Knaapen, a former chief people officer himself, shares his perspectives on the crucial role HR plays in driving business value, and offers practical advice to CHROs on how to make this a reality. Hein highlights the four people priorities that connect to value: (1) Performance management, (2) Succession management, (3) Leadership development, and (4) Capability building, providing guidance on each.
Value creation should be the focus. Nothing else. And only four people priorities connect to value: performance management, succession management, leadership development and capability building.
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
STEFAN HIERL - Identifying the AI Potential in Your Organization: A Strategic Approach
Leveraging Generative AI to assess the AI Potential in a workforce helps businesses go beyond just talking about how AI might change jobs.
As Stefan Hierl astutely observes in his excellent article, in the rush to jump on the AI bandwagon, many companies fall into the trap of overlooking a critical preliminary step: conducting a systematic evaluation of where AI can deliver transformative value. In his article, Stefan outlines a five-step approach to quantify the potential of AI to support organisations identify opportunities for automating and augmenting work activities. The five steps (see FIG 12), which Stefan outlines in detail are: (1) Decomposing roles by breaking down each role into its main activities and respective time shares. (2) AI potential assessment – estimating the potential of AI at the activity level. (3) Expert validation – cross-verifying the generative AI findings with domain experts. (4) Identify high-value areas – creating an overview where AI can significantly enhance workforce productivity (see example in FIG 13). (5) Use case development – exploring specific AI applications to capitalise on identified potential.
FIG 12: Five steps to perform an activity based AI potential assessment (Source: Stefan Hierl)
FIG 13: AI potential by role – example (Source: Stefan Hierl)
MATT SIGELMAN, JOSEPH FULLER, AND ALEX MARTIN - Skills-Based Hiring: The Long Road from Pronouncements to Practice
For all its fanfare, the increased opportunity promised by Skills- Based Hiring was borne out in not even 1 in 700 hires last year (2023).
This is one of the standout findings from a new study by Matt Sigelman and Alex Martin of The Burning Glass Institute and Joseph Fuller from Harvard Business School. Their analysis reveals three categories of firms, who have publicly stated they have removed degree requirements in hiring, based on their actual hiring outcomes: (1) Skills-based hiring leaders (e.g. Cigna) – who have increased their share of non-degree hires in the roles analysed by nearly 20%. (2) In name only (e.g. Bank of America) – 45% of firms studied have made the shift in name only with no meaningful difference in actual skills-based hiring. (3) Backsliders e.g. Uber) – 20% of the firms analysed had made short-term gains by dropping degree requirements, but the change doesn’t stick. The report also highlights the roles best positioned for skills-based hiring (see FIG 14).
FIG 14: The roles best positioned for skills-based hiring (Source: Sigelman et al)
JORDAN PETTMAN - How to Accelerate the Impact of Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) through the Organisation Strategy Ecosystem
Jordan Pettman, one of my colleagues at Insight222, knows a thing or two about workforce planning. In his recent article for myHRfuture, Jordan explores how strategic design can be brought to life through an integrated ecosystem (see FIG 15) encompassing four components: (1) Organisation strategy, (2) Operating model, (3) Organisation design and strategic workforce planning, and (4) Organisation effectiveness.
FIG 15: The Organisation Strategy Ecosystem (Source: Jordan Pettman, Insight222)
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
JACQUELINE BRASSEY, LARS HARTENSTEIN, BARBARA JEFFERY, AND PATRICK SIMON – Working nine to thrive
One of the few positives to emerge through and since the pandemic has been a stronger focus on employee health and wellbeing. According to new research by Jacqui Brassey, PhD, MA, MAfN (née Schouten) Lars Hartenstein Barbara Jeffery and Dr. Patrick Simon, on behalf of the McKinsey Health Institute, improving employee health and wellbeing doesn’t just benefit workers and organisations, it could generate between $3.7 to $11.7 trillion in global economic value (see FIG 16). Their article focuses on six drivers of health that employers can influence - social interaction, mindsets and beliefs, productive activity, stress, economic security, and sleep – and provides guidance on how organisations can move the dial on each.
FIG 16: Improving global employee health and wellbeing could create up to $11.7 trillion in economic value (Source: McKinsey Health Institute)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE AND LEARNING
LINKEDIN LEARNING – Workplace Learning Report 2024: L&D powers the AI future
As AI reshapes how people learn, work, and chart their careers, L&D sits at the center of organizational agility, delivering business innovation and critical skills.
Aligning learning programs to business goals emerges as the top L&D focus area for 2024 in LinkedIn Learning’s annual report on the L&D field, which is based on analysis of LinkedIn behavioural data and focus interviews with L&D professionals around the globe. The report is structured into three chapters: (1) The State of L&D (the study finds that a strong learning culture derives retention, mobility, and promotion. – see FIG 17), (2) Skills agility (the study finds that only 33% of organisations have internal mobility programs), and (3) How L&D succeeds) with priorities #1 and #2 being to lean into analytics and build the right metrics – see FIG 18). The report features contributions from the likes of: Amanda Nolen (who asks: “What if Chief Learning Officers become Chief Skills Officers”), Chris Louie Geraldine Murphy Terri Horton, EdD, MBA, MA, SHRM-CP, PHR Alexandra Halem Ekpedeme "Pamay" M. Bassey Shruti Bharadwaj and Dani Johnson.
FIG 17: Business outcomes and learning culture (Source: LinkedIn Learning)
FIG 18: How L&D tracks business impact (Source: LinkedIn Learning)
AYSE KARAEVLI AND SERDEN ÖZCAN - Make Better Allies of Your Workforce
When the board takes the recommendations of employee advisory groups seriously and incorporates them into decisions, employees become more empowered, and their perspectives become embedded into their company’s long-term objectives.
In their article for MIT Sloan Management Review, Ayse Karaevli and Serden Ozcan present findings from their interviews with board directors, CEOs, CFOs, and employee representatives to understand how to manage conflict and engage workers. From their analysis, Ayse and Serden identified three strategies effective leaders use to include employees (see FIG 19): (1) Identify mutual goals and interests, (2) Foster inclusive decision processes, and (3) Give employees strategic responsibilities. The article then describes each of these in detail with examples from the likes of ThyssenKrupp, Allianz, Siemens, and Bayer before highlighting the importance of employee advisory groups, engagement with board members and the role of committees and task forces to imbue governance and participation.
FIG 19: Three Strategies to Avert Workforce Controversies (Source: Ayse Karaevli and Serden Özcan)
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
SUNDIATU DIXON-FYLE, MASSIMO GIORDANO, TANIA HOLT, TUNDE OLANREWAJU, DARA OLUFON, AND SANDRA SANCIER-SULTAN - Ethnocultural minorities in Europe: A potential triple win
Greater inclusion of ethnocultural minorities could fill talent gaps and spur company growth, increase economic empowerment of these groups, and generate benefits for the economy and broader society.
Despite the anti-immigration policies of many current European governments (that includes you, Rishi Sunak), stagnant economies, tight labour markets, and shrinking working populations mean that immigration is key to unlocking economic growth. In their superb analysis for McKinsey, Sundiatu Dixon-Fyle Massimo Giordano Tania Zulu Holt Tunde Olanrewaju Dara Olufon and Sandra Sancier-Sultan provide data insights on what they classify as ethnocultural minorities in Europe, and their (mostly challenging) experiences. The authors also provide guidance for companies on ethnocultural minority employee inclusion across five dimensions (see FIG 20).
FIG 20: Companies can consider ethnocultural minority employee inclusion across five dimensions (Source: McKinsey)
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 March that I recommend readers delve into:
ANDREA DERLER, PETER BAMBERGER, MANDA WINLAW, AND CUTHBERT CHOW - When New Hires Get Paid More, Top Performers Resign First - To attract talent to the organisation, employers often pay new hires more than they pay equivalent workers in the same role. Analysis by the Visier Inc. team of Andrea Derler, Ph.D. Peter Bamberger Manda Winlaw and Cuthbert Chow shows that in these times of increasing pay transparency, this strategy risks your high-performers resigning.
ANDREW PITTS AND CHAD MITCHELL - Exploring a few largely untapped sources of data for passive Organizational Network Analysis – This article by Andrew Pitts and Chad Mitchell of Polinode looks at a number of data sources that are typically overlooked for ONA including: 360 reviews, peer to peer recognition tools, opportunity marketplaces, and talent intelligence data.
FRANCISCO MARIN - Key Considerations for Defining the Scope of an ONA Pilot – Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions provides a helpful guide to defining the scope of an ONA pilot including tips on clarifying the objective, data privacy and securing executive sponsorship.
HAKKI OZDENOREN AND JOHN BOUDREAU – Is the Future of Work Lost in Translation – John Boudreau joins forces with Hakki Ozdenoren of Revelio Labs to conduct analysis on resumes and jobs mentioning the ‘future of work’, with HR featuring prominently (see FIG 21).
FIG 21: A diverse set of roles contribute to the Future of Work (Source: Revelio Labs)
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):
JAMIL ZAKI, BRYAN HANCOCK, BROOKE WEDDLE, AND LUCIA RAHILLY - It’s cool to be kind: The value of empathy at work – In this episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, Jamil Zaki (author of The War for Kindness) joins Bryan Hancock Brooke Weddle and Lucia Rahilly to make the case for investing in empathic behaviour—for reasons including higher productivity, a stronger workplace culture, and better organisational health—as well as to discuss how to go about cultivating kindness at work.
CAL NEWPORT AND ADAM GRANT – How to be productive without burning out – Cal Newport discusses insights from his new book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, with Adam Grant on WorkLife. They dig into the data on productivity, debate the benefits and drawbacks of doing fewer things (and spending less time on email and social media), and discuss individual habits and organisational practices for preventing burnout and promoting worthwhile work.
JOSH BERSIN - Why “Talent Density” Is So Critical In Business Today – Fresh from discussing his Dynamic Organizations research at Gloat Live, Josh Bersin discusses why ‘Talent Density’ is becoming one of the key strategies for growth.
DONNA MORRIS AND LARS SCHMIDT - Inside Walmart’s Bold Strategy to Transform Retail Work – Walmart’s chief people officer, Donna Morris, joins Lars Schmidt on his Redefining Work podcast to discuss how Walmart is not just navigating but leading the revolution in workplace technology—with people firmly at its core. This was an especially insightful listen as only two days before I had seen Marty Autrey speaking at the Wharton People Analytics conference on how Walmart provides data-based nudges to its store managers to help them drive business outcomes and enhance employee experience.
RYAN HAMMOND, COLE NAPPER AND SCOTT HINES - Turnover Prediction, ML Ethics, & The HiQ Story – Ryan Hammond shares the epic story of HiQ Labs with Directionally Correct hosts Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD, as well as insights from his practitioner and academic backgrounds including how to ethically use internal and external data to do turnover prediction.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
TANUJ KAPILASHRAMI, MICHAEL FRACCARO, TAMLA OATES-FARNEY, AND DAVID GREEN – CHRO Panel: Delivering against the transformation imperative
March’s Video of the Month proved to be a highlight for me as it features me moderating the CHRO Panel at the recent Gloat Live event in New York. The panel was comprised of Tanuj Kapilashrami Michael Fraccaro and Tamla Oates-Forney, and featured discussion on the increasingly pivotal role of the CHRO in business transformation, lessons learnt and successes from transitioning to a skills-based organisation, and how technology can enable a culture of inclusivity and opportunity.
BOOKS OF THE MONTH
With a lot of travelling back and forth from the US in March, I found time to dig into two new books, which I recommend to readers of this newsletter:
MARC SOKOL AND BEVERLY TARULLI – Strategic Workforce Planning: Best Practices and Emerging Directions
Strategic workforce planning – the process of looking forward, assessing how to compete and win in your chosen market or business arena, and linking those insights to your existing and potential future workforce – is core to any institution that aspires to sustain itself over time.
Those are the opening words of Marc Sokol and Beverly Tarulli, Ph.D., the editors of an indispensable new volume of SIOP’s Professional Practice Series. It provides an overview of SWP, covering best practices, methodologies and new directions in the field as well as featuring contributions and case studies from a stellar list of contributors. These include: Sheri Feinzig Alexis Fink Adam Gibson Brian Heger Adam McKinnon, PhD. Kanella Salapatas and Dave Ulrich. Grab yourself a copy!
SALVATORE V. FALLETTA – Creepy Analytics: Avoid Crossing the Line and Establish Ethical HR Analytics for Smarter Workforce Decisions
In Creepy Analytics, Dr. Salvatore Falletta provides a thoughtful approach to HR Analytics that is both evidence-based and ethical – ensuring that organisations get the insights they need while respecting employee privacy. The book is built around the author’s seven-step HR Analytics Cycle (see FIG 22) and is well-researched. Thanks to Salvatore too for referencing Excellence in People Analytics several times, particularly in relation to the guidance Jonathan Ferrar and I offer around governance and the development of an ethics charter. As Alec Levenson opines in his endorsement of the book: “Falletta has done a masterful job addressing some of the most important ethical issues for workforce analytics.”
FIG 22: The HR Analytics Cycle (Salvatore V. Falletta)
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
MAX BLUMBERG, ALEC LEVENSON, AND DAVE MILLNER - A Strategically Aligned HR Operating Model
In their recently published paper, three eminent and progressive thinkers in our field – Max Blumberg (JA) ?? Alec Levenson and Dave Millner – set out a pivot in how HR is structured and works in order to more closely align the function to the capabilities required for successful strategy execution. They present a new HR structure (see FIG 23) designed around four key pillars, before describing each pillar in detail and providing some diagnostic steps to implement this new operating model.
FIG 23: A new HR structure (Source: Blumberg, Levenson, and Millner)
FROM MY DESK
March saw four episodes from Series 37 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, sponsored by our friends at Culture Amp - thank you to Ellisa Packer and Jodie Evans, a round-up of series 36 and a guest appearance by yours truly on the Future Work/Life podcast:
DAVID GREEN AND OLLIE HENDERSON - Driving growth in people and businesses using data – In a role reversal, it was my turn in the hotseat as I joined Ollie Henderson on his Future Work/Life podcast to talk people analytics, talent marketplaces, AI, hybrid work models and the future skills required by HR professionals.
DORIE CLARK - How to Embrace Long-Term Thinking in HR Leadership – Dorie Clark and I discuss how to pivot to long-term thinking, how to prioritise effectively, and why embracing failure can drive innovation and creativity.
DIDIER ELZINGA - How to Prove the ROI of a Positive Company Culture – Didier Elzinga joins me to discuss ways of engaging the board on culture topics, the relationship between a healthy culture and business performance, and how to demonstrate the ROI of culture and engagement initiatives.
ROB BRINER - What is Evidence Based HR and Why is it Important? – Rob Briner shares the principles of evidence-based HR, how it differs from people analytics, and offers recommendations to chief people officers on how they can incorporate EBHR into their work.
LOUISE MILLAR AND OLIVIA EDWARDS - Actionable People Analytics Strategies to Influence Senior Leadership – In a powerful example of people analytics in practice at a SME, Louise Millar and Olivia Edwards share insights from the people analytics journey at Chetwood.
DAVID GREEN – How will AI transform the role of HR? – A round-up of series 36 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, with insights from episodes featuring Dawn Klinghoffer Jeremy Shapiro Thomas Hedegaard Rasmussen Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. Luke Farrugia Kaz Hassan Eric Siegel and Bernard Marr.
THANK YOU
Thomas Kohler for including the February edition of Data Driven HR in his round-up of HR resources.
Reb Rebele for referencing me in his post about the Wharton People Analytics Conference – you were missed, Reb.
Olimpiusz Papiez for providing a great set of takeaways on the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Dawn Klinghoffer, Jeremy Shapiro, and Thomas Rasmussen on People Analytics, AI and ML.
Peter Johnson for including me in his list of HR thought leaders.
Mokkup.ai for including my article on How Will AI Impact People Analytics in 2024 and Beyond? in their collection of Top 14 reads for Data Professionals.
Thinkers360 for including me in their list of the Top 50 B2B Thought Leaders, Analysts & Influencers You Should Work With In 2024 (EMEA)
Joveo for including me in their list of Top 9 Twitter Influencers Every Talent Acquisition Specialist Should Follow
To the following people who sharing the February edition of Data Driven HR Monthly. It's much appreciated: Allison Ardianto Eakkasit Toratana Jillian Meade David Balls (FCIPD) Kingsley Taylor Military Veterans of LinkedIn Robin Carlin Amy C. Lewis, PhD Russ Fatum Kouros Behzad Emily Klein Madison Clary Robert Rogowski Phillip M. Randall, PhD, CPG Gord Johnston MA, BHJ, BA, CHRP ANDRES CAMPOVERDE Aravind Warrier Francisca Solano Beneitez Satya Prakash Pandey Malgorzata (GOSIA) LANGLOIS Dr. Zohaib Azhar (PhD-HR) Jane Datta David McLean John Lawson Alice Damonte Martha Curioni Vipul M. Mali ↗️ Jens Keuter Phil Inskip Andrew Smith MBA Ekta Vyas Ph.D Oswaldo Machado Bill Brown Barry Marshall Paola Carranco Murthy Nibhanipudi VS Jaana Saramies ? Robert Houghton Aysegul Tigli Indre Radzeviciute Radha Jeevan Melissa Hopper Fritz Tina Peeters, PhD Morten Hartvig Berg Pedro Pereira Gavin Wiseman
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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.
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2024年03月31日
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世界幸福报告能教给我们关于工作的什么? What The World Happiness Report Teaches Us About Work最新《世界幸福报告》揭示，尽管经济增长，美国幸福感下降。研究强调，高薪并非幸福的关键，而公平薪酬、良好的企业文化才是。特别是年轻人，受到气候变化、政治纷争等影响，幸福感低落。企业需关注文化建设、弹性工作，关照员工心理健康。工作场所的信任、社区感和公平至关重要。我们要反思：真正的幸福是什么？
我每年都认真研读《世界幸福报告》，今年的报告特别引人深思。以下是我对一些关键发现的解读。
首先，美国的幸福指数（10分满分）降至第23位，比全球最幸福的国家芬兰低了13%。实际上，在过去15年中，美国的幸福度几乎下降了8%，呈现出持续的年降趋势。对于我们这些生活在美国的人来说，这可能并不陌生：坏消息、政治争斗以及人们在价值观上的分歧似乎无处不在。
这一切发生的同时，美国的GDP增长却持续领先世界上大多数主要经济体。这意味着我们作为一个国家正在变得更加富裕，却显著地变得不那么幸福（下文将详细解释）。
从企业角度来看，这个观点很简单：仅仅提高薪资并不能使人们感到更加幸福。尽管每个人都希望得到公平的报酬，但高薪酬并不直接转化为高参与度。我们2023年的《薪酬公平终极指南》发现，与薪酬水平相比，薪酬公平与员工参与度的关联性高出7倍。
其次，报告指出，在美国，年轻人的幸福感明显低于老年人（这一点并非在所有国家都适用，但在大多数发达国家中是这样的）。在美国，30岁以下人群的幸福评分为6.4，而60岁以上人群的评分为7.3，幸福度低了12%。我们对年轻人的这一低幸福评分使美国在全球青年幸福排行榜上仅位列第62位，远低于我们的总体排名。
这反映出我在上周播客中讨论的现象。如今的年轻工作者担忧全球变暖，他们在年轻时就经历了疫情的冲击，他们对于战争、通货膨胀、社会问题以及政治不和感到沮丧。埃德曼信任度量尺表明，年轻人认为相比政府，企业在为社会带来创新方面更值得信赖，高出近20%。但令人担忧的是，这种信任程度也在下滑。
从企业的视角来看，这进一步强化了播客中提到的观点：我们（美国）的劳动力中位年龄现已达到33岁。这表明许多关键员工对生活的热情有所下降，这迫使雇主需要采取更多措施。我们对企业文化、员工福祉、工作灵活性和个人成长的关注，现在比以往任何时候都显得更为重要。这就是像四天工作周、灵活工作时间以及其他诸多福利（如生育支持、儿童看护、心理健康、健身、财务福利）变得越来越普遍的原因。
（最新的劳动统计局数据显示，我们在福利上的支出占工资总额的31.1%，比三年前的29%有所增加。在信息行业，这个比例高达35.5%，是有史以来的最高值。）
此外，重点强调：对企业来说，重振早期职业发展计划至关重要。许多企业在20世纪60、70年代建立了这些计划，但随后这些计划逐渐被忽视。如果你正在从大学招聘顶尖人才，并投资于校园招聘（这一趋势正在上升），那么确保你有一个坚实的1-2年发展计划、工作轮岗以及面向年轻人的群体参与计划是非常重要的。我最近与康卡斯特讨论了他们的计划，他们的早期职业发展计划正在直接为他们的领导力管道做出贡献。
第三，也是最引人注目的一点是，报告强调了社会关系和信任在幸福感中的巨大作用。进行这项研究的学者团队发现，幸福感的“坎特里尔阶梯”（一个简单的“你觉得自己多幸福”的1-10评分问题）可以分解为六个贡献因素：
人均GDP（财富）、社会支持（密切关系的数量和质量）、预期寿命（健康）、生活选择的自由（按个人意愿生活的能力）、慷慨（向他人给予金钱和时间的倾向）以及腐败感知（相信“系统”是公平的）。
这些因素对幸福的贡献度大开眼界。
令人惊讶的是，社会关系是幸福感的最大贡献者，而健康只占大约1.4%。请注意，第二重要的因素是对腐败的感知或者说是公平感，这解释了为什么薪酬公平非常重要。我们再次发现，财富对幸福感的影响相对较小。
这对我们的工作有何启示？
这里有一些简单的启示：
关系很重要。如果管理层和主管不能建立起团队合作感，员工便会感到不适。尽管我们面临财务和运营压力，但我们仍需抽时间了解员工、倾听他们的声音，并与他们共度愉快时光。通过聚集人员并创建跨功能团队，我们即使在远程工作情况下也能建立社交关系。
信任至关重要。我曾在高层领导贪婪、不忠、不诚实的环境中工作过，公司内的每个人都能感觉到这一点。信任是经年累月建立起来的资产，我们必须不断地进行投资。通过道德、诚实和倾听来培养信任，你的领导模式中包含了这些元素吗？
薪酬的影响可能比你想象的要小。虽然每个人都希望赚更多钱，但人们更希望感觉到奖励是公平且慷慨的。因此，不应仅仅过度奖励表现突出的员工，而忽视其他人的努力。
生活选择的自由极为重要。众多研究显示，与薪资相比，员工更加重视工作的灵活性，因此，考虑将四天工作周和灵活工作选项作为你的雇佣政策的核心部分是非常重要的。
多年前，我在一个人力资源领导者的大型会议上发表了关于企业公民责任的演讲。我指出，公司就像小型社会一样，如果我们的企业“社会”不公平、不透明、不自由，那么我们的员工就会感受到痛苦。演讲结束时，我不确定听众的反应如何，但来自宜家的一大群人向我走来，给了我一个热情的拥抱。宜家这家公司，深深植根于瑞典的社会主义文化，是地球上最长久的公司之一。他们真心相信集体思维、公平和对每个个体的尊重。
原文来自：https://joshbersin.com/2024/03/what-the-world-happiness-report-can-teach-us-about-work/
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