David Green:The best HR & People Analytics articles of November 2024
The centrepiece of this month’s edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is focused around two topics – Agentic AI and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. One with a technology focus, the other very much a human topic.
With Gartner predicting that that by 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously through agentic AI (up from 0% in 2024), the word on everyone’s lips at UNLEASH World in Paris recently was Agentic AI. But what actually is Agentic AI, and what does it mean for HR technology and HR professionals? Some of the content this month explores these topics. It was also good to hear at Unleash, L’Oreal’s CHRO, Jean Claude Le Grand on the main stage saying in very clear terms that “DEI is not a trend. DEI is part of our DNA”. DEI shouldn’t be used as a political football. But with questions being asked about what Trump’s Second Term Could Mean for DEI, it is important to highlight that DEI is also about business performance. I’ve included two articles this month from Quinetta Roberson (on how to link DEI to business outcomes) and Brian Elliott (on why capitulating to DEI sceptics is counterproductive). When it comes to DEI, now is the time to stand up.
This edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is sponsored by our friends at TechWolf
Transforming talent strategies with skills-based insights
Skills are the currency of the modern workforce. For Workday, unlocking the power of skills was key to transforming their talent strategy—and the results speak for themselves.
Workday faced common challenges: fragmented job architecture, costly manual processes, and a need for greater agility to adapt to shifting business needs. By partnering with TechWolf, they implemented a skills-based approach that delivered measurable impact:
32% faster hiring: AI-driven skills matching reduced time-to-hire by more than a third.
85% of the workforce had critical skills aligned to their jobs.
Saved 12-18 months of manual effort, creating a standardized framework for decision-making.
This partnership didn’t just solve today’s challenges—it prepared Workday for the future. TechWolf’s AI continuously updates skills data, ensuring their workforce strategy remains adaptable in a rapidly changing landscape.
Want to know more about Workday’s journey?
? Watch the on-demand webinar: How Workday Leads the Skills Revolution with AI and Data?
Explore how a skills-first approach can make a measurable impact on your workforce strategy. To learn more about how TechWolf can help your organization, reach out to us at hello@techwolf.ai or visit the contact page.
To sponsor an edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, and share your brand with more than 135,000 Data Driven HR Monthly subscribers, send an email to dgreen@zandel.org.
November road report
After a heavy travel schedule in September and October, November was a quieter month with my sole trip being to Germany for the final European Peer Meeting of 2024 for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®, which was hosted by Alexis Saussinan and Ruben Groen at Merck Group’s HQ in Darmstadt. During the two days, we learned about how Alexis and Khadija Ben Hammada, the CHRO, partner to deliver business value at Merck. We also learned from Ruben and Mariana Hebborn PhD on how Merck has established its enterprise data foundations, from Dawn Klinghoffer on how Microsoft has reconfigured its people analytics function in the age of intelligent automation, and Adam Tombor (Wojciechowski) on how Julius Bär democratised data across the company. If you are a people analytics leader interested in joining the People Analytics Program, and attending our 2025 Peer Meetings – including in Paris on January 28 and 29, and New York on March 4 and 5, please get in touch.
Attendees at the Insight222 Peer Meeting for members of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, hosted by Merck, November 19-20, 2024
Sign-up to receive the 5th annual Insight222 People Analytics Trends research report
The 2024 Insight222 People Analytics Trends study will be released publicly on December 9. The report, which is informed by a survey of 340 participating organisations, will uncover how AI, data democratisation, and impactful people analytics strategies drive business value and elevate workforce decision-making.
You can pre-register to receive the report one week earlier on December 2 by signing up here or by clicking on the image below.
Share the love!
Enjoy reading the collection of resources for November 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 October’s compendium.
If you enjoy a weekly dose of curated learning (and the Digital HR Leaders podcast), the Insight222 newsletter: Digital HR Leaders newsletter is published every Tuesday – subscribe here.
AGENTIC AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
JOANNE CHEN AND JAYA GUPTA - A System of Agents brings Service-as-Software to life | McKINSEY - Why agents are the next frontier of generative AI
With Gartner predicting that by 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously through agentic AI, up from 0% in 2024, this is a topic we all need to learn about. Here are two resources that provide some helpful context. (1) A VC view from Joanne Chen and Jaya Gupta, writing for Foundation Capital, which they present as a “$4.6 trillion opportunity as AI transforms software from tool to worker”, with all the inherent implications that has for the workforce (see FIG 1). Thanks to Paul Daley, Gareth Flynn, Nico Orie, and Hung Lee (I recommend following all of these four people) for all highlighting this excellent article. (2) Writing for McKinsey, Lareina Yee, Michael Chui, Roger Roberts, and Stephen Xu, explore the opportunities that the use of gen AI agents presents including how they could work with potential use cases, the value they can bring, and how business leaders should prepare.
FIG 1: A System of Agents (Source: Foundation Capital)
JASON AVERBOOK - How AI Agents are Revolutionizing HR—and How to Get Ready | LARS SCHMIDT - Agents of (Massive) Change: How AI Agents Are Poised to Alter Work | JOSH BERSIN - AI Agents, The New Workforce We’re Not Quite Ready For (Agentic AI) | FELIPE JARA - HR - Let's Prepare for a Big Wave of Multi-Agents AI Systems
For HR, Agentic AI means shifting away from repetitive administrative tasks to focusing on what truly matters: people.
So, what does Agentic AI mean for HR in terms of the HR technology stack, how we deliver services to employees, and HR professionals themselves? Not surprisingly, with all the hype, there is a growing body of resources on these topics. Here are four I recommend to* Data Driven HR Monthly readers: (1) Definitely subscribe to Jason Averbook’s Now of Work Substack. In this blog, he provides five tips for HR to get ready for AI agents including: (i) Upskilling HR teams, (ii) Assessing current processes to identify and prioritise use cases, and (iii) Working on improving data quality. (2) Lars Schmidt’s primer is also highly recommended. It includes a guide to three categories of AI and how they are impacting work: bots, AI agents, and digital workers: “As we weave agentic AI capabilities into our businesses, we will likely deconstruct jobs into individual tasks and then identify the tasks that can be fully automated by these new AI technologies and agents.” (3) Josh Bersin has been all over agentic AI, and has recorded several podcasts on the topic as well as this article, which explains how the “’Large Language Models’ we’ve been learning about for the last two years are now turning into ‘Large Action Models’”, as well as outlining two potential uses cases in L&D and recruiting. As Josh mused in his keynote at Unleash World in Paris, AI is set to dominate the HR Tech stack (see FIG 2). (4) Last but not least, Felipe Jara provides a helpful synopsis of the emerging macro trends in enterprise AI for HR including a summary of the tools that major players like Workday, SAP, ServiceNow and One Model (see FIG 3) are introducing. He also lays out four focus areas of opportunity for HR including guidance on how to prepare your data foundation.
FIG 2: AI dominates the HR Tech stack (Source: Josh Bersin at Unleash World, Paris, October 2024)
FIG 3: The Evolution of Agents and Enterprise AI (Source: One Model – see here)
ANDY SPENCE - The Next Wave of AI: Building Your Own Digital Workforce
This is going to be fundamental change in how we interact with AI. It's moving us from being passive consumers of AI tools to active creators of personalized AI assistants. The great thing is we won’t need to be a machine learning expert or a seasoned programmer to get started.
Finally on the Agentic AI theme this month, a twist as in an edition of his brilliant Workforce Futurist, Andy Spence writes about Agent Engineering, and how individuals (not just companies): “can create and deploy their own army of AI agents for a wide array of personal and professional tasks.” In his article, Andy breaks down what agent engineering is, the rise of personal AI agents, how to get started with agent engineering (including tools and platforms), and how it might reshape work, learning and our daily lives.
FIG 4: Agent engineering framework process (Source: Andy Spence)
MIT AND BCG - Learning to Manage Uncertainty, With AI
Companies that boost their learning capabilities with AI are significantly better equipped to handle uncertainty from technological, regulatory, and talent-related disruptions compared with companies that have limited learning capabilities.
A new study by Sam Ransbotham, David Kiron, Shervin Khodabandeh, Michael Chu, and Leonid Zhukov, Ph.D for MIT Sloan Management Review and BCG finds that companies that combine organisational learning with AI-specific learning, which they define as Augmented Learners, outperform those that apply either approach in isolation or neither (see FIG 5). For example, these Augmented Learner companies are twice as likely to weather talent-related disruptions, demonstrating that they are more resilient to workforce volatility. Thanks to Allison Ryder for highlighting the study.
FIG 5: Learning Capabilities Vary (Source: MIT Sloan Management Review and BCG)
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
QUINETTA ROBERSON - How Integrating DEI Into Strategy Lifts Performance
By explicitly linking DEI goals to business outcomes, companies create a clear vision of how diversity adds value.
In her timely article Quinetta Roberson presents the findings of a study on diversity, equity and inclusion and company financial performance, and highlights the practices for achieving competitive advantage through DEI. These findings include that a bundled practice approach to DEI amplifies the performance effects of individual practices – see example in FIG 6. Quinetta also presents a three-point blueprint for meaningful action to DEI: (1) Strategically align DEI with business goals. (2) Systemically integrate DEI practices. (3) Make evidence-based improvements.
FIG 6: DEI practice bundles (Source: Quinetta Roberson)
BRIAN ELLIOTT - How to Stand Up When It Comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The backlash against DEI is out of sync with the opinions held by the most important set of stakeholders: your employees.
In this powerful column for MIT Sloan Management Review, Brian Elliott tackles the growing backlash by some companies in the US on diversity, equity and inclusion. He highlights two dangers of backing away. First, the fact that DEI programs are actually getting more popular with employees, not less, and increasingly view it as a business topic rather than a political one. Second, capitulating on DEI commitments doesn’t settle the issue with employees or customers especially as research by Edelman finds that 76% of employees want companies to recommit not retreat. Elliott also provides guidance on three approaches to having real conversations on this topic, highlighting examples from his experience in leading teams at Google and Slack: (1) Let people voice their concerns about DEI programs. Don’t stifle the conversation or run away. (2) Use the words diversity, equity, and inclusion — not DEI. Explain what the words mean, correct misinformation, and tie them back to business results. (3) Keep in mind that memos don’t create trust; employee engagement does.
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
PHIL WILLBURN - People Analytics Demystified: A Practitioner’s Handbook
Highly effective HR organizations know that every area of the business makes people decisions. The best people analytics teams excel by scaling people insights to all business leaders, ensuring these insights reach those making critical people decisions
Phil Willburn, the Head of People Analytics, and his team recently hosted a Peer Meeting for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program® at Workday’s global headquarters in California. During the two days, Phil and his team presented some of the amazing work they are doing with people analytics in areas such as workforce planning, employee experience and hybrid work. Some of the content they presented is in this insightful e-book, which shines a light on how Workday has scaled people analytics in its own company (see FIG 7), their product-oriented and persona-based approach, and provides details on three case studies including how the team provides insights on flexible work and collaboration.
FIG 7: People analytics and insights at Workday (Source: Phil Willburn, Workday)
COLE NAPPER, JIN YAN, AND BEN ZWEIG - What is happening to people analytics? A 15 Year Trend Part Two | Part Three
Following on from Part One of their study on employment trends in the people analytics field over the last 15 years, which I featured in the September edition of Data Driven HR Monthly, Cole Napper, Jin Yan and Ben Zweig return for a second helping – and a third helping with Kristin Saboe, Ph.D. In Part Two, Cole, Jin and Ben turn their attentions to an analysis of the skills of people analytics professionals and the impact of the field during the last 15 years. The insights they uncover include: (1) While people analytics specialists are more likely to hold a doctoral degree (8.2%) than other HR specialists (1.4%), advanced skills (e.g. SQL, GenAI, Python) haven’t been adopted in the numbers expected. (2) There is a correlation between companies with ‘prestigious’ people analytics teams and companies being rated more highly for employee sentiment (see FIG 8). They also provide three recommendations for the field moving forward: (1) Add real value and break the cycle. (2) Mature the people analytics function. (3) Let’s get back to growth. In Part Three, Kristin takes the lead to shine the lens on how the composition of government people analytics jobs have changed over the last 15 years.
FIG 8: Companies with a prestigious people analytics team are rated higher by employees (Source: Revelio Labs)
ERIC LESSER, ERIC BOKELBERG, AND DEVON JOHNSON - Powering people analytics through HR data: How to strategically integrate data as a product
Data products help analysts better grasp what data is available, where it comes from, how it can be used and how to put it together to gain insights effectively. When a new business question arises, the needed data is often already available in a data product, making it easy to gather the correct information.
Eric Lesser, Eric Bokelberg, and Devon Johnson from Deloitte provide a helpful breakdown on how to implement data products through applying key principles of product management across the data lifecycle, namely: ownership, reuse, quality, cataloguing and security. They outline three steps to get started with data products: (1) Educate HR and IT teams about data products; (2) Focus on impactful use cases (“Instead of creating numerous data products, concentrate on those that effectively address pressing business needs”); (3) Establish a strong governance model.
CHRISTOPHER ROSETT – Reporting, Analytics, Research, Statistics (RARS) | SERENA HUANG - The Future of Work: Human Skills in the Age of AI | GIOVANNA CONSTANT – The 10 Commandments for every People Analytics professional | MITCH MIHANOVIC – People Analytics Lessons | WILLIS JENSEN - An Unusual Application Using Organizational Network Data | A.J. TUFTE – Making Workforce Planning Strategic: Three Vs | BEN TEUSCH – A reflection on six years at Facebook
The true value of people analytics lies in translating insights into actionable strategies and programs that enhance employee engagement and drive business performance.
In each edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I feature a collection of articles by current and recent people analytics leaders. These are intended to act as a spur and inspiration to the field. Seven are highlighted in this month’s edition. (1) Christopher Rosett outlines the RARS (Reporting, Analytics, Research, Statistics) model he uses with his analytics teams and customers at Amazon (see FIG 9). (2) Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. presents seven human skills required in the age of AI (see FIG 10). (3) Giovanna Constant presents her ten commandments for people analytics professionals including i) You shall worship data quality, ii) You shall train HR teams in data literacy, iii) You shall not create confusing dashboards. (4) Mitch Mihanovic shares three things he has learned from working in the people analytics field, including: “The true value of people analytics lies in translating insights into actionable strategies and programs that enhance employee engagement and drive business performance.” (5) Willis Jensen walks through a case study of using ONA to support compensation decisions for employees. (6) A.J. Tufte breaks down his Three Vs of Strategic Workforce Planning: i) Value (“what value does the work provide”) ii) eVolution (“how does the work need to change”), and iii) Volume (“how much of the work is needed”). (7) Finally, Meta has made a number of layoffs including from its people analytics team in the last few weeks. One of those impacted is Ben Teusch, who penned a reflection on his six years with the company. Wherever Ben decides to go next will be very fortunate to land such a talented practitioner.
FIG 9: The RARS model (Source: Christopher Rosett)
FIG 10: Seven human skills required in the age of AI (Source: Serena Huang)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
RAVIN JESUTHASAN, MIRIAM DAUCHER, AND ALEX ZEA - The future of human resources: Who will care for the human at work?
As the trusted link between organizations and their employees, HR can lead the charge in creating fulfilling workplaces and helping people thrive in an era of transformative technological change, ensuring that AI serves humanity, not the other way around.
Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA, Miriam Daucher, and Alexandra Zea present a new paper from Mercer on the future of human resources in the fifth industrial revolution. They paint a compelling evolution for the function to move beyond being stewards of employment to being stewards of work, and ultimate being stewards of humanity through (1) Ethical use of AI. (2) Safeguarding ESG. (3) Preserving human well-being.
FIG 11: HR’s changing role through the history of industrial revolutions (Source: Mercer)
ASAF JACKOBY - Work, Workforce, and Workplace: The Role of CHROs in Leading Change
As Asaf Jackoby, VP HR for Amdocs, writes, chief human resources officers have a pivotal role to play in transforming the landscape of work, workforce and workplace. His article presents a framework (see FIG 12), and provides detail about each of the three categories and the individual components within it: (1) The Work – AI will transform the way we define work, (2) The Workplace – Creating an inclusive and adaptable environment, and (3) The Workforce – who does the work.
FIG 12: Source – Asaf Jackoby
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
BRIAN FISHER, KATE BRAVERY, KATIE JENKINS, AND LAUREN ROBERTSON - Measuring skills in the age of agile work
A helpful primer from the Mercer team of Brian Fisher, Kate Bravery, Katie Jenkins, and Lauren Robertson on three ways to ascertain employee skills (see FIG 13): (1) Inferred skills (“The starting point for skills measurement”), (2) Rated skills (“The employee and manager view of skills proficiency”), and (3) Validated skills (“Approaches for validating behavioural and technical skills”). As the authors highlight:
Although each method of collecting skills data has its respective merits, methods can also be combined to paint a more complete skills picture that strengthens talent decision-making and can better inform business strategy.
FIG 13: Three components of a skills measurement strategy (Source: Mercer)
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
MICHAEL ARENA AND AARON CHASAN - Fostering Friendships: The Game Changer in Employee Retention
One study found that an employee’s position in the network can predict turnover with 85% accuracy. This is especially true for friendship networks.
Research consistently finds that those with friends at work are far more likely to stay. Indeed, in their article for HR Exchange Network, Michael Arena and Aaron Chasan share the results of a study with a technology company, which found that there was a 44% drop in turnover rate for those who went from 0 friends to just 1. They also provide guidance on how organisations can create a climate for friendships to blossom: (1) Create opportunities for employees to connect; (2) Actively encourage friendships among colleagues; (3) Evaluate the level of connections in the workplace; (4) Create an environment of belonging.
KENNEDYFITCH – Employee Experience Report 2024: Humanized Growth In A Digital Era
You need data to prove your cause, prove your arguments and prove your impact.
This is a highly impressive report on the current state and long-term vision for employee experience by the team at KennedyFitch including Joan Beets, Frank van den Brink, Sander de Bruijn and Patrick Coolen. Highlights include: (1) Analysis on the current state of EX as it relates to maturity (see FIG 14), tools, skills, team responsibilities, leadership buy-in and main obstacles. (2) Insights into the goals, planned skills/tools development and anticipated challenges for the next 12 months. (3) Exploration of how AI and other factors will transform EX and HR. (4) Case studies from EX trailblazers including Sebastian Knepper (Deutsche Telekom), Vasuki Ranganath (Volvo), Lea Mikus (Celonis), Andreas Mayer (ING), Volker Schrank and Joachim Decock (Mondelez), and Ruth Bielderman (Royal BAM Group). An absolute must-read report for anyone working or interested in employee experience.
FIG 14: EX Maturity Model (Source: KennedyFitch)
DAVE ULRICH AND WENDY ULRICH - What Is the Next Step for Employee Experience? The Why, What, and How of Hope
Hope is an emerging fifth wave of managing mental health challenges that shape employee experience which in turn impacts stakeholder value.
The cost of mental illness and the related consequences is projected to be $6 trillion globally by 2030. As Dave Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich write, in the workplace, mental health often connects to the employee experience, which in turn impacts stakeholder and business outcomes (see FIG 15). The article then identifies hope as a new dimension of the employee experience (see FIG 16), and details six principles of what hope means in an organisational setting, so that organisations with hope: (1) Transform the future, (2) Are based in healthy relationships and conversation, (3) Ensure efficacy, (4) Rely on realistic optimism, (5) Empower people, and; (6) Address personal needs. Finally, Dave and Wendy offer seven skills for leaders to master to turn principles into actions that increase hope. An important and timely article.
FIG 15: Logic of Mental Health, Employee Experience and Stakeholder Value (Source: Dave Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich)
FIG 16: Evolution of Ideas Related to Employee Experience (Source: Dave and Wendy Ulrich)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND LEARNING
McKINSEY - Go, teams: When teams get healthier, the whole organization benefits
Team effectiveness is less art, more science
A new McKinsey study identifies the elements of team effectiveness that have the most significant impact on team performance: trust, communication, innovative thinking and decision-making. The authors debunk several other myths about how teams operate, and highlight the importance of context and how it determines the behaviours that matter most for a team to function effectively. A framework is presented that categorises teams into three archetypes: cycling, relay and rowing teams, which also highlights the top performance drivers for each (see FIG 17). Finally, the article details four actions for leaders to help their teams succeed: (1) Take a hard look in the mirror. (2) Make sure the changes stick. (3) If you are a team leader, don’t stand in the way of progress. (4) Embed team effectiveness in the organization’s DNA. (Authors: Aaron De Smet, Gemma D'Auria, Liesje Meijknecht, Maitham Albaharna, Anaïs Fifer, and Kimberly Rubenstein, PhD)
FIG 17: Three archetypes of teams (Source: McKinsey)
ALLAN H. CHURCH AND JANINE WACLAWSKI - Humpty Dumpty and the 9-Box: Five Steps to Putting it Back Together Again Using the Science of Leadership Potential
(The 9-box) should be about understanding the consistency between what the organization thinks of its talent (designated potential) and what the data indicates against a validated predictive model (assessed potential).
As Allan Church, Ph.D. and Janine Waclawski outline in their revealing article, while the 9-box model is commonly used talent management tools many companies struggle to use it effectively. Church and Waclawski believe this is because most organisations are doing it wrong, explaining the tendency to fall into “the performance-potential paradox”. They ten outline five steps towards having a best-in-class 9-box: (1) Throw Out Performance Ratings – They Should Be a Gatekeeper, not a Predictor. (2) Keep Your Current Talent Framework and Embrace it – But Re-label it as Designated Potential. (3) Introduce the Science of Leadership Potential – By Using Formal Assessments & Data (see the New 9-box in FIG 18). (4) Don’t Box Yourself In – Determine the Right Size Grid for Your Organization. (5) Use Data to Diagnose the Gaps – Between Designated Potential and Assessed Potential.
FIG 18: Leadership potential for the new 9-box (Source: Allan H. Church and Janine Waclawski)
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 November that I recommend readers delve into. In a slight change-up this month, I’ll start with a couple of pieces that analyse the people analytics and wider HR technology market:
DAVE ZIELINSKI - How GenAI is Transforming People Analytics Software – Analysis by David Zielinski for SHRM on how GenAI is democratising the use of people analytics and lowering the barrier to entry, which features insights from Stacia Sherman Garr, Jeremy Shapiro, Lydia Wu, and Sameer Raut.
EKTA LALL MITTAL - The Realities of HR Tech Part 1 | Part 2 - In her column for Transform, Ekta Lall Mittal provides insights and guidance on the HR technology market. In Part 1, she looks at how to get started and ways to connect business and people strategy with technology. In Part 2, Ekta provides guidance on how to conduct a current state analysis of your tech stack.
LISA SIMON - The Ripple Effect of Female Leadership in Data – Lisa K. Simon, Chief Economist at Revelio Labs, highlights some of the main findings from a report on the Career outlook for women in D&A and AI, she co-authored with Asha Saxena and Robert Parr. One of these was that companies with more women in senior executive data roles have higher female representation in data roles across the organisation. The difference is greatest for junior roles (see FIG 18).
FIG 18: The more woman in leadership, the more women overall (Source: Revelio Labs)
VISIER – Embracing the AI Driven Workforce: 5 Workforce Trends for 2025 – It’s that time of year when we start hearing the word ‘trends’ a lot, and Visier Inc. is one of the first out of the traps with their five workforce trends for 2025. It’s an insightful read featuring contributions from the likes of Angela LE MATHON, Jill Larsen, Keith Bigelow, and Dawn Klinghoffer.
FIG 19: The ABCDs of Creating a Future-Proof Agile Workforce (Source: Visier)
DIRK JONKER - Finance and Human Resources: A Strategic Partnership for Business Growth – Crunchr CEO Dirk Jonker explains why and how HR and Finance should work together, and paints a vision where: “Together, HR and finance can unlock a future where employees are seen for what they truly are: a company’s most significant (and measurable) asset.”
FRANCISCO MARIN - The Shift from Authority to Influence: Power Distribution in a Network-First Future of Work – Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions continues his excellent series of articles on moving to a network-first approach by analysing the shift of power from authority to influence.
PODCASTS OF THE MONTH
In another month of high-quality podcasts, I’ve selected six gems for your aural pleasure: (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):
BROOKE WEDDLE, BRYAN HANCOCK, AND WENDY MILLER - Why being in HR is getting tougher—and how to break through – In a fascinating episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, Brooke Weddle, Bryan Hancock, and Wendy Stratman Miller join host Lucia Rahilly to discuss the dynamics that are making HR tougher than ever—as well as what leaders can do differently to begin turning morale around.
CONNIE NOONAN HADLEY - Make it Safe for Employees to Speak Up – Connie Noonan Hadley guests on Steelcase’s Work Better podcast with host Chris Congdon to discuss why and how managers should encourage employees to speak up about mistakes, ideas, and questions – essentially by creating a psychologically safe work environment.
DANIELLE BUSHEN – Navigating Pay Transparency with People Analytics - Danielle Bushen, Global Head of People Analytics Data Governance and Stewardship at Sanofi, joins David Turetsky on HR Data Labs to explore how people analytics intersects with compensation, how to modernise compensation through data-driven practices, and the importance of pay transparency.
MATTHEW HAMILTON - How To Master People Analytics and Deliver Insights That Actually Work - Matthew Hamilton, VP of People Analytics & HRIS at Protective Life, joins host Christopher Rainey on HR Leaders to discuss the challenge of delivering actionable insights to leaders - the last mile problem - and the importance of storytelling with data.
PAUL RUBENSTEIN AND JOSH BERSIN - What’s Holding Back People Analytics? – Josh Bersin and Paul Rubenstein, Chief Customer Officer at Visier, discuss how the people analytics market has evolved, and why only around 10% of People Analytics teams deliver strategic business value.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
LEENA NAIR – View From the Top
Leena Nair is that rarity of a chief people officer that rises to the role of CEO having transitioned from CHRO at Unilever to CEO at Chanel in January 2022. In this interview with Ayesha Kamik as part of Stanford’s View From the Top series, Leena shares her inspiring journey with insights from her life and career, including her time in human resources, how to build company culture, her leadership principles, how to break barriers and her thoughts on AI and the future of work.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
RUSSELL KLOSK – Talent Prophecy: Creating Strategic Impact Through Workforce Planning and Talent Strategy
In Talent Prophecy, Russell Klosk (智能虎) provides a comprehensive guide to workforce planning, which should have particular resonance for HR professionals involved in workforce planning activities. The book provides readers with practical and accessible tools to: (1) Analyse your current workforce capabilities. (2) Predict future talent needs across various business scenarios. (3) Create adaptive strategies for talent acquisition and development. (4) Leverage AI and emerging technologies. (5) Build stakeholder support for talent initiatives.
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
ZHEYUAN (KEVIN) CUI, MERT DEMIRER, SONIA JAFFE, LEON MUSOLFF, SIDA PENG, AND TOBIAS SALZ - The Effects of Generative AI on High Skilled Work: Evidence from Three Field Experiments with Software Developers
This paper explains the findings from a study to evaluate the impact of generative AI on software developer productivity through analysing data from three trials conducted at Microsoft, Accenture, and an anonymous Fortune 100 electronics manufacturing company. The researchers ( Kevin Zheyuan Cui, Mert Demirer, Sonia Jaffe, Leon Musolff, Sida Peng, and Tobias Salz) found that introducing a generative AI tool to software developers did increase productivity, with less-experienced developers showing higher adoption rates and greater productivity gains. You can also read this summary of the paper by Dylan Walsh: How generative AI affects highly skilled workers.
FROM MY DESK
November saw the final two episodes of Series 42 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, sponsored by Workday (thanks to Sophie Barnes and Jennifer Neumann), an article rounding up the key learnings from series 42, and the first two episodes of Series 43, sponsored by TechWolf (thanks Maaike Standaert, Mikaël Wornoo?, Andreas De Neve ?).
ANISH LALCHANDANI - The Four Reskilling Principles Every HR Leader Should Know - Anish Lalchandani, Global Head of Talent Management at Maersk, joins me to discuss insights from his book, The Skills Advantage, including why reskilling should be a key component of talent management strategy, the four cornerstones of reskilling, and key metrics to tie reskilling efforts to business value.
LARA WAINWRIGHT AND DUNCAN REYNELL - How Digital Transformation Fuels Skills and EX at Lloyds Banking Group - Lara Wainwright, Product Owner and Lab Lead, and Duncan Reynell, Group Talent & Development Director, join me to share how digital transformation is driving Lloyds Banking Group’s shift to a skills-based organisation.
SANDRA LOUGHLIN - Building a Skills-Based Organisation: Lessons from a 30-Year Journey – Sandra Loughlin, PhD, Chief Learning Scientist, discusses the lessons EPAM Systems has learned over its 30-year skills journey and how organisations can apply these insights to their own skills transformations.
KEITH SONDERLING – Responsible AI in HR: The Ethical Roadmap for Success – For four years, Keith Sonderling was the Commissioner at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). During this time, Keith openly engaged with the HR tech and people analytics community on AI in HR. In this episode, recorded just before Keith’s term ended, we reflect on what AI in HR means for organisations and technology firms, as well as have a broader discussion on discrimination in the workplace.
DAVID GREEN - How can organisations use workforce data to drive culture, inclusion and engagement? - A round-up of the key discussions and learning from series 42 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast featuring: Michael Fraccaro, Michael Arena, Jason Scheckner, Anish Lalchandani, Lara Wainwright and Duncan Reynell.
SIGN UP TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PEOPLE ANALYTICS NETWORK CENSUS
This is a great initiative by Andrew Pitts, Richard Rosenow, Matthew Diabes, PhD, and Stephanie Murphy, Ph.D. Together they have launched the People Analytics Network Census (PANC), which aims to map and understand the global people analytics network, tracking connections across professionals in our field through a single active organisational network analysis. You can find out more about the initiative and sign up to PANC here.
LOOKING FOR A NEW ROLE IN PEOPLE ANALYTICS OR HR TECH?
I’d like to highlight once again the wonderful resource created by Richard Rosenow and the One Model team of open roles in people analytics and HR technology, which now numbers over 475 roles, and has now been developed into a LinkedIn newsletter too – you can read the latest edition here.
THANK YOU
Richard Rosenow for including the Digital HR Leaders podcast episodes with Craig Starbuck, PhD and Rob Briner on his Election Day Playlist
Veronika Birkheim for including me on her list of experts on LinkedIn to read, listen and follow
Thomas Kohler for including the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Anish Lalchandani in his excellent list of HR resources
Nick Broughton for including me on his list of top 40 voices in the remote work industry.
Wolfgang Brickwedde for including me in his article on the Recruiting Tech Highlights of Unleash 2024
OpenHR UK for including the Digital HR Leaders podcast as one of four must-listen to podcasts, along with podcasts by Matt Alder Ben Geoghegan and Lucinda Carney ?
Finally, a huge thank you to the following people who either shared the October edition of Data Driven HR Monthly and/or posted about the Digital HR Leaders podcast, conferences or other content. It's much appreciated: Scott Rogers Tobias W. Goers ツ Jordan Hartley David McLean Jaqueline Oliveira-Cella Tim Sharp Delia Majarín Andreea Lungulescu Dart Lindsley Sharna Wiblen Amardeep Singh, MBA Selina Yankson Olivier Vidal Lukasz Sowinski Lenka Máchová Nick Lynn Russ Fatum BS, BS, MSA, MBB, PMP Tanguy Dulac Aurélie Crégut Roshaunda Green, MBA, CDSP, Phenom Certified Recruiter Stephanie Denino Ian Grant FCIPD Purvi Vasani Lewis Garrad Rafael Senise David Simmonds FCIPD William Thai, Ph.D. Olivia Li Md Shahid Ullah Bhuyan Facundo Tomás García Bob Pulver Corine Boon Alessandro Cosentino Jose Luis Chavez Vasquez Kalifa Oliver, Ph.D. Samir Murgude , SPHR®, SHRM-SCP, IHRP-SP Jayashree Shivkumar Dr. Jeeta Sarkar Abbie Gnewuch Zachary Schurmann ?️? Aurangzeb Soharwardi CDIS. CHRP. SAP HCM Aravind Warrier Catriona Lindsay Luis Maria Cravino Kerron Ramganesh Ralf Buechsenschuss David Hodges Ouarda Guergour Marijana Brasiello, MHRM Malgorzata Langlois Amit Mohindra Swechha Mohapatra (IHRP-SP, SHRM-SCP, CIPD) Lore Muraina, PMP, PMI-ACP, CPP Alan Susi Yuyan Sun Sven Hultin Greg Pryor Kathleen Kruse Jaap Veldkamp Aleksandra Borisova, RODP Hrvoje Bulat Jaejin Lee Wayne Tarken Caitie Jacobson Nathalie Kumbrink, PHR®, SAFe® APM Melissa Arronte Nicole Lettich Nils Bunde Mia Norgren Shane Walsh Irina Villacreces, M.S., SPHR, PMP Jaana Saramies ? Stacy Davies Ruben Santos Justin Shemeley Richie Citta Erin Gerbec, Ph.D. Mircea-Stefan Glavici Bri Klein Indre Radzeviciute Alex Paton Ramesh Karpagavinayagam Megan Cox (née Phelps) Natasha Ouslis, PhD Tina Peeters, PhD Joseph Frank, PhD CCP GWCCM Lucie Vottova John Fisher Whitney Giga, PHR, SWP Graham Tollit Dave Millner Nicole Davis Barry Swales Dr. Sebastian Projahn David Littlechild Tatu Westling Philipp Heller Blaine Ames Shujaat Ahmad Irene Wong Greg Newman Adam McKinnon, PhD. Kanwal Safdar Irada Sadykhova Hanadi El Sayyed Tanya Arrowsmith Nabil Dewsi Henrik Håkansson Lina Makneviciute Alejandro Giordanelli Andras Szabo Radka Krempova David van Lochem Andreas Maroulis Ohad Geron Placid Jover Sydney Dolanch Isabel Naidoo Rob Kok Kimberly Rose Nick Hayter Annia Balcazar Cabana Anna A. Tavis, PhD Claire Masson Agnes Garaba Sebastian Kolberg Sabine Bothe Sophia Huang, Ed.D. Mariami Lolashvili Philip Arkcoll Erik Otteson Alexandra Nawrat Kristina Schoemmel Craig Starbuck, PhD Maria Alice Jovinski Toon van der Veer Petra Noble Julia Brandon, PhD Aritra Majumdar Scott Nemeth Shannon Rutledge Gal Mozes, PhD Ken Clar Kelly Monahan, Ph.D. Jacob Nielsen Olimpiusz Papiez Nick Hudgell Sonia Mooney Marcela Mury Christopher Cerasoli Dr. Peter Schulz-Rittich Ludek Stehlik, Ph.D. Craig Forman Kelly Satterfield Perri Ma Anna Gullstrand Victoria Holdsworth Joanna Bloor Pietro Mazzoleni Andrés García Ayala Kristhy Bartels Tim Peffers John Golden, Ph.D. Nicole Hazard Søren Kold Kirsten Edwards Doug Shagam Geetanjali Gamel John Gunawan Jack Liu
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 100 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222, David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast and is an instructor for Insight222's myHRfuture Academy. His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar, Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value was published in the summer of 2021.
MEET ME AT THESE EVENTS
I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work, and data driven HR at a number of upcoming events in 2024 and early 2025:
December 5 - Visier Outsmart Local - Building Your People Data Strategy, London
December 10-12 - Workday Rising EMEA, Amsterdam
January 23 - The Strategic Outlook for People Analytics in 2025 with Ian Cook and Dawn Klinghoffer (WEBINAR - Register here)
February 26-27 - People Analytics World, Zürich
April 29-30 - People Analytics World, London
More events will be added as they are confirmed.
原文来自:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-hr-people-analytics-articles-november-2024-david-green--aofje/
The best HR & People Analytics articles of September 2024
September has been a phenomenal month. Indeed, in the ten years I’ve been writing the Data Driven HR Monthly, I can’t recall a month when there has been so much insightful content to choose from. I believe this is indicative of the journey HR is on from its traditional role as a support function to becoming a true strategic partner to the CEO and the board. As Janine Vos, Managing Board Member and CHRO at Rabobank, highlighted this past week at the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, people analytics has an important role to play in elevating the HR function and enabling it to successfully navigate this transition:
People Analytics helps give the chief human resources officer credibility (with the executive team and board).
This edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is sponsored by our friends at Worklytics
A New Way to Approach Manager Effectiveness
If you’re using eSat scores to evaluate Manager Effectiveness, you’re moving too slowly.
eSat scores are a lagging indicator of how it’s going. And in today’s distributed work environment, you can’t afford to wait.
Instead, use ONA-powered outcome driver analysisto identify what your best managers are doing differently.
You might measure behaviours like:
Manager Cross-Department Connectivity
Co-Attendance in Directs’ Meetings
Manager-Driven Disruptions (Slack DMs)
Curious to see what that looks like in practice? Find out how your managers stack up.
To sponsor an edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, and share your brand with more than 135,000 subscribers, send an email to dgreen@zandel.org.
The Changing Role of the People Analytics Executive
My personal highlight of September was the 7th annual Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, which took place from September 24 to 26 at the Duin en Kruidberg for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®. I’ll share more about the Retreat in a separate blog in a few days time, but for now I'll highlight this year’s theme: The Changing Role of the People Analytics Executive, and the stellar cast of inspirational speakers:
Janine Vos discussed the strategic influence of the CHRO and the close partnership she has at Rabobank with the people data and innovation team led by Marc Jansen.
Prasad Setty shared insights from his 14 years leading people analytics at Google as well as painting a vision of the future of people analytics in the age of generative AI.
Kevin Friesen, Neora Myrow PhD, and Nancy Duarte delivered an interactive workshop on influencing through data storytelling.
Erin Meyer ended proceedings with a tour de force masterclass on leading across cultures I global organisations.
The Retreat is one of the services included as part of the Insight222 People Analytics Program. If you are a people analytics leader and would like to find out more, you can contact the team here.
Attendees at the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat 2024, Duin en Kruidberg, Amsterdam
September and October World Tour
As well as the Retreat, I’m speaking at and attending a number of events in October. This week, I’m in New York, moderating a panel on Workestration at the New York Strategic HR Analytics Meetup (Sept 30), and chairing People Analytics World (Oct 2 and 3). The next stop after that will be Paris, where I’ll once again have the privilege of hosting the main stage at UNLEASH World (Oct 16 and 17) - thanks to Marc Coleman and the team. Then it’s back to the US for the North America Peer Meeting for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®, which will be hosted by Phil Willburn and his team at Workday in Pleasanton (Oct 22 and 23). I hope to see some of you at one of these events. Thanks too to Marcus Downing for hosting me at the recent Mercer event in London where I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA (see here), and Jennifer Neumann for inviting me to speak at Workday Rising in Las Vegas (see here), where it was great to meet up with the likes of Priyanka Mehrotra, Richard Rosenow, and Cory Edmonds.
Speaking onstage at Workday Rising, Las Vegas, 2024
Register for an Insight222 webinar on October 10: Building the People Analytics Operating Model
Join me and the Insight222 team on October 10 when we’ll be hosting a webinar on the recently published research on. You can register for the webinar here.
Share the love!
Enjoy reading the collection of resources for September and, if you do, please share some data driven HR love with your colleagues and networks. Thanks to the many of you who liked, shared and/or commented on August’s compendium.
If you enjoy a weekly dose of curated learning (and the Digital HR Leaders podcast), the Insight222 newsletter: Digital HR Leaders newsletter is published every Tuesday – subscribe here.
HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
ANDY JASSY - Message from CEO Andy Jassy: Strengthening our culture and teams | JOSE MARIA BARRERO, NICHOLAS BLOOM, SHELBY BUCKMAN, AND STEVEN J. DAVIS - The Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes – September 2024 | ANNIE DEAN – Lessons Learned: 1,000 Days of Distributed at Atlassian
This special on hybrid work was inspired by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s announcement that Amazon is going back to five days in the office: “to further strengthen our culture and teams.” This comes hot on the heels of KPMG’s CEO Outlook Survey, which finds that CEOs are hardening their stance on returning to pre-pandemic ways of working, with 83 percent expecting a full return to the office within the next three years. Forensic analysis by Bruce Daisley (here), Phil Kirschner(here) and Nick Bloom (here) examines Amazon’s move and the validity of KPMG’s claim. This confirms that (1) Amazon is an outlier. (2) The findings by KPMG contradict the WFH Research that Nick is publishing every month, which shows working from home has remained flat since early 2023 and has stabilised at around 25% (see FIG 1). As Bloom suggest “shock sells,” which explains the extent of the media coverage about Amazon and the KPMG survey. To balance things out, I recommend reading about Dropbox’s Virtual First model (which chief people officer, Melanie Rosenwasser explains has “led to clear benefits, including higher employee engagement and retention.”). I also recommend reading a new report authored by Annie Dean summarising the findings from the first 1,000 days of Atlassian’s Team Anywhere approach to distributed work. As Rabobank’s CHRO Janine Vos urged in her session at Insight222’s Global Executive Retreat this week, the role of HR and People Analytics teams is to provide data that steers executive decision making around hybrid and return to office. It would be interesting to learn what data (if any) was used to inform Amazon’s decision to return to the office five days a week.
FIG 1: WFH is stable at c35% of days (Source: WFH Research)
BCG HENDERSON INSTITUTE - GenAI Doesn’t Just Increase Productivity. It Expands Capabilities
The ability to rapidly take on new types of work with GenAI - particularly tasks that traditionally require niche skills that are harder to find, such as data science - can be a game-changer for individuals and companies alike.
The BCG Henderson Institute follow-up their first landmark study on GAI in the workplace (see: How People Can Create - and Destroy - Value with Generative AI). The sophomore experiment tests how workers can use GenAI to complete tasks that are beyond their current capabilities. The findings from the study are illuminating: (1) Participants were able to instantly expand their aptitude for new data-science tasks, even when they had no prior experience in coding or statistics. (2) Those with moderate coding experience performed better on all three tasks, even when coding was not involved. This suggests that an engineering mindset - which coding helps develop - could be a key success factor for workers adapting to GenAI tools. The article also provides guidance on: When and how to pair humans with GenAI (see FIG 2), as well as visualising and detailing the workforce change-management implications (see FIG 3). (Authors: Daniel Sack, Lisa Krayer, PhD, Emma Wiles, Mohamed Abbadi, Urvi A., Ryan Kennedy, Cristián Arnolds, and François Candelon).
FIG 2: When and How to Pair Humans and GenAI (Source: BCG Henderson Institute)
FIG 3: Workforce and Change-Management Implications (Source: BCG Henderson Institute)
GARTNER - Hype Cycle for the Future of Work, 2024
Only 14% of organizations have reached the level of maturity where they are able to empower workers to embrace new ways of working.
Gartner’s inaugural Hype Cycle for the Future of Work (see FIG 4) highlights the core technologies set to transform how work is done by augmenting and enhancing human capabilities with intelligent technology. Five standouts from the analysis are: (1) Workers want a more personalised experience, and are building it for themselves. (2) CEOs are captivated by AI and are investing in new strategies. (3) Low digital workplace maturity is a barrier to improving worker productivity and time to competency. (4) Data Storytelling and Generative AI (already!) have entered the Trough of Disillusionment. (5) Hybrid Work and Self-Service Analytics are on the Slope of Enlightenment. The article also contains some illuminating analysis on a number of the ‘on the rise’ innovations including Exoskeletons (Tori Paulman), Cyberpsychology (Cynthia P.), Digital Twin of the Employee (Helen Poitevin) and Workforce Nudgetech (Rania Stewart). Thanks to Phil Kirschner for alerting me to this work in his excellent LinkedIn post on the study, which linked to an insightful article Phil co-authored with Natasha Ouslis, PhD and Dr. Julia Sperling-Magro on applying behavioural science and nudging to the workplace.
FIG 4: Hype Cycle for the Future of Work, 2024 (Source: Gartner)
NICKY DRIES, JOOST LUYCKX, AND PHILIP ROGIERS - What 570 Experts Predict the Future of Work Will Look Like
While it’s impossible to know exactly what the future of work will look like, it doesn’t stop (lots of!) people from having opinions. In their study, Nicky Dries, Joost Luyckx, and Philip Rogiers from KU Leuven, asked 570 experts to rank the likelihood of predictions made by technologists, economists and journalists. They landed on the sequence of events laid out in FIG 5, which get increasingly concerning and dystopian by the decade. Not one for the faint hearted!
FIG 5: A timeline of future of work predictions (Source: Dries et al)
MCKINSEY - Charting a path to the data- and AI-driven enterprise of 2030
Generative AI has increased the focus on data, putting pressure on companies to make substantive shifts to build a truly data-based organization.
These are the opening words to a recent article by McKinsey’s Dr. Asin Tavakoli, Holger Harreis, Kayvaun Rowshankish, and Michael Bogobowicz, which provides guidance on seven essential priorities for leaders to focus on to realise the data-driven enterprise of 2030. They argue that the key enabler to realising the potential of GenAI is data: “Without access to good and relevant data, this new world of possibilities and value will remain out of reach.” Three of the seven priorities outlined are (1) Data Leadership (“Companies need to find leaders skilled in governance and compliance, engineering and architecture, and business value"). (2) Talent (see FIG 6), and (3) Digital Trust.
FIG 6: New skills to manage GenAI will likely lead to both expanded and new data roles (Source: McKinsey)
PwC - 2024 Workforce Radar Report Executive Summary | Full Paper
The workforce of today won’t become the workforce of tomorrow unless businesses act right now.
But how? That’s the exam question that PwC’s inaugural Workforce Radar study attempts to answer across an insightful and thought-provoking report of 48 pages. The research identifies five workforce signals (see FIG 7) that business leaders and chief people officers can use to deliver enterprise-wide transformation. (1) Taking both a talent magnet and talent factory approach (e.g. levers such as meaningful work, skill-building, and culture). (2) Devising a location strategy that appreciates over time. (3) The intelligent enterprise – through HR harnessing and taking the lead on GenAI (see FIG 8). (4) Empowering transformation with a workforce balance sheet. (5) Investing in building transformative leadership. Kudos to the authors: Anthony Abbatiello, Julia Lamm, Reid Carpenter, Craig O'Donnell, and Christopher Hannegan.
FIG 7: Five Workforce Radar Signals (Source: PwC)
FIG 8: Emerging areas for Leading Digital HR Leaders to lean-in (Source: PwC)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
NAOMI VERGHESE, JONATHAN FERRAR, AND JORDAN PETTMAN - Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v2.0 ARTICLE | FULL REPORT
In the August edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I highlighted the new Insight222 study on the evolution of the people analytics operating model. This month I’d like to highlight one specific aspect of the report about the role of the people analytics leader. The research, which was conducted by my colleagues, Naomi Verghese, Jonathan Ferrar and Jordan Pettman, found that three profiles of people analytics leader are emerging (see FIG 9): (1) Data and Analytics Specialist Leader (focused on a scope for data and analytics research, insights and analytical product development and deployment). (2) Analytics-led Strategy Leader (encompassing a broad set of analytics responsibilities: consulting, research, employee listening, product development, reporting, data governance, workforce planning and AI). (3) Portfolio Analytics Leader (responsibility for people analytics and one or more other closely associated topic, such as people strategy, HR technology, HR operations, skills management, or employee experience). Read the report for more detail on each of the profiles together with examples of each leader persona Featuring Anthony Ferreras, Aashish Sharma, and Alexis Saussinan.
FIG 9: Responsibilities of the three people analytics leader personas, aligned to the People Analytics Ecosystem (Source: Insight222)
COLE NAPPER, JIN YAN, AND BEN ZWEIG - What is happening to people analytics? A 15- year trend (Part 1)
How has people analytics employment changed in the last 15 years, and specifically how has the environment changed in the last two years? That was the question that Cole Napper along with Jin Yan and Ben Zweig sought to answer after being inspired by Alexis Fink to analyse these topics. The study identified a number of interesting – and perhaps counterintuitive – findings. These include: (1) People analytics positions in the US have actually declined in the last two years – the data suggests more than 1,000 people have left the field during this time (see FIG 10). (2) 83% of people leaving the field move to roles outside people analytics but mostly in HR. (3) People analytics positions are sensitive to changes in interest rates and money supply.
FIG 10: People analytics positions have been decreasing in the last two years (Source: Revelio Labs)
PIETRO MAZZOLENI - People Data Excellence: Driving Quality through Empowerment, Standardization, and Automation
Ensuring high-quality (people) data is crucial for building leaders' trust in data-driven talent decisions and reducing the need for manual reconciliation. Moreover, maintaining top-tier data quality is essential for the successful implementation of AI and GenAI technologies.
In the latest edition of his excellent People Data Platform newsletter, Pietro Mazzoleni breaks down the three ingredients IBM brought together to build Workforce 360, IBM’s internal people data platform, and deliver people data excellence: (1) Empowerment (“Putting Data & Knowledge in the Hands of Users”). (2) Standardisation (“Establishing a Unified Approach for data and processes”). (3) Automation (“Enhancing Efficiency Through Technology”).
FIG 11: Source – Pietro Mazzoleni
HENRIK HÅKANSSON - People Analytics: Generative AI | AMIT MOHINDRA – Definitions of People Analytics | KEITH MCNULTY - The Three Most Common Statistical Tests You Should Deeply Understand | LAURA HILGERS - How to Measure Quality of Hire, According to 4 Experts | JILL BARTH - How people analytics transformed this org’s HR from old-school to inspirational
In each edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I feature a collection of articles by current and recent people analytics leaders. These are intended to act as a spur and inspiration to the field. Five are highlighted in this month’s edition. (1) Henrik Håkansson highlights a common predicament for people analytics leaders – stakeholder requests to implement GenAI. He offers sage advice on the ideal response: “GenAI is a solution. So naturally I ask: What is the problem? What is the value? Why would GenAI be better than what we are doing today? Are we trying to save money and cut costs, or actually do things better or faster?” (2) Amit Mohindra assembles a handy list of definitions of people analytics. (3) As Keith McNulty explains, hypothesis testing is one of the most fundamental elements of inferential statistics. In his article, Keith uses an example to show three common hypothesis tests (Welch’s t-test, Correlation test, and Chi-square test of difference in proportion) and how they work under the hood, as well as showing how to run them in R and Python and to understand the results. (4) Laura Hilgers’ article on the elusive quality of hire metric is a must-read for people analytics and talent acquisition professionals. It features guidance from four experts in the field: Hung Lee, Tim Sackett, SPHR, SCP (see FIG 12 for Tim’s equation to measure quality of hire), Stacey A. Gordon, MBA, and Jennifer McClure. (5) Finally, Sonia Boyle, CHRL - chief people officer at Gore Mutual, explains to Jill Barth HR Tech Editor how people analytics has been at the centre of the company’s HR transformation.
FIG 12: How to measure Quality of Hire (Source: Tim Sackett)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
DAVE ULRICH - Realizing Talent Advantage: Evidence and Implications from the Organization Guidance System
In 2020, Dave Ulrich and his colleagues at The RBL Group, developed the Organization Guidance System (OGS), which was designed to align desired stakeholder outcomes across four human capital pathways: talent, organisation, leadership and human resources. Five years on, in a new series of articles, Dave provides an update on the key findings to date. In this article, Dave focuses on the talent pathway, highlighting ten talent investments that deliver stakeholder value, and then presents analysis from 187 companies on the relative impact of these investments across five stakeholder outcomes (see FIG 13). The article then describes how individual companies can use the OGS to guide investment in the areas that will provide them with the greatest return.
FIG 13: Heatmap of impact of ten talent initiatives on five stakeholder outcomes (Source: Dave Ulrich)
JILL GOLDSTEIN, CHRIS HAVRILLA, CHACKO THOMAS, AND CATHY FILLARE - Reimagine human potential in the gen AI era: Revolutionizing work to boost business value
With their unique perspective and understanding of organizational culture, workforce needs, skills development, and change management, HR leaders are well-positioned to take a leadership role in their organization’s future of work strategy.
A new study by the IBM Institute for Business Value and Oracle, highlights the top concerns facing executives around the future of work, including the need for a skills-focused foundation and a well-defined strategy. The big takeaway for HR leaders is that while executives acknowledge that HR contributes to their organisation’s future of work strategy, not enough of them are in the driver’s seat. Only one in five executives say HR owns the future of work strategy in their organisation today. The report provides guidance to HR leaders on possible actions: (1) Build a future-ready culture that encourages experimentation. (2) Give your workforce a voice in the future of work strategy. (3) Drive technology transformation and champion AI use case adoption. The report also highlights critical workforce skills that will increase in demand by 2026 (see FIG 14). (Authors: Jill Goldstein, Chris Havrilla, Chacko Thomas, and Cathy Fillare).
FIG 14: Critical workforce capabilities—increases from today to 2026 (Source: IBM Institute of Business Value)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
MCKINSEY - The gen AI skills revolution: Rethinking your talent strategy
Developing the software talent companies need to grow means thinking in terms of skills rather than roles to navigate this period of uncertainty around talent.
According to McKinsey research, nearly 70 percent of top economic performers, versus just half of their peers, use their own software to differentiate themselves from their competitors. GenAI offers an opportunity to multiply this value. In the article, Alharith Hussin, Anna Wiesinger, Charlotte Relyea, Martin Harrysson, Suman Thareja, Prakhar Dixit and Thao Dürschlag, provide guidance on: (1) The new skills software teams will require. (2) How their evolution will alter roles and risks. (3) How companies can orient their talent management practices toward developing skills for greater flexibility and responsiveness. This includes grounding strategic workforce planning in business needs and skills.
The talent transformation starts with HR leaders developing a strategic workforce plan that’s built around skills.
FIG 15: Generative AI affects every phase of the software development life cycle (Source: McKinsey)
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
VOLKER JACOBS – Squaring the Circle: Why the old promise of P&O transformation –more for less – can finally be fulfilled
With effective, generative AI, P&O transformations can deliver a better, friction-free work experience for managers and employees. With a friction-free experience for managers and employees, we enable higher productivity and engagement levels. And it goes without saying that with AI taking on P&O tasks we can reduce cost of the function: More for less. Squaring the circle. Three ingredients: Data, AI, and EX.
In his thoughtful paper, Volker Jacobs, CEO at employee experience experts TI PEOPLE, highlights how HR transformations have historically undelivered their promise of more business value at lower cost. Instead, Volker argues, with the capabilities offered through AI and digitisation allied to rising expectations for better work experiences, the scene is now set to realise the dream of ‘more for less’. The catalyst? A shift from transformation focus on process to data as one of three ingredients to square the circle: Data, AI and Employee Experience leading to the business outcomes including improved productivity, better customer experience, and lower cost (see FIG 16).
FIG 16: Shifting HR transformation focus from process to data (Source: Volker Jacobs, TI People)
MALISSA CLARK - A Workaholic’s Guide to Reclaiming Your Life
In the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review, the Big Idea Series focuses on an increasingly important topic: Overcoming Overwork and Workaholism. Workaholism is defined in the lead article, by Malissa Clark, as: “Workaholism is when work dominates your thoughts and your activities, to the detriment of other aspects of your life, including but not limited to your relationships and your health.” Does that sound uncomfortably familiar? If so, like me you’ll probably welcome the six coping strategies Malissa outlines in her article: (1) Redefining “urgent”. (2) Reinventing the to-do list (see FIG 17). (3) Learning to say “no” and delegate. (4) Fixing the workaholic clock. (5) Controlling rumination. (6) Embracing rest and recovery.
Through mechanisms such as redefining what is and is not urgent, fixing the workaholic clock, and embracing rest and recovery, workaholics can unlearn toxic behaviors and reclaim their time and lives.
FIG 17: The Eisenhower Matrix (Source: Marissa Clark, Harvard Business Review)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND LEARNING
PER HUGANDER AND AMY EDMONDSON - Skills Training Links Psychological Safety to Revenue Growth
Organizational performance can be improved by viewing psychological safety as a trainable skill that individuals develop with practice.
Hugander Per and Amy Edmondson present a case study from Nordic bank SEB where training for executives on psychological safety and perspective taking was identified as the catalyst that enabled the investment bank to achieve revenues 25% above yearly targets in a strategically important market segment. The article provides four recommendations for leaders who want to make progress on strategic challenges and improve financial results by leveraging psychological safety and perspective-taking: (1) Focus on two levels in parallel: individuals and teams. (2) Expand leadership responsibility. (3) Keep strategy and performance front and centre. (4) Link skills to short-term gains to counteract perceived costs. For more on psychological safety, tune in to Amy’s conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How Learning to Fail Can Help People and Organisations to Thrive.
ANDREW WHITE, ADAM CANWELL, AND MICHAEL SMETS - Is Your Organizational Transformation Veering Off Course?
Leaders who achieve successful transformations create and maintain an environment where people can experiment, learn, and take ownership of their work — and ultimately feel good about their effort
According to a study by Andrew White, Adam Canwell and Michael Smets, 96% of all organisational transformations face significant challenges that can derail the whole program. Their research identified that changes in a team’s emotional energy (“the collective mood, vibe, and intensity of emotions within a group”) can signal when a transformation is in danger (see FIG 18). They then reveal the three-step process successful leaders use to navigate a turning point – increasing transformation performance by 12 times from 6 to 72 per cent: (1) They look for shifts in the team’s emotional energy (e.g. lack of clarity on how to proceed, ineffective collaboration, decreased engagement). (2) They dig into the underlying issue at play – by involving the whole team to decide the course of action. (3) They get to action — quickly (e.g. by creating team alignment, adjusting organisational priorities, and investing in the skills and mindset required for the transformed company).
FIG 18: How emotional energy can signal a transformational turning point (Source: White et al)
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
LORI NISHIURA MACKENZIE, SARAH A. SOULE, SHELLEY J CORRELL, AND MELISSA C. THOMAS HUNT - How DEI Can Survive This Era of Backlash
When they’re given adequate support — like protected time, advancement opportunities, leadership development, and compensation for their DEI work — ERG leaders can act as a strategic conduit between employees and organizational leaders.
Despite recent backlash against and cuts to organisational DEI initiatives, researchers from the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab - Lori Nishiura Mackenzie, Sarah Soule, Shelley J. Correll, and Melissa C. Thomas-Hunt - argue in their Harvard Business Review article that DEI isn’t dead in the U.S. Instead, they say it’s experiencing a period of what social movement scholars call “closed doors,” where the obvious route for change is no longer easily accessible. They recently convened a gathering of 14 chief diversity officers (CDOs) to unpack what’s happening in their world. In the article, they highlight the striking similarities between current DEI strategies and the tactics used by feminist movement builders during times of closed doors — and present four strategies for continuing the important work of DEI while it’s under attack: (1) Sustain networks of people engaged in DEI work. (2) Preserve the collective memory. (3) Reframe and rename the work for survival. (4) Nurture the collective identity within the DEI community.
HR TECH VOICES
Much of the innovation in the field continues to be driven by the vendor community, and I’ve picked out a few resources from September that I recommend readers delve into:
JASON CORSELLO AND THOMAS OTTER | ACADIAN VENTURES - 2024 Future of Work 100 - An excellent resource compiled by Jason Corsello and Thomas Otter of Acadian Ventures counting down the top 100 venture-backed companies building businesses that make work better, fairer, more meaningful, and ultimately more productive. Together, the Future of Work 100 has raised a cumulative $29.5 billion with a total market valuation over $140.3 billion.
FIG 19: Source – Acadian Ventures
PHIL WILLBURN - Global Workforce Report: Top Talent Is Hard to Find, Harder to Keep – Phil Willburn, head of people analytics at Workday summarises the key findings of the recently released Workday Global Workforce Report: Restoring Trust Before Your Top People Leave covering hiring, turnover of top performers, meaningful work, and internal mobility. Phil also highlights the key actions for business leaders: (1) Rebuild trust through transparency. (2) Make work meaningful. (3) Personalise your employee experience efforts based on tenure. (4) Embrace AI strategically. An absolute must-read.
FIG 20: Current use of AI and ML for recruiting (Source: Workday)
CATHERINE COPPINGER - Manager Facetime: Why It's Useful and How to Measure It – The latest in a series of insightful articles by Catherine Coppinger of Worklytics analyses the importance of manager facetime and provides guidance on how to use the insights identified to improve team effectiveness.
FIG 21 – Source: Worklytics
BEN COWAN - You Don’t Need to Abandon Jobs to Become a Skills-Based Organization – Ben Cowan of Degreed explains that while jobs aren’t likely to disappear this shouldn’t hinder efforts by companies to adopt skills-based talent practices: “The reality is that moving away from jobs is not something most organizations are likely to do in the near term and it does not need to hold you back from adopting other skills-based practices.”
FRANCISCO MARIN - Towards a Network-First Future of Work – Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions provides an insightful breakdown of the differences between Hierarchy-First and Network-First approaches across then organisational concepts (see FIG 22): “While hierarchies have long been the norm, favoring clear lines of authority and collaborative control, the network-first model prioritizes collaborative freedom, decentralization, and the strength of informal relationships.”
FIG 22: Hierarchy-First vs. Network-First Approach (Source: Francisco Marin)
PODCASTS OF THE MONTH
In another month of high-quality podcasts, I’ve selected five gems for your aural pleasure: (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):
JEREMY SHAPIRO AND CHRIS SHULTZ - HR, Workforce Automation, and GenAI at Merck – Jeremy Shapiro and Chris Shultz join Stacia Sherman Garr and Dani Johnson on RedThread Research’s Workplace Stories podcast to share how (and why) Merck is embracing AI to streamline HR processes, support innovation, and maintain ethical considerations.
COURTNEY MCMAHON – People Analytics at Colgate-Palmolive – Courtney McMahon joins Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD on the Directionally Correct podcast to discuss how to get a smaller people analytics function to punch above its weight, and how Colgate-Palmolive is using One Model to scale people analytics to HRBPs and the business.
KEITH MCNULTY – Applying Mathematical Principles to People Analytics Part 1 | Part 2 – In a two-part episode, Keith McNulty joins hosts Matthew Lampe, PsyD, Natasha Ouslis, PhD, and Bilal Alperen Ergun on the ScienceForWork podcast to discuss how mathematical principles can be applied to organizational data and people analytics.
JEFFREY PFEFFER - How Modern Work is Creating a Health Crisis - Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behaviour at Stanford University and author of Dying for a Paycheck, joins Lars Schmidt on Redefining Work to discuss employee well-being and explore the harmful effects of workplace stress and poor working conditions on employee health.
SUE CANTRELL AND TRAVIS DION - Beyond productivity: Rethinking performance metrics – In an episode of Deloitte’s Capital H podcast, host David Mallon, talks to Susan Cantrell, and Travis Dion about moving beyond traditional employee productivity metrics —followed by a roundtable discussion featuring David, Sue, Julie Duda, and Diane Sinti.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
LASZLO BOCK - Former Google exec talks about what makes a strong CHRO candidate
In an interview with Human Resource Executive, Laszlo Bock, former Head of HR at Google and a arch proponent of people analytics, provides guidance on what makes a strong chief people officer. He emphasises the need for HR executives to develop their understanding of business beyond a simple familiarity with their company’s products and services: “It’s not that (CHRO candidates) don’t understand that we make widgets. It’s that they don’t understand why we’re willing to pay $1.3 billion to buy a company but not $1.4 billion.” For aspiring chief people officers, I’d also recommend investigating the Berkeley Transformative CHRO Leadership Program, where Bock is co-faculty director.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
RAVIN JESUTHASAN AND TANUJ KAPILASHRAMI – The Skills-Powered Organization: The Journey to the Next-Generation Enterprise
Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA and Tanuj Kapilashrami provide a step-by-step guide to designing, implementing and activating the skills-powered organisation. They outline why and how jobs are giving way to skills as the currency of work and why this pivot requires us to rethink everything we know about work. The inspiring cases presented in the book discuss how leading companies are reinventing themselves to be skills-based organisations and how this is helping them to transform value for customers, communities, and stakeholders.
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
MARGRIET BENTVELZEN, CORINE BOON, AND DEANNE N. DEN HARTOG - A person centered approach to individual people analytics adoption – In their paper, Margriet Bentvelzen, Corine Boon, Deanne Den Hartog study people analytics adoption through the lens of the implementation of people analytics technology. They identify four profiles related to differences in user satisfaction and the frequency and versatility of PA technology use. They demonstrate that performance benefits, social influence, required effort, and facilitating conditions jointly affect the use of PA technology, but that the latter two might be the most influential factors. FIG 23 demonstrates the four user profiles identified in the paper: the skeptic diplomats, the optimistic strugglers, the optimists, and the enthusiasts. Thanks to Dirk Jonker for highlighting this insightful contribution to the field.
FIG 23: Source – Bentvelze, Boon and Den Hartog (2024)
FROM MY DESK
September saw the return of the Digital HR Leaders podcast after its summer sojourn with the first four episodes of Series 41, kindly sponsored by our friends at Visier Inc.. Thanks to Adedamola Adeleke and the team.
LYNDA GRATTON AND DIANE GHERSON - The Key Role of HR In Successfully Integrating a Blended Workforce – Lynda Gratton and Diane Gherson join me to discuss the impact of a blended workforce on organisational structures, the evolving role of managers, and the opportunities and challenges for HR.
ANGELA LE MATHON - How GSK is Using Data, Analytics and AI to Drive its HR Transformation - Angela LE MATHON, Vice President of People Data and Analytics at GSK, joins me to explore how GSK is utilising data-driven strategies and AI integration to future-proof their HR initiatives.
KEITH BIGELOW - HR’s Strategic Role in Managing the AI-driven Talent Restructure – Keith Bigelow, Chief Product Officer at Visier, joins me to explore the critical role HR plays in leading digital transformation—and how AI is changing the game.
TANUJ KAPILASHRAMI AND RAVIN JESUTHASAN - How to Build the Skills-Powered Organisation – Tanuj Kapilashrami and Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA join me to share insights from their book, The Skills-Powered Organisation: The Journey to the Next-Generation Enterprise (see Book of the Month). Tanuj also shares insights from the skills journey at Standard Chartered, including how the bank quantified a saving of $60,000 per person by upskilling and reskilling employees to redeploy talent from sunset jobs to sunrise jobs.
Skills [are] becoming the currency of work and work flowing not to jobs, but to skills... If done well, it has the massive power to unlock untapped productivity potential within the company.
LOOKING FOR A NEW ROLE IN PEOPLE ANALYTICS OR HR TECH?
I’d like to highlight once again the wonderful resource created by Richard Rosenow and the One Model team of open roles in people analytics and HR technology, which now numbers close to 500 roles – and has now been developed into a LinkedIn newsletter too.
THANK YOU
Srikant Chellappa and the team at Engagedly Inc for including me in their 8th annual list of the 2024 Top 100 HR Influencers
Hallie Bregman, PhD for her wonderfully generous post following our meeting at the Boston People Analytics MeetUp organised by Ramesh Karpagavinayagam – Hallie, it was wonderful to meet you too.
Paul Daley for referencing the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton in his post on how HR strategy needs to support the independent / blended / contingent workforce of the future
Similarly thanks to Olimpiusz Papiez for his post sharing his takeaways from the podcast episode with Diane and Lynda
Thanks also to Jaqueline Oliveira-Cella for her post, are you ready for the shift, which was also inspired by the podcast episode with Diane and Lynda
Piyush Mathur for providing his takeaways on insight without outcome is overhead in relation to his speaking sessions at the Peer Meetings in New York and Vevey for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
Esther Abraas for including my article, The role of Organisational Network Analysis in People Analytics, in her excellent list of ONA resources.
Wayne Tarken for his post on How AI can Help HR, which was informed by the digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Nickle Lamoreaux on how AI is transforming HR at IBM.
Thomas Kohler for including the podcast episode with Keith Bigelow in his weekly round-up of future of work resources.
The Talent Games for including me in their list of HR Leaders redefining the Future of Workin recognition of HR Professionals Day.
Finally, a huge thank you to the following people who shared the August edition of Data Driven HR Monthly and other content in the last few weeks. It's much appreciated: Craig Forman Zornitza Iankova, SPHR Brandon Merritt Johnson Hrvoje Bulat Rebecca Hone Michael Arena Emma Mercer (Assoc CIPD, MLPI) Dr. Max Muge Bakkaloglu Priyanka Mehrotra Kerry Ghize Deviprasad Panda Richard Stein Stela Lupushor David Balls (FCIPD) Emily Ricci Danielle Farrell Dan George Patrick Coolen Catriona Lindsay Katrina A. Stevens, CHRE Kouros Behzad Kathleen Kruse Martha Curioni Adam McKinnon, PhD. Greg Newman Dr Philip Gibbs Sally Smith Hanadi El Sayyed David van Lochem Amardeep Singh, MBA Rick Rome Ken Oehler Vaibhav Deshmukh María Victoria Sáinz Roshaunda Green, MBA, CDSP, Phenom Certified Recruiter Aysun Öz Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. Nelson Spencer Tristan Hack Penny Newman Vivek Ojha Aravind Warrier Francisca Solano Beneitez Kalifa Oliver, Ph.D. Stephanie Murphy, Ph.D. John Healy Greg Pryor Lewis Garrad Jose Luis Chavez Vasquez Audrey Burke-McCarthy, MBA, Adv Dip Coaching, MII Grad Aurélie Crégut Max Blumberg (JA) ?? Vanessa Monsequeira Shujaat Ahmad Jeff Wellstead Jackson Roatch Maria Alice Jovinski Rafael Uribe Truong Hong Ha (Mr Niem Tin) Dan Weiss David Hodges Toby Culshaw David McLean Dr. Peter Schulz-Rittich Timo Tischer Stephanie Denino Jacqui Brassey, PhD, MA, MAfN ?️ (née Schouten) Gianni Giacomelli Terri Horton, EdD, MBA, MA, SHRM-CP, PHR Placid Jover Andrews Cobbinah, MLPI, ACIHRM Emily Killham Al Adamsen Tim Frazier Tim Peffers Julie Asselin Chandresh Natu Anabel Fall Ralf Buechsenschuss Anna A. Tavis, PhD Marcela Niemeyer Meta McKinney, MLIS Aritra Majumdar Gustavo Araujo Vijaya Das Kirsten Edwards Graham Tollit Joy Kolb Remco van Es Ahmed Salah ?? Sebastian Knepper Melissa Beasley Bo Vialle-Derksen Malgorzata Langlois Abhilash Bodanapu Isabel Naidoo Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi Nirit Peled-Muntz Ron Ben Oz Littal Shemer Haim (ליטל שמר חיים) Joseph Frank, PhD CCP GWCCM Bob Pulver Jaejin Lee Kristhy Bartels Geetanjali Gamel Chris Hare Alicia Roach Caitie Jacobson John Gunawan Doug Shagam Davey Nickels Paul Davies Tatu Westling Mia Norgren Nick Lynn Alexandra Nawrat Gal Mozes, PhD Dave Millner Prachi Agasti Jacob Nielsen Matt Elk Chris Long Kimberly Rose Ilse Venter Søren Kold Irada Sadykhova Dave Fineman Agnes Garaba Sebastián Mestre Victoria Holdsworth Elpida Ormanidou Megan Buttita, MLIS Danielle Bushen Robert Bolton Stephen Hickey Dolapo (Dolly) Oyenuga Higor Gomes Irene Wong Ludek Stehlik, Ph.D. Sonia Mooney Mariami Lolashvili Joonghak Lee Raja Sengupta Swechha Mohapatra (IHRP-SP, SHRM-SCP, CIPD) Alfonso Bustos, Ph.D. Marcela Mury Olivier Bougarel Martijn Wiertz Veronika Birkheim
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Green ?? is a globally respected author, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As Managing Partner and Executive Director at Insight222, he has overall responsibility for the delivery of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which supports the advancement of people analytics in over 90 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222, David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast and is an instructor for Insight222's myHRfuture Academy. His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar, Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value was published in the summer of 2021.
MEET ME AT THESE EVENTS
I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work, and data driven HR at a number of upcoming events in 2024:
September 30 - New York Strategic HR Analytics MeetUp - Workestration: Working across human, digital and physical workplace dimensi (New York)
October 2-3 - People Analytics World (New York)
October 16-17 - UNLEASH World (Paris)
October 22-23 - Insight222 North American Peer Meeting (hosted by Workday in Pleasanton, CA) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
November 12-14 - Workday Rising EMEA (London)
November 19-20 - Insight222 European Peer Meeting (hosted by Merck in Darmstadt, Germany) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
More events will be added as they are confirmed.
generative AI
2024年09月29日
generative AI
Josh Bersin: When Will The Trillions Invested In AI Pay Off? Sooner Than You Think.近年来,生成式人工智能(GenAI)的投资已达数万亿美元,但围绕其回报问题的争论不断升级。一些分析师,如麻省理工学院教授达隆·阿西莫格鲁(Daron Acemoglu)和纽约大学心理学与神经科学教授加里·马库斯(Gary Marcus),对AI的经济影响持悲观态度,认为其对美国生产力和GDP增长的推动作用有限,甚至可能导致市场崩溃。相反,另一派如高盛的全球经济学家则乐观地认为,AI有望在未来十年内大幅提高生产力。然而,文章指出,生成式AI的真正价值在于其特定领域的应用。例如,Paradox和Galileo等HR技术平台通过高度专业化的解决方案,显著提升了招聘和人才管理的效率。最终,文章强调,AI行业仍处于早期阶段,成功的关键在于找到具有专注性和精确性的创新解决方案。
In the last few weeks there has been a lot of concern that Gen AI is a “bubble” and companies may never see the return on the $Trillion being spent on infrastructure. Let me cite four analyst’s opinions.
Will Today’s Massive AI Investments Pay Off?
MIT professor Daron Acemoglu estimates that over the next ten years AI will impact less than 5% of all tasks, concluding that AI will only increase US productivity by .5% and GDP growth by .9% over the next decade. As he puts it, the impact of AI is not “a law of nature.”
On a similar vein, Gary Marcus, professor emeritus of psychology and neural science at New York University, believes Gen AI is soon to collapse, and the trillions spent will largely result in a loss of privacy, increase in cyber terror, and a lack of differentiation between providers. The result: a market with low profits and big losses.
Goldman Sachs Head of Equity Research Jim Covello is similarly pessimistic, arguing simply that the $1 Trillion spent on AI is focused on tech that cannot truly automate complex tasks, and that vendors’ over-focus on “human-like features” will miss the boat in delivering business productivity. (He studies stocks, not the economy.)
And Goldman Sachs Global Economist, who is a fan, estimates that AI could automate 25% of work tasks and raise US productivity by 9T and GDP by 6.1% over the next decade. He follows the traditional business meme that “AI changes everything” for the better.
What’s going on? Quite simply this new technology is very expensive to build, so we’re all unsure where the payoffs will be.
Buyers Are Looking For A Return Soon
If we discount the work going on at Google, Meta, Perplexity, and Microsoft to build AI-based search businesses, which make money on advertising (Zuckerberg essentially just said that in a few years AI will guarantee your ad spend pays off), corporate IT managers are asking questions.
An article in Business Insider pointed to a large Pharma company that cancelled their Microsoft Copilot licenses because the tool was not adding any significant value (Chevron’s CIO was quoted similarly in The Information).
Another quoted a Chief Marketing Officer who stated Google Gemini’s email marketing tool and the new AI-powered ad-buying tool performed worse than the human workers it was intended to replace (or support).
Given that these tools almost double the “price per user” for the productivity suites, I think it’s fair that CIOs, CMOs, to expect them to pay for themselves fairly quickly.
What’s Going On? The Big Wins Will Be Domain Specific
As with all new technologies that enter the market quickly, “the blush on the rose” is over. We’ve been dazzled by the power of ChatGPT and now we’re searching for real solutions to problems. And unlike the internet, where research was funded by the government, there’s going to be a lag (and some risk) between the trillions we spend and the trillions we save.
Given that ChatGPT is less than two years old and OpenAI has morphed from a research company into a product company, it’s easy to see what’s happening. Every vendor and tool provider is narrowing its AI “strategy” and not just pasting little AI “stars” on their websites, looking for useful things to do. And this process may take a few years.
In the world of HR, I think we can all agree that a “push the button job description generator” is a bit of a commodity. However if the AI analyzes the job title, identifies the skills needed through a large skills engine, and tunes the job description by company size, industry, and role, then it’s a fantastic solution. (Galileo does this, as does SeekOut, SAP, and some other vendors.)
The more “specific” and “narrow” the AI is, the more useful it becomes. Generic LLMs that aren’t highly trained, optimized, and tuned to your company, business, and job are simply not going to command high prices. So while we all thought ChatGPT was Nirvana, we’re now figuring out that highly specialized solutions are the answer.
Let me give you some examples.
The first is the platform built by Paradox, a pioneering company that started work on AI-based recruiting agents in 2016. Paradox, now valued at around $2 Billion, delivers an end-to-end recruitment platform that automates the entire process of candidate marketing, candidate experience, assessment, selection, interview scheduling, hiring, and onboarding. Most people believe its a “Chatbot” but in reality it’s an AI-powered end-to-end system that radically simplifies and speeds the recruitment process in a groundbreaking way. Companies like 7-11, FedEx, GM, and others see massive improvements in operational efficiency and both candidates, managers, and recruiter adore it. It took Paradox eight years to build this level of integrated solution.
The second is our platform Galileo. Galileo, which is now licensed by more than 10,000 HR professionals, is a highly tuned AI agent specifically designed to help HR professionals (leaders, business partners, consultants, recruiters, and other roles) do the “complex work” HR professionals do. It’s not a generic LLM: it’s a highly specialized solution designed specifically for HR professionals, and we’ve added specialized content partners and are building special integrations with other HR platforms. Our clients tell us it’s saving them 1-2 hours a day.
The third is the platform HiredScore, that was recently acquired by Workday. Founded in 2012, the HiredScore team built tools to help identify “fit” between individuals and jobs, and tuned its AI to be highly explainable, unbiased, and very easy to use. It took Athena Karp and the team a few years to nail down the use-cases and user interface but now HiredScore is considered one of the most powerful recruitment “orchestration” tools in the market, and is also used for internal hiring and many other applications. Every customer I talk with tells me it’s essential and saves them months of manual, error-prone effort.
The fourth is the platform Eightfold, which was invented in 2016 as a way to build “Google-scale” matching between job seekers and jobs. Through many years of engineering, product management, and ongoing sales process the company has become the leader in a new space called “Talent Intelligence,” now a billion dollar rapid-growing category. The company is about ten years old and now has some of the world’s largest companies building their hiring, career management, and talent management processes using AI. Companies like EY, Bayer, and Chevron now use it for all their strategic talent programs.
Each of these vendors, including others like Gloat, Sana, Arist, Lightcast, Draup, Uplimit, Firstup, and hundreds of others have patiently taken the power of Generative AI and applied it with laser precision to their solutions. Each of these companies is different, and as we work with them we see lightning bolts of innovation: not in AI itself, but in finding new ways to solve problems and do what I call “crawling up the value curve.”
This is the path for AI in the coming years. As with all new technologies, the “trough of disappointment” is always followed by the “bowling pin” of hitting the nail on the head. Innovators, entrepreneurs, and startup founders are the ones who will take GenAI and apply it in unique ways to solve problems. And soon enough, “AI-powered” will be a phrase we barely even need to say.
The Best Solutions Will Be Narrow Not Wide
GenAI solutions require a large “platform” of data, infrastructure, and software. That alone is not where the value resides. Rather, the big productivity advantages come after years of effort, focusing the data sets and working with customers to find the features, UI designs, and data sets that add enormous value. And we are still in the early stages.
If you want to learn more about HR Technology and AI, join me at the HR Technology Conference on September 24-25 in Vegas, or at Unleash in Paris in October 16-17. While I can’t predict who will win the core AI platform game (Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Meta, Amazon will fight it out), I can predicts this: Generative AI will deliver massive improvements in business productivity. You just have to shop around a bit and wait for just the right solutions to arrive.
generative AI
2024年08月10日
generative AI
David Green:The best HR & People Analytics articles of June 2024
David Green整理了最近的HR和PA的文章,其实最近也不仅仅是这方面的内容了,推荐大家可以了解看看,文章谈到了一些内容可以简单了解下:
Justin Taylor, Keith Sonderling, Guru Sethupathy的演讲
总结: 讨论了人员分析生态系统的最新进展和未来趋势。
Insight222研究报告《构建人员分析生态系统:运营模式v2.0》预览
总结: 探讨了如何构建和优化人员分析的运营模式。
TechWolf完成4275万美元B轮融资
总结: 该融资将进一步推动其在AI和人员分析领域的发展。
Mercer和MIT发布的《技能策略指南》
总结: 解释了为什么技能应成为重新思考工作的首要任务,以及如何在AI时代克服挑战。
关于混合工作模式对员工保留和生产力的影响研究
总结: 混合工作提高了员工满意度并减少了离职率。
组织网络分析(ONA)的应用
总结: ONA能够揭示传统组织图中缺失的协作和决策影响,有助于优化工作场所策略。
Insight222的网络研讨会《HR和人员分析中的AI应用》
总结: 探讨了AI在HR和人员分析中的应用及其影响。
McKinsey关于生成式AI的研究
总结: 生成式AI的采用激增,为组织带来了可衡量的业务价值。
Mark Mortensen和Amy Edmondson关于重新定义办公室返工对话的文章
总结: 提供了领导者如何通过重新定义对话来平衡面临面的工作和灵活工作的策略。
Rashleen Kaur Arora关于制定平衡组织和员工需求的返工策略的文章
总结: 提供了如何通过证据和员工反馈制定有效的返工策略的案例。
Pietro Mazzoleni关于HR中生成式AI的应用
总结: 讨论了根据数据成熟度做出明智选择的重要性。
Greg Newman关于AI聊天机器人的员工旅程
总结: 阐述了如何通过使用员工旅程语言来最大化数字工人的价值。
Martijn Wiertz关于生成式AI重新定义工作设计的文章
总结: 提出了一个愿景,即生成式AI帮助我们重新定义工作设计,创造更多时间用于重要任务。
Max Blumberg关于AI时代的人员分析职业的文章
总结: 探讨了在AI时代保持相关性的技能需求及其透明性。
Scott Latham和Beth Humberd关于自动化对工作的四种影响的文章
总结: 讨论了基于价值类型和交付方式的工作响应自动化的四种方式。
Deloitte团队关于组织网络分析(ONA)的文章
总结: 讨论了ONA在测量员工绩效和优化工作场所策略中的应用。
Dave Hodges关于基于研究的HR决策的文章
总结: 强调了基于证据的HR决策的重要性。
Henrik Håkansson关于人员分析中的“错失恐惧症”的文章
总结: 将“错失恐惧症”概念应用于人员分析领域。
Amit Mohindra关于“72法则”的文章
总结: 提供了一个解释增长率的关键参数的简单方法。
Louise Baird关于机器学习及其在人员分析中的应用
总结: 解释了监督学习和非监督学习在人员分析中的应用。
Martha Curioni关于将可解释的AI引入HR流程的文章
总结: 提供了在招聘、预测离职和评估晋升准备度等HR流程中应用可解释AI的例子。
Nick Jesteadt和Erin Fleming关于人员分析领域前沿问题的文章
总结: 强调了生产力、技能和产品化等人员分析中的常见主题。
Christopher Rosett关于人员分析立方体的文章
总结: 介绍了人员分析立方体的概念及其应用。
Willis Jensen关于寻找人员分析工作的文章
总结: 分享了关于如何成功过渡到新角色的见解和策略。
Gregory Vial, Julien Crowe和Patrick Mesana关于高级分析中的数据隐私风险管理的文章
总结: 介绍了五种数据隐私保护方法及其对数据可用性的影响。
Cathy O’Neil, Jake Appel和Sam Tyner-Monroe关于算法风险审计的文章
总结: 提供了帮助组织评估其AI工具和算法的简单框架。
Öykü Işık, Amit Joshi和Lazaros Goutas关于生成式AI风险管理的文章
总结: 提供了管理四种生成式AI风险的蓝图。
Josh Bersin关于首席人力官(CHRO)角色演变的文章
总结: 强调了CHRO在C-suite中的重要性及其角色的多学科性。
Jeanne Meister关于未来HR工作角色的文章
总结: 介绍了未来十年HR领域的十三个新兴工作角色。
Naomi Verghese关于HR技能提升的文章
总结: 分享了HR专业人员在数据咨询和沟通方面所需的关键技能。
MIT和Mercer关于技能驱动型组织的报告
总结: 探讨了在AI时代,技能驱动型组织的重要性及其益处。
Business Roundtable关于基于技能的内部流动白皮书
总结: 提供了推动技能验证和连接人员与机会的战略。
Microsoft关于混合工作环境中新员工入职的研究
总结: 强调了角色职责、反馈和资源对新员工成功的重要性。
Dave Ulrich关于绩效管理的文章
总结: 提出了一个四步流程来改善绩效管理系统。
Erin Meyer关于构建有效企业文化的文章
总结: 提供了六条指导原则,帮助管理者应对文化建设的挑战。
Rob Cross和Katheryn Brekken关于团队网络效应的研究
总结: 发现80%的团队未能达到其生产力潜力,并提供了提高团队绩效的六种策略。
Shujaat Ahmad关于AI对生产力和繁荣的影响的文章
总结: 提倡从生产力优先转向繁荣优先的AI模型,以促进公平和可持续发展。
BCG关于女性技术领导者在生成式AI中的领先地位的研究
总结: 发现高级女性技术领导者在生成式AI的采用方面领先于男性同行。
Richard Rosenow关于人员分析新兴趋势的文章
总结: 分享了人员分析领域的六大新兴趋势。
Alicia Roach关于战略性劳动力规划的文章
总结: 讨论了战略性劳动力规划在业务成功中的重要性。
Annie Dean关于团队状态的报告
总结: 发现使用AI的团队在协作方面表现更好。
Shay David关于HR技术从自动化到增强的演变的文章
总结: 解释了HR技术如何增强人类能力和丰富员工体验。
I’m putting the finishing touches to June’s Data Driven HR Monthly in the airport lounge at Minneapolis-St Paul after a successful peer meeting for more than 50 North American members of the Insight222 People Analytics Program. The two-day peer meeting featured speakers including: Justin Taylor Keith Sonderling Guru Sethupathy and a collaboration between Bennet Voorhees and Eunice Ok. We also previewed the soon-to-be-published Insight222 research study: Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v 2.0 (click on the link to register to receive a copy).
Other highlights in June included:
We also ran a peer meeting for European members of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which was hosted by Nestlé and featured sessions run by Nataliya Filonenko Michael Cox Alex Browne Thomas Tchako Nowe Piyush Mathur Jack Liu and Martin Janhuba.
We delivered an Insight222 webinar on AI in HR and People Analytics, which featured Andrew Elston Justin Shemeley and Jasdeep Kareer, PhD (née Bhambra). Watch the recording here.
In the HR Tech space, TechWolf announced a new $42.75m round of Series B funding. Congrats to Andreas De Neve ? Mikaël Wornoo? Jeroen Van Hautte ? and the team.
Welcome to the more than 2000 new subscribers to the Data Driven HR Monthly newsletter, who joined in the last month.
This edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is sponsored by our friends at Mercer
Strategic Shift: Skills-Powered Organizations in the Age of AI
Forty-four percent of workers’ skills will be disrupted by technology in the next five years.*
To thrive through this disruption, businesses must adapt their operating models to perpetually reinvent themselves as demand for skills ebbs and flows with greater velocity and volatility.
The next-generation organization will be at the forefront of this strategic shift toward making skills the currency of work, cultivating a culture of talent sharing, automating work to take mundane tasks off employees’ hands, augmenting human creativity with AI, and reshaping the entire talent life cycle.
Find out how to make the shift to a skills-powered organization
The new Skills Strategy Guide from Mercer and MIT SMR Connections explores:
Why skills should be a top priority in rethinking work in the age of AI
The obstacles that stand in the way
Practical steps to overcome challenges and reap the rewards
Learnings from Standard Chartered Bank’s skills journey
How to build a skills-powered approach to work
Read the Strategy Guide
*Source: The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs report
To sponsor an edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, and share your brand with close to 130,000 Data Driven HR Monthly subscribers, send an email to dgreen@zandel.org.
Heartfelt thanks to Richard Rosenow
It’s ten years since I published the first edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly (which featured pioneers like Luk Smeyers Andrew Marritt Ian OKeefe Jonathan Ferrar and Greta Roberts). Unbeknown to me, Richard Rosenow organised a wonderful surprise – see here. It’s such a kind gesture - thank you Richard and the One Model team for creating this and the 100 people - friends, colleagues, clients, and peers - many of whom have inspired me in my journey in the wonderful world of people analytics. Thank you too to my colleagues at Insight222 - and everyone who has contributed to the Data Driven HR Monthly over the last decade.
Share the love!
Enjoy reading the collection of resources for June and, if you do, please share some data driven HR love with your colleagues and networks. Thanks to the many of you who liked, shared and/or commented on May’s compendium (see Thank You section at the end of this issue).
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
MCKINSEY - The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value
If 2023 was the year the world discovered generative AI, 2024 is the year organizations truly began using—and deriving business value from—this new technology.
New research from McKinsey highlights that adoption of AI – and GenAI – has surged in the last 12 months, that organisations are reporting measurable benefits, that there is increased mitigation of the risk of inaccuracy, and that there are a small group of high-performers leading the way. From a HR perspective, the study finds: (1) 12% of respondents are regularly using GenAI in HR. (2) Organisations most often see meaningful cost reductions from GenAI use in HR (see FIG 1). (3) HR functions are most often able to put their GenAI capabilities to use within one to four months. (4) Talent is one of six areas of best practice where high-performers are leading with GenAI (see FIG 2). (Authors: Alex Singla Alexander Sukharevsky Lareina Yee and Michael Chui with Bryce Hall)
FIG 1: Organizations most often see meaningful cost reductions from generative AI use in HR and revenue increases in supply chain management (Source: McKinsey)
FIG 2: Organizations seeing the largest returns from generative AI are more likely than others to follow a range of best practices (Source: McKinsey)
MARK MORTENSEN AND AMY EDMONDSON - Leaders Need to Reframe the Return-to-Office Conversation
Framing refers to how an issue is presented; it’s the meaning layered onto an issue or situation that shapes how people think about its objective facts. More precisely, it’s about re-framing: deliberately replacing taken-for-granted cognitive frames with more helpful ones.
Mark Mortensen and Amy Edmondson discuss the concept of ‘framing’ and its role for leaders in engaging in dialogue with employees about the balance between in-person and flexible working. They offer a three-step process to communicate flexible work policies: (1) Acknowledge the bind and be patient. (2) Focus on mutual value, not just organisational benefits. (3) Approach the process as data-driven, co-created, iterative learning. For more on this topic, listen to Mark in conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How to Foster Collaboration Within Hybrid Working Teams.
RASHLEEN ARORA - Design a Return-to-Office Strategy That Balances Organizational and Employee Needs
It’s becoming increasingly evident that rigid return-to-office (RTO) mandates can backfire by antagonising employees and impacting retention. Rashleen Kaur Arora presents Gartner research that outlines how HR leaders can craft a RTO strategy that balances organisational objectives with employee buy-in. The article includes a powerful case study on how Scotiabank implemented an evidence-based hybrid RTO model (see FIG 3).
FIG 3: Scotiabank’s role aligned hybrid personas (Source: Gartner)
PIETRO MAZZOLENI - Generative AI in HR: making smart choices depending on your data maturity | GREG NEWMAN - What's the employee journey of an AI chatbot? | MARTIJN WIERTZ - How will we use GenAI to redefine our Work Design: Creating Great Places to Be | MAX BLUMBERG - Saving your People Analytics Career in the Face of AI | SCOTT LATHAM AND BETH HUMBERD - Four Ways Jobs Will Respond to Automation
Organizations which provide an environment where the needs of the workforce are aligned with the outlines of the future will have the competitive advantage.
June saw a plethora of insightful reads about the impact of AI on HR and people analytics, so I’ve gathered five together here along with a prescient piece from 2018 on the professions most susceptible to automation. (1) Pietro Mazzoleni examines the importance of data maturity when it comes to the successful adoption of GenAI solutions in HR. (2) Greg Newman outlines why using the language of the employee journey will help your organisation maximise the value you gain from digital workers. (3) Martijn Wiertz presents a compelling vision where GenAI helps redefine our work design, creating time we can utilise for doing the work, care and training we need as a community – from great places to work to great places to be (see FIG 4). (4) Max Blumberg (JA) ?? explores how people analytics roles may evolve in the age of AI, the skills needed to remain relevant, and the importance of transparency in these issues within the people analytics community. (5) Finally, and thanks to Hung Lee for featuring it in a recent edition of Recruiting Brainfood, let’s revisit an article by Scott Latham and Beth Humberd that outlines four ways in which jobs will respond to automation based on two factors: the type of value provided and how it’s delivered (see FIG 5).
FIG 4: Source – Martijn Wiertz
FIG 5: Which Professions Are Most Vulnerable to Automation? (Source: Latham and Humberd)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
MAYA BODAN, DON MILLER, SUE CANTRELL, GARY PARILLIS, AND CARISSA KILGOUR - Harnessing organization network analysis (ONA): Measure workforce performance and optimize strategies
ONA reveals insights absent in traditional organizational charts—such as how people collaborate, who influences decision-making and/or operates in silos, and sentiments surrounding trust and influence.
A helpful primer on how to use Organisational Network Analysis (ONA) from the Deloitte team of Maya Bodan Don Miller Susan Cantrell Gary Parilis and Carissa Kilgour. Their article discusses the myriad of use cases ONA can be used for, including to: (1) Measure workforce performance, (2) Understand individual workforce performance, and (3) Optimise workplace strategies.
FIG 6: ONA can help uncover collaboration within an organisation (Source: Deloitte)
DAVE HODGES - Facts Over Fads: HR Decisions Grounded in Research |HENRIK HÅKANSSON - People Analytics: The fear of missing out | AMIT MOHINDRA - The "Rule of 72": A Gentle Reminder | LOUISE BAIRD - Machine Learning and its Applications in People Analytics | MARTHA CURIONI - Building Explainable AI Into HR Processes | NICK JESTEADT AND ERIN FLEMING - People Analytics Frontiers aka Why are We Asking the Same Questions Again? | CHRISTOPHER ROSETT - The People Analytics Cube
If you’re not practising evidence-based HR, what type of HR are you practising?
In recent editions of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I’ve featured a collection of articles by people analytics leaders. These act as a spur and inspiration to the field. Seven are highlighted here. (1) David Hodges takes inspiration from Rob Briner’s research to make the case for evidence-based HR. As Dave asks: “If you’re not practising evidence-based HR, what type of HR are you practising?” (see FIG 7). (2) Henrik Håkansson applies the popular concept of “fear of missing out” to people analytics in his astute article. (3) Amit Mohindra provides a handy explanation of the ‘Rule of 72”, which can be used to extract a key parameter from a growth rate. (4) Louise Baird breaks down the two different types of machine learning – supervised and unsupervised – and how it can be applied to people analytics. (5) Martha Curioni provides examples of building explainable AI into a range of HR processes including: hiring, predicting attrition, and assessing promotion readiness. (6) Based on their survey of people analytics practitioners, Nick Jesteadt and Erin Fleming highlight three common yet seemingly elusive themes in the field: productivity, skills and productisation. (7) Christopher Rosett breaks down the People Analytics Cube (see FIG 8) in his LinkedIn post with a nod to Alexis Fink.
FIG 7: What is being used in HR instead of evidence? (Source: Evidence Based HR: A New Paradigm by Rob Briner, Corporate Research Forum)
FIG 8: People Analytics Cube (Source: Christopher Rosett)
WILLIS JENSEN - Finding a People Analytics Job
One of the features of the people analytics field is that it is pretty fluid with many that work within it moving roles in the last 12-18 months – as evidenced by the invaluable People Analytics Job Board that Richard Rosenow oversees. In his article, Willis Jensen shares insights from his recent transition to a new role including: (1) Being very clear about what you want in your next job. (2) Don’t write an AI-generated cover letter. (3) Use a resume tool to help you tailor your resume for each job. (4) Do not use a shotgun approach of applying for hundreds of jobs. (5) Use LinkedIn as a job-hunting tool. For more on people analytics careers, listen to Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. in discussion with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How to Enhance Your Career in People Analytics.
ETHICS AND PRIVACY SPECIAL
GREGORY VIAL, JULIEN CROWE, AND PATRICK MESANA - Managing Data Privacy Risk in Advanced Analytics | CATHY O’NEIL, JAKE APPEL AND SAM TYNER-MONROE - Auditing Algorithmic Risk | ÖYKÜ ISIK, AMIT JOSHI, AND LAZAROS GOUTAS - 4 Types of Gen AI Risk and How to Mitigate Them
Three articles covering ethics, risk and privacy with regards to advanced analytics and AI, which should be invaluable to people analytics professionals and HR technologists alike. (1) Gregory Vial Julien Crowe and Patrick Mesana present five approaches to measuring data privacy and how each approach impacts on data usability (see FIG 9) before discussing mitigation strategies. (2) Cathy O’Neil Jacob Appel and Sam Tyner-Monroe, Ph.D. lay out a set of simple frameworks (see example in FIG 10) designed to help organisations evaluate that their AI tools and algorithms are fair and working as intended. (3) Öykü Işık Amit Joshi and Lazaros Goutas outline a blueprint for managing four types of generative AI risk (see FIG 11).
FIG 9: Five Approaches to Preserving Data Privacy (Source: Vial, Crowe and Mesana)
FIG 10: A Simplified Ethical Matrix (Source: O’Neil, Appel, and Tyner-Monroe)
FIG 11: Four types of AI risk (Source: Isik, Joshi, and Goutas)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
JOSH BERSIN - The Ever Expanding Role Of The Chief HR Officer (CHRO)
The CHRO must transform the HR team, moving from the “service delivery” model to an HR team of consultants, problem-solvers, and analysts.
Josh Bersin lays out a compelling case for the CHRO being the most important role of all in the c-suite now. He highlights factors such as the abundance of people challenges, labour shortages, organisation redesign, and globalisation. Josh also introduces his initial findings from a study of 47,000 CHROs: (1) There is a major increase in the C-level importance of the CHRO. (2) The CHRO job is multi-disciplinary, and more difficult than it looks. (3) The CHRO role is expanding. (4) Strong CHROs are now transforming the HR function. (5) The HR function is not developing itself - 80% of high-performing CHROs are external hires.
FIG 12: The two roles of the CHRO (Source: Josh Bersin)
JEANNE MEISTER – 13 HR jobs of the future
In HR, this is our Promethean moment as we navigate a complex future, one with limitless possibilities in how we work, where we work, who we work with and what we expect in our workplace.
Based on her conversations with HR leaders, Jeanne C M. presents 13 HR jobs of the future, which will emerge between now and 2030 (see FIG 13). Jeanne then explains how each of these roles “embody five core workplace themes enabling leaders to embrace reinvention as a strategy where humans and machines collaborate to deliver in which to the organization.” The five themes are: (1) Building GenAI literacy, (2) Working from anywhere, (3) Building human-machine partnerships, (4) Driving innovation and wellbeing in the workplace, (5) Creating a personalised employee experience.
FIG 13: 13 HR Jobs of the Future (Source: Jeanne Meister)
NAOMI VERGHESE - Investing in the Right Approach to Upskilling HR
When the CHRO and HRLT role-model the use of people data and analytics in their day-to-day job, then other HR professionals also use people data and analytics in their work.
Naomi Verghese shares the key findings from research she led at Insight222 to identify the key skills HR professionals need to consult and communicate effectively with data. The study, Upskilling the HR Profession: Building Data Literacy at Scale, identified five essential skills for HR professionals: (1) Consulting, (2) Influencing Stakeholders, (3) Data Interpretation, (4) Building Recommendations from Insights, (5) Storytelling. The study also identified the importance of role-modelling by the CHRO and HR leadership team with regards to data literacy (see FIG 14, and above quote).
FIG 14: (Source: Insight222, Upskilling the HR Profession: Building Data Literacy at Scale)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
MIT SMR CONNECTIONS AND MERCER - Strategic Shift: Skills-Powered Organizations in the Age of AI
By making skills the backbone of their talent practices, organizations can better allocate people to projects, help employees explore different career paths, and gain the flexibility to allocate their capital more effectively as their needs change.
In their collaborative study, MIT and Mercer break down why skills should be a priority in rethinking work and people management in the age of AI. The report highlights the benefits for employees and employers of a skills-based approach (see FIG 15), provides practical guidance on how to overcome challenges, and provides powerful learnings from Standard Chartered’s skills journey. Features contributions from experts including Peter Cappelli Tanuj Kapilashrami Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA Brad Bell Joseph Fuller Tom Kochan and Audrey Mickahail.
FIG 15: Benefits of a skills-powered approach (Source: MIT and Mercer)
LINKEDIN LIVE: Skills-Powered Organizations in the Age of AI | JULY 24, 2024
Register to join Tanuj Kapilashrami, Ravin Jesuthasan and David Green for a LinkedIn Live discussion on Skills-Powered Organizations in the Age of AI on July 24 at 10.00am EST.
BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE - Skills-Based Internal Mobility Playbook Summary | White Paper
Skills are five times more predictive of a person’s future performance than their education
An excellent playbook compiled by the Business Roundtable on skills-based internal mobility, which is organised into five chapters covering critical areas such as stakeholder engagement, skills assessment and validation (see FIG 16), how to connect people with opportunities, how to measure success, and enabling technologies. Features examples from a myriad of companies including: Walmart, Chevron, Workday and Vistra. Thanks to Brian Heger for highlighting this resource in his excellent weekly Talent Edge newsletter.
FIG 16: Skill validation characteristics (Source: Business Roundtable)
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
DAWN KLINGHOFFER, KAREN KOCHER, AND NATALIE LUNA - Onboarding New Employees in a Hybrid Workplace
New hires who are provided with clarity about their role responsibilities, feedback on how they are doing, and resources to help them answer questions are three to four times more likely to contribute to their team’s success during the first 90 days.
Now we are in the era of hybrid work, what’s the ideal way to onboard new employees today? That was one question that the people analytics team at Microsoft sought to answer in a recent study, along with: How can we ensure that new hires thrive while also supporting flexibility? The findings confirmed that onboarding to a new role, team, or company is a key moment for building connections with the new manager and team and doing so a few days in person provides unique benefits. But just requiring newcomers to be onsite full time doesn’t guarantee success. In their article, Dawn Klinghoffer Karen Kocher and Natalie Luna explain and provide examples of how onboarding that truly helps new employees thrive in the modern workplace is less about face time and more about intention, structure, and resources. For example, the study found that the top factors that make the most difference in onboarding new employees are clarity about role responsibilities, feedback on how they are doing, and resources to help them answer questions. New hires who are successfully set up with these three elements are three to four times more likely to contribute to their team’s success during the first 90 days. For more on Microsoft’s approach to employee thriving, which they define as: being energized and empowered to do meaningful work, listen to Dawn in conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How Microsoft Created A Thriving Workforce By Going Beyond Employee Engagement.
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND LEARNING
DAVE ULRICH - Reflections on Performance Management: How to Make Meaningful Progress
In May’s Data Driven HR Monthly, I featured a McKinsey article on a performance management system that puts people first. In his recent article, Dave Ulrich cites a number of sources highlighting that pretty much all stakeholders (including employees, executives and HR leaders) are unhappy with their performance management systems. Ulrich lays out a four-step process for performance management (see FIG 17) comprising: (1) Clarifying expectations with meaningful goals. (2) Measuring and tracking performance. (3) Allocating financial and non-financial rewards. (4) Having positive coaching conversations. Dave then highlights the recently launched Manifesto for Flourishing at Work, a collaboration of practitioners, consultants, and academics to reinvent performance management. He highlights three critical topics from the manifesto:
First, align performance and purpose by making sure that performance encourages progress towards a company’s purpose that includes all stakeholders. Second, manage the complex system of performance by focusing both on individuals within the system and also the system itself. Third, ensure that leaders are secure enough in themselves to use their power to empower others and to allow employees to contribute to their own improvement.
FIG 17: Performance management process – four steps (Source: Dave Ulrich)
ERIN MEYER - Build a Corporate Culture That Works
If you hire people whose personalities don’t align with your culture, no matter what else you get right, you are unlikely to get the desired behaviors.
Ever since Peter Drucker’s infamous assertion that “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” it has been widely acknowledged that managing corporate culture is the key to business success. Yet the link between ‘values’ and ‘behaviours’ is often stark. As INSEAD professor Erin Meyer asks in her latest Harvard Business Review article: “If culture eats strategy for breakfast, how should you be cooking it?” Erin blends in examples from the likes of Amazon, Netflix, Airbnb, Pixar and others and presents six guidelines to help managers who are confronting the challenges of culture building: (1) Build Your Culture Based on Real-World Dilemmas. (2) Move Your Culture from Abstraction to Action. (3) Paint Your Culture in Full Colour. (4) Hire the Right People, and They Will Build the Right Culture. (5) Make Sure that Culture Drives Strategy. (6) Don’t Be a Purist. An absolute must-read. At Insight222, we’re delighted that Erin Meyer will be speaking at our Global Executive Retreat in Amsterdam in September. The Retreat is exclusively for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program. Click on this link to find out more.
ROB CROSS AND KATHERYN BREKKEN | I4CP - The Team Network Effect™: How Precision Collaboration Unleashes Productivity
A new study of 1,400 organisations on team effectiveness, led by Rob Cross and Katheryn Brekken, Ph.D. for The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), finds that 80% of teams fall short of reaching their full productivity potential due to corporate dysfunction. The study identifies six snares that stifle team performance (see FIG 18), and provides powerful examples including from Roche, which found that efforts to increase geographic and cross-functional collaboration across teams in 89 countries reaped a direct revenue impact of $500 million in less than two years.
FIG 18: How companies rank against the six dysfunctions that stifle team performance (Source: i4CP)
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
SHUJAAT AHMAD - From Productivity to Prosperity: The AI Shift Leaders Must Embrace
The jobs most at risk from AI automation are jobs occupied by women and minority racial groups. In his compelling essay, Shujaat Ahmad argues that this calls for a shift from the current focus on a productivity-only AI model (with an emphasises on cutting costs at the expense of worker well-being and creativity) to a prosperity-first AI model, championing AI's potential to improve human life, promote fairness, and ensure sustainable progress alongside economic growth. Shujaat then breaks down the differences between the two models in four scenarios: software development, product management, go-to market, and recruitment (see FIG 19), as well as outlining three steps for leaders seeking to build a prosperity-first AI strategy: (1) Adopt a Prosperity-First True North and Accountability Measures for AI Adoption. (2) Put Employees in the Pilot Seat. (3) Commit to Responsible AI Development; Integrate AI Ethically and Inclusively.
FIG 19: Productivity Only vs. Prosperity First AI – Recruitment (Source: Shujaat Ahmad)
BCG - Women Leaders in Tech Are Paving the Way in GenAI
A recent BCG study finds that that senior women in technical functions are ahead of their male peers in adopting GenAI—but junior women are lagging behind (see FIG 20). The study identifies three key attributes that correlate with gender disparities in GenAI adoption: (1) Awareness of GenAI’s criticality to job success. (2) Confidence in GenAI skills. (3) Risk tolerance for using GenAI prior to having a company policy. The authors (Maria Barisano Neveen Awad Adriana Dahik Julie Bedard Uche M. Gunjan Mundhra and Katherine Lou) conclude that if the number of senior and junior women with GenAI skills increases, then it’s likely that women’s representation in tech leadership will grow, and call for highly targeted upskilling programs, leadership advocacy and change management.
FIG 20: Women leaders in tech are ahead in GenAI adoption (Source: BCG)
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 June that I recommend readers delve into:
RICHARD ROSENOW - 6 Emerging People Analytics Trends for a People-Focused Future – Richard Rosenow of One Model shares his observations on shifts in the people analytics field including related to regulation, team structure and focus, and the people data supply chain (see FIG 21). Definitely worth a read.
FIG 21: The People Data Supply Chain (Source: One Model)
ALICIA ROACH - Want Better Business Planning? Budgeting? Recruiting? Read This! – Alicia Roach of eQ8 provides a treatise on the rising importance of strategic workforce planning: “SWP is a business planning and forecasting process that just happens to be grounded in people.”
FIG 22: Source – eQ8
ANNIE DEAN – State of Teams 2024 – Annie Dean presents Atlassian’s newly published report on the State of Teams, which has a plethora of insights including that teams and leaders who use AI are better at collaborating.
FIG 23: Team that use AI on a regular basis (Source: Atlassian)
SHAY DAVID - From Automation To Augmentation: The Evolution Of HR Tech – Shay David of retrain.ai explains how leveraging HR technology to enhance human capabilities and enrich the employee experience is transforming the workplace.
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):
REID HOFFMAN - Gen AI: A cognitive industrial revolution - In this episode of At the Edge, Reid Hoffman speaks with McKinsey’s Lareina Yee about the generative AI revolution and how it can teach users to understand and harness its power.
PATRICK COOLEN – The Evolution of People Analytics – In a fascinating episode of the Talent Intelligence Collective podcast, Patrick Coolen joins hosts Toby Culshaw Alan Walker and Alison Ettridge to discuss all things people analytics and the factors that drive success.
MARCO BURELLI – Shaking Up Silos – Marco Burelli joins the HR Visionaries podcast to walk through the HR transformation journey at TomTom including breaking down old silos to create a more unified and dynamic team structure.
JOSH BERSIN - A New, Transformed Role For The HR Business Partner – Josh Bersinoutlines some of his latest research in relation to the new and transformed role of the HR Business Partner, which as Josh says has become pivotal to a company’s successful people strategy.
SHUBA GOPAL - Computational Biology Helps People Analytics with Small Samples & More – In another must-listen episode of the Directionally Correct podcast, Shuba Gopal joins hosts Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD to discuss how techniques gleaned from computational biology can help in people analytics.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
PRASAD SETTY – Tech It Up a Notch: GenAI for HR Leaders
In his keynote at the i4CP Next Practices Now Conference, Prasad Setty, formerly Head of People Analytics at Google, breaks down the opportunities and challenges of GenAI in organisations and posits a path forward for HR leaders to champion humanity in the workplace. At Insight222, we’re delighted that Prasad will be speaking at our Global Executive Retreat in Amsterdam in September. The Retreat is exclusively for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program. Click on this link to find out more.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
SHARNA WIBLEN - Rethinking Talent Decisions: A Tale of Complexity, Technology and Subjectivity
In ReThinking Talent Decisions, Sharna Wiblen, presents an uncomfortable truth: Talent decisions are always subjective. Drawing on examples from business, sports, movies and everyday interactions, Sharna emphasises the importance of understanding complexity and encourages deliberate, intentional, and informed decisions and conversations around talent. For a teaser from the book, read my expert interview with Sharna: Rethinking Talent Decisions and Navigating Subjectivity in HR.
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
NICHOLAS BLOOM, RUOBING HAN, AND JAMES LIANG - Hybrid working from home improves retention without damaging performance
There are a lot of opinions about the impact of hybrid work and some executives argue that it damages productivity, innovation and career development. But what does the data say? In their study, Nick Bloom Ruobing Han and James Liang find that hybrid working improved job satisfaction and reduced quit rates by one-third. The reduction in quit rates was significant for non-managers, female employees and those with long commutes (see FIG 24). For more from on this topic, listen to Nick Bloom in conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: Unmasking Common Myths Around Remote Work.
FIG 24: WFH cut attrition by 33% overall, and had a particularly strong effect for non-managers, women and those with longer commutes (Source: Bloom et al)
FROM MY DESK
June saw the final three episodes of series 39 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, which was kindly sponsored by our friends at Crunchr. Thank you to Ralf Bovers and Dirk Jonker for your partnership and support. Also included are two articles inspired by series 38 and 39 of the podcast respectively.
DIRK JONKER – Driving Business Transformation with Advanced People Analytics - Dirk Jonker, one of the most knowledgeable and passionate leaders in the people analytics field, joins me to discuss how people analytics is enabling HR to play a more active role in business transformation and strategy.
ARMAND SOHET - Painting the Future of HR with AI, Analytics and Curiosity - Armand Sohet, Chief Sustainability, HR, and Communications Officer, joins me to discuss how a data-driven approach to HR has led to substantial cost savings and efficiency gains at AkzoNobel.
ERIN GERBEC – How Cardinal Health Transformed Their People Analytics Function – Erin Gerbec, Ph.D. shares insights from her three-year journey of transforming the people analytics operating model at Cardinal Health, and how they shifted from a build to a buy strategy for its people analytics platform.
DAVID GREEN - Revolutionising Workplace Experience through Employee Insights and Analytics – In this article for myHRfuture, I look at how people analytics and AI is reshaping the employee experience through the eyes of recent guests on the Digital HR Leaders podcast including Loren I. Shuster Nickle LaMoreaux and Craig Starbuck, PhD.
DAVID GREEN - How can HR leaders use people analytics to uncover and address inclusivity gaps? – A round up of series 39 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, with insights from Daisy Auger-Domínguez (she/her/ella), Kate Bravery, and Ilya Bonic as well as Dirk, Armand, and Erin.
PETER SCHULZ-RITTICH AND DAVID GREEN – D as in Data Analytics – In June, I also had the pleasure of joining Dr. Peter Schulz-Rittich Caroline Amalie Allard and Christina May on ISS’s A People and Culture Podcast to discuss the power of people analytics within HR, where we are today – and where we are going.
LOOKING FOR A NEW ROLE IN PEOPLE ANALYTICS OR HR TECH?
I’d like to highlight once again the wonderful resource created by Richard Rosenow and the One Model team of open roles in people analytics and HR technology, which now numbers over 500 roles.
THANK YOU
Thomas Kohler for including the May edition of Data Driven HR Monthly in his round-up of resources for HR professionals
Amit Mohindra (here), Oliver Kasper (here) and Michelle Deneau (here) for sharing details on the Insight222 People Analytics Trends survey for 2024
Neeru Monga (here), Agostina Verni (here), and Tristan Hack (here) for sharing takeaways from the recent Insight222 webinar on Transforming HR and People Analytics with AI.
Sharon Saldanha for sharing her key learnings on the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Kate Bravery and Ilya Bonic on the importance of skills and trust
Similarly, Olimpiusz Papiez also highlighted the relationship between trust and employee engagement, productivity and retention, which Ilya, Kate and I discussed in the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode: Navigating the Future of Work: AI, Skills, and Trust in the Modern Workforce.
Marcela Niemeyer for recommending and sharing her key learnings on the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Nickle Lamoreaux on How IBM uses AI to transform HR.
Harisenin.com for including me in their list of 12 people to follow for HR professionals on LinkedIn.
Aurélie Crégut for sharing her key takeaways (here) from the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Dirk Jonker: Driving Business Transformation with Advanced People Analytics
Alicia Roach for posting about the fifth anniversary of the Digital HR Leaders podcast (see here), which included her episode, How Strategic Workforce Planning Contributes to Business Success, ranking in the top 10 most listened to episodes!
Sonali Kumar for sharing her learnings on the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Piyush Mehta, How to Create Personalised Employee Experiences.
Thank you to everyone that contributed to the amazing video celebrating ten years of the Data Driven HR monthly: Sue, Jeremy. Eden, Kalifa, Lexy, Greg, Adam, Dawn, Chris, John, Jonathon, Kris, Greg, Paul, Anna, Cole, Shannon, Al, Toby, Thomas, Dirk, Antony, Alan, Michael, Ian, Chris, Craig, Andrew, Alexis, Patrick, Sanja, Dan, Mark, Ben, Sukumaran, Stela, David, Christopher, Daisy, Serena, Tony, Chad, Pietro, Kathi, Casey, Gabe, Lydia, Mark, Allen, Nicole, Nicholas, Stephanie, Andrew, Ramesh, Hallie, Dave, Roxanne, Matt, Max, Stacia, Travis, Jordan, Kelly, Ethan, Bethany, Rob, Anthony, Meg, Shawn, RJ, Jordan, Justin, Tanmay, Jon, Christine, Nick, Madhura, Brian, Raja, Henrik, Ben, Ben, Prasad, Maja, Stacey, Courtney, Buddy, Kristin, Shujaat, Gary, Alicia, Fabian, Philipp, Irene, Nick, Ryan Hammond, Amit Mohindra Gregor Teusch and of course Richard Rosenow.
Finally, a huge thank you to the following selection of people who shared the May edition of Data Driven HR Monthly. It's much appreciated: Viktoriia Kriukova (Вікторія Крюкова) Juan Antonio Vega Davina Erasmus Dan Riley Danielle Farrell, MA Ugur Zel (Prof. / ACC) Veronika Birkheim Chris Louie Jaqueline Oliveira-Cella Ganchimeg Gantulga EDLIGO Talent Analytics and Learning Analytics Ken Oehler Nick Lynn Sohil Varshney Jackson Roatch Graham Tollit RADICL Adam Tombor (Wojciechowski) Reshma Mawji Jeremy Carpenter, M.S., MPA Terri Horton, EdD, MBA, MA, SHRM-CP, PHR Bilal Laouah Catriona Lindsay Ayomide Ebietomiye Irada Sadykhova Caroline Arora Lawson Iduku German Arciniegas Brandon Merritt Johnson Jim de Vries Dave Millner Aravind Warrier Terrance Edwards David Simmonds FCIPD Stefano Di Lauro Francesca Caroleo, SHRM-SCP, ICF-ACC Emmanuel Dominick Chris Long Cedric Borzee Maria Alice Jovinski Aurélien GOZET Aizhan Tursunbayeva, PhD, GRP Susan Knolla Markus Graf Matt Elk Robert Newry Anil Saxena Fresia Jackson Conor Gilligan Alexandra Nawrat Hanadi El Sayyed Kannu Priya Arora Patrick Svensson Phil Inskip Jennifer Moore John Gunawan Ann-Marie Clayton Johnson Roshaunda Green, MBA, CDSP, Phenom Certified Recruiter Rebecca Thielen Shilpa Shah Tom Morehead PCC,MBA,SPHR David Balls (FCIPD) Meghan M. Biro Sebastian Kolberg Olivier Bougarel Catherine Coppinger Aimee Wilkinson Andrew Bamber Matt Higgs MBA FCIPD Chandresh Natu David Duewel Nicola Wood Andrew Pitts Kerrian Soong Andrés García Ayala Sanja Licina, Ph.D. Jeremy Shapiro Chris Lovato Tatu Westling Ken Clar Brandon Roberts David van Lochem Placid Jover Ohad Geron Carly Fordham Tobias W. Goers ツ Dave Fineman Laura Thurston Higor Gomes Kirandeep Chakrabarti Stephen Hickey Liz Mackay Lina Makneviciute David McLean
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Green ?? is a globally respected author, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As Managing Partner and Executive Director at Insight222, he has overall responsibility for the delivery of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which supports the advancement of people analytics in over 90 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222, David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast and is an instructor for Insight222's myHRfuture Academy. His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar, Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value was published in the summer of 2021.
MEET ME AT THESE EVENTS
I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work, and data driven HR at a number of upcoming events in 2024:
June 25-26 - Insight222 North American Peer Meeting (Minneapolis, US) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
July 24 - LinkedIn Live - Skills-powered organizations in the Age of AI, with Ravin Jesuthasan and Tanuj Kapilashrami
September 16-19 - Workday Rising (Las Vegas)
September 24-26 - Insight222 Global Executive Retreat (Colorado, US) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
October 2-3 - People Analytics World (New York)
October 16-17 - UNLEASH World (Paris)
October 22-23 - Insight222 North American Peer Meeting (hosted by Workday in Pleasanton, CA) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
November 12-14 - Workday Rising EMEA (London)
November 19-20 - Insight222 European Peer Meeting (hosted by Merck in Darmstadt, Germany) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
More events will be added as they are confirmed.
generative AI
2024年07月03日
generative AI
赋能未来的工作:生成式AI驱动的组织网络分析和高绩效团队Empowering the Future of Work: Generative AI-Powered ONA and High-Performing Teams
现代职场正经历从僵化的等级制度向敏捷、动态网络的转变。这一转变的核心动力是生成式AI驱动的组织网络分析(Organizational Network Analysis,简称ONA)。这种尖端技术使小型、专注且具备多学科能力的团队能够独立完成任务,正在重塑企业的运营方式。
敏捷团队的崛起 在当今快节奏的商业环境中,敏捷性的需求比以往任何时候都更为重要。公司正从传统的孤立结构转向小型多学科团队的模式。这些团队通常被称为“squads”或“pods”,它们的设计目的是灵活、专注和自主运作,其特点是能够独立运作,快速高效地交付价值。
挑战:应对复杂性 然而,创建和管理这些团队并非易事。在复杂的组织中,理解关系、专业知识和沟通渠道的相互作用对于构建有效团队至关重要。这正是组织网络分析(ONA)派上用场的地方。ONA提供了关于信息流动、关键影响者以及组织内沟通瓶颈的洞察。
生成式AI驱动的ONA:游戏规则改变者 生成式AI驱动的ONA正在彻底改变公司理解和优化内部网络的方式。通过AI分析和建模组织关系,这项技术提供了团队互动和协作的动态实时视图。
创建小型专注的团队 ONA帮助识别自然合作良好的员工群体。通过分析沟通模式和协作网络,AI驱动的ONA突出了与项目目标一致的潜在团队配置。这确保了团队是小型、专注的,并由互补技能的个体组成。
使用生成式AI驱动的ONA进行小队组建。来源:Cognitive Talent Solutions
生成式AI驱动的队伍组建建议。来源:Cognitive Talent Solutions
赋能自主决策 生成式AI驱动的ONA识别团队中的关键影响者和决策者。通过了解谁在群体中拥有“社会资本”,公司可以赋予这些个体代表团队做出决策的权力,从而促进自主性,减少对高层管理批准的依赖
通过生成式AI驱动的ONA识别非正式领导者。来源:Cognitive Talent Solutions
增强多学科协作 ONA揭示了跨职能连接,帮助公司创建带来多样专业知识的多学科团队。这促进了创新,并确保团队具备从头到尾完成任务所需的技能。
实时监控和调整 生成式AI驱动的ONA提供团队动态的实时洞察。通过持续监控沟通模式和协作指标,公司可以在问题升级前识别并解决问题,确保团队保持有效和专注于目标。
影响:驱动创新和效率 生成式AI驱动的ONA对团队绩效的影响深远。通过赋能小型、专注的团队,企业可以实现以下关键收益:
增加创新:多学科团队带来多样的视角,促成创造性问题解决和创新。
提高效率:自主团队能够快速决策,减少瓶颈,加速项目进程。
增强参与度:赋能的团队拥有更高的工作满意度和参与度,导致更低的离职率和更投入的员工队伍。
提高敏捷性:小型专注的团队能够快速应对变化的市场条件,提供竞争优势。
结论:团队合作的未来 生成式AI驱动的ONA是创建和管理高绩效团队的强大工具。通过理解和利用组织内的复杂网络,公司可以使小型、专注、赋能的多学科团队从头到尾独立运作。这不仅驱动了创新和效率,还为更敏捷和响应迅速的未来工作奠定了基础。
随着职场的不断演变,拥抱生成式AI驱动的ONA将是保持领先并构建在变化中茁壮成长的团队的关键。
101 real-world gen AI use cases from the world's leading organizations在过去一年半的时间里,生成式人工智能(AI)在企业领域的应用迅速发展。Google Cloud的Next活动中展示了超过300家组织如何利用AI推动企业转型。这些企业已经从简单的问答助手,发展到能够进行预测和采取行动的AI代理,进一步扩展其业务功能和提升效率。
具体来说,AI代理在以下几个关键领域表现出显著的效益:首先是客户服务,AI能够帮助企业更好地理解和满足客户需求;其次是员工赋能,通过自动化日常任务和优化工作流程,AI提升了工作效率;在创意构思和生产领域,AI助力企业快速生成创新的解决方案;数据分析方面,AI通过高效处理和解析大数据,支持决策制定;在编码创建方面,AI简化了开发流程,提高了代码质量;最后在网络安全领域,AI加强了数据保护和风险管理。
这些应用不仅提高了生产力和操作效率,还极大地改善了客户体验和企业的创新能力。AI的多模态能力,即在文本、语音、视频等多种通信模式中的应用,使其能够更全面地满足不同行业的需求。通过这些先进的技术,企业正在开创一个智能、高效和互联的新时代。
我们一起来看看,是否有参考?
Since generative AI first captured the world’s attention a year and a half ago, there’s been a vigorous discussion about what, exactly, the new technology is best used for. While we all enjoyed those early funny chats and witty limericks, we’ve quickly discovered that many of the biggest AI opportunities are clearly in the enterprise.
Our customers and partners at Google Cloud have found real potential for creating new processes, efficiencies, and innovations with generative AI. For proof, look no further than the 300-plus organizations who are featured at this week’s Next event in Las Vegas.
In a matter of months, organizations like these have gone from AI helping answer questions, to AI making predictions, to generative AI agents. What makes AI agents unique is that they can take actions to achieve specific goals, whether that’s guiding a shopper to the perfect pair of shoes, helping an employee looking for the right health benefits, or supporting nursing staff with smoother patient hand-offs during shifts changes.
In our work with customers, we keep hearing that their teams are increasingly focused on improving productivity, automating processes and modernizing the customer experience. These aims are now being achieved through the AI agents they’re developing in six key areas: customer service; employee empowerment; creative ideation and production; data analysis; code creation; and cybersecurity.
These special capabilities are made possible in large part by the new multimodal capacity of generative AI and AI foundation models, which allow agents to handle tasks across a range of communications modes, including text, voice, video, audio, code, and more. With human support, agents can converse, reason, learn, and make decisions.
The hundreds of customers who joined us at Next ‘24 to showcase and discuss early versions of their AI agents and gen-AI solutions have come to rely on Google Cloud technologies that include our AI infrastructure, Gemini models, Vertex AI platform, Google Workspace, and Google Distributed Cloud. We were also joined by more than 100 partners supporting the creation of AI agents and AI solutions, which you can read about in detail.Here’s a snapshot of how 101 of these industry leaders are putting AI into production today, creating real-world use cases that will transform tomorrow.
Similar to great sales and service people, customer agents are able to listen carefully, understand your needs, and recommend the right products and services. They work seamlessly across channels including the web, mobile, and point of sale, and can be integrated into product experiences with voice and video.
ADT is building a customer agent to help its millions of customers select, order, and set up their home security.
Alaska Airlines is developing a personalized travel search experience using advanced AI techniques, creating hyper-personalized recommendations that engage customers early and foster loyalty through AI-generated content.
Best Buy is using Gemini to launch a generative AI-powered virtual assistant this summer that can troubleshoot product issues, reschedule order deliveries, manage Geek Squad subscriptions, and more; in-store and digital customer-service associates are also gaining gen-AI tools to better serve customers anywhere they need help.
The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority is using Vertex AI to modernize transportation operations for a smoother, more efficient journey.
Etsy uses Vertex AI training to optimize their search recommendations and ads models, delivering better listing suggestions to buyers and helping sellers grow their businesses.
Golden State Warriors are using AI to improve the fan experience content in their Chase Center app.
IHG Hotels & Resorts is building a generative AI-powered chatbot to help guests easily plan their next vacation directly in the IHG One Rewards mobile app.
ING Bank aims to offer a superior customer experience and has developed a gen-AI chatbot for workers to enhance self-service capabilities and improve answer quality on customer queries.
Magalu, one of Brazil’s largest retailers, has put customer service at the center of its AI strategy, including using Vertex AI to create “Lu’s Brain” to power an interactive conversational agent for Lu, Magalu's popular brand persona (the 3D bot has more than 14 million followers between TikTok and Instagram).
Mercedes Benz will infuse e-commerce capabilities into its online storefront with a gen AI-powered smart sales assistant. Mercedes also plans to expand its use of Google Cloud AI in its call centers and is using Vertex AI and Gemini to personalize marketing campaigns.
Oppo/OnePlus is incorporating Gemini models and Google Cloud AI into their phones to deliver innovative customer experiences, including news and audio recording summaries, AI toolbox, and more.
Samsung is deploying Gemini Pro and Imagen 2 to their Galaxy S24 smartphones so users can take advantage of amazing features like text summarization, organization, and magical image editing.
The Minnesota Division of Driver and Vehicle Services helps non-English speakers get licenses and other services with two-way real-time translation.
Pepperdine University has students and faculty who speak many languages, and with Gemini in Google Meet, they can benefit from real-time translated captioning and notes.
Sutherland, a leading digital transformation company, is focused on bringing together human expertise and AI, including boosting its client-facing teams by automatically surfacing suggested responses and automating insights in real time.
Target uses Google Cloud to power AI solutions on the Target app and Target.com, including personalized Target Circle offers and Starbucks at Drive Up, their curbside pickup solution.
Tokopedia, an Indonesian ecommerce leader, is using Vertex AI to improve data quality, increasing unique products being sold by 5%.
US News saw a double-digit impact in key metrics like click-through rate, time spent on page, and traffic volume to its pages after implementing Vertex AI Search.
IntesaSanpaolo, Macquarie Bank, and Scotiabank are exploring the potential of gen AI to transform the way we live, work, bank, and invest — particularly how the new technology can boost productivity and operational efficiency in banking. Watch the session to learn more.
Employee agents help workers be more productive and collaborate better together. These agents can streamline processes, manage repetitive tasks, answer employee questions, as well as edit and translate critical communications.
Avery Dennison empowered their employees with generative AI to enable secure, flexible, and borderless collaboration for enhanced productivity to drive growth.
Bank of New York Mellon built a virtual assistant to help employees find relevant information and answers to their questions.
Bayer is building a radiology platform that will assist radiologists with data analysis, intelligent search, and to create documents that meet healthcare requirements needed for regulatory approval. The bioscience company is also harnessing BigQuery and Vertex AI to develop additional digital medical solutions and drugs more efficiently.
Bristol Myers Squibb is transforming its document processes for clinical trials using Vertex AI and Google Workspace. Now, documentation that took scientists weeks now gets to a first draft in minutes.
BenchSci develops generative AI solutions empowering scientists to understand complex connections in biological research, saving them time and financial resources and ultimately bringing new medicine to patients faster.
Cintas is using Vertex AI Search to develop an internal knowledge center for customer service and sales teams to easily find key information.
Covered California, the state’s healthcare marketplace, is using Document AI to help improve the consumer and employee experience by automating parts of the documentation and verification process when residents apply for coverage.
Dasa, the largest medical diagnostics company in Brazil, is helping physicians detect relevant findings in test results more quickly.
DaVita leverages DocAI and Healthcare NLP to transform kidney care, including analyzing medical records, uncovering critical patient insights, and reducing errors. AI enables physicians to focus on personalized care, resulting in significant improvements in healthcare delivery.
Discover Financial helps their 10,000 contact center representatives to search and synthesize information across detailed policies and procedures during calls.
HCA Healthcare is testing Cati, a virtual AI caregiver assistant that helps to ensure continuity of care when one caregiver shift ends and another begins. They are also using gen AI to improve workflows on time-consuming tasks, such as clinical documentation, so physicians and nurses can focus more on patient care.
The Home Depot has built an application called Sidekick, which helps store associates manage inventory and keep shelves stocked; notably, vision models help associates prioritize which actions to take.
Los Angeles Rams are utilizing AI across the board from content analysis to player scouting.
McDonald’s will leverage data, AI, and edge technologies across its thousands of restaurants to implement innovation faster and to enhance employee and customer experiences.
Pennymac, a leading US-based national mortgage lender, is using Gemini across several teams including HR, where Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Slides and Gmail is helping them accelerate recruiting, hiring, and new employee onboarding.
Robert Bosch, the world's largest automotive supplier, revolutionizes marketing through gen AI-powered solutions, streamlining processes, optimizing resource allocation, and maximizing efficiency across 100+ decentralized departments.
Symphony, the communications platform for the financial services industry, uses Vertex AI to help finance and trading teams collaborate across multiple asset classes.
Uber is using AI agents to help employees be more productive, save time, and be even more effective at work. For customer service representatives, they’ve launched new tools that summarize communications with users and can even surface context from previous interactions, so front-line staff can be more helpful and effective
The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs is using AI at the edge to improve cancer detection for service members and veterans. The Augmented Reality Microscope (ARM) is deployed at remote military treatment facilities around the world. The prototype device is helping pathologists find cancer faster and with better accuracy.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has improved the quality and efficiency of their patent and trademark examination process by implementing AI-driven technologies.
Verizon is using generative AI to help teams in network operations and customer experience get the answers they need faster.
Victoria’s Secret is testing AI-powered agents to help their in-store associates find information about product availability, inventory, and fitting and sizing tips, so they can better tailor recommendations to customers.
Vodafone uses Vertex AI to search and understand specific commercial terms and conditions across more than 10,000 contracts with more than 800 communications operators.
WellSky is integrating Google Cloud's healthcare and Vertex AI capabilities to reduce the time spent completing documentation outside work hours.
Woolworths, the leading retailer in Australia, boosts employees’ confidence in communications with “Help me write” across Google Workspace products for more than 10,000 administrative employees. It’s also using Gemini to create next-generation promotions, as well as for quickly assisting customer service reps in summarizing all previous customer interactions in real time.
Box, Typeface, Glean, CitiBank, and Securiti AI discuss developing AI-powered apps across the enterprise, with measurable returns on investment for marketing, financial services, and HR use cases.
Highmark Health and Freenome join Bristol Myers Squibb to explore how AI can improve efficiency and innovation across care delivery, drug discovery, clinical trial planning, and bringing medicines to market.
Creative agents can expand your organization with the best design and production skills, working across images, slides, and exploring concepts with workers. Many organizations are building agents for their marketing teams, audio and video production teams, and all the creative people that can use a hand. With creative agents, anyone can become a designer, artist, or producer.
Belk ECommerce is using generative AI to craft better product descriptions, a necessary yet time-consuming task for digital retails that has often been done manually.
Canva is using Vertex AI to power its Magic Design for Video, helping users skip tedious editing steps while creating shareable and engaging videos in a matter of seconds.
Carrefour used Vertex AI to deploy Carrefour Marketing Studio in just five weeks — an innovative solution to streamline the creation of dynamic campaigns across various social networks. In just a few clicks, marketers can build ultra-personalized campaigns to deliver customers advertising that they care about.
Major League Baseball continues to innovate its Statcast platform, so teams, broadcasters, and fans have access to live in-game insights.
Paramount currently relies on manual processes to create the essential metadata and video summaries used across its Paramount+ platform for showcasing content and creating personalized experiences for viewers. VertexAI Text Bison is now helping to streamline this process.
Procter & Gamble used Imagen to develop an internal gen AI platform to accelerate the creation of photo-realistic images and creative assets, giving marketing teams more time to focus on high-level planning and delivering superior experiences for its consumers.
WPP will integrate Google Cloud’s gen AI capabilities into its intelligent marketing operating system, called WPP Open, which empowers its people and clients to deliver new levels of personalization, creativity, and efficiency. This includes the use of Gemini 1.5 Pro models to supercharge both the accuracy and speed of content performance predictions.
Data agents are like having knowledgeable data analysts and researchers at your fingertips. They can help answer questions about internal and external sources, synthesize research, develop new models — and, best of all, help find the questions we haven’t even thought to ask yet, and then help get the answers.
AI21 Labs offers a BigQuery integration called Contextual Answers that allows users to query data conversationally and get high-quality answers quickly
Anthropic has partnered with Google Cloud to offer its family of Claude 3 models on Vertex AI — providing organizations with more model options for intelligence, speed, cost-efficiency, and vision for enterprise use cases.
The Asteroid Institute is using AI to discover hidden asteroids in existing astronomical data. This is a major focus for astronomers researching the evolution of the Solar System, investors and businesses hoping to fly missions to asteroids, and for all of us who want to prevent future large asteroid impacts on Earth.
Contextual is working with Google Cloud to offer enterprises fully customizable, trustworthy, privacy-aware AI grounded in internal knowledge bases.
Cox 2M, the commercial IoT division of Cox Communications, is able to make smarter, faster business decisions using AI-powered analytics.
Essential AI, a developer of enterprise AI solutions, is using Google Cloud’s AI-optimized TPU v5p accelerator chips to train its own AI models.
Generali Italia, Italy's largest insurance provider, used Vertex AI to build a model evaluation pipeline that helps ML teams quickly evaluate performance and deploy models.
Globo, one of Brazil’s largest media networks, is using Service Extensions and Media CDN to fight piracy during live events by blocking pirated streams in real time.
Hugging Face is collaborating with Google across open science, open source, cloud, and hardware to enable companies to build their own AI with the latest open models from Hugging Face and Google Cloud hardware and software.
Kakao Brain, part of Korean technology company Kakao Group, has built a large-scale AI language model that is the largest Korean language-specific LLM in the market, with 66 billion parameters. They’ve also developed a text-to-image generator called Karlo.
Mayo Clinic has given thousands of its scientific researchers access to 50 petabytes worth of clinical data through Vertex AI search, accelerating information retrieval across multiple languages.
McLaren Racing is using Google AI to get up-to-the-millisecond insights during races and training to gain a competitive edge.
Mercado Libre is testing BigQuery and Looker to optimize capacity planning and reservations with delivery carriers and airlines to fulfill shipments faster.
Mistral AI will use Google Cloud's AI-optimized infrastructure, to further test, build, and scale up its LLMs, all while benefiting from Google Cloud's security and privacy standards.
MSCI uses machine learning with Vertex AI, BigQuery and Cloud Run to enrich its datasets to help our clients gain insight into around 1 million asset locations to help manage climate-related risks.
NewsCorp is using Vertex AI to help search data across 30,000 sources and 2.5 billion news articles updated daily.
Orange operates in 26 countries where local data must be kept in each country. They are using AI on Google Distributed Cloud to improve network performance and deliver super-responsive translation capabilities.
Spotify leveraged Dataflow for large-scale generation of ML podcast previews, and they plan to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with data engineering and data science to build better experiences for their customers and creators.
UPS is building a digital twin of its entire distribution network, so both workers and customers can see where their packages are at any time.
Workday is using natural language processing in Vertex Search and Conversation to make data insights more accessible for technical and non-technical users alike.
Woven — Toyota's investment in the future of mobility — is partnering with Google to leverage vast amounts of data and AI to enable autonomous driving, supported by thousands of ML workloads on Google Cloud’s AI Hypercomputer. This has resulted in resulting in 50% total-cost-of-ownership savings to support automated driving.
Broward County, Florida, and Southern California Edison are using geospatial capabilities and AI to improve infrastructure planning and monitoring, generate new insights, and create regional resilience for communities facing climate challenges today and tomorrow.
Kinaxis and Dematic are building data-driven supply chains to address logistics use cases including scenario modeling, planning, operations management, and automation.
NOAA and USAID are among the U.S. government agencies using Google Cloud AI to unlock critical data insights to streamline operations and improve mission outcomes — all with an emphasis on responsible AI. Watch the session to learn more.
Code agents are helping developers and product teams to design, create, and operate applications faster and better, and to ramp up on new languages and code bases. Many organizations are already seeing double-digit gains in productivity, leading to faster deployment and cleaner, clearer code.
Capgemini has been using Code Assist to improve software engineering productivity, quality, security, and developer experience, with early results showing workload gains for coding and more stable code quality.
Commerzbank is enhancing developer efficiency through Code Assist's robust security and compliance features.
Quantiphi saw developer productivity gains of more than 30% during their Code Assist pilot.
Replit developers will get access to Google Cloud infrastructure, services, and foundation models via Ghostwriter, Replit's software development AI, while Google Cloud and Workspace developers will get access to Replit’s collaborative code editing platform.
Seattle Children's hospital is using AI to boost data engineering productivity and accelerate development.
Turing is customizing Gemini Code Assist on their private codebase, empowering their developers with highly personalized and contextually relevant coding suggestions that have increased productivity around 30 percent and made day-to-day coding more enjoyable.
Wayfair piloted Code Assist, and those developers with the code agent were able to set up their environments 55 percent faster than before, there was a 48 percent increase in code performance during unit testing, and 60 percent of developers reported that they were able to focus on more satisfying work.
Security agents assist security operations by radically increasing the speed of investigations, automating monitoring and response for greater vigilance and compliance controls. They can also help guard data and models from cyberattacks, such as malicious prompt injection.
BBVA uses AI in Google SecOps to detect, investigate, and respond to security threats with more accuracy, speed, and scale. The platform now surfaces critical security data in seconds, when it previously took minutes or even hours, and delivers highly automated responses.
Behavox is using Google Cloud technology and LLMs to provide industry leading regulatory compliance and front office solutions for financial institutions globally.
Charles Schwab has integrated their own intelligence into the AI-powered Google SecOps, so analysts can better prioritize work and respond to threats.
Fiserv’s security operations engineers create detections and playbooks with much less effort, while analysts get answers more quickly.
Grupo Boticário, one of the largest beauty retail and cosmetics companies in Brazil, employs real-time security models to prevent fraud and to detect and respond to issues.
Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex XSIAM, the AI-driven security operations platform, is built on more than a decade of expertise in machine-learning models and the most comprehensive, rich, and diverse data store in the industry. Backed by Google's advanced cloud infrastructure and advanced AI services, including BigQuery and Gemini models, the combination delivers global scale and near real-time protection across all cybersecurity offerings.
Pfizer can now aggregate cybersecurity data sources, cutting analysis times from days to seconds.
To find even more customers using our AI tools to build agents and solutions for their most important enterprise projects, visit the Google Cloud customer hub and watch the Next ‘24
generative AI
2024年04月12日
generative AI
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
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.