The best HR & People Analytics articles of March 20252025年3月的《Data Driven HR Monthly》由人力分析专家David Green主编，汇集了全球最新的HR与人力分析领域的重要洞察。文章聚焦于“技能驱动型组织”、“CHRO领导力崛起”与“生成式AI在HR中的落地应用”等核心主题。Insight222最新研究指出，若CHRO和高管团队以身作则地使用数据，HR人员在日常工作中应用人力分析的可能性将提高三倍。Mercer报告显示，高技能效能企业中有73%建立了系统的技能目录。此外，Deloitte《2025全球人力资本趋势》强调，应在“组织文化”“员工个人成长”“企业社会价值”三者之间平衡张力。McKinsey指出，25%的企业通过应用生成式AI，HR成本下降超过10%。Josh Bersin研究则揭示，13%的CHRO已跻身企业前五高薪高管，展现出其日益增强的战略地位。本期还涵盖了关于员工体验设计、DEI策略调整、混合办公模式下的设计思维、HR技术成熟度评估、员工聆听模型等多项实务建议，是HR从业者和决策者必读的专业内容合集。
I was reflecting this weekend that I have now been in the people analytics field for over a decade. Much has changed during that time, but three constants have been the Wharton People Analytics Conference, People Analytics World and UNLEASH. All have acted as a source of inspiration to me and an unmissable opportunity to connect with others in our field. As such, I am looking forward to attending and speaking at all three events in the coming weeks.
First, I’m excited to be speaking for the first time at the Wharton People Analytics Conference in Philadelphia on April 10 and 11 on Unlocking the Power of Data: The Case for Analytics Democratization. Other speakers include: Amy Edmondson, Ravin Jesuthasan, Ben Waber, Jennifer Kurkoski, Guru Sethupathy, Siri Chilazi, and Michael Fraccaro.
Next up, I’ll be co-chair and opening keynote speaker at People Analytics World in London on April 29 and 30, where I’ll be sharing some of the research and work we do at Insight222. Other speakers include: Dawn Klinghoffer, Alexis Saussinan, and Cole Nussbaumer.
The week after, I’ll be heading back to the US for Unleash America, which takes place in Las Vegas, and where I’ll be moderating the Unleash Talent Summit on May 6, and the AI Track on May 7 and 8. Other speakers include; Adam Holton, Anshul Sheopuri, Sue Lam, Avani Prabhakar, Christy Pambianchi, and Amy Coleman.
I hope to see some of you in Philadelphia, London and/or Las Vegas.
This edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly is sponsored by our friends at Mercer
Putting skills to work: Benchmarking skills-powered success
The scale of skills gaps poses an existential threat to businesses’ ability to get work done. The velocity and volatility of change associated with these gaps stems from compounding trends across geopolitics, climate, demographics and the AI revolution. How can organizations keep pace when supply fails to meet shifting demand?
Accelerating agility is one answer. By connecting the dots between skills and the specific tasks that are changing, employers can unlock new ways to connect people to work (beyond moving them from one job to another). A skills taxonomy lays the groundwork: Mercer’s 2024-2025 Skills Snapshot Survey Report shows that 73% of companies with high skills effectiveness have a skills catalog.
While technology makes skills mapping easier, the overall journey can feel overwhelming. HR capacity concerns often stop teams from taking the first step to becoming skills-powered. To put skills to work in a manageable way, think big but start small with a pilot program. This may be for a specific talent process like internal mobility or talent acquisition in the context of a fast-changing business area.
Find more strategic skills insights in Mercer’s 2024-2025 Skills Snapshot Survey report, including:
Building the path to a skills-powered organization
Mapping skills to employees
Linking skills with rewards
Overcoming obstacles
Get the Snapshot
Enterprises who realize the full potential of Skills-Powered Organization practices use skills to revolutionize how they work, modernize talent deployment, and rethink development and rewards. Their journeys are underpinned by a shared vision and a strong data foundation.
To sponsor an edition of the Data Driven HR Monthly, and share your brand with more than 140,000 Data Driven HR Monthly subscribers, send an email to dgreen@zandel.org.
MARCH ROAD REPORT
March turned into a month of highs and lows. Focusing on the former, the first week of March witnessed the most successful and well-attended Peer Meeting yet for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®, hosted by NBC Universal at their iconic global headquarters at the Rockefeller Center in New York. A huge thank you to Jamie Nevshehir and Jennifer Mandelson for hosting as well as our speakers at the event: Dawn Klinghoffer, Lynette Carlson, Olga Dobromyrova, Geetanjali Gamel, Anshul Sheopuri and Jeremy Shapiro. March also saw me deliver two conference keynotes in my home city of London. First up, I had the privilege of delivering the closing keynote at HiBob’s Heartcore HR event in London (see here) – thanks to Emily Hanssen Arent for inviting me and Toby Hough for hosting. The following week, I had the pleasure of delivering another closing keynote – this time at the Workhuman Forum Live – on how data-driven storytelling can elevate HR’s impact and role in shaping the future (see here) – thanks to Maya Lane and Kathryn Santora for inviting me.
Join me for an Insight222 webinar on April 2 on building data literacy in HR at scale.
In our research at Insight222, we have found that when both the CHRO and the HR leadership team role-model the use of people data and analytics, HR practitioners are three times more likely to use those insights in their day-to-day work. That’s the kind of cultural shift that unlocks business impact, strategic alignment, and organisational capability. If you’re interested in learning more about why data literacy is central to the success of both the HR function and the wider business—please join Naomi Verghese along with Shannon Rutledge, Director of People Analytics & Data Solutions at T. Rowe Price, and me on 2 April 2025 at 4:00 PM BST for our upcoming webinar, “Upskilling the HR Profession – Building Data Literacy at Scale”.
Share the love!
Enjoy reading the collection of resources for March 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 February’s compendium.
If you enjoy a weekly dose of curated learning (and the Digital HR Leaders podcast), the Insight222 newsletter: Digital HR Leaders newsletter is usually published every other Tuesday – subscribe here – and read the latest edition.
HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
HELEN POITEVIN - AI in HR: Hits, Misses and Growing Pains
Skills-based talent management cannot scale or be sustainable long-term without AI-enabled skills management.
Writing for Gartner, Helen Poitevin presents a AI use-case prism for human capital management (see FIG 1) before providing detailed insights on AI in HR across three key areas: recruiting, virtual assistants and skills in terms of what’s working and what isn’t as well as areas requiring more focus (growing pains) and what to expect next. For example, with AI-enabled skills management, AI is helping organisations to scale and personalise but is still struggling to incorporate unstructured skills data. Helen recommends starting with the teams that are most ready for using skills data alongside creating a long-term skills vision and ambition. She also highlights that growth in the use of AI based skills management tools is set to rise: “Gartner predicts that by 2028, 40% of large organizations will have invested in two or more AI-enabled skills management solutions with the aim of delivering business agility.” Thanks to Brian Heger for highlighting in his excellent Talent Edge Weekly newsletter.
FIG 1: AI use-case prism for human capital management (Source: Gartner)
McKINSEY - The state of AI: How organizations are rewiring to capture value
The latest McKinsey Global Survey on AI finds that the use of AI (both generative and analytical) is increasing with three-quarters of organisations using AI in at least one business function. From a people and HR perspective there are a number of takeaways from the report including these five: (1) Just over 20% of companies have created a comprehensive approach to foster trust among employees in the use of GenAI. (2) 31% of large and 17% of small organisations have established capability-based training courses designed to help employees use GenAI appropriately. (3) AI is shifting the skills organisations need with roles on risk and ethics on the rise and those in data-visualisation reducing. (4) There is an increased focus on reskilling with companies expecting this to further increase in the next three years (see FIG 2). (5) Across industries 13% of companies report they are using GenAI regularly in HR with the media and telecom sector highest at 22%. (6) 25% of companies report cost reductions in HR of more than 10% in the second half of 2025. Kudos to the authors: Alex Singla, Alexander Sukharevsky, Lareina Yee, and Michael Chui, with Bryce Hall.
FIG 2: Employee reskilling due to AI use (Source: McKinsey)
DELOITTE - 2025 Global Human Capital Trends: Navigating complex tensions and choices in the worker-organization relationship
Organizations that successfully increase the capacity of workers to grow personally, use their imagination, and think deeply are: 1.8 times more likely to report better financial results, 1.4 times more likely to say they are creating broad value for customers, community, and society, and 1.6 times more likely to say they provide workers with meaningful work.
Deloitte’s annual Global Human Capital Trends report is always insightful, thought-provoking and forward-looking, and the 2025 edition does not disappoint. The introduction sets the scene and highlights the need for organisations and leaders to find a balance between competing tensions (see FIG 3). The report has eight chapters organised around three themes of work, workforce, and organisation and culture, and what it means to navigate the tensions in them. As ever, the report is packed full of insights, visualisations and data – I particularly found the analysis on AI’s potential silent impacts interesting (see FIG 4). Kudos to the authors who include: Susan Cantrell, David Mallon, Kevin Moss, Nicole Scoble-Williams GAICD, and Yves Van Durme.
FIG 3: Navigating the tensions (Source: Deloitte)
FIG 4: AI’s potential silent impacts (Source: Deloitte)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
NAOMI VERGHESE - The Importance of Data Literacy Skills for HR Professionals
By embracing people data and analytics, HR can move beyond traditional administrative functions and become a key driver of business success.
Insight222’s most recent People Analytics Trends survey confirms that scaling data literacy is a strategic priority for CHROs, with 85% of companies confirming that the CHRO has emphasised people data and analytics as an essential component of the HR strategy. However, only 58% of companies report that they have a data-driven culture for people data and analytics today, and only 51% of companies report that HR Practitioners are actively developing their data literacy skills to become more data driven. In her article, Naomi Verghese provides examples of data literacy in practice (see FIG 5), and highlights five skills for HR professionals to develop data literacy (including being able to tell stories with data)
FIG 5: Examples of data literacy in HR in practice (Source: Naomi Verghese, Insight222)
MARTHA CURIONI - Analytical AI vs Gen AI – What’s the Difference? | PRABHAKAR PANDEY - Understanding the European Union's Pay Transparency Directive | ALEXIS FINK - The Power of Responding instead of Reacting | RICHARD ROSENOW - An (updated) interview with an unusual People Analytics Expert - ChatGPT 4.5 | SCOTT REIDA - Evaluating Talent Hubs: A Data-Driven Approach using GenAI w/Tableau
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) Martha Curioni provides a helpful primer on the differences between analytical AI and generative AI in a HR setting (see FIG 6). (2) Prabhakar Pandey provides a detailed examination on the background, objectives, key provisions, and potential impacts of the EU’s Pay Transparency Directive on employers, employees, and the broader European economy. (3) Alexis Fink provides a timely guide on the power of responding instead of reacting. (4) Richard Rosenow fires a series of questions related to people analytics at ChatGPT 4.5, and gets a pretty good set of answers. (5) Scott Reida walks through a structured, GenAI-powered methodology for evaluating talent hubs using ChatGPT, which explains how to define clear objectives, select job families and locations, weight decision factors, and visualise results for smarter, faster insights. Thanks to Hung Lee and Toby Culshaw for highlighting Scott’s article.
FIG 6: The differences between analytical and generative AI (Source: Martha Curioni)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
DAVE ULRICH - Six Actions for HR to Create More Stakeholder Value
How can HR create more value for all stakeholders? That’s the question posed by Dave Ulrich at the start of his article. As he explains, answering this pivotal question enables HR leaders to make informed choices about where to prioritise their work and then intentionally share what they are doing and its business impact. In the article, Dave outlines HR’s key stakeholders and the outcomes they require, a human capability framework that integrates 38 initiatives into four pathways, how to focus on outcomes as opposed to activities, and how we can get more precise when it comes to prioritising our work.
FIG 7: Six actions, questions, next steps to create stakeholder value from human capability
KATE BRAVERY, JOANA SILVA, AND JENS PETERSON | MERCER - Workforce 2.0: Unlocking human potential in a machine-augmented world - Global Talent Trends 2024-25
The world of work is in full metamorphosis, forever changed by the seismic shifts of recent years and accelerated by the imminent human-machine teaming revolution. The rise of generative AI has been met with equal measures of unease and excitement, changing not only how people work but the work experience itself…Unlocking the potential of this new world of work means keeping people at the heart of the transformation agenda.
These are an abridged version of the opening words from the Mercer Global Talent Trends report for 2024-25, which has recently been published. As ever, the study, which is based on a survey of 14,400 executives, HR leaders, employees, and investors, and is authored by Kate Bravery Joana Silva and Jens Peterson – with contributions from the likes of Jason Averbook, Ilya Bonic, Lewis Garrad, Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA, Jean Martin and JESS VON BANK is an absolute must-read. As in previous years, the study highlights a disconnect between what HR is prioritising for the 2025 people agenda and the initiatives that executives believe will have the most impact on business growth (see FIG 8). The analysis also highlights that improving people managers’ skills (up from 9th in 2024 to 1st in 2025) and designing talent processes around skills (up from 8th to 3rd) are high on HR’s agenda. The study identifies and breaks down 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 (including highlighting the importance of insights and analytics – see FIG 9). (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 8: HR priorities for the 2025 people agenda (Source: Mercer Global Talent Trends 2024-25)
FIG 9: What gets measured gets managed (Source: Mercer Global Talent Trends 2024-25)
JOSH BERSIN AND KATHI ENDERES - Secrets Of The High Performing CHRO
The CHRO role is critical for business success, with CHROs serving as C-suite leaders first, and HR function leaders second.
In his article previewing his new paper with Kathi Enderes, Understanding the Path to CHRO, Josh Bersin cites a recent study by Nick Bloom and Mert Akan (see here), which finds that 13% of CHROs are among the top five highest-paid executives in their organisations, a sharp rise from just 0.5% thirty years ago. The paper outlines the role of the CHRO, career trajectories, education, experiences, and high-level success drivers, along with the implications for leaders. Findings include: (1) More than 75% of CHRO appointments come from the outside, indicating a lack of CEO confidence in HR and/or a lack of succession planning for this job. (2) There are four major archetypes of CHRO (see FIG 10): Career CHRO (who change companies regularly), Company CHRO (who grow up inside the company), Business CHRO (who are rotated into the job from non-HR roles), and Operations CHRO (who come from legal, finance, or operations background). (3) Business CHROs drive the greatest change and impact.
FIG 10: Four paths to the CHRO (Source: The Josh Bersin Company)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
MCKINSEY - The critical role of strategic workforce planning in the age of AI
S&P 500 companies that excel at maximizing their return on talent generate an astonishing 300 percent more revenue per employee compared with the median firm
In many cases, these top performing firms are using strategic workforce planning to stay ahead of their competitors in the talent race, treating talent with the same rigour as managing their financial capital. In their article, Neel Gandhi, Sandra Durth, Vincent Bérubé, Charlotte Seiler, Kritvi Kedia and Randy Lim, highlight how the emergence of generative AI is making strategic workforce planning even more important (see FIG 11), and discuss five best practices for building a holistic talent plan through SWP: (1) Prioritise talent investments as much as financial investments. (2) Consider both capacity and capabilities. (3) Plan for multiple business scenarios. (4) Take an innovative approach to filling talent gaps – by refocusing from hiring to reskilling and upskilling. (5) Embed SWP into business as usual:
Strategic workforce planning should become a business-as-usual process, not just a one-off exercise in the face of a single threat to an organization’s talent pipeline or business goals.
FIG 11: The impact of GenAI on tasks that previously had low potential for automation (Source: McKinsey)
JOSH TARR - Key Skills-Based Strategies for Building a More Agile and Resilient Workforce | WORKDAY – The Global State of Skills
Skills-based strategies are transforming the workplace into a more dynamic, adaptable, and equitable environment.
Josh Tarr shares key findings from Workday’s recently published The Global State of Skills report, which finds that 51% of business leaders are concerned about a looming talent shortage, with only 32% in agreement that their organisation possesses the skills needed for future success. The article examines three key skills-based strategies: (1) Skill Identification: Building an Accurate Picture of Workforce Capabilities. (2) Skills-Based Hiring: Focusing on What People Can Do, not Their Credentials. (3) Upskilling and Reskilling: Elevating the Workforce. Thanks to Sophie Barnes for highlighting.
FIG 12: Top drivers and anticipated outcomes for becoming a skills-based organisation (Source: Workday)
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
PATRICK COOLEN AND SANDER DE BRUIJN - 7 Golden Rules For Improving Employee Experience
Effective EX solutions are built on an iterative and evidence-based approach while co-creating with employees.
In their article, Patrick Coolen and Sander de Bruijn of KennedyFitch share their experience and insights on how to do continuous employee listening and improve employee experience. They share seven ‘Golden Rules’ for improving employee experience including: (1) Applying the ‘Triple Diamond Model’ (see FIG 13) in order to capture, understand and act on your employees' needs and ambitions. (2) Ensuring strategic positioning (“EX is a strategic capability, so the responsible team should be positioned in HR accordingly”). (3) Aiming for hyper-personalisation (“By understanding employee differences, organisations can tailor experiences to be more personalised and meaningful”). Read the article to learn about the other golden rules as well as letting Patrick and Sander know what rules eight, nine and ten should be.
FIG 13: The ‘Triple Diamond Model’ to drive employee experience (Source: Patrick Coolen and Sander De Brujin)
DANIEL WENTZEL, ALICE MINET, STEFAN RAFF-HEINEN, AND JANINA GARBAS - How Remote Work Changes Design Thinking
A key advantage of the design-thinking process over other innovation methods is its emphasis on the user experience.
Design thinking and user centred design are critical tools in building an exceptional employee experience – and HR practitioners can learn much from how these tools are applied to customer experience. In their article for MIT Sloan Management Review, Daniel Wentzel, Alice Minet, Dr. Stefan Raff-Heinen, and Dr. Janina Garbas share advice for leaders on structuring the design-thinking process to exploit the best features of both physical and virtual environments for more effective ideation, customer experience research, and other design-thinking steps. As outlined in FIG 14, effectively combining physical and virtual formats throughout the design-thinking process allows innovation leaders to harness the distinct advantages of each setting.
FIG 14: How to set up hybrid design thinking processes (Source: Wentzel et al)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND LEARNING
STUART L. HART - How to Embed Purpose at Every Level
In his article, drawn from his book, Beyond Shareholder Primacy: Remaking Capitalism for a Sustainable Future, Stuart L. Hart presents a practical framework and approach for truly embedding societal purpose, drawing upon the experience of several innovative companies. This framework imagines the company as a house of transformational sustainability – see FIG 15 – where the shared values are the foundation, the roof is the company purpose, the middle floor is the core elements of strategy. The article examines of the elements of the corporate architecture in more depth, along with examples from the 15 companies Hart and his team studied as part of their work: (1) What We Believe: Values (“The transformational companies we examined established a strong foundation built on their organizations’ values”). (2) Why We Exist: Purpose. (3) What We Solve: Aspirations and Quests: (“Together, aspirations and quests serve as the fulcrum for change in leading-edge companies, translating purpose and intention into strategy and operating reality”). (4) How We Win: Strategies and Initiatives. (5) What We Track and How We Accelerate: Goals and Metrics, Rewards and Incentives.
FIG 15: The House of Transformational Sustainability (Source: Stuart L. Hart)
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING
DANIEL ZHAO – DEI Data Points on Glassdoor | JOELLE EMERSON – Analysis on EEOC Assessment of Unlawful DEI Initiatives | MEG A. WARREN – Amid DEI Rollbacks, Champion Allyship | JEREMIE BRECHEISEN, TERESA ALMEIDA AND NIKITA - When Does a Regional Approach to DEI Make Sense for Multinational Companies? | BRANDON DENON - In the US, DEI is under attack. But under a different name, it might live on
With the continuing uncertainty around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, as with the February edition of Data Driven HR Monthly, I wanted to share some of the resources I’ve consumed on this topic with readers: (1) Daniel Zhao shares a number of DEI related data points from Glassdoor, which perhaps not surprisingly has seen that conservations on DEI have surged on Glassdoor’s community platform (see FIG 16). (2) DEI expert Joelle Emerson provides an initial assessment of the EEOC’s recent guidance on unlawful DEI initiatives. (3) Meg Warren, Ph.D. presents research that finds that abandoning DEI initiatives can harm both performance and workplace culture – with inclusive workplaces being better for workers and our businesses. (4) Jeremie K Brecheisen, Teresa Almeida, and Nikita present findings from a study by Gallup and the London School of Economics that found that 77% of companies had centralised DEI operations, but that the companies with decentralised regional operations reported greater business impact. (5) Finally, in a BBC InDepth article, Brandon Drenon writes on how companies in the US are adopting different stances to Trump’s Executive Orders.
FIG 16: The rise of DEI conversations on Glassdoor (Source: Glassdoor)
HR TECH VOICES
Much of the innovation in the field continues to be driven by the vendor and analyst community, and I’ve picked out a few resources from March that I recommend readers delve into:
EMILY KILLHAM | PERCEPTYX - The State of Employee Listening 2025 – Perceptyx's annual analysis of employee listening, authored by Emily Killham, is always a compulsory read. The 2025 edition continues the high standard with highlights including (1) How the top barriers to listening and action have changed in the last 12 months. (2) The critical risks associated with increasing burnout of HR leaders. (3) An update to Perceptyx’s 4-stage maturity model that describes the progression of an employee listening and action program from its most fundamental to its most robust.
FIG 17: Employee listening maturity model (Source: Perceptyx)
PHILIP ARKCOLL - The AI Maturity Curve: Measuring AI Adoption in your Organization – Philip Arkcoll, CEO at Worklytics , sets out a compelling framework for measuring the impact of AI on your organisation – the AI Maturity Curve (see FIG 18), which is comprised of three stages: Adoption (focused on uptake), Proficiency (focused on impact), and Leverage (focused on productivity gains).
FIG 18: Measuring the impact of AI on your organisation (Source: Worklytics)
DIRK JONKER AND RALF BOVERS - How common are people analytics teams? – In a recent edition of Crunchr’s newsletter, The HR Crunch, Dirk Jonker and Ralf Bovers provide some illuminating insights into the size and location of companies that have people analytics teams (see FIG 19) with the US and larger companies leading the way.
FIG 19: Companies with people analytics teams (Source: Crunchr)
ERNEST NG - AI Holds the Potential to Lead Organizations Into an Era of Abundance – Workday’s Ernest Ng, PhD discusses how AI agents will impact how we think about the organisation and challenge common HR orthodoxies. His article outlines how we can reimagine the organisation with a ‘beginners mind’ if we were not bound by the limitations of time and human attention, why AI is potentially transformational, and where to go from here.
FRANCISCO MARIN - Measuring the Impact of Organizational Network Analysis (ONA): From Insights to Tangible ROI - Francisco Marin and the Cognitive Talent Solutions team share a helpful primer on how to measure the ROI of organisational network analysis (ONA), which includes a table (see FIG 20) with example use cases and ROI estimates.
FIG 20: ONA Use Cases & Hard Savings Estimations (Source: Cognitive Talent Solutions)
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):
DR. HOLLY LAM - Bridging the Chasm Between People Analytics & the Business – Holly Lam, PhD joins hosts Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD on the Directionally Correct podcast to discuss what it’s like to be decision maker in the business and move back to people analytics.
BRENDA KOWSKE - Strategic Workforce Planning in the Age of AI – In an episode of Workplace Stories, hosts Stacia Sherman Garr and Dani Johnson speak with Brenda Kowske about how her people analytics and workforce planning team is breaking down traditional HR silos, integrating workforce planning into business decisions, and staying ahead of the curve with AI and skills-based planning at Boston Scientific.
ARNE-CHRISTIAN VAN DER TANG – CHRO Insights – Arne-Christian Van Der Tang, CHRO at TomTom, joins Kathi Enderes on the What Works podcast to explain why the CHRO is no longer an HR leader, but now a business transformation executive.
IAN WILSON - How Amazon Builds High-Performing Teams – Ian Wilson, VP HR at Amazon, speaks to Christopher Rainey on the HR Leaders podcast about how Amazon builds high-performing teams, the role of psychological safety, and HR’s role in driving business impact.
BRYAN HANCOCK AND BROOKE WEDDLE - How to get return to office right - In this episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, Bryan Hancock and Brooke Weddle speak with host Lucia Rahilly about their recent research on the opportunities and challenges of RTO—and how leaders can drive productivity, collaboration, and innovation successfully.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
AMIT MOHINDRA AND HEATHER WHITEMAN – People Analytics Career Skills Live!
Two giants of people analytics – Amit Mohindra and Heather Whiteman, Ph.D., who both featured on the recent list of Top 20 People Analytics Influencers join forces as Amit shares his career journey, the key skills for success in people analytics, and a wealth of invaluable advice. The webinar includes a demonstration of how to leverage basic descriptive analytics to perform predictive analytics.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
KWEILIN ELLINGRUD, LAREINA YEE, AND MARÍA DEL MAR MARTÍNEZ – The Broken Rung: When the Career Ladder Breaks for Women and How They Can Succeed in Spite of It
For every 100 men who are promoted to manager, only 81 women get promoted. This causes women to fall behind men early on – far below the ‘glass ceiling’. This is what Kweilin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and Maria del Mar Martinez have coined “the broken rung”. Their book is based on a decade of research, their own experiences as the first three chief diversity and inclusion officers for McKinsey, interviews with 50 leaders, and is a guide to help women accelerate their career growth. For a preview of the book, I recommend reading a recent article by the authors: How Women Can Win in the Workplace.
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
FABRIZIO DELL’ACQUA ET AL - The Cybernetic Teammate: A Field Experiment on Generative AI Reshaping Teamwork and Expertise
Our results suggest that AI adoption at scale in knowledge work reshapes not only performance but also how expertise and social connectivity manifest within teams, compelling organizations to rethink the very structure of collaborative work.
This new paper summarises the findings from a study of how AI transforms the core pillars of collaboration – namely performance, expertise sharing, and social engagement – through a field experiment with 776 workers at Procter & Gamble. The findings include: (1) AI significantly enhances performance, (2) AL breaks down functional silos. (3) AI’s language-based interface prompted more positive self-reported emotional responses among participants (see FIG 21). The paper is a collaboration between Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, Charles Ayoubi and Karim Lakhani from the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard along with Hila Lifshitz, Raffaella Sadun, Ethan Mollick, and Lilach M., and Yi Han, Jeff Goldman, Hari Nair, and Stewart Taub from Procter & Gamble. You can also read Ethan Mollick’s article on the research: The Cybernetic Teammate.
FIG 21: Working with AI leads to better emotional experiences (Source: Ethan Mollick)
BONUS RESOURCES
Some bonus resources to consume this month feature articles from five of my favourite newsletters:
Lars Schmidt ’s personal and compelling Confessions of a Reluctant Thought Leader explains why he has shifted back from being an influencer to an operator. Much of this really resonates.
In AI’s battle of the skills: upskilling vs deskilling, Laetitia Vitaud asks and then answers the question: “Does generative AI mostly amplify the skills of experienced workers, or does it level the playing field by enabling less experienced, less qualified workers to perform at higher levels?”
Andrew Spence’s Workforce Futurist is consistently one of the most insightful newsletters out there – his latest: Seven Ways Technology is Making Us More Human, Not Less is a must-read.
Serena H. Huang, Ph.D.’s From Data to Action has close to 10,000 subscribers, and it’s easy to see why as the latest edition: The Future of Work is Wellbeing—And It’s Broken Without Inclusion, tackles an important and timely topic in her typically insightful and personal style.
Not many understand the world of HR Tech better than Thomas Otter as his excellent Work in Progress substack consistently testifies. In Explaining M&A through the lens of Income Statement v Balance Sheet analyses two very different recent acquisitions: ServiceNow and Moveworks. and Deel and the global payroll business of Safeguard.
As an additional bonus, I also want to highlight the inaugural edition of Phil Kirschner’s The Workline, which features an exclusive interview with Annie Dean of Atlassian on their “Cost Per Visit” metric. See: Exclusive Case Study: Atlassian Humanized the Office with One New Metric.
FROM MY DESK
March saw the final four episodes of series 45 the Digital HR Leaders podcast, sponsored by our friends at Amazing Workplace, Inc.
KATHERINE MACNAUGHTON - How Manulife Improved Employee Experience Through Transforming Its Organisational Culture - In this episode I talk to Katherine Macnaughton, CHRL, Vice President of Global Talent Management and Development at Manulife, about how Manulife is embedding purpose into every stage of the employee journey.
SHON HOLYFIELD - Why Measuring Happiness Matters Just as Much as Engagement - Shon Holyfield, Founder and CEO of Amazing Workplace, Inc., joins me to explore how focusing on employee happiness can transform business outcomes.
LUCY ADAMS - How HR Can Lead Successful Digital Transformation Initiatives – Lucy Adams, CEO of Disruptive HR and former CHRO at the BBC and Eversheds, joins me to discuss how HR can lead digital transformation and enable business leaders to be change champions.
ANNA TAVIS - How to Drive Workforce Experience and Learning with Digital Coaching - Anna A. Tavis, PhD, Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at New York University and co-author (with Dr. Woody Woodward, PhD, PCC) of The Digital Coaching Revolution, joins me to explore how organisations can move from traditional coaching methods to scalable AI-powered solutions.
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 – as Richard’s latest newsletter reveals - now numbers over 525 roles. Look out too for Richard's latest newsletter analysing the current job market.
THANK YOU
The Economic Times for including Excellence in People Analytics in their Top 20 books HR professionals should consider reading in 2025
Joachim Rotzinger for featuring me in the inaugural issue of his #OrgPeople series, which highlights individuals who are shaping the way we think about organisations and analytics: you can read Joachim’s post here.
Chrishtica Sivakumar for including me in her list of 11 HR Professionals to follow and learn from.
Similarly, K Nair for including me in his 25 Must-Follow LinkedIn Accounts for HR in 2025.
Congratulations to Sukumaran Mariappan on 25 years of growth and gratitude – and thanks for including me as one of 20 people you highlight for having helped you on your journey.
Marc Voi Chiuli. (MSc. HRM. Assoc CIPD. MIHRM.) for referencing Excellence in People Analytics in his recent article: HR Analytics Is Here! Are HR Practitioners Ready to Adopt this New Trend and Take Their Businesses to the Next Level?
I always enjoy reading posts from listeners of the Digital HR Leaders podcast summarising their key takeaways and learnings from individual episodes. Two great examples (the first from the recent episode with Lucy Adams on HR’s role in transformation and the second with Anna Tavis on digital coaching come from Shrez Ghelani (here) and Olimpiusz Papiez (here).
Finally, a huge thank you to the following people who either shared the February edition of Data Driven HR Monthly and/or posted about the Digital HR Leaders podcast, conferences or other content. It's much appreciated: Sam Streak, Anja Leschly, Thomas Kohler, Raja Sengupta, Brandon Merritt Johnson, Galo Lopez Noriega, Mike Madelin FCIPD, Megan Reif, Johann Cheminelle, Gerard Kiely, Charlotte Copeman, Clodagh Scannell, Matthew Phelan, Catriona Lindsay, Aurélie Crégut, Keji Fakeye, MS, CSM, Jose Luis Chavez Vasquez, Kouros Behzad, Jarret O., Callum MacRae, Dan George, Francesca Gabetti, Susana Pires, Felipe Jara, Laurent Reich, Bob Pulver, Megan Sherman, Ph.D., Diego Miranda ??, Amardeep Singh, MBA, Viktoriia Kriukova (Вікторія Крюкова), Krista V., David Simmonds FCIPD, Danielle Farrell, MA, CSM, Ian OKeefe, Sanja Licina, Ph.D., Deborah M. Weiss, Dean Carter, Dan Riley, Sibusiso Mkhize, Nitish Kumar, Aravind Warrier, Sarajit Poddar, Preetha Ghatak Mukharjee, Lewis Garrad, Greg Pryor , Kris Saling, Nick Lynn, Shirley Mariole, MPNGHRI, Richard Bretzger, Till Alexander Leopold, Kyle Forrest, Erik Samdahl, Ralf Buechsenschuss, David Boyle, Ben Berry, Amanda Nolen, Andrew Pitts, Swechha Mohapatra (IHRP-SP, SHRM-SCP, CIPD), Linpei Zhang, Moïra Taillefer, Sonia Mooney, Kathleen Kruse, Timo Tischer, Volodymyr Shevchenko Rebecca Ray, Anyuta Dhir, Tobias W. Goers ツ, John Guy, Kristin Saboe, Ph.D., Caitie Jacobson Mikulis, Hesham Ahmed, Daisy Grewal, Ph.D., Brian Elliott, Paola Alfaro Alpízar, Mila Pascual-Nodusso, John Golden, Ph.D., Heather Muir, Dan Lapporte, Tina Peeters, PhD, Frankie Close, Tonille Miller, Narelle Burke, Ying Li, Raquel Mitie Harano, Saumya Singh, Joseph Frank, PhD CCP GWCCM, John Perrian, Jill Larsen, Kelly Cartwright, Paul Boyle, Paulo Henrique Bolgar, Federico Bechini, Phil Inskip, Tammy Arnaud, Anushree Kabra Tatu Westling, Brad Hubbard, Marie-Hélène Gélinas, MBA (Cand.), Aimee Shirreffs, Delia Majarín, Jo Thackray FCIPD, Gishan Nissanka, Ali Nawab, Pedro Pereira, Natasha Ouslis, PhD, David Balls (FCIPD), Nikita D'Souza, Tanya Jain, Angela LE MATHON, Graham Tollit, Mino Thomas, Dave Millner, Ingi Finnsson ?, Maria Ursu, Craig Starbuck, PhD, Stela Lupushor, Dave Fineman, Monika Manova, Hanne Hoberg, Jacob Nielsen, James McKay, Morgan Baldwin, Mattijs Mol, Sebastian Knepper, Maria Alice Jovinski, Mariami Lolashvili, Shuang Yueh Pui, PhD, Ken Clar, Andrés García Ayala, Dr Philip Gibbs, Elizabeth Esarove, Higor Gomes, Olivier Bougarel, Ron Ben Oz, Louis Gordon, Jeff Wellstead, Agnes Garaba, Erik Otteson, Stephen Hickey
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 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 early 2025:
April 10-11 - Wharton People Analytics Conference, Philadelphia
April 16 - Delegation Rewired: What HR Can Stop Doing, Thanks To Agentic AI, Webinar organised by People Matters
April 29-30 - People Analytics World, London
May 6-8 - UNLEASH America, Las Vegas
June 4-6 - TALREOS (Talent Analytics Leadership Roundtable Economic Mobility Summit), Chicago
June 10-11 - Insight222 Q2 North American Peer Meeting, Toronto, (hosted by Royal Bank of Canada, and exclusive to the people analytics leader in member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®)
June 25-26 - Insight222 Q2 European Peer Meeting, London, (hosted by BT, and exclusive to the people analytics leader in member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®)
July 31 - August 1 - People Matters TechHR India 2025, Delhi
October 7-9 - Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, Atlanta (exclusive to the people analytics leader in member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®)
October 15-16 - People Analytics World, New York
October 21-22 - UNLEASH World, Paris
More events will be added as they are confirmed.
Strategic Workforce Planning
2025年04月14日
Strategic Workforce Planning
The Top HR Articles of 2024: Creating Value with People Analytics
It was in 2014 that I first compiled a year-end compendium of 20 people analytics and data-driven HR articles from the previous 12 months and published it on LinkedIn.
Back then it was an achievement to find 20 articles. Now it is an impossible task to prune so many wonderful resources down to a single summary – such has been the explosion of people analytics in the last decade as it has shifted from the periphery to the centre of people strategy. Indeed, as I reminisced by reading the ten collections to date for 2014, 2015, 2016 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 (Part 1 and Part 2) and 2023 (Part 1 and Part 2), it became abundantly clear that the growth in the field has been staggering.
The advance of people analytics has been mirrored by the human resources field in general as it elevates itself from a support function to a strategic partner. As I wrote in my article, 12 Opportunities for HR in 2025, the field has a huge opportunity to build a thriving workforce, a thriving culture, and a thriving organisation. People analytics is pivotal to this mission.
So, in the second decade of the Data Driven HR Monthly, it’s time to change up this annual reflection on the year that has just passed. As such, in the coming days and weeks, there will be five editions of this newsletter organised into the following five themes:
Part 1: Creating value through people analytics
Part 2: Orchestrating the future of work
Part 3: Enhancing employee experience and wellbeing
Part 4: Developing leaders, culture and inclusion
Part 5: Building the strategic HR function
I hope you enjoy reading the selections for 2024. If you do, please subscribe to my Data Driven HR newsletter, and tune in to the Digital HR Leaders podcast.
Join me for a Insight222 webinar on February 5 to discover they key themes shaping People Analytics in 2025.
If you want to learn how AI, close alignment with people strategy, and data democratisation, are enabling Leading Companies to drive business value with people analytics, register for the Insight222 People Analytics Trends Webinar. The webinar, which will take place on February 5, will be hosted by me and feature Naomi Verghese and Madhura Chakrabarti, PhD unpack the findings from the recently published 5th annual People Analytics Trend study. You can register for the webinar here – or by clicking the image below.
1. CREATING VALUE WITH 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, which was published in December 2024, 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 1. (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 1: Trends in the democratisation and adoption of analytics (Source: Insight222)
DELOITTE - 2023 High-Impact People Analytics Research
Prioritizing PA customers means understanding their needs—and how those needs align (or don’t) with the function’s capabilities and broader business priorities.
The report by Eric Lesser Peter DeBellis and Marc Solow which is based on a 2023 study by Deloitte of more than 400 organisations across 18 countries, presents a People Analytics Maturity Model (see FIG 2) and discusses six key findings. These are: (1) People Analytics has become an organisational imperative. (2) Data culture is the single biggest predictor of people analytics performance. (3) Tech investments mean nothing without human capability (and vice versa). (4) Today’s challenges demand more data from more sources. (5) An expanding customer base means new demands on the people analytics function. (6) People data is business data – treat it as such.
FIG 2: High-Impact People Analytics Maturity Model (Source: Deloitte)
COLE NAPPER, JIN YAN, AND BEN ZWEIG - What is happening to people analytics? A 15- year trend: Part One | Part Two | Part Three (with KRISTIN SABOE)
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 findings were delivered in three articles. Part One presented a number of interesting – and perhaps counterintuitive – findings, including that people analytics positions in the US actually declined in the last two years – the data collated by Revelio Labs suggests more than 1,000 people have left the field during this time (see FIG 3). In Part Two, the team turned their attentions to an analysis of the skills of people analytics professionals and the impact of the field during the last 15 years. Insights included that there is a correlation between companies with ‘prestigious’ people analytics teams and companies being rated more highly for employee sentiment. In Part 3, Kristin Saboe, Ph.D. gets involved to shine the light on how the composition of government people analytics jobs have changed over the last 15 years. Finally, the team provide three recommendations are provided to move the field forward: (1) Add real value and break the cycle. (2) Mature the people analytics function. (3) Let’s get back to growth.
FIG 3: People analytics positions have been decreasing in the last two years (Source: Revelio Labs)
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 and 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 4 demonstrates the four user profiles identified in the paper: the skeptic diplomats, the optimistic strugglers, the optimists, and the enthusiasts.
FIG 4: Source – Bentvelze, Boon and Den Hartog (2024)
PATRICK COOLEN - The 10 golden rules for establishing a people analytics practice
A successful people analytics practice starts with the right people analytics leader
Patrick Coolen’s first iteration of his ’10 golden rules for people analytics’ (one prescient ‘rule’ was to combine strategic workforce planning and analytics) was published in 2014 when he was in the early stages of building the function at ABN Amro. A decade on, Patrick updates his seminal article, with insights from his own career journey, Ph.D research, and the evolution of the field itself. As ever, Patrick is right on the mark with his ten selections including these three: (1) The people analytics leader can make the difference, (2) Create a clear people analytics operating model, and (3) Upskill HR in data-driven decision making.
SHONNA WATERS, ERIN EATOUGH, SHEHZAD BASHIR, AND IAN O'KEEFE - People Analytics Across Company Growth Stages: Evolving Your Approach as You Scale
HR Analytics adoption is associated with higher return on investment by an average of 6.2% for return on capital employed
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.
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 developed the 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 5): (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 5: The People Analytics Ecosystem (Source: Insight222 Building the People Analytics Ecosystem: Operating Model v 2.0)
JAAP VELDKAMP - Positioning People Analytics into the HR Service Model: A Path to Sustainable Impact
Embedding People Analytics within the HR Service Model is essential for creating a lasting and meaningful impact.
In his thoughtful article, Jaap Veldkamp, Global Head of People Analytics and Organisational Effectiveness at ABN AMRO, provides guidance on how people analytics should be positioned within the broader HR service model. Jaap provides a simplified view of the HR operating model (see FIG 6), which has three components: (1) Identifying needs. (2) Prioritising needs. (3) Executing and evaluating strategies. He then describes how the key capabilities of ABN AMRO’s people analytics function (Dashboarding and reporting, Employee listening, Data science and research, Organisational effectiveness, and Consulting) flow through the HR service model. As Jaap highlights: “the overall aim is to ensure that the capabilities of the People Analytics team are part of every step in the HR Service Model.”
FIG 6: Simplified HR Service Model (Source: Jaap Veldkamp)
RICHARD ROSENOW - From Data to Strategy: The New Role of Workforce Systems Leaders in Transforming HR
Without a Workforce Systems Leader, these decisions fall to the CHRO, pulling them into day-to-day inter-functional debates when they should focus on the strategic vision
In Insight222’s 2024 study, Building the People Analytics Ecosystem, we identified three types of people analytics leader that are emerging as the people analytics operating model continues to evolve. One of these – the Portfolio Analytics leader – has similarities to a trend identified by Richard Rosenow in his white paper for One Model. The findings are based on more than 40 HR teams hiring a Workforce Systems Leader combining people strategy, operations, technology, data and analytics (see FIG 7). In the paper, Richard covers: (1) Key challenges in people analytics – how the role of people analytics often extends far beyond their original role description. (2) Mastering the People Data Supply Chain – highlighting the essential steps to building a robust people analytics function. (3) The emergence of Workforce Systems Leaders. Read a preview in Richard’s LinkedIn post and download the full paper here.
FIG 7: The role of a Workforce Systems Leader (Source: One Model)
DIRK JONKER - Finance and Human Resources: A Strategic Partnership for Business Growth
Empathy has always been HR’s superpower, but it’s time to extend that empathy to seeing the workforce through a financial and business lens.
In our research into Leading Companies in people analytics at Insight222, one relationship stands out: the partnership with finance. Of the 25% of companies (86 out of 348 companies) who participated in our 2024 People Analytics Trends study and told us that they had built a partnership with finance, 93% reported that the people analytics team had delivered measurable outcomes over the last 12 months. In his article, Crunchr CEO Dirk Jonker explains why and how HR and Finance should work together, painting 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.” For more from Dirk on this topic, I recommend tuning into his conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: Driving Business Transformation with Advanced 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, 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 8). For more on how IBM infuses people analytics and AI into HR, listen to a recent episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, where I discuss with CHRO Nickle LaMoreaux - how IBM is augmenting HR programs with AI.
FIG 8: Three tiers of KPIs to evaluate investments in a people data platform (Source: Pietro Mazzoleni)
ETHAN BURRIS, BENJAMIN THOMAS, KETAKI SODHI, AND DAWN KLINGHOFFER - Turn Employee Feedback into Action
Ultimately, success (in employee listening) lies in empowering leaders to translate insights into concrete actions, effectively communicating progress, and fostering a continual feedback loop that values and respects the diverse voices within the organization.
"To manage the employee experience, leaders must deeply understand employees’ perceptions, feelings, and desires and respond thoughtfully. This is particularly crucial when immense resources are invested in gathering employee feedback through pulse surveys, town halls, and data scraping from internal communications. But leaders are often overwhelmed by the data and struggle to translate it into actionable insights." In their Harvard Business Review article, Ethan Burris, Benjamin Thomas, Ph. D, SHRM-CP, Ketaki Sodhi, PhD and Dawn Klinghoffer, share insights from interviews with more than two dozen companies to outline seven challenges and demonstrate how leading places to work have built an integrated process for assembling and understanding employee input and translating it into action. The seven challenges are: (1) Making sense of all that data. (2) Making sure employees feel heard. (3) Identifying the actual underlying problems. (4) Protecting employee privacy. (5) Navigating conflicting views. (6) Not burying bad news. (7) Providing meaningful follow-up.
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 9), 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 9: People analytics and insights at Workday (Source: Phil Willburn, Workday)
EMILY KILLHAM - From Insight to Action: New Data on the State of Employee Listening (Article) | The State of Employee Listening 2024 (Report)
(Leading firms ensure) listening efforts are aimed at the most important business and talent priorities facing their organizations today.
Emily Killham highlights the key findings from Perceptyx’s third annual State of Employee Listening report, which is informed by survey of more than 750 senior HR leaders from global firms with at least 1,000 employees. These include: (1) 78% of firms surveyed conduct some kind of listening event at least once a quarter, compared to 70% in 2023 and 60% in 2022. (2) Nearly 40% of organisations can share listening data with managers within two weeks. (3) When compared with their peers, the most mature listening organisations are 6x more likely to exceed financial targets, 9x more likely to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, 4x more likely to retain talent, even during times of high attrition, 7x more likely to adapt well to change, and 7x more likely to innovate effectively.
FIG 10: Employee Listening Maturity (Source: Perceptyx)
RESOURCES FROM CURRENT AND PREVIOUS PEOPLE ANALYTICS LEADERS
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. Nine of the best from 2024 are presented here:
In Our Real-Life Journey with GenAI in Skills and Talent Management (with code!!), the Wolters Kluwer talent analytics team of Mariëlle Sonnenberg, Federico Bechini, Sietse Schröder and Caitlin van Mil share a case study of using GenAI to provide the foundation of their work to transition to a skills-based organisation.
Andrés García Ayala, Group Head of People Analytics and Strategic Workforce Planning at Legal & General, discusses five reasons why people analytics should be at the heart of AI’s successful workplace adoption.
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.
In a two-part post, Hallie Bregman, PhD discusses the pros and cons of situating people analytics in or outside HR: Part 1 and Part 2.
In an edition of his excellent Making People Analytics Real Substack, Willis Jensen digs into what makes a ‘good’ and a ‘bad’ people analytics metric. The secret? Ask yourself: “Can I make a line chart of the metric?”
In The Three Most Common Statistical Tests You Should Deeply Understand, Keith McNulty explains that hypothesis testing is one of the most fundamental elements of inferential statistics. He 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.
Having worked in both domains, Scott Rogers is well-qualified to explore the dynamics of the HRBP-People Analytics relationship. He presents a framework identifying the key focus areas for people analytics leaders (e.g. championing HR operational excellence) and HRBPs (e.g. engaging with and advocating for people analytics).
Jackson Roatch outlines how people analytics teams can move from correlation to causation and create more impact by adding econometric methods to its tools and capabilities.
Nelson Spencer presents his S.T.A.R.T Framework (see FIG 11), 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 11: The S.T.A.R.T Framework (Source: Nelson Spencer)
READ THE OTHER INSTALMENTS OF THE BEST ARTICLES OF 2024
Don’t forget to check out the four other editions of Data Driven HR Monthly, where I reveal my best articles of 2024:
Part 2: Orchestrating the future of work (available from Sunday, January 12)
Part 3: Enhancing employee experience and wellbeing (available from Thursday, January 16)
Part 4: Developing leaders, culture and inclusion (available from Sunday, January 19)
Part 5: Building the strategic HR function (available from Thursday, January 23)
THANK YOU
Thanks to all the authors and contributors featured in the best articles of 2024 as well as across the monthly collections from 2024 – see January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December - your passion, knowledge and expertise continues to inspire. Thanks also to my colleagues at Insight222, the guests and sponsors of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast in 2024 and the great many of you that share and engage with the content I share. It’s much appreciated. I wish you all well for a happy, healthy, and successful 2025.
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.
Strategic Workforce Planning
2025年01月09日
Strategic Workforce Planning
David Green : The best HR & People Analytics articles of April 2024
My highlight for April, and indeed of the year so far, was the People Analytics Worldconference in London. I first chaired the event in 2014, and over the last decade People Analytics World has established itself as the go-to event in Europe for the field.
The 2024 edition was sold out with close to 400 people attending across the two days (4x compared to 2014!). I had the privilege of co-chairing, along with Cole Napper and Michael M. Moon, PhD and also delivering the opening keynote on how leading companies deliver value with people analytics, based on our research at Insight222.
You can find the slides I shared in the keynote below. These include the results of three polls I ran with attendees at People Analytics World on (1) the current state of people analytics in their organisation, (2) the financial impact of people analytics in the last 12 months, and (3) the data literacy of HR professionals. Additionally, you can also access the Insight222 research I shared here.
The conference only ended a few days ago, but already many of the attendees have shared some of their key takeaways and learnings. Do check out the ones from Patrick Coolen (here), Giovanna Constant (here), Sebastian Knepper (here), Mariana Rossi Campos (here), Fatma Hedeya (here), Pietro Mazzoleni (here), Maria Manso Garcia (here), Ekkehard Ernst (here), Marcela Mury (here) and Jaejin Lee (here).
Finally on People Analytics World, congratulations to Barry Swales and the Tucana team for organising such a successful event, thank you to all those who attended the Insight222 dinner, visited the Insight222 stand and who took the time to interact with me over the two days. Lastly, thank you to all of the brilliant speakers and panellists in the Plenary sessions and Strategy track that I moderated: Richard Rosenow Ian Cook Sue Lam Rob Briner Peter Cheese Aizhan Tursunbayeva, PhD, GRP Abigail Gilbert Alexis Saussinan Michael Cox Gemma McNair David Shontz Amit Mohindra Clare Moncrieff Jo Thackray Lucie Vottova Andrew Elston Rob Etheridge Isabel Naidoo James Fenlon and Ekkehard Ernst.
People Analytics World 2024 | London
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Enjoy reading the collection of resources for April and, if you do, please share some data driven HR love with your colleagues and networks. Thanks to the many of you who liked, shared and/or commented on March’s compendium (including those in the Thank You section below).
If you enjoy a weekly dose of curated learning (and the Digital HR Leaders podcast), the Insight222 newsletter: Digital HR Leaders newsletter is published every Tuesday – subscribe here.
HYBRID, GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
DIANE GHERSON AND LYNDA GRATTON - Highly Skilled Professionals Want Your Work But Not Your Job
Without question, there has been a huge shift. Many of the individuals we’re looking to attract—in technology, data sciences, machine learning, blockchain, and the internet of things—have a different mindset now. They want more-flexible working arrangements.
This quote from Peter Fasolo, Ph.D. chief human resources officer at Johnson & Johnson, perfectly captures the challenge that Diane Gherson and Lynda Grattonhighlight in their article for Harvard Business Review: more and more workers want to work as freelancers. As the article highlights, Gartner predict that independent workers will make up 35% to 40% of the global workforce by 2025. Moreover, one-third earn more than $150,000 per year, and just over half were providing knowledge services—such as computer programming, marketing, IT, and business consulting. Integrating and managing what this ‘blended workforce’ will be one of the main managerial challenges in the years ahead. Based on their interviews with executives at leading companies that are experimenting with how best to bring freelancers into their organisations, Diane and Lynda set out some guidance and highlight emerging management practices that forward-looking companies are embracing. These include: (1) Helping freelancers understand and embrace company culture. (2) Following rigorous practices to retain institutional knowledge. (3) Adopting a ‘sponsor’ mindset to guide freelancers’ performance. (4) Leveraging digital workflows and building trust to manage changes in project needs.
FIG 1: The Emerging Blended Workforce (Source: Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton)
LEILA HOTEIT, ANTON STEPANENKO, PAVEL LUKSHA, SAGAR GOEL, AND LEONID GORENBURG - The Next 50 Years of Work
Contrary to popular fears that the future will offer fewer work opportunities for people, most experts anticipate that rewarding work options will be plentiful.
The key finding of a recent BCG study is that workforce experts anticipate that jobs will flourish over the next fifty years, with four boundaries framing the future growth of the economy (see FIG 2). The study, authored by Leila Hoteit Anton Stepanenko Pavel Luksha Sagar Goel and Leonid Gorenburgalso highlights bionic skills (e.g. tech literacy, data-driven decision making, AI-enhanced creativity, and ease with human-machine collaboration) and creativity as the skills that will be in highest demand. But to complement these skills, workers should also cultivate adaptability and the ability to take initiative.
FIG 2: The four boundaries within which the future economy will grow (Source: BCG)
ETHAN MOLLICK - Reinventing the Organization for GenAI and LLMs
Consider this an early eulogy for the traditional organizational structure, which began in 1855 with the first modern organizational chart and thrived, more or less successfully, until the 2020s, when it succumbed to a new technology, the large language model (LLM).
That’s the bold claim by Ethan Mollick in his compulsive article in MIT Sloan Management Review. While he concedes that previous waves of technology have ushered in innovations that have strengthened traditional organisational structures, Mollick makes the case that GenAI and LLMs are different. He then outlines three principles for reorganising work around AI: (1) Identify and enlist your current AI users. (2) Let teams develop their own methods. (3) Build for the not-so-distant future. If you enjoy this article, I recommend subscribing to Mollick’s One Useful Thing blog.
BCG - What GenAI’s Top Performers Do Differently
The top GenAI performers have the biggest lead across five main capabilities: a clear link to business performance, modern technology infrastructure, strong data capabilities, leadership support, and a grounding in responsible AI.
While GenAI is becoming an integral part of business ecosystems, only 10% of companies have mastered scaling GenAI to create value and secure other benefits from this transformative technology (see FIG 3). That’s according to recent research by BCG, which finds that 10% of companies lead in five key areas: (1) a clear link to business performance, (2) modern technology infrastructure, (3) strong data capabilities, (4) leadership support, and (5) a grounding in responsible AI. A helpful read for HR leaders as they think how HR can lead organisational transformation in the age of AI as well as incorporate the technology into HR programs too. (Authors: Amanda Luther Romain de Laubier Nicolas de Bellefonds Tauseef Charanya Suraj Shah Kevin Nnaemeka Ifiora and Patrick Forth)
FIG 3: Three categories of companies in relation to GenAI adoption (Source: BCG)
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
PATRICK COOLEN - The 10 golden rules for establishing a people analytics practice
A successful people analytics practice starts with the right people analytics leader
Patrick Coolen’s first iteration of his ’10 golden rules for people analytics’ (one prescient ‘rule’ was to combine strategic workforce planning and analytics) was published in 2014 when he was in the early stages of building the function at ABN Amro. A decade on, Patrick updates his seminal article, with insights from his own career journey, Ph.D research, and the evolution of the field itself. As ever, Patrick is right on the mark with his ten selections including these three: (1) The people analytics leader can make the difference, (2) Create a clear people analytics operating model, and (3) Upskill HR in data-driven decision making.
PIETRO MAZZOLENI - Mastering data governance for effective people data platforms: lessons from what we did at IBM
Data Governance is the process that ensures the availability, usability, integrity, and security of data in enterprise systems
Pietro Mazzoleni shares the three key elements related to ‘governance-by-design’ that together provided the fundamental principles underlying the design and implementation of Workforce360, IBM’s people data platform. In the article, Pietro presents the three elements – trust, transparency and compliance (see FIG 4) – and provides a detailed description of each.
FIG 4: Key governance questions to consider when designing a people data platform (Source: Pietro Mazzoleni)
JASDEEP KAREER - The Importance of Data and Upskilling in Driving Growth
Jasdeep Kareer, PhD (née Bhambra) shares key learnings from the recent Peer Meeting for North American member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which was hosted by Colgate-Palmolive in their global headquarters in New York. The Peer Meeting, which was attended by more than 60 people analytics leaders and practitioners from more than 40 companies was framed on the key findings from the Insight222 People Analytics Trends study for 2023. In her article, Jas highlights five themes from the Peer Meeting: (1) The importance of data and upskilling in driving growth (with insights from Sally Massey). (2) How strategic partnerships and data governance pave the way for successful People Analytics initiatives (with insights from Courtney McMahon Pavel Nouel and Nayana Pai). (3) How insights-driven decision-making and storytelling can drive impactful outcomes in People Analytics (with insights from Durrell Blake Robinson and Mona Routray). (4) Factors influencing the adoption of people analytics (with insights from Patrick Coolen and Brydie Lear). (5) Influencing senior stakeholders with people analytics (with insights from Piyush Mathur). If you would like to learn more about our People Analytics Program, contact us today.
FIG 5: 8 Characteristics of Leading Companies. (Source: Insight222 People Analytics Trends Report 2023)
BURAK BAKKALOGLU – Deploying GenAI in HR | KEITH MCNULTY – How I Created an AI Version of Myself | KATE GUARINO - How to Turn ChatGPT into Your Personal Consultant: A 5-Step Approach | NATALIA GORMANN - Improving Employee Experience with a Solid Data Strategy | PATRICK GALLAGHER - Is It Time to Stop Measuring Employee Engagement?
In recent editions of the Data Driven HR Monthly, I’ve been featuring a collection of articles by current and recent people analytics leaders. These act as a spur and inspiration to the field. Five are highlighted here. (1) Burak Bakkaloglu dedicates an edition of his If Interested blog to the topic of GenAI including breaking down three layers of GenAI for HR (see FIG 6). (2) Keith McNulty provides a tutorial (including code) on how he built a 'Keith-bot' to answer questions on statistics based on the content of his regression textbook, using a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture. (3) Katie Guarino also provides a practical framework on how to use ChatGPT as your personal consultant and coach on any topic, regardless of your expertise in it. (4) Natalia Gormann discusses challenges for people teams to build partnerships with finance before guidance on how to build an effective data strategy to support employee experience strategies. (5) Patrick Gallagher looks at the case for and against measuring employee engagement, concluding that organisations with mature employee listening and PA functions just don’t need it anymore.
FIG 6: Three layers of GenAI in HR (Source: Burak Bakkaloglu)
THE EVOLUTION OF HR, LEARNING, AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
VINCENT BÉRUBÉ, BEN FOGARTY, NEEL GANDHI, RAHUL MATHEW, MARINO MUGYAR-BALDOCCHI, AND CHARLOTTE SEILEROUTLINE - Increasing your return on talent: The moves and metrics that matter
An organization that views its employees as its most important resource can maximize its return on talent by following a holistic strategy—with HR in the driver’s seat.
Drawing on McKinsey research that finds companies that put talent at the centre of their business strategy realise higher total shareholder returns than their competitors, Vincent Bérubé Ben Fogarty Neel Gandhi Rahul Mathew Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi and Charlotte Seiler outline five actions organisations can take to maximise their return on talent. The five actions are: (1) Build a skills-based strategic workforce planning capability. (2) Create a hiring engine that brings in the right talent to fill critical roles. (3) Invest in learning and development. ((4) Establish a stellar performance-oriented culture. (5) Elevate HR’s operating model to become a true talent steward.
FIG 7: Factors that drag down employee and organisational productivity (Source: McKinsey)
PETER CAPPELLI AND RANYA NEHMEH – HR’s New Role
If leaders realized that the true cost of turnover is often a multiple of an employee’s annual salary, they would immediately demand changes.
In their thoughtful article for Harvard Business Review, Peter Cappelli and Ranya Nehmeh set out the case for the HR function to return to its roots as employee advocates. They argue that in a period of low unemployment and labour supply shortages, focusing on cost-cutting and restructuring is counterproductive and the onus should instead be on retention and preventing burnout. To realise this, HR needs to change outdated policies on compensation, training and development, layoffs, vacancies, outsourcing, and restructuring. Cappelli and Nehmeh recommend the first step should be for HR to create dashboards with metrics on the true costs of turnover, absenteeism, reasons for quitting, illness rates, and employee engagement. They contend that: “If leaders realized that the true cost of turnover is often a multiple of an employee’s annual salary, they would immediately demand changes." They also outline guidance on why and how to measure employee stress – particularly with regards to AI and restructuring. The article also provides examples of companies with HR functions that are moving to an employee advocacy approach. These include the likes of Walmart and Neiman Marcus (both on compensation and reward), as well as IBM and Unilever (both internal talent mobility).
DAVE ULRICH - Upgrading HR Professionals: How to Develop HR Professionals so They Rise to Their Opportunity
HR matters. Now more than ever.
In a recent article from his Human Capability Impact LinkedIn newsletter, Dave Ulrich explains why HR functions and professionals are rising in importance, and then lays out a playbook, process and assessment designed to develop HR professionals so they can fulfil expectations and rise to the opportunity (see FIG 8).
FIG 8: Summary and assessment of ways to upgrade HR professionals (Source: Dave Ulrich)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
NICK VAN DER MEULEN, OLGERTA TONA, AND DOROTHY E. LEIDNER – Resolving Workforce Skills Gaps with AI-Powered Insights
As Christina Norris-Watts and Doug Shagam shared with me in an episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, Johnson & Johnson has used AI-driven skills inference as part of their skills transformation (see: How Johnson & Johnson are Scaling Their Skills-Based Approach to Talent). In their paper for MIT, Nick van der Meulen Olgerta Tona and Dorothy Leidner provide an in-depth case study on Johnson & Johnson to demonstrate how skills inference can provide detailed insight into workforce skills gaps and thereby guide employees’ career development and leaders’ strategic workforce planning. The paper includes a detailed description of the three steps of the skills inference process (see FIG 9). The sections in the paper on employee trust, privacy and use cases are particularly instructional for companies looking to emulate this work in their organisations.
FIG 9: The three steps of the skills inference process (Source: MIT Center for Information Systems Research)
JORDAN PETTMAN - Workforce Planning: A Beginner's Guide to Strategic Success
Jordan Pettman, one of my many talented colleagues at Insight222, shares some tips and guidance for practitioners looking to start or accelerate their workforce planning efforts. He highlights the Nine Dimensions for Excellence in Strategic Workforce Planning model we use with clients at Insight222 (see FIG 10), explaining that you need to consider each of the decision points that the model presents in terms of getting the foundations right, ensuring your resources are fit for purpose and that you deliver value out of the cycle for the business and employees. Jordan also shares insights from the likes of Jonas Ottiger and Gergo Safar as part of his guidance on two key elements: workforce planning essentials and building skills-based workforce planning.
FIG 10: Nine Dimensions for Excellence in Stategic Workforce Planning (Source: Insight222)
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
EMILY KILLHAM - From Insight to Action: New Data on the State of Employee Listening (Article) | The State of Employee Listening 2024 (Report)
(Leading firms ensure) listening efforts are aimed at the most important business and talent priorities facing their organizations today.
Emily Killham highlights the key findings from Perceptyx’s third annual State of Employee Listening report, which is informed by survey of more than 750 senior HR leaders from global firms with at least 1,000 employees. These include: (1) 78% of firms surveyed conduct some kind of listening event at least once a quarter, compared to 70% in 2023 and 60% in 2022. (2) Nearly 40% of organisations can share listening data with managers within two weeks. (3) When compared with their peers, the most mature listening organisations are 6x more likely to exceed financial targets, 9x more likely to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, 4x more likely to retain talent, even during times of high attrition, 7x more likely to adapt well to change, and 7x more likely to innovate effectively.
FIG 11: Employee Listening Maturity (Source: Perceptyx)
NICK LYNN - Trust and Distrust: Why and how you may need to tackle both
Building trust is not always sufficient, you may also need to tackle the causes of distrust. The problems are not always the same. They may sometimes require different solutions.
Nick Lynn constructs a wonderful treatise on ‘trust’ and ‘distrust’ in organisations and offers potential solutions to build the former and tackle the latter. Through analysing four models to build trust, Nick identifies some common ingredients including: communication, consistency, integrity, fairness, empathy, and psychological safety. When it comes to tackling distrust, he assembles four elements of organisational health: work, total rewards, people, and purpose into a framework of employee experience leadership (see FIG 12).
FIG 12: Driving employee experience through connection and contribution (Source: Nick Lynn)
STEPHANIE DENINO, TIMO TISCHER, AND DAVID GREEN - Moving Towards Excellence in EX Management
In the January edition of Data-Driven HR Monthly, I highlighted the fascinating report State of EX 2023-24 study, published by The EXchange, Inc, TI PEOPLE and FOUNT Global, Inc. In this article, for myHRfuture, I interview Stephanie Denino and Timo Tischer, two of the contributors to the study. We dig into what constitutes ‘excellence’ in EX management, the barriers and how to overcome them, and the priorities for EX teams in 2024 (see FIG 13). Stephanie and Timo also provide tips for organisations looking to manage EX more deliberately, which includes: (1) Identifying the moments that matter, (2) Measuring and listening continuously to people’s experiences across these moments, and (3) Clarifying responsibilities (who ‘owns’ which journeys, moments and/or touchpoints) to ensure accountability, and improving high importance / low satisfaction moments.
FIG 13: Top five priorities for EX teams in 2024 (Source: State of EX 2023-24 study)
LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND INCLUSION
ANNA BINDER - Build Your Culture Like a Product
Anna Binder, Asana's Head of People, shares her step-by-step guide to intentionally building the company culture, which has helped Asana scale from 100 to over 2,000 employees during the last eight years. The article includes tips on building a people strategy from the ground-up, constructing a culture pyramid to supercharge your organisation (see FIG 14), how to bring conscious leadership to the executive suite, and building trust. A highly insightful and practical guide.
FIG 14: The pyramid of company culture (Source: Anna Binder)
ARNAUD CHEVALLIER, FRÉDÉRIC DALSACE, AND JEAN-LOUIS BARSOUX - The Art of Asking Smarter Questions
Advances in AI have caused a seismic shift from a world in which answers were crucial to one in which questions are. The big differentiator is the ability to craft smart prompts.
The ability to ask great questions is a powerful skill for unlocking value – especially in the age of AI. As such, the cover article of the current edition of the Harvard Business Review by Arnaud Chevallier Frédéric Dalsace and Jean-Louis Barsoux of IMD Business School is well worth digging into. The authors provide a typology of five topics of questions to ask during strategic decision making: (1) investigative, (2) speculative, (3) productive, (4) interpretive, and (5) subjective (see FIG 15). The article also includes a self-assessment that enables readers to evaluate the types of questions that are their strong and weak points, and then provides guidance to help you improve. From completing the assessment myself, it seems I need to work on my subjective questioning technique.
FIG 15: What’s your question mix? (Source: Chevallier et al)
CHRISTIAN HAUDE, IVO BLOHM, AND XAVIER LAGARDÈRE - How Lufthansa Shapes Data-Driven Transformation Leaders
Effective data leaders bridge a crucial gap that still exists in too many organizations. These leaders play a key role in transforming organizations that are leveraging data and AI to increase business value.
An excellent example from Lufthansa on how they created a program to educate leaders on data leadership, and how it provided insights on the roles that people play in data-driven change. In their article, Christian Haude Ivo Blohm and Xavier Lagardere outline the challenge the program was designed to solve, the six different roles for data leaders that were defined (see FIG 16), details of the three training modules: Spark, Inspire and Activate, and four key strategies for success.
FIG 16: Data Leadership: Six key roles (Source: Haude et al)
SHARNA WIBLEN AND DAVID GREEN - Rethinking Talent Decisions and Navigating Subjectivity in HR
Accumulating deliberate, intentional, and informed decisions can unleash exponential returns.
In her book, Rethinking Talent Decisions, Sharna Wiblen highlights an uncomfortable truth: Talent decisions are always subjective. As such, I was delighted to explore this in more depth with Sharna in an article for myHRfuture. In the article, Sharna, an Assistant Professor and Senior Lecturer at Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong, unpacks the nuanced role of subjectivity in talent decisions and the symbiotic relationship between technology and human judgment in the workplace. The uncomfortable truth is that decisions about talent are invariably coloured by personal perceptions, and instead of shying away, Sharna argues that we should lean into this discomfort to emerge with more informed and nuanced strategies.
HR TECH VOICES
Much of the innovation in the field continues to be driven by the vendor community, and I’ve picked out a few resources from April that I recommend readers delve into:
FRANZ GILBERT, MATTHEW SHANNON, AND ERIN SPENCER - 2024 HR tech predictions: Headless platforms place HR tech in the flow of work – The Deloitte Human Capital Forward team of Franz Gilbert Matthew Shannon and Erin Spencer outline the key HR technology trends they believe will drive innovation in the field in 2024 (see FIG 17).
FIG 17: HR technology trends primed to innovate further in 2024 (Source: Deloitte)
JARED SPATARO, KATHLEEN HOGAN, AND CHRIS FERNANDEZ - Our Year with Copilot: What Microsoft Has Learned About AI at Work - Senior leaders at Microsoft, including Jared Spataro Kathleen Hogan and Christopher J. Fernandezshare insights, learnings and guidance from their experience of using Copilot. For example, Hogan reveals:
Our HR service professionals are able to handle employee inquiries more efficiently. So far we are seeing a 26 percent reduction in initial response time thanks to Copilot.
CATHERINE COPPINGER - Manager Effectiveness: It’s Time for a New Playbook – Catherine Coppinger shares Worklytics research on how companies can understand and improve manager effectiveness. Insights include the impact of isolation on ‘quiet quitting’ and how low manager engagement is a big predictor of isolation (see FIG 18). For more, please listen to Catherine’s discussion with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How to enhance manager effectiveness.
FIG 18: Source - Worklytics
FRANCISCO MARIN - The Role of AI-Powered Passive Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) in Mitigating Burnout, Absenteeism, and Turnover Risk – Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions explains how ONA has emerged as a critical tool in identifying and mitigating the risks of burnout, absenteeism, and turnover.
ANDREW PITTS AND CHAD MITCHELL - Mapping and Understanding the Connections Between SIOP 2024 Conference Presenters – Andrew Pitts and Chad Mitchell provide a practical example of ONA by utilising Polinode to understand and map the connections of the presenters at the recent Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) 2024 conference in Chicago.
PODCASTS OF THE MONTH
In another month of high-quality podcasts, I’ve selected four gems for your aural pleasure: (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):
ANDREW STRAUSS AND MATT ALDER - Talent Lessons From Elite Sport – I’ll happily admit to some green-eyed envy towards Matt Alder for the coup of getting former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss onto his Recruiting Future podcast to discuss what elite sports can teach business about leadership.
JOHANNES SUNDLO AND LARS SCHMIDT - Practical Use Cases for Generative AI in Human Resources – Johannes Sundlo joins Lars Schmidt on his Redefining Work podcast to dig into use cases for GenAI in HR including in learning and compensation.
MALISSA CLARK AND CURT NICKISCH - Companies Can Win by Reducing Overwork - Malissa Clark, associate professor and head of the Healthy Work Lab at the University of Georgia, joins Curt Nickisch on HBR IdeaCast to explain how companies unwittingly create a workaholic culture, and what they can do to change this.
ALAN COLQUITT, COLE NAPPER AND SCOTT HINES - Is Performance Management Fine, Or Rotten To The Core? – An interesting discussion ensues as Alan Colquitt, Ph.D. joins hosts Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD to discuss the pros and cons of performance management.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
ANNA TAVIS AND WOODY WOODWARD - The Digital Coaching Revolution: How to Support Employee Development with Coaching Tech
According to Anna A. Tavis, PhD, and Dr. Woody Woodward, PhD, PCC: “Digital coaching is transforming employee experience and the future of work as we know it.” In their book, The Digital Coaching Revolution, they provide guidance on how to scale digital coaching in your organisation – whether the C-suite is already on board or not. The book features case studies from the likes of Visa, CVS, and Hilton, and is a recommended resource for HR, EX, and L&D professionals looking to understand and/or roll digital coaching within their companies.
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
ROB BRINER – Evidence-Based HR: A New Paradigm
Evidence-based HR (EBHR) is a process which delivers more informed and hence more accurate answers to two fundamental questions: first, which are the most important problems (or opportunities) facing the organisation which are relevant to HR? Second, which solutions (or interventions) are most likely to help?
These are the opening words to a recently published report from the Corporate Research Forum (CRF), authored by Rob Briner, on Evidence-Based HR (EBHR). The report tackles, the why, what, and how of EBHR, explains why it is not the same as people analytics, provides case studies from Thales, Uber and the Financial Conduct Authority, and provides a practical toolkit for practitioners on the EBHR process (see FIG 19). For more, have a listen to Rob speaking to me in a recent episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast: What is evidence-based HR and why is it important?
FIG 19: The Evidence-Based HR Process (Source: Rob Briner, Corporate Research Forum)
FROM MY DESK
April saw three episodes from Series 38 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, sponsored by our friends at Worklytics - thank you to Philip Arkcoll and Laura Morris, as well as a round-up of series 37:
NICKLE LAMOREAUX - How IBM Uses AI to Transform Their HR Strategies – Nickle LaMoreaux, CHRO at IBM, joins me to share how IBM is harnessing AI to transform HR practices, drive business outcomes, and elevate employee experience. One of the examples Nickle shares is IBM’s digital worker, HiRo, which takes on the manual, repetitive tasks of data gathering during our quarterly promotions process and in 2023 saved IBM managers 50,000 hours.
COLE NUSSBAUMER-KNAFLIC - How HR Professionals can Master Storytelling with Data - Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic joins me for a deeply insightful conversation on the transformative power of storytelling in the context of people data and analytics.
CATHERINE COPPINGER – How to Use Passive Data to Enhance Manager Effectiveness - Catherine Coppinger, Head of Customer Insight at Worklytics joins me to discuss her recent research on manager effectiveness, which includes discussion on the impact of network density, team size, and span of control on team and manager effectiveness.
DAVID GREEN - How can HR help create a thriving organisational culture? - A round-up of series 37 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, with insights from episodes featuring Rebecca Thielen Dorie Clark Didier Elzinga Rob Briner Louise Millar and Olivia Edwards.
LOOKING FOR A NEW ROLE IN PEOPLE ANALYTICS OR HR TECH?
’d like to highlight once again the wonderful resource created by Richard Rosenow and the One Model team of open roles in people analytics and HR technology, which now numbers over 550 roles.
THANK YOU
Reem Janho, JD Michael Griffiths Obed Garcia-Colato Kim Eberbach and the rest of the Deloitte team for inviting me to speak at their Workforce Innovation Forumat the Deloitte University in Texas.
Olimpiusz Papiez for sharing his key learnings on advancing your career in people analytics (with insights from the Digital HR Leaders podcast episode with Serena H. Huang, Ph.D.), on how to quantify the impact of a thriving company culture (with insights from the episode with Didier Elzinga), and on IBM’s HiRo digital assistant (with inisghts from the episode with Nickle LaMoreaux)
Luis Miguel González Soriano for posting about Excellence in People Analytics.
Juliette Matharan for writing about Excellence in People Analytics, and Arnaud COULON for recommending the book to Juliette.
Ancile Digital for including my quote on how HR can harness AI in its post on the best advice for HR professionals.
Mirro.io for featuring me as one of their top HR thought leaders to follow in 2024.
Employ.com for also featuring me as one of their top 16 HR influencers to follow on LinkedIn.
Ganesh Iyer for including the Digital HR Leaders podcast in his list of 25 HR leadership podcasts to subscribe to.
Thomas Otter for endorsing the Digital HR Leaders podcast here.
Kevin Green for recommending series 37 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast.
Thomas Kohler for including the March edition of Data Driven HR in his round-up of recommended HR resources.
Yen Dang for including the Data-Driven HR Monthly in her top 3 newsletters for HR professionals.
Neha Asthana for including me in her group of HR thought leaders and influencers.
Caroline Arora and JooBee Yeow, PhD for recommending me on Mark Shortall’s list of content creators in the people and talent space.
Lars Schmidt for also the Data-Driven HR Monthly (this newsletter!) in his excellent list of HR newsletters to subscribe to.
To the following people who sharing the March edition of Data Driven HR Monthly. It's much appreciated: David Simmonds FCIPD Hafiz Adam Hanafi Reshma Mawji Hakki Ozdenoren Jo Iwasaki Aravind Warrier Katrina A. Stevens, CHRE Muhammad Firdaus Chrechen Jeja Kouros Behzad Arin Buawatthana Abid Hamid Robert Rogowski Terri Horton, EdD, MBA, MA, SHRM-CP, PHR Anvita Patnaik Paola Valerin Francisca Solano Beneitez Beverly Tarulli, Ph.D. Nicola Vogel Alexander S. Locher Kingsley Taylor Jacqui Brassey, PhD, MA, MAfN (née Schouten) Ralf Buechsenschuss Aysegul Tigli Philipe Ferreira Jane Datta Malgorzata (GOSIA) LANGLOIS Karen Edelman Indre Radzeviciute Hallie Bregman, PhD Adam McKinnon, PhD. Amanda Painter Adam Tombor (Wojciechowski) Chris Lovato Nabil Dewsi Tatu Westling Kristina Schoemmel Janeen Rabinowitz Susan Knolla Dan George Catriona Lindsay Patricia Carmona Ulrich E. Basler Caitie Jacobson Warren Howlett Jackson C. Trent Melissa Hopper Fritz Ankit Saxena, MBA Martha Curioni Anna Nord ?? Amardeep Singh, MBA Irada Sadykhova Christina Bui Higor Gomes Tanya Pastor Danielle Bushen Nicole Lettich Ken Clar Kerrian Soong Laurent Reich Stephen Hickey Olivier Bougarel Jana Glogowski Marcela Mury Tina Peeters, PhD Aimee Wilkinson Ludek Stehlik, Ph.D. Phil Inskip Adam Gibson Daniel Bosman Todd Tauber Violeta Lennon Soojeong Bae Aurélie Crégut.
UNLOCK THE POTENTIAL OF YOUR PEOPLE ANALYTICS FUNCTION THROUGH THE INSIGHT222 PEOPLE ANALYTICS PROGRAM
At Insight222, our mission is to make organisations better by putting people analytics at the centre of business and upskilling the HR profession The Insight222 People Analytics Program® is your gateway to a world of knowledge, networking, and growth. Developed exclusively for people analytics leaders and their teams, the program equips you with the frameworks, guidance, learnings, and connections you need to create greater impact.
As the landscape of people analytics becomes increasingly complex, with data, technology, and ethical considerations at the forefront, our program brings together over one hundred organisations to collectively address these shared challenges.
Insight222 Peer Meetings, like this event in London, are a core component of the Insight222 People Analytics Program®. They allow participants to learn, network and co-create solutions together with the purpose of ultimately growing the business value that people analytics can deliver to their organisations. If you would like to learn more, contact us today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Green ?? is a globally respected author, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As Managing Partner and Executive Director at Insight222, he has overall responsibility for the delivery of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which supports the advancement of people analytics in over 90 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222, David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast and is an instructor for Insight222's myHRfuture Academy. His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar, Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value was published in the summer of 2021.
SEE ME AT THESE EVENTS
I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work, and data driven HR at a number of upcoming events in 2024:
June 4-5 - Insight222 European Peer Meeting (hosted by Nestlé in Vevey, Switzerland) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
June 25-26 - Insight222 North American Peer Meeting (Minneapolis, US) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
September 16-19 - Workday Rising (Las Vegas)
September 24-26 - Insight222 Global Executive Retreat (Colorado, US) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
October 16-17 - UNLEASH World (Paris)
October 22-23 - Insight222 North American Peer Meeting (hosted by Workday in Pleasanton, CA) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
November 12-14 - Workday Rising EMEA (London)
November 19-20 - Insight222 European Peer Meeting (hosted by Merck in Darmstadt, Germany) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
More events will be added as they are confirmed.
Strategic Workforce Planning
2024年05月02日
Strategic Workforce Planning
是时候重塑人才招聘了 -Research Shows It’s Time To Reinvent Talent AcquisitionJosh Bersin 的文章 "研究表明，是时候重塑人才招聘了 "强调了人才招聘亟需进行的变革。由于只有 32% 的人力资源高管参与战略规划，而且许多人觉得自己只是个接单员，因此这篇文章呼吁进行战略改革。在劳动力短缺和急需技能型招聘的情况下，目前削减成本和减少招聘力度的方法与对技能型专业人才日益增长的需求相矛盾。文章敦促企业将人才招聘作为一项重要的战略职能，利用现代技术并将其与学习和发展相结合，以提高效率并关注内部人才流动。
原文如下：
This week we published a disappointing research study, Talent Acquisition at a Crossroads. The study, conducted in partnership with AMS, points out that talent acquisition leaders (this is a senior position) are largely left out of their company’s strategic planning process and many feel they operate as “order takers.”
In today’s world of labor and skills shortages, this is a wakeup call for change.
Here’s the data:
Among these 130+ HR executives only 32% are involved in any form of strategic workforce planning, 42% believe their company has no workforce plan at all, and 46% say “they’re running around to keep up.” And when layoffs do occur, often the recruiters go first. (Witness Tesla this week.)
All this is happening in a world where 58% of companies feel skills shortages are significantly impacting their business plans, more than three-quarters believe they must transform their talent practices to grow, and “skills-based hiring” is a top priority yet difficult to implement.
Here’s the paradox: companies are cutting their talent acquisition spending at the same time CEOs feel that skills shortages are getting worse. What’s going on?
Talent Acquisition Needs A Reinvention
Let’s just face it: recruiting as a business function has to change. Once considered the “staffing department,” where companies posted jobs and scanned resumes, talent acquisition has become highly strategic operation. What skills do we need? How do we find people who will fit our culture? What internal candidates should fill our key positions? Who are the right leaders for us to hire?
Unfortunately, almost 80% of talent acquisition functions are quite tactical. PwC’s CEO survey found that CEOs rate “hiring” as the third most bureaucratic process in their companies, tied with “too many emails” and “too many meetings” as a time-wasting process. And that explains why two-thirds of TA leaders are being asked to cut costs.
I had a conversation last week with a former TA leader for one of the Big Three automakers. He told me that in the fervor to hire staff for EV engineering he was asked to hire “any engineer he could find, regardless of skill,” because the company was in such a hurry. No time for skills assessment, competitive planning, or even location analysis. Just “go out there and hire engineers.”
We have been studying the auto industry as part of our GWI study and found that important EV roles (reliability engineer or power plant engineer, for example), are quite specialized and hard to find. Strategic recruiting departments need to understand these roles and source these individuals carefully. Just hiring engineering grads from a local community college is not going to move this needle.
(Consider the data by Draup on what these roles are. Talent Acquisition teams with talent intelligence skills can pinpoint who to hire.)
And it gets worse. In our Dynamic Organization research we found that high performing companies focus heavily on internal hiring, talent intelligence tools to find hidden talent, and continuous internal development to fill skills gaps. We can’t simply throw job requisitions over to the recruiting function any more: the people we need may be buried inside the company.
This week Tesla announced a layoff of 10% of their workforce. Was their time to balance and redeploy talent internally? Absolutely not. According to my sources every business unit had to let 10% go, and and many of the people being fired were talent acquisition leaders, the very people who help with these issues.
We talk with many HR executives and there is an enlightened group. Companies that understand this issue (about one in eight) have elevated Talent Acquisition to a strategic function, they merge or integrate TA with L&D, and they redefine their recruiters as “talent advisors.” Mastercard, as a leader, just renamed their recruiters as “Career Coaches,” demonstrating their role in helping people find the right jobs.
Despite the onslaught of AI, this role is becoming even more human-centric. High-powered recruiting teams source internal candidates, understand company culture, and have a deep knowledge of jobs, roles, and organizational dynamics. When well supported and trained, these professionals are strategic advisors, not just “recruiters.” And companies that understand this often outsource or automate much of the administration in recruiting.
Technology plays a major role in this reinvention. Most large companies have dozens of legacy systems, many of which make the candidate experience difficult. When organizations focus on modernizing and streamlining their technology, talent acquisition can become 10-100X more efficient. This, in turn, gives recruiters and talent advisors the time to search for the right skills, carefully select the best candidates, and focus on internal hiring and development as a strategy.
Technology Is Here But Not The Entire Answer
Of all the HR technology markets, recruiting is the most innovative of all. New AI-powered systems like HiredScore (just acquired by Workday), Paradox (leader in conversational AI), Eightfold, Gloat, Draup, and Lightcast (pioneers in talent intelligence), and many others can reduce time to hire from months to weeks and weeks to days. But none of this technology works if the Talent Acquisition team is left on an island.
In the last year I have met with more than 50 heads of talent acquisition and once the door is closed and we talk honestly, they always tell me the same thing. “We are not treated as a strategic function, we are being asked to cut costs, and we are constantly running from fire to fire to keep executives happy.” This type of “service-delivery” focus simply will not work in the new economy.
What should companies do? As part of our Systemic HR initiative, we help companies evolve their TA Function to operate in a more strategic way. Organizations like Bayer, Verizon, and many others have elevated the role of recruiter to talent advisor, they’re building skills in talent intelligence, and they’re integrating the recruiting function with L&D, career management, and employee engagement.
I’ve always felt that recruiting is the most important things HR professionals do. If we can’t get the “right” people into the company, no amount of management can recover. But what does “right” mean? And how can we source, locate, and attract these particular people?
This is a highly strategic operation, and one that must integrate with internal mobility, culture, and employee experience. I encourage you to read our Systemic HR research, join our Academy, or reach out to us or AMS for advice. In this new era of talent and skills shortages, we simply cannot run recruiting in this tactical way any longer.
Strategic Workforce Planning
Strategic Workforce Planning
Strategic Workforce Planning
Strategic Workforce Planning
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