The best HR & People Analytics articles of December 2024
The December edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is an opportunity to reflect on the year that is about to pass into history and look forward to what lies ahead. 2024 has proved to be another tumultuous year of geopolitical tension, economic uncertainty, and upheaval in the world of work. Perhaps for HR and people analytics it is a case of “in chaos, there is opportunity,” as we move into 2025.
Enjoy this month’s collection of resources, and to all readers who are taking a break over the festive season, I wish you Happy Holidays, and a prosperous and healthy 2025. Thank you to everyone who has supported Insight222, the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, and the Data Driven HR Monthly in 2024. It means a lot and is much appreciated.
This edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is sponsored by our friends at TechWolf
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What are the biggest opportunities for HR in 2025?
HR’s role in creating a thriving workforce and organisation is the underlying theme of my recently published 12 Opportunities for HR in 2025 article (see FIG 1). I’m crowdsourcing the final two opportunities, so if you’d like to contribute suggestions for opportunities 11 and 12, please click here and add your suggestion in the comments.
FIG 1: 12 Opportunities for HR in 2025 (Source: David Green)
December Road Report
The main event for December was the publication of the fifth annual Insight222 People Analytics Trends study, which was our biggest yet with 348 participating organisations. A summary of the key findings follows in the ‘People Analytics’ section below, but one is that 62% of companies told us that they were in the first year of their AI journey in HR. Click here to download the report, and see how the people analytics function in your company compares to ‘A Teams’ by taking the Leading Companies Diagnostic.
I had the privilege of taking the findings from the study out on the road to two events in December. First, I delivered the opening keynote at Visier Inc. Outsmart Local in London, which also featured the likes of Nick Hudgell, Rosemary Byde, Kevin Metherell, and Neera Ridler-Mayor, AIA (see more here). The following week I was in Amsterdam for Workday Rising EMEA, where I was interviewed on stage by Phil Willburn, as well as delivering a keynote on the characteristics of People Analytics ‘A Teams’ (see more on Workday Rising here).
2024 seemed like the year when the 'in-person' event fully returned - and as such it proved to be a busy year on stage. I emceed Unleash World in Paris, People Analytics World events in Zurich, London, and New York, and the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat in Amsterdam. I keynoted at the three People Analytics World events, Workday Rising in Las Vegas and Amsterdam, Gloat Live in New York, the Deloitte Workforce Innovation Forum in Dallas, a Mercer/Corporate Research Forum event on Productivity, Purpose and Profit in London, and Visier Outsmart Local in London. I moderated panels at a number of these events as well as at Strategic HR Analytics MeetUp in New York.
Share the love!
Enjoy reading the collection of resources for December 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 November’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 on Tuesday: subscribe here.
2024 REFLECTIONS
HUNG LEE - What Happened in Recruiting in 2024 - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |
Don't be fooled by the title, Hung Lee's 2024 reflections covers topics much broader than recruiting, and contains a plethora of data, analysis and visualisations that should act as a guide for the year ahead too. Taking one highlight from each of the four-part series (and 20 reflections in total), I'd go with AI and Automation (Part 1), the re-emergence of Talent Density (Part 2), Atlantic Divergence on DEI - see FIG 2 (Part 3), and War on Middle Managers (Part 4). If you don't already follow Hung's twin newsletters, Recruiting Brainfood, and This Week in Recruiting, I highly recommend you do.
FIG 2: Is DEI a 'good thing'? (Source: Pew Research Center)
2025 HR PREDICTIONS, TRENDS AND PRIORITIES
STEVE HUNT - A guide to HR predictions, trends, and forecasts | ANDREW SPENCE - 5 Big Questions for Work in 2025 | DANIEL ZHAO - Glassdoor Worklife Trends 2025 | VISIER – Embracing the AI Driven Workforce: 5 Workforce Trends for 2025 | i4CP – 2025 Priorities and Predictions | LARS SCHMIDT - 7 ways HR will look different in 2025 | JOSH BERSIN - A Tumultuous Year Behind: A Challenging, Important 2025
A people analytics team cannot sit on the sidelines while AI is poised to transform the world of HR. If you don't embrace AI to surface insights and support data-driven decisions, you may miss out on the ability to scale decision intelligence
Putting my own 12 Opportunities for HR in 2025 to one side, there are a plethora of other HR trends, predictions, and priorities being published. Here are seven resources that I recommend digging deeper into. (1) Firstly, Steve Hunt provides a helpful ‘buyer beware’ guide on eight lessons to consuming HR predictions, trends and forecasts, including a warning that most HR forecasts are designed to influence buying behaviour. (2) Despite being a Man United fan, Andrew Spence’s Workforce Futurist newsletter is one of the best around. In a recent edition, Andrew ponders five big questions for work in 2025 including: Is the office dead or just evolving (see FIG 3)? (3) Daniel Zhao presents five trends based on Glassdoor data including: Employers are investing in holistic wellbeing. (4) Visier Inc.’s five workforce trends for 2025 includes the need for organisations to build the backbone of data infrastructure to fully realise the promise of AI in HR and workforce topics, and features contributions from the likes of Dawn Klinghoffer, Eric Bokelberg (see quote above), Angela LE MATHON, Ryan Wong and Adam McKinnon, PhD. (5) As Kevin Oakes writes in his Foreword to The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp)’s thoughtful annual look at the year ahead: “perhaps the safest prediction we can make is those who embrace agility will have much more success than those who resist change.” (6) Lars Schmidt takes his annual look at how HR is likely to evolve as a function in the year ahead, with my favourite of his seven being that "Learning and development will take center stage." (7) Josh Bersin looks back at a tumultuous 2024 to highlight the priorities for the year ahead in his big idea of 'Citizenship': "Our job in HR is to help our leaders and organizations practice this kind of citizenship. In a year of tumultuous change, Citizenship will serve us well."
FIG 2: Office utilisation 2020-now (Sources: Andrew Spence, Nicolas BEHBAHANI)
HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
BRIAN ELLIOTT - Five Hybrid Work Trends to Watch in 2025 | JOSE MARIA BARRERO, NICK BLOOM, SHELBY BUCKMAN, AND STEVEN J. DAVIS - SWAA December 2024 Updates | LYNDA GRATTON - Seven Truths About Hybrid Work and Productivity | BETH SCHINOFF, ASHLEY E. HARDIN, KRIS BYRON, AND RACHEL BALVEN - Research: How WFH Can Actually Strengthen Bonds Between Coworkers
Forward-looking organizations will shift toward measuring performance based on results, not attendance
As I wrote in 12 Opportunities for HR in 2025, HR has the opportunity to help their organisations elevate the conversation on hybrid working from where to how. With outliers like Amazon getting a lot of column inches about their decision to bring employees back to the office five days a week (although this move may not be working out well), HR leaders in other firms may come under pressure from their CEOs to follow suit. Five articles that can help resist this move are included here. (1) First, Brian Elliott outlines five hybrid work trends to look out for in 2025 including: “Organizations that embrace flexible work will steal talent from organizations that impose harsh return-to-office mandates.” (2) The latest data from Nick Bloom and his WFH Research team finds that only 44% of employees would comply if their company imposed a five-day return to office (compared to 53% in 2022), which suggests Elliott’s prediction is likely to be prescient. (3) Lynda Gratton unveils seven key findings from what she is seeing from experiments in hybrid working including: (i) Hybrid work is a continuum. (ii) Productivity is usually challenging — and measurement is always complex. (iii) It’s useful to view hybrid work as fundamentally a job design option. (4) Beth Schinoff, Ashley Hardin, Kris Byron, and Rachel McCullagh Balven present research that finds (contrary to beliefs that employees are able to form richer relationships in person than they can working remotely), remote work can actually make coworkers feel closer by giving them authentic glimpses into each others non-work lives through video calls.
FIG 4: Compared to Fall 2022, Persons Who WFH 1+ Days/Week Are Less Willing to Comply With RTO Mandates (Source: WFH Research, December 2024)
RASMUS HOUGAARD AND JACQUELINE CARTER - How AI Can Make Us Better Leaders
In their article for Harvard Business Review, Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter outline their research, which finds that AI can enhance and empower leaders, and actually help them to be more human. They explain why leaders need to focus on the core leadership qualities of awareness, wisdom, and compassion, as well as take on a both/and mindset. In this way, the “AI-augmented leader” can leverage both the power of AI and develop their most human qualities, bringing the best of both human and machine to their leadership practice.
FIG 5: The AI Augmented leader (Source: Potential Project)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
JONATHAN FERRAR, NAOMI VERGHESE, AND MADHURA CHAKRABARTI - Harnessing Data for Growth: The Impact of People Analytics Article | Full Report
The fifth annual People Analytics Trends study was our biggest yet at Insight222, with 348 participating organisations. The four key findings were: (1) Growth: people analytics continues to expand in scope and investment. (2) Intelligent automation: the advent of GenAI has catalysed HR’s use of AI with people analytics at the core and central to AI strategy in HR. (3) Adoption crisis: the adoption of people analytics remains a challenge with a significant gap between the democratisation of people insights and data (71% of organisations) and a high-level of adoption within HR (47%) and outside HR (28%) – see FIG 6. (4) Value: measuring and demonstrating value is now essential for people analytics teams to increase their impact and drive greater ROI. Kudos to the authors: Jonathan Ferrar, Naomi Verghese, and Madhura Chakrabarti, PhD. Thanks too to the practitioners featured in the study: Adam Tombor (Wojciechowski), Peter Ryan, and Phil Willburn.
FIG 6: Trends in the democratisation and adoption of analytics (Source: Insight222)
RICHARD ROSENOW – People Analytics is Growing | People Analytics Roles Review
Richard Rosenow devotes part of his monthly People Analytics Roles Update newsletter to data highlighting the growth of people analytics. He cites three sources: (1) The 30% increase in people analytics roles that Richard and the One Model team have tracked between 2023 and 2024. (2) The aforementioned Insight222 study, which found that the ratio of people analytics professionals to total employee headcount has improved from 1:4000 in 2020 to 1:2500 in 2024. (3) Data by Jason Saltzman at Live Data Technologies, which finds that both core and specialist people analytics roles are on the rise (see FIG 7).
FIG 7: The growth of people analytics jobs (Source: Live Data Technologies)
BENJAMIN ROGOJAN – Data Science v Data Engineering | PATRICK COOLEN – What Is Not People Analytics | PIETRO MAZZOLENI - The Power of Integration: Why People Data Thrives Within Enterprise Frameworks | JACKSON ROATCH - From Correlation to Causation: Levelling Up People Analytics with Econometrics | SCOTT REIDA - Transform Performance Evaluations with GenAI: Smarter Grading, Visual Insights, and Next Steps | CHRISTOPHER ROSETT – Storytelling: The Story Arc and The Journalist’s Pyramid
In each edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I feature a collection of articles by current and recent people analytics leaders. These are intended to act as a spur and inspiration to the field. Six are highlighted in this month’s edition. (1) Thanks to Richard Rosenow for highlighting Benjamin Rogojan’s post, which may be the best explanation (and visualisation – see FIG 8) yet on why you need data scientists and data engineers in an effective analytics team. (2) Patrick Coolen provides a powerful list of what is not people analytics – my favourite is: “People Analytics is ??? about HR (only). It should be strongly focused on high impact business threats and opportunities.” (3) In a recent edition of his (excellent) People Data Platform newsletter, Pietro Mazzoleni explains how HR and people analytics leaders can increase their impact by integrating people data with broader organisational impacts. (4) Jackson Roatch outlines how people analytics teams can create more impact by adding econometric methods to its tools and capabilities. (5) Scott Reida explains how to use GenAI to transform employee performance evaluations from vague feedback into actionable insights. (6) Christopher Rosett breaks down two models – The Story Arc and The Journalist’s Pyramid (see FIG 9) – that can be used to underpin storytelling with data in different contexts.
FIG 8: How data engineers and data scientists deliver value (Source: Benjamin Rogojan)
FIG 9: The Story Arc and The Journalist’s Pyramid (Source: Christopher Rosett)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
DAVE ULRICH - The Next Agenda for Human Resources: What’s So? So What? Now What?
Evidence shows that organizational capability has 4x more impact on results than individual talent efforts alone - yet most of the HR field remains heavily focused on talent.
Dave Ulrich provides some astute observations on the current state of the HR field, and concludes that most of the focus is on the talent domain of his human capability model (see FIG 10) and so on individuals rather than organisational capability. He then provides four ‘next agenda’ recommendations to shift the profession to creating stakeholder value through human capability: (1) Advance that HR is less about HR and more on creating stakeholder value. (2) Offer a complete human capability agenda and assessment. (3) Prioritise using analytics and AI. (4) Upgrading HR professionals.
FIG 10: Human Capability Taxonomy (Source: Dave Ulrich)
KENNETH KUK, DONALD DELVES, AND JOHN BREMEN - A Board Outlook on Effective Human Capital Governance
Human capital governance can be an overwhelming subject for the board. They do not want to get stuck with minute detail about HR policies or programs. Best practice is for the board to focus their oversight on human capital areas most material to the business, either because they pose a significant risk or are a differentiator for competitive advantage.
Kenneth Kuk, Don Delves, and John Bremen present the findings of WTW research into board prioritisation of human capital governance. Findings include: (1) Boards do not spend enough time on long-term strategic workforce planning. (2) Leadership succession and development, talent attraction and retention, and workforce planning and skills for the future were identified as the top three priority human capital topics. (3) Only one-third of board members agree that human capital governance is effective on their boards. (4) Boards do not spend enough time, nor do they receive the right level of information, to engage in meaningful and strategic discussions about human capital governance (see FIG 11).
FIG 11: Boards do not spend enough time or receive enough information on human capital governance topics (Source: WTW, Directors & Boards)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AND PwC - Leveraging Generative AI for Job Augmentation and Workforce Productivity: Scenarios, Case Studies and a Framework for Action
The organizations quickest to adopt GenAI in their workforce are those that could be described as “data-driven”
In their new report, the World Economic Forum and PwC present the findings of their study into how early adopters are leveraging GenAI across the workplace, the impact it is having, and the lessons they have learned along the way. The big takeaway is that they found that success depends as much on people as it does technology. Workers need to understand, trust and adopt GenAI. The report also presents four different scenarios for how the deployment of GenAI in organisations could play out (see FIG 12). With the recent Insight222 People Analytics Trends study finding that 62% of companies are in the first year of their journey with AI in HR, this report will be required reading. Credit to the authors: Adèle Jacquard, Isabelle Leliaert, Till Alexander Leopold, Shuvasish Sharma, Peter Brown MBE, Marlene De Koning, Kiera Thomas, and Astrid van der Werf.
FIG 12: Four scenarios for the near future of GenAI (Source: PwC and World Economic Forum)
THE BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE - Measuring the Impact of Skills-Based Talent Initiatives
A helpful and practical guide from The Business Roundtable group of companies to help other organisations effectively implement skills-based hiring and talent management strategies. The report provides a blueprint for how to measure the success of skills-based talent strategies, which is comprised of four components: (1) Aligning on goals and selecting the right metrics to achieve them. (2) Enhancing internal data reporting (see sample balance scorecard in FIG 13). (3) Leveraging data for strategic change management. (4) Collaborating to report success at scale. Thanks to Brian Heger for highlighting in his Talent Edge newsletter.
FIG 13: Measuring the impact of skills-based talent initiatives – sample balance scorecard (Source: The Business Roundtable)
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
SHARON K. PARKER AND CAROLINE KNIGHT - Design Work to Prevent Burnout
Small, locally led work design changes can have a powerful effect on work quality.
Employee burnout and disengagement is bad for business and bad for workers. A much better approach is to create healthier and more sustainable jobs through good work design. In their article, Sharon Parker and Caroline Knight, outline their SMART Work Design model (see FIG 14), which is designed to improve worker wellbeing and performance. The authors describe each of the five characteristics in the model, before emphasising that the first step in improving work design is to start with data: “The first step in improving work design is to assess its current state, using employee surveys, interviews, and observations. The most comprehensive assessment would incorporate all three.” They then provide guidance on five ways to use the model to drive positive collaboration between managers and their teams to: (1) Redesign teams' work, (2) Align people management systems, (3) Build leader capability for SMART work design, (4) Guide and evaluate operational change, and (5) Encourage and support employee job crafting.
FIG 14: A model for making work smarter (Source: Sharon K. Parker and Caroline Knight)
JACQUELINE BRASSEY, AARON DE SMET, AND DANA MAOR WITH SHEIDA RABIPOUR - Developing a resilient, adaptable workforce for an uncertain future
To successfully move their business strategies forward, 21st-century leaders need an engaged and innovative workforce that can change course quickly, effectively, and fluidly.
A recent study by the McKinsey Health Institute finds that when employees experience strong levels of organisational support, psychological safety, resiliency and adaptability, these are associated with high levels of engagement and innovation (see FIG 15). In their article, Jacqui Brassey, PhD, MA, MAfN ?️ (née Schouten), Aaron De Smet, Dana Maor, and Sheida Rabipour, PhD present a blueprint composed of four actions for leaders to develop their own capacity for change while in parallel fostering resilience and adaptability in the workforce: (1) Setting a North Star for the organisation. (2) Building a psychologically safe community, not just a workforce. (3) Ensuring that leaders themselves are resilient, adaptable, and can serve as role models. (4) Encouraging teams to build resilience and adaptability skills in groups.
FIG 15: The relationship between organisational support, psychological safety, resilience and adaptability with engagement and innovation (Source: McKinsey)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND LEARNING
STEVEN LEVY - Relevance! Relevance! Relevance! Microsoft at 50 Is an AI Giant—and Still Hellbent on Domination | KATHLEEN HOGAN AND DAWN KAWAMOTO - How Microsoft’s chief people officer built a dynamic company culture
In 2015, Nadella called for a major transformation of Microsoft’s culture: from a ‘know-it-all,’ fixed mindset culture to a ‘learn-it-all’ growth culture
When Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, Microsoft was seen as lumbering and uncool. Together, with Kathleen Hogan, who he appointed as Chief People Office, Nadella cleaned up a toxic culture, crafted the deal of the decade, and put Microsoft back on top. These two resources provide the context from a business perspective and a people one, on who this was achieved. The first article, in Wired, tells the business story: including the acquisitions of LinkedIn and GitHub, the partnership with OpenAI, and how Microsoft closed the AI gap with its competitors. The second article and video, sees Kathleen Hogan sharing how the company changed its company culture and how that evolution continues: “We always joke, the minute you think you’ve arrived and have a growth mindset is the minute you have a fixed mindset.”
MICHAEL ARENA AND PHILIP ARKCOLL - When flatter isn’t better: The hidden cost of collaborative demand
In an effort to create flatter organizational structures, indiscriminately cutting managers without first assessing collaborative demand can have detrimental consequences.
In order to speed up decision making, companies like Meta and Amazon have cut managers as part of a ‘flatter is faster’ approach. The theory is that fewer managers means more speed, more agility, and more innovation. In their article, Michael Arena and Philip Arkcoll provide a counterpoint through Worklytics data showing that when managers are stretched thin—leading teams of seven or more— they encounter overwhelming workloads, rising burnout, and reduced ability to effectively support their teams (see FIG 16). To strike the right balance, Arena and Arkcoll advocate the use of data to assess collaborative demand and drive targeted actions. They provide guidance on (1) Optimising span of control , (2) Focusing on managerial overload, (3) Providing delegation strategies, and (4) Monitoring workloads.
FIG 16: Manager hours worked compared to team size (Source: Worklytics)
ARNE GAST, ERIK MANDERSLOOT, KAI GRUNEWALD, AND NEIL PEARSE WITH CARMEN JAMES AND NATACHA CATALINO - All about teams: A new approach to organizational transformation
Team-focused transformations can lead to 30 percent efficiency gains in organizations that implement these strategies effectively.
According to McKinsey, when it comes to organisational transformations there is a third way beyond the top-down or bottom-up approaches that are typically employed. That is a team-centric approach. Indeed, in their article, Arne Gast, Erik Mandersloot, Kai Grünewald, Neil Pearse, Carmen James, and Natacha (Simon) Catalino reveal that a team-centric approach can lead to 30 percent efficiency gains in organisations that implement these strategies effectively. The article provides guidance on four practical steps to empowering teams and unleashing their potential: (1) Identifying the highest-value teams, (2) Activating the value-creating teams (see FIG 17), (3) Lifting the leaders to support their teams, and; (4) Scaling this approach to more and more teams.
FIG 17: Transformation requires collaboration within and across teams throughout the organisation (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 December that I recommend readers delve into:
FRANCISCO MARIN - Unlocking HR Potential with Organizational Network Analysis: Insights from Gartner’s 2025 HR Priorities – Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions takes inspiration from Gartner’s Top 5 Priorities for HR Leaders in 2025 report to highlight the role ONA can play in areas such as change management and leadership development – highlighting a case study by Allstate that is contained in the Gartner report (see FIG 18).
FIG 18: Network model for change planning and execution (Source: Gartner)
LISA K. SIMON - AI Isn’t Coming for Your Job—Unless You Ignore It – Lisa K. Simon reveals insightful data from Revelio Labs, on the exposure and adoption of different roles to AI. Findings include: (1) High AI exposure is positively correlated with higher salaries: A ten percentage point increase in AI exposure is associated with 25% higher salaries. (2) The higher the AI exposure, the higher the adoption of AI tools (see FIG 19).
FIG 19: Data scientists lead the way in AI adoption (Source: Revelio Labs)
BEN WIGERT AND COREY TATEL - The Great Detachment: Why Employees Feel Stuck – Ben Wigert, Ph.D, MBA and Corey Tatel, Ph.D. present data from Gallup that finds that employees across the US are increasingly detached from their jobs – hence The Great Detachment – with satisfaction at record lows, employees seeking new opportunities at the highest rate since 2015, but with a cooling job market organisations face risks with regards to productivity and future talent loss (see FIG 20).
FIG 20: Overall satisfaction and intent to leave, among US employees (Source: Gallup)
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):
NICK HUDGELL - AI And Data Governance – Nick Hudgell, Global Head of People Insights at Sanofi, joins hosts Stacia Sherman Garr and Dani Johnson on Workplace Stories, to discuss how his team has built an infrastructure that connects disparate systems, improves data quality, and uses machine learning to unlock insights that genuinely improve employee experiences.
LASZLO BOCK - Becoming a Courageous, Data-Driven HR Leader - Laszlo Bock, co-founder of the Berkeley Transformative CHRO Academy joins Lars Schmidt on what looks like the last episode of Redefining Work (for now at least – see here) to share his journey from shaping Google’s data-driven HR practices to mentoring the next generation of CHROs. If it does prove to be the final episode, Lars you certainly went out on top.
MARK MA - RTOs: Research-backed Realities and Recommendations - Mark Ma, a research professor at the University of Pittsburgh, joins host Sophie Wade on the Transforming Work podcast to shares his discoveries that stock market declines generated RTO mandates but not improved corporate results. In the episode, he advocates for workplace flexibility – giving choices to employees and teams.
ERIN SPENCER AND MACKENZIE WILSON - AI and innovations in HR technology – In this episode of the Capital H podcast, hosts David Mallon and Franz Gilbert sit down with Human Capital analysts Erin Spencer and Mackenzie Wilson to discuss innovative AI solutions emerging in the market from established vendors and agile startups.
BRYAN HANCOCK AND BROOKE WEDDLE - What works—and doesn’t—in performance management – In this episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, Bryan Hancock and Brooke Weddle join host Lucia Rahilly to share their research on what drives performance: what motivates employees most, what matters less than you think, and the changes organisations need to make to ensure their feedback, ratings, and review processes are on track.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
BRIAN ELLIOTT, LAURIANNE MCLAUGHLIN, AND M. SHAWN READ - RTO Mandates: Hard Truths for Leaders
In this video, Brian Elliott, who we featured earlier in the special on hybrid working, discusses the impact of RTO mandates with Laurianne McLaughlin and M. Shawn Read. Brian highlights data and examples that shines a light on return-to-office directives, offers predictions for those companies who have implemented these mandates. He also provides alternative, evidence-based strategies that forward-thinking leaders can use to boost productivity without hurting employee trust, engagement, or talent retention.
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
SHONNA WATERS, ERIN EATOUGH, SHEHZAD BASHIR - People Analytics Across Company Growth Stages: Evolving Your Approach as You Scale
In an era where people are at the heart of organizational success, making data-driven talent decisions is no longer optional - it's a strategic imperative.
In their white paper, four esteemed experts in people analytics - Shonna Waters, PhD, Erin Eatough, PhD, Shehzad Bashir, and Ian OKeefe, break down how to build and refine people analytics capabilities that grow with your organisation. The authors introduce a practical framework for people analytics based on four pillars - each with its own set of capabilities: Governance (with seven capabilities including strategy, ethics and compliance), Infrastructure (also with seven capabilities such as storage, performance and security), Methods (with eight capabilities including primary research, statistical models and machine learning), and Products (with nine capabilities including metrics, dashboards, and nudges), which they state form the basis for organisations to build and subsequently scale their people analytics function. This is a well-researched, practical and helpful paper.
HR Analytics adoption is associated with higher return on investment by an average of 6.2% for return on capital employed
BOOK OF THE MONTH
KATARINA BERG – Bold: A New Era of Strategic HR
Behind every innovative company there should be an innovative HR function. That certainly applies to Spotify and Katarina Berg, the company’s Chief People Officer where being bold is etched into the DNA of the HR function she leads. This is evident in the Spotify HR Blog, and now in Bold, which is finally available in English. As I describe in my endorsement of the book:
The pandemic has thrust HR into the spotlight and given the function the opportunity to lead in shaping the new model of work. To do this, HR has to embrace data and digital. It must deliver for leaders and employees alike. Above all, HR must be bold. Spotify’s HR function, under the leadership of Katarina Berg, is setting the template for other to follow. With ‘Bold’, Katarina and her team build on the visionary Spotify HR Blog, providing a rich vein of insights on the practice of a leading-edge HR function and how it delivers value for employees and the business.
BONUS RESOURCES
Some bonus resources to also consume this month:
Andrew Kilshaw provides data, insights and guidance to companies looking to streamline their organisations in Middle Management Is Tough Enough As It Is.... If You're Going to Streamline Your Organization, Do It Right And Give Them "Space to Lead".
The latest edition of Gareth Flynn’s consistently excellent newsletter summarises the findings of his research into skills-based approaches to talent management: 2024 Skills Research - You Don't Need to Become a SBO or SPO to Drive Value From Skills.
Tejas Kumar provides some helpful guidance on how to grow professional relationships (see FIG 21).
Madeline Laurano and Kyle Lagunas provide some helpful guidance on how HR Tech vendors can build better partnerships in 2025.
Donald Sull highlights here the excellent series of 'Culture Champions' based on a webinar series and research by Donald and the CultureX team, which features interviews with leaders including Sharon MacBeath, Manny Maceda, Jim Whitehurst, Marvin Boakye, and Katie Burke.
Rob Briner provides a cautionary tale about telling stories with data.
FIG 21: The Journey to Synergy (Source: Tejas Kumar)
FROM MY DESK
December saw the final three episodes of Series 43 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, sponsored by TechWolf (thanks Maaike Standaert, Andreas De Neve ?).
MIKAËL WORNOO - How to Use Skills Data to Solve Business Challenges – Mikaël Wornoo? joins me to explore how organisations can move beyond surface-level discussions centred on build a skills-based organisation to drive real business impact.
MELISSA DAIMLER - Drive Success Through Intentional and Adaptive Company Cultures – Melissa Daimler, Chief Learning Officer at Udemy and author of ReCulturing: Design Your Company Culture to Connect with Strategy and Purpose for Lasting Success, joins me to share how HR leaders can design company cultures that are intentional, adaptive, and aligned with business goals.
CHRISTOPHE CABRERA - How to Navigate Challenges in Skills-Based Transformation Journeys - Christophe Cabrera, Director and Head of IT Talent and Company Reputation at UCB, joins me to share how UCB kicked off its skills transformation with an initial proof-of-concept for 500 employees, how it used AI, and its rollout across additional parts of 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 over 550 roles.
THANK YOU
Oli Meager for including me in his list of HR Tech Analysts you can Trust along with a number of people I really respects such as Stacia Sherman Garr, David Perring, FLPI, Kyle Lagunas, and Dani Johnson
Gareth Flynn for posting about the Digital HR Leaders podcast episodes with Sandra Loughlin, PhD and Mikaël Wornoo? as part of sharing his insightful learnings on skills
Josh Tarr for also posting about the Digital HR Leaders podcast episodes with Sandra and Mikael here
Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. for including Excellence in People Analytics as one of ten books that inspired her to write her first book, The Inclusion Equation, which is published in January 2025
Laureano Pérez Caballero for including Excellence in People Analytics in his selection of five books to give as gifts
Thomas Kohler for including the November edition of Data Driven HR Monthly in his list of HR resources
Thinkers360 for including me in their list of Top Voices EMEA 2024
Teamflect for including me on their list of leaders redefining HR
Paul's Job for including me in their list of Experts Shaping the Future of HR
Voxeon Communicationsfor including me in their list of Visionaries redefining the Future of Work
Finally, a huge thank you to the following people who either shared the November edition of Data Driven HR Monthly and/or posted about the Digital HR Leaders podcast, conferences or other content. It's much appreciated: Tanguy Dulac Joseph Nabarro Sven Hultin Alan Susi Sibusiso Mkhize Sebastian Knepper Samir Murgude , SPHR®, SHRM-SCP, IHRP-SP Catriona Lindsay Amardeep Singh, MBA Kouros Behzad Matthew Hamilton Ian Grant FCIPD Dave Millner Vijay Patnaik, MBA Kathleen Kruse Danielle Farrell, MA Aravind Warrier Alexis Fink Errol Kruger Jose Luis Chavez Vasquez Marijana Brasiello, MHRM Andrew Pitts Joachim Decock David Simmonds FCIPD Dr. Jeeta Sarkar Maximilian Lankheit Chris Long Maria Alice Jovinski Felipe Jara David McLean Danielle Bushen Swechha Mohapatra (IHRP-SP, SHRM-SCP, CIPD) Lukasz Sowinski Geetanjali Gamel Timo Tischer Henrik Håkansson Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. Sander de Bruijn, Kristin Saboe, Ph.D. Giovanna Constant Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA Russ Fatum BS, BS, MSA, MBB, PMP Ekta Lall Mittal Luis Maria Cravino Sameer Raut Chandresh Natu Praful Tickoo Ron Ben Oz Emanuele Magrone Laurent Reich Scott Nemeth Chris Lovato Philippa Penfold FCIPD Gal Mozes, PhD Christina Bui Matt Burns Bhawna Bist Melissa Hopper Fritz Rex Blodgett Delia Majarín Asaf Jackoby Joonghak Lee Jaejin Lee Mark Lawrence Kimberly Rose Mariami Lolashvili Malgorzata Langlois Irene Wong Kelly Monahan, Ph.D. Doug Chartier Sophia Huang, Ed.D. Caitie Jacobson Roxanne Bisby Davis Hanna Salo Toon van der Veer David Littlechild Jeff Wellstead Pedro Pereira Dr. Sebastian Projahn Melissa Arronte Linda Jonas John Healy Greg Pryor Kristina Kersiene, PhD Kris Saling Dr Philip Gibbs John Golden, Ph.D. Irada Sadykhova Dolapo (Dolly) Oyenuga, Phil Inskip Joseph Frank, PhD CCP GWCCM Lina Makneviciute Alexandra Nawrat John Brazier Marcela Mury Jacob Nielsen Søren Kold Lucie Vottova Stephanie Murphy, Ph.D. John Gunawan Gawain Wang Dave Fineman Craig Starbuck, PhD Ralf Buechsenschuss Bob Pulver Daniel Ivezaj Nico Orie Greg Newman Brandon Mistry Elizabeth Esarove Julia Brandon, PhD Evan Franz, MBA Erik Otteson Higor Gomes Ken Clar Ruben Santos Dr. Peter Schulz-Rittich Mattijs Mol Tina Peeters, PhD Tim Peffers Ludek Stehlik, Ph.D. Abhilash Bodanapu Mukesh Jain Ohad Geron Jonathon Frampton
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.
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2024年12月29日
learning
David Green:The best HR & People Analytics articles of August 2024
I’ve just returned from a three-week family holiday in the South of France and am feeling refreshed, recharged and ready for the final four months of the year. These are invariably the busiest for the team at Insight222, and 2024 is set to be no different.
The Digital HR Leaders podcast returns from its summer sojourn on September 3 with a special episode on how HR can help their organisations embrace the blended workforce, featuring Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton, and based on their brilliant recent HBRarticle,
The Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, which we host annually for leaders of 100+ companies that are part of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, takes place in Amsterdam from September 24-26 with guest speakers including: Erin Meyer, Prasad Setty, Janine Vos, and a workshop on storytelling with Duarte, Inc..
The fifth annual Insight222 People Analytics Trends report, which studies how leading companies are using people analytics to generate business value will be published in October – you can read the 2023 study here.
Additionally, I will be speaking at a number of conferences before the end of the year including Workday Rising (Las Vegas, September 16-19), People Analytics World (New York, October 2-3), UNLEASH World (Paris, October 16-17), and Workday Rising EMEA (London, November 12-14).
This edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is sponsored by our friends at 365Talents
365Talents goes beyond traditional approaches, offering more than just technology for Skills-Based Organizations. Our approach is not just about managing skills; it's about making the entire process seamless, effective, and enjoyable. Picture real-time insights into your workforce's skills, coupled with the expertise to implement strategic HR projects aligning with your business goals.
Our experience in talent mobility and skill development contribute to creating a more democratic, inclusive, and future-ready world of work where every individual has the power to shape their professional path. Start your skills journey with 365Talents today and join the ranks of trailblazers like Veolia, SLB, TotalEnergies, SocGen, and more! To find out more click here: https://www.365talents.com/en/lp/experience-365talents
2024 Skills Impact Report
In today’s fast-paced and increasingly disruptive environment, companies need to adopt a more flexible approach that puts its people and their skills at the center of its talent management strategies. This has become more and more imperative as:
59% of the global workforce are disengaged.
69% of job candidates say they would reject a job offer from an employer with a negative reputation, even if they were unemployed.
87% of organizations currently have an existing skills gap or expect to within the next two to ten years.
Enter the 2024 Skills Impact Report. It explores the business imperative of talent experience for Skills-Based Organizations, the impact it has on your employees, the pillars of design thinking for HR and how to start applying it to your strategy with 5 intuitive roadmap worksheets.
CASE STUDY: SEGULA Technologies Group
In 2020, as the world faced significant engineering transformations, the COVID crisis, talent shortages, and the rise of AI, SEGULA Technologies Group launched a strategic initiative to plan and manage the resources and skills of its workforce. The goal of this ambitious project was to identify and leverage the talents of the Group's 15,000 employees across 30 countries, using AI to drive innovative skills management and enhance overall performance.
Read the Case Study to learn all the steps and actions taken to successfully tackle the challenge!
To sponsor an edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, and share your brand with more than 130,000 Data Driven HR Monthly subscribers, send an email to dgreen@zandel.org.
Share the love!
Enjoy reading the collection of resources for August and, if you do, please share some data driven HR love with your colleagues and networks. Thanks to the many of you who liked, shared and/or commented on July’s compendium.
If you enjoy a weekly dose of curated learning (and the Digital HR Leaders podcast), the Insight222 newsletter: Digital HR Leaders newsletter is published every Tuesday – subscribe here.
NEW: Insight222 research report on the People Analytics Ecosystem
Access the new Insight222 study here: Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v 2.0.
HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
MCKINSEY - Gen AI’s next inflection point: From employee experimentation to organizational transformation
HR plays an especially important role in gen AI, both by transforming the people domain and by acting as a gen AI copilot for all employees. One executive noted that for every $1 spent on technology, $5 should be spent on people.
A new study by McKinsey finds that to generate value from the momentum associated with GenAI, businesses must transform their processes, structures, and approach to talent. The article, penned by Charlotte Relyea, Dana Maor, Sandra Durth, and Jan Bouly, outlines the key findings from the research: (1) Employee use is at an inflection point, while their organisations lag behind. (2) The next inflection point will see organisations shift from individual experimentation to strategic value capture. (3) Reinvent domains by translating vision into value. (4) Reimagine talent and skilling by putting people at the centre (see FIG 1). (5) Reinforce the changes to continue transforming (“To make gen AI changes stick, organizations need the right infrastructure to support continuous change and win over hearts and minds”).
FIG 1: Early adopters prioritise talent and the human side of GenAI more than other companies (Source: McKinsey)
DAVE ULRICH - How are You Doing at AI for HR? A Ten-Item Assessment to Evaluate Your Progress
Getting started in AI for HR often begins with initiatives that can be done relatively quickly and easily.
Dave Ulrich shares key takeaways from a recent deep-dive, he and his colleagues at The RBL Group facilitated with senior HR leaders on AI in HR. He distils these into ten dimensions designed to help HR leaders assess how they are doing at applying AI for HR to their organisation (see FIG 2). These include: (1) Articulate a business case. (2) Develop Talent who can ‘do’ AI. (3) Create Responsible AI policies. (4) Create metrics to guide and measure success. (5) Start with low-hanging fruit.
FIG 2: Criteria to evaluate how well your organisation is using AI for HR (Source: Dave Ulrich)
DUNCAN HARRIS AND KATE ZOLNER - 5 Employee Fears of AI and How to Overcome Them
If companies want to get the most out of AI, they need employee trust. Securing it is not easy. More than three-quarters of employees don’t think their organization’s future use of the technology will be ethical.
Duncan Harris and Kate Zolner present the findings of Gartner research on the five main employee fears of AI use by their organisations (see FIG 3), which have a negative impact on employee trust. They then explain how leaders can address these fears through initiatives in areas such as learning, co-creation, effective communications, ethics and data privacy. As well as enabling the organisation to benefit from AI, Harris and Zolner argue that these solutions will lead to higher levels of inclusion, engagement and effort.
FIG 3: Five Employee Fears of Organizational AI Use (Source: Gartner)
STACIA GARR - How is HR using Gen AI today? | MAX BLUMBERG - GenAI in HR: Slashing Costs, Boosting Efficiency | SWANAND DEODHAR, FAVOUR BOROKINI, AND BEN WABER - How Companies Can Take a Global Approach to AI Ethics | BAIN - AI Survey: Four Themes Emerging
Four more resources tracking topics related to GenAI in HR. (1) Stacia Sherman Garr’s LinkedIn post summarises RedThread Research analysis of how HR is using GenAI today (see FIG 4). (2) Max Blumberg (JA) ?? provides a summary of his report on Slashing HR Costs: The Ultimate Blueprint for Implementing GenAI in HR, which provides guidance on implementing GenAI to transform HR cost efficiency, and includes Max’s GenAI HR Cost Reduction Maturity Model (see FIG 5). (3) Ben Waber teams up with Swanand Deodhar and Favour Borokini in a Harvard Business Review article offering guidance on how companies can take a global approach to AI ethics: “Because AI and related data regulations are rarely uniform across geographies, compliance can be difficult. To address this problem, companies need to develop a contextual global AI ethics model that prioritizes collaboration with local teams and stakeholders and devolves decision-making authority to those local teams.” (4) Gene R., Sanjin Bicanic, Jue Wang, Richard Lichtenstein, and Arjun Dutt share the four key themes that emerged from Bain’s recent AI survey, which includes that the emphasis has shifted from experimentation in 2023 to delivering real value 12 months later – thanks to Hung Lee for sharing Bain’s research in a recent edition of Recruiting Brainfood.
FIG 4: How HR is using GenAI (Source: RedThread Research)
FIG 5: GenAI HR Cost Reduction Maturity Model (Source: Max Blumberg)
MARC EFFRON - Above the Fray: What We Know About How WFH and Hybrid Affect Work
We should approach solving this problem in the same intelligent way as we suggest all human problems be solved – start with the science.
As his article on skills-based organisations testified, Marc Effron has a penchant for cutting through the hype and getting to the heart of an issue. As such, I highly recommend digging into his new analysis on what the science and evidence says are the trade-offs among WFO, WFH and hybrid work. Firstly, Effron dispels four myths propagated by proponents and opponents on CEOs, real estate, proximity bias and employees who prefer WFH. Then he examines the consequences of different work arrangements on (1) performance, (2) creativity, (3) innovation (4) work relationships, (5) collaboration, and (6) managing based on the emerging knowledge available via Google Scholar.
LYNDA GRATTON - Seven Truths About Hybrid Work and Productivity | BRIAN ELLIOTT - Hybrid Work: How Leaders Build In-Person Moments That Matter | REBECCA KNIGHT - 17 Team-Building Activities for In-Person, Remote, and Hybrid Teams
To get the most from hybrid work, leaders should prepare for trade-offs, make expectations clear, and think harder about how productivity is measured.
Three more resources on hybrid work to read in conjunction with Marc Effron’s article above. First, Lynda Gratton unveils seven key findings from what she is seeing from experiments in hybrid working including: (1) Hybrid work is a continuum. (2) Productivity is usually challenging — and measurement is always complex. (3) It’s useful to view hybrid work as fundamentally a job design option. Second, Brian Elliott provides guidance on the four essential times leaders should be intentional about building moments that matter for hybrid workers: (1) Team development (“Get people together three or four times a year, with a 50-50 mix of business and social”). (2) Onboarding and training. (3) New-team formation and major-initiative kick-offs (“Grapple together over the objectives and norms of a project”). (4) Business-function-specific activities (“Let teams figure out the best in-person schedules for their needs”). Finally, Rebecca M. Knight provides guidance to leaders on team-building activities for in-person, remote and hybrid teams.
FIG 6: Focus on Productivity, Not Physical Presence (Source: Brian Elliott, Future Forum)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
NAOMI VERGHESE, JONATHAN FERRAR, AND JORDAN PETTMAN - Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v2.0 ARTICLE | FULL REPORT
One of the questions we get asked most by the people analytics leaders and chief people officers we work with at Insight222 is: What capabilities do I need to build into our people analytics function? Based on research of more than 250 companies, focus interviews with 20 organisations, and our experience of working with more than 120 global companies as part of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, my colleagues Naomi Verghese, Jonathan Ferrar and Jordan Pettman have developed a new report: Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v 2.0. The executive article provides a summary of the key highlights, while the full report breaks down the six elements of the People Analytics Ecosystem (see FIG 7): (1) A Value Chain: from client drivers to business outcomes. (2) People Strategy at the Centre: a symbiotic relationship exists between people strategy and people analytics. (3) Five Core Capabilities: consulting, data science and research, employee listening, analytics at scale, adoption. (4) Four Additional Capabilities: reporting, data governance, workforce planning, AI strategy. (5) Internal Partnerships: HR and other business stakeholders are key to operational effectiveness. (6) External Partnerships: external suppliers and expertise are important for enabling success.
FIG 7: The People Analytics Ecosystem (Source: Insight222 Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v 2.0)
NELSON SPENCER - Introducing the S.T.A.R.T. Framework
The strategy pillar is all about aligning with your overall HR and Business goals. You should be able to connect how your strategy is driving business outcomes.
Nelson Spencer, who has worked in both sports and people analytics, presents his S.T.A.R.T Framework (see FIG 8), which is designed to solve a perennial problem for many HR functions: the disconnect between analytics, technology and operations. As Nelson explains, S.T.A.R.T has been designed “to consider these three critical functions holistically, acknowledging that they are part of a bigger puzzle and are all deeply interconnected.” The five pillars, which Nelson describes in detail in his article, are: (1) Strategy, (2) Technology, (3) Analytics, (4) Results, and (5) Transformation. He then provides guidance on how to implement the framework in organisations of varying sizes, from small to large.
FIG 8: The S.T.A.R.T Framework (Source: Nelson Spencer)
MICHAEL LUCA AND AMY EDMONDSON - Where Data-Driven Decision-Making Can Go Wrong
When making decisions (using data), managers should consider internal validity—whether an analysis accurately answers a question in the context in which it was studied. They should also consider external validity—the extent to which they can generalize results from one context to another.
Drawing on their research and work with companies, Michael Luca and Amy Edmondson present an approach that considers internal validity and external validity that leaders can apply to discussions of data to support better decision-making. This approach is designed to help leaders avoid five common pitfalls (see FIG 9) associated with data-driven decision-making.
FIG 9: How to avoid predictable errors (Source: Michael Luca and Amy Edmondson)
WILLIS JENSEN - Building a Network View of Data | MARTHA CURIONI - Supporting HR Adoption of People Analytics | JACKSON ROATCH - Your Best Career Move could be Going for a Run | SERENA HUANG - The Future of Work is Wellbeing | JASPAR SPANJAART - How NVIDIA's Talent Intelligence approach helped fuel its trillion-dollar rise | TOBY CULSHAW - The Talent Nexus: Redefining Business Agility for the 21st Century CEO
In each edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I feature a collection of articles by current and recent people analytics leaders. These are intended to act as a spur and inspiration to the field. Six are highlighted in this month’s edition. (1) In another excellent edition of his Making People Analytics Real blog, Willis Jensen discusses how to get a network view of data: “Linking your data together should be a top priority for any people analytics team.” (2) Martha Curioni provides guidance on how to support HR to adopt people analytics harnessing insights from the likes of Isabel Naidoo, Patrick Coolen, Greg Newman, and Amit Mohindra. One of Martha’s tips focuses on the importance of including HRBP’s rather than going around them. (3) As someone whose best ideas invariably come when I’m on a run, I particularly enjoyed Jackson Roatch’s article exploring the link between physical exercise and workplace learning, performance and thriving. (4) In an edition of her From Data to Action blog, Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. explores how AI can support wellbeing and lays out a ten-point plan on responsible AI principles for workplace wellbeing (see FIG 10). (5) NVIDIA’s Meta McKinney, MLIS and Nickolas Dowler, MBA explain to Jasper Spanjaart how the company’s Talent Intelligence strategy helped fuel its growth: “A winning Talent Intelligence strategy requires several key ingredients: data-driven and tested theories, meticulous and thoughtful research, reliable data, creative problem-solving, clear communication of the rationale, trusted relationships with business leaders, and the financial support and freedom to execute.” (6) Toby Culshaw provides a compelling breakdown of what he describes as The Talent Nexus: “The Talent Nexus represents a revolutionary approach to talent management and acquisition in the modern business landscape. It's an AI-driven, quantum-computing-enhanced ecosystem that transforms how organizations interact with, deploy, and develop talent.” A must-read for all those involved in talent intelligence, people analytics and workforce planning.
FIG 10: Responsible AI Principles for Workplace Wellbeing (Source: Serena Huang)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
RAVIN JESUTHASAN - The AI revolution is coming to L&D
AI will empower the L&D function to support strategic workforce planning through skills-related insights and interventions. This will help organizations shift from costly ‘churn and burn’ strategies to more cost-effective and sustainable reskilling and upskilling programs.
Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA examines how AI is set to transform the learning and development function. He highlights Mercer analysis that finds that AI and automation will likely augment some L&D activities (see FIG 11), as well as outlining four potential AI uses cases for corporate L&D: (1) Producing L&D content. (2) Personalising L&D delivery. (3) Driving the skills-powered revolution. (4) Democratising knowledge. For more from Ravin, watch the recent LinkedIn Live on Skills-Powered Organisations in the Age of AI, which I moderated and featured Ravin alongside Tanuj Kapilashrami.
FIG 11: Time by task: L&D versus AI and Automation (Source: Mercer)
NANCY DUARTE - Are Your Presentations Too Emotional — or Too Analytical?
When making a presentation, leaders need to balance appeals to both logic and emotion — the head and the heart.
Nancy Duarte provides invaluable guidance on how to strike a balance between logic and emotion when making a presentation, and how credibility plays a crucial role in this balancing act. She explains that the first step in achieving this balance is understanding the audience: “Are they data-driven decision makers who thrive on statistics and factual evidence? Or are they more likely to be swayed by personal stories and emotional connections?”
FIG 12: An Analytical and Emotional Balance That’s Just Right (Source: Nancy Duarte)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
SANDRA LOUGHLIN – Seven Elements of Skills Data Quality
Skills data quality isn’t talked about much despite being the foundation for the SBO value proposition, a critical input to selecting and gaining value from skills tech vendors, and arguably the most difficult part of a skills transformation.
These wise words open Sandra Loughlin, PhD’s excellent article, where she outlines seven aspects of skills data quality, why they matter and their trade-offs: (1) Relevance (“Skills that are tracked should be the skills that need to be tracked—there’s no point in collecting skills data that won’t help you make better business decisions”). (2) Accuracy. (3) Validity. (4) Completeness. (5) Consistency (“Skills data should be consistently defined, recorded, and categorized across systems and within the organization”). (6) Timeliness. (7) Uniqueness. Thanks to Victoria Holdsworth for highlighting Sandra’s article.
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
CATHERINE COPPINGER - Introducing Two New Metrics: Fragmented & Interrupted Time
Catherine Coppinger from Worklytics introduces two new metrics: (1) Fragmented Time (“the sum of the total number of hours people have in blocks of time that are too short to get any deep work done”) and (2) Interrupted Time (“a metric designed to measure those periods of the day where people keep getting interrupted and just can’t find enough concentrated time to finish an important task”). Understanding these can help individuals and managers organise time more productively while enhancing employee wellbeing (see FIG 13). Read as a follow-up to another recent article by Catherine: 4 New Ways to Model Work, which featured in the July edition of Data Driven HR Monthly.
FIG 13: Source: Catherine Coppinger, Worklytics
MCKINSEY - What employees say matters most to motivate performance
Performance management is most effective when it features strong, consistent internal logic that employees understand
In their article, Asmus Komm, Brooke Weddle, Dana Maor, Katharina Wagner and Vivian Morrow Breaux present the findings of a McKinsey study of more than 1,000 employees across the globe on what matters most to motivating employee performance. The findings provide insights to employers to guide their approach with regards to performance management. These include: (1) Performance management frameworks should be consistent and clearly articulated. (2) Goal setting has impact when goals are measurable and clearly linked to company priorities (see FIG 14). (3) Performance reviews with skilled managers are crucial to employee performance. (4) Rewards that include nonfinancial incentives provide a boost.
FIG 14: Employees are motivated by measurable goals linked to company/team (Source: McKinsey)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND LEARNING
MEGAN REITZ AND AMY EDMONDSON - When a Team Member Speaks Up — and It Doesn’t Go Well
Speaking up — and being heard — in organizations is critical. What gets said, and what doesn’t, directs ethical behavior, innovation, inclusion, and performance.
In their article for Harvard Business Review, Megan Reitz and Amy Edmondson explore how 'conversational failures' often cause breakdowns in psychological safety rather than being used as opportunities to learn and develop. They discuss why they occur and the reasons why it is difficult to learn from these failures, before providing guidance on how these failures can become ‘intelligent’: (1) Prepare to learn from conversations. (2) Notice critical moments. (3) Implement process tools. (4) Attend to learning over the long term. For more on ‘intelligent failure’, tune in to Amy’s conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How Learning to Fail Can Help People and Organisations to Thrive.
If you’re not failing, you’re not journeying into new territory
JAMIE SMITH - How boards can champion a resilient talent strategy
Talent strategy is increasingly vital to driving overall strategy.
Based on a study of by EY and Corporate Board Member magazine of US public company directors across a range of industries, Jamie Carroll Smith presents analysis of the four opportunities identified in the research for boards to champion a resilient talent strategy: (1) Gain deeper insight into the employee experience. (2) Enable a workforce for the future (“Directors recognize that AI developments demand a reskilling of the workforce”). (3) Harness the value of diversity, equity and inclusion (“The future talent pool may depend on companies prioritizing DEI”). (4) Identify opportunities to strengthen talent governance. Thanks to Brian Heger for highlighting in an edition of his excellent Talent Edge newsletter.
FIG 15: The biggest impacts of AI on company workforce strategy (Source: EY)
JEN FISHER, SUE CANTRELL, JAY BHATT, AND PAUL SILVERGLATE - The important role of leaders in advancing human sustainability
More than eight out of 10 executives surveyed say a stronger commitment to prioritizing a positive human impact would increase their company’s ability to attract new talent (82%), appeal to customers and clients (81%), and profitability (81%).
Jen Fisher, Susan Cantrell, Jay Bhatt, and Paul Silverglate outline the key findings from Deloitte’s third annual Workplace Wellbeing report. The primary finding suggests that leaders can play a key role in prioritising and advancing a human sustainability agenda, particularly when it comes to measuring outcomes and holding their organizations accountable for progress. Insights identified in the study include: (1) The three trends impacting today’s workforce the most are skills, burnout and mental health. (2) The modern work experience doesn’t promote human sustainability but C-suite leaders aren’t seeing it. (3) While three out of four executives believe workforce wellbeing is excellent or good, workers are having a different experience (see FIG 16). The article then provides guidance on the metrics companies can implement to measure human sustainability including on skills development, purpose, DEI and societal impact.
FIG 16: Source – Deloitte Wellbeing at Work survey, 2024
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
JANINE LEE - Breaking Down Barriers to Belonging for Women of Color in Tech
In her article in Harvard Business Review, Dr. Janine Lee, MBA, Ed.D. Global Head of L&D at Google, outlines the findings from her doctoral research on workplace belonging for women of colour in the tech industry. Janine highlights the top belonging contributors and detractors identified in the study (see FIG 17), and then offers three recommendations to boost workplace belonging: 1) Invest in programs that foster peer-based relationships, 2) Enable sponsorship and mentoring opportunities, and 3) Hold leaders accountable to “walk the talk.”
FIG 17: Sense-of belonging contributors and detractors (Source: Janine Lee)
HR TECH VOICES
Much of the innovation in the field continues to be driven by the vendor community, and I’ve picked out a few resources from August that I recommend readers delve into:
GURU SETHUPATHY – Understanding the EU AI Act in Four Handy Charts – Guru Sethupathy of FairNow provides an invaluable breakdown of the EU AI Act and its implications.
FIG 18: The four risk levels under the EU AI Act (Source: FairNow)
EMILY KILLHAM - How to Build a Better Boss: What Leaders (and Their Teams) Need Now to Thrive – Emily Killham delivers a new study by Perceptyx identifying five key behaviours for managers, the positive and negative impacts of manager behaviour on employees and organisations, and the role of employee feedback in help managers take corrective action.
FRANCISCO MARIN - The Role of Active and Passive Organizational Network Analysis in Cybersecurity – Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions breaks down how active and passive ONA can support organisational cybersecurity initiatives including the detection of anomalous communications, enhancing incident response and tailoring security strategies.
LOUJAINA ABDELWAHED - How To Lose an Employee in 10 Days – Loujaina Abdelwahed, PhD presents analysis by Revelio Labs highlighting the negative impact of return to office on employee reviews and attrition.
FIG 19: Negative reviews of RTO correlate positively with attrition (Source: Revelio Labs)
ALICIA ROACH – Not all ‘Workforce Planning’ is the Same – If you are interested in workforce planning and don’t follow Alicia Roach of eQ8 on LinkedIn, you really should. In her recent post, Alicia reflects on her ‘triangle of workforce planning’ (see FIG 20), which skilfully illustrates the value of ‘strategic’ workforce planning.
FIG 20: Source – Alicia Roach
PODCASTS OF THE MONTH
In another month of high-quality podcasts, I’ve selected six gems for your aural pleasure: (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):
EMILY HACKER AND DAN WEISS - The Critical Role Data Plays in Skills Development - Emily Hacker, CPTD and Dan Weiss share insights from MetLife's skills journey with Stacia Sherman Garr and Dani Johnson of RedThread Research on the Workplace Stories podcast. The key learning from the conversation is that your skills data doesn't need to be perfect to benefit employees, improve talent acquisition, and enhance workforce planning.
JOSH BERSIN - The Future Of The Workforce Has Arrived, Can’t You See It? – Inspired by his recent trip to Europe, Josh Bersin explains why the traditional industrial work model has ended, gig work is now mainstream, reskilling should be given primacy, and why HR professionals need to reskill in AI to stay relevant.
BRYAN HANCOCK AND EMILY FIELD - Managing in the era of gen AI – In this episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, Bryan Hancock and Emily Field, two of the authors along with Bill Schaninger, Ph.D. of Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work, join host Lucia Rahilly to explain why middle managers matter, what leaders could do differently to make more of the managers on their teams, and how gen AI could change middle managers’ jobs—for the better.
ANSHUL SHEOPURI - How Mastercard is Training Employees for the AI Era – Anshul Sheopuri, EVP People Operations and Insights at Mastercard, joins Christopher Rainey on the HR Leaders podcast to shares insights on leveraging AI in HR and the importance of continuous learning.
JAMES GALLMAN - Bridging HR Technology, Analytics, AI Agents, LLMs, & Nudging at NetApp - James Gallman , VP HR PMO, Systems and Analytics at NetApp, joins hosts Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD on the Directionally Correct podcast to discuss the overlap between HR technology and people analytics.
LILY ZHENG - Ground Your DEI Efforts in Data – In an episode of Women at Work, DEI strategist and consultant Lily Zheng joins hosts Amy Bernstein and Amy Gallo to explain the role of data and analytics in DEI, and the importance of measuring outcomes to make lasting progress.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
JULIET SCHOR - Smarter Work for a Better World?
Studies suggest that the Four Day Week may reduce burnout and depression, while also offering significant opportunities to reduce our collective carbon footprint.
One of my favourite sessions at this year’s Wharton People Analytics Conference saw Professors Juliet Schor and Iwan Barankay discuss what we know about the four-day work week and share their different perspectives on what this alternate structure might mean for organisations and their employees.
BOOKS OF THE MONTH
One of the benefits of being on holiday the past few weeks has been that it enabled me to catch up on some reading, hence there being two books of the month for August:
NICK VAN DAM – Boosting Your Well-being: The Best Version of Me - A wonderful book – and a wonderful cause with 100% of the book’s royalties being donated to the e-Learning for Kids Foundation. Written by Prof. dr. Nick van Dam, and 20 co-authors, this is a comprehensive book on professional wellbeing. It delves into the interconnected aspects of four key dimensions: body, mind, purpose, and environment, and offers a compelling approach to self- improvement. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on resilience and adaptability (written by Jacqui Brassey, PhD, MA, MAfN ?️ (née Schouten) ), sleep (Dr Els van der Helm) and contribution (Emily Ricci). An uplifting and potentially life-changing read.
KALIFA OLIVER – I Think I Love My Job: Secrets To Designing A People-Centered Employer Value Proposition - At times a powerful and relatable story of the ups and downs of corporate life, and at others a compelling narrative on how to approach work, harness data and build a world-class employee experience. Kalifa Oliver, Ph.D. combines both an academic and a practitioner mindset that empowers the reader to take charge of their career, challenge workplace norms, and use data to revolutionise the employee experience.
FROM MY DESK
August saw us reach a notable milestone on the Digital HR Leaders podcast – our 200th episode, and we celebrated in style with a special guest, Amy Edmondson, Thank you to Louis Gordon and the team at HiBob for sponsoring series 40 of the podcast.
AMY EDMONDSON - How Learning to Fail Can Help People and Organisations to Thrive – Harvard professor, pioneer of psychological safety and Thinkers50 #1, Amy Edmondson joined me for our 200th episode, where we discussed intelligent failure, and how failing well can drive individual and organisational success.
DAVID GREEN - What key elements do you believe are essential to building a strong company culture? - A round up of series 40 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, with insights from John Winsor, Maureen N. Dunne, Ph.D., Nirit Peled-Muntz, Heidi Manna and Amy Edmondson.
DAVID GREEN - Five Key Elements For Building a Strong Company Culture? – A recent article for myHRfuture, where I break down five elements in building a strong company culture including aligning with organisational mission and using people data as your GPS.
LOOKING FOR A NEW ROLE IN PEOPLE ANALYTICS OR HR TECH?
I’d like to highlight once again the wonderful resource created by Richard Rosenow and the One Model team of open roles in people analytics and HR technology, which now numbers close to 500 roles – and has now been developed into a LinkedIn newsletter too.
THANK YOU
Wayne Tarken for kindly writing a post about me on LinkedIn: Curious About People Analytics? - What Leaders Can Learn from Thursday's Thought Leader.
Ester Martinez and her team at People Matters for including the Digital HR Leaders podcast in their list of 100 must-read resources for HR and talent leaders.
Rachel Collins for her post emphasising the need to move from employment to employability, inspired by the LinkedIn Live I hosted recently with Ravin Jesuthasan and Tanuj Kapilashrami.
Similarly, thanks to James Elliott for also posting here about the LinkedIn Live with Ravin and Tanuj.
David McLean , whose post on learning from your failures references the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Amy Edmondson.
Veronika Birkheim , whose post on Culture Diagnostics, references the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Heidi Manna.
Andrew Gadomski for his post on how he uses the Data Driven HR Monthly as a learning tool at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Irada Sadykhova for her post on how to build a strong company culture, which was inspired by a recent series of the Digital HR Leaders podcast.
Ashley Utz for her post reflecting on the recent Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Nirit Peled-Muntz.
HR Executive Leadership Exchange for including me in their list of the Top 10 HR Leaders You Should Follow.
Mirro.io for including me in their list of Top HR Leaders to Follow in 2024.
Daniyal Wali and The Talent Games for including me in their list of the Top 10 HR Tech Leaders to Follow in 2024.
Finally, a huge thank you to the following people who shared the July edition of Data Driven HR Monthly. It's much appreciated: Jaqueline Oliveira-Cella Andrés García Ayala Kristhy Bartels Sandy Zou Danielle Farrell, M.A. David Hodges Jeff Wellstead Gord Johnston MA, BHJ, BA, CHRP Debbie Harrison Dave Millner Sharna Wiblen Aizhan Tursunbayeva, PhD, GRP Catriona Lindsay Amardeep Singh, MBA Walter Maes Marcano Gert-Jan Tretmans Tim Peffers Kouros Behzad Adam Tombor (Wojciechowski) Lewis Garrad Sebastian Szachnowski Bob Pulver John Golden, Ph.D. Ben Wigert, Ph.D, MBA Ken Oehler Alexis Fink Katia Simões Francisca Solano Beneitez Abbas Qaidari Onno Bouman Aravind Warrier Kathleen Kruse Adedamola Adeleke ☁️ Elodie MENAGER Susan Knolla John Healy David Simmonds FCIPD Andrews Cobbinah, MLPI, ACIHRM Deviprasad Panda Vanesa C. David McLean Timo Tischer Prachi Agasti Maria Alice Jovinski Tristan Hack Adam McKinnon, PhD. Nicole Hazard Michael Arena Andras Vicsek Jane Kuhn Emily Pelosi, PhD Malgorzata Langlois Ahmed Salah ?? Swechha Mohapatra (IHRP-SP, SHRM-SCP, CIPD) Paul Daley Kyle Forrest Shivaani Talesra Ryan Wong Shujaat Ahmad Tessa Hilson-Greener Vivek Ojha Jacob Nielsen Søren Kold Tobias W. Goers ツ Terri Horton, EdD, MBA, MA, SHRM-CP, PHR Galo Lopez Noriega Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi Alexandra Nawrat Marian Stancik Hanadi El Sayyed Marcela Niemeyer Higor Gomes Kirsten Edwards Andreea Lungulescu Bradford Williams Faiza Tasneem(Associate CIPD) Alysson DuPont, SHRM-SCP, MBA Dr. Peter Schulz-Rittich Joaquin Hernandez Doug Shagam Mariami Lolashvili Caitie Jacobson Jaap Veldkamp Jaejin Lee Yvonne Bell (She/Her) John Gunawan Roberto Amatucci Philipp Heller Tina Peeters, PhD Gianni Giacomelli Lina Makneviciute Roshaunda Green, MBA, CDSP, Phenom Certified Recruiter Jacob Bradburn, Ph.D. Ying Li Phil Inskip Jack Liu Jonathan Berríos Leiva Stephen Hickey Lars Schmidt Geetanjali Gamel Dan George Anabel Fall Alejandra Barbarelli Adam Gibson Mia Norgren David van Lochem Nick Lynn Silja Kupiainen Heather Whiteman, Ph.D. Meghan M. Biro Martijn Wiertz Agnes Garaba Dolapo (Dolly) Oyenuga Laurent Reich Sebastian Kolberg Sebastián Mestre Chris Long Penny Newman Ralf Buechsenschuss Sebastian Knepper Marcela Mury Joseph Frank, PhD CCP GWCCM Dave Fineman Ron Ben Oz Danielle Bushen Kimberly Rose Daorong Lin Sukumaran Mariappan Abhilash Bodanapu Sonia Mooney Kerrian Soong Jay Polaki⚡️ SHRM-SCP/SPHR Remco van Es Ken Clar Matt Elk Aulia Raubien Natalie Wiseman Graham Irene Wong David Balls (FCIPD) Olivier Bougarel Ramesh Karpagavinayagam Oliver Kasper Andrew Kilshaw Nick Hudgell Gal Mozes, PhD Tatu Westling Brandon Merritt Johnson
UNLOCK THE POTENTIAL OF YOUR PEOPLE ANALYTICS FUNCTION THROUGH THE INSIGHT222 PEOPLE ANALYTICS PROGRAM
At Insight222, our mission is to make organisations better by putting people analytics at the centre of business and upskilling the HR profession The Insight222 People Analytics Program® is your gateway to a world of knowledge, networking, and growth. Developed exclusively for people analytics leaders and their teams, the program equips you with the frameworks, guidance, learnings, and connections you need to create greater impact.
As the landscape of people analytics becomes increasingly complex, with data, technology, and ethical considerations at the forefront, our program brings together over one hundred organisations to collectively address these shared challenges.
Insight222 Peer Meetings, like this event in London, are a core component of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®. They allow participants to learn, network and co-create solutions together with the purpose of ultimately growing the business value that people analytics can deliver to their organisations. If you would like to learn more, contact us today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Green ?? is a globally respected author, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As Managing Partner and Executive Director at Insight222, he has overall responsibility for the delivery of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which supports the advancement of people analytics in over 90 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222, David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast and is an instructor for Insight222's myHRfuture Academy. His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar, Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value was published in the summer of 2021.
MEET ME AT THESE EVENTS
I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work, and data driven HR at a number of upcoming events in 2024:
September 11 - Productivity, Purpose, and Profit: How to thrive in ‘25 (London)
September 16-19 - Workday Rising (Las Vegas)
September 24-26 - Insight222 Global Executive Retreat (Colorado, US) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
October 2-3 - People Analytics World (New York)
October 16-17 - UNLEASH World (Paris)
October 22-23 - Insight222 North American Peer Meeting (hosted by Workday in Pleasanton, CA) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
November 12-14 - Workday Rising EMEA (London)
November 19-20 - Insight222 European Peer Meeting (hosted by Merck in Darmstadt, Germany) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
More events will be added as they are confirmed.
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