Anita Lettink Challenges HR Norms: Adapting to the Unpredictable Work Landscape of 2024ANITA LETTINK:Why I'm not writing 2024 HR trends
Anita Lettink, in her newsletter, discusses why she is not writing the 2024 HR trends. She emphasizes the importance of a dynamic, continuous strategy over annual predictions in HR. The article reflects on the evolving nature of work and the need for a fluid, adaptable approach. Lettink argues that understanding and navigating HR challenges require responsiveness to rapid changes in technology, economics, and workforce dynamics. She introduces the 2024 HR challenge, encouraging HR professionals to maximize the use of their HR solutions and focus on making incremental changes to better support their workforce.
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Hey future of work friends,
I probably find you during budgeting and planning time. For me, it’s the end of conference season. I did my final keynote on the New Employee Experience at Indeed FutureWorks last week. And now I am back home, and will use December to read everything I bookmarked to surprise you with new keynotes and articles next year. I’ll also write my annual HR Tech Startup report.
And if you’d like an in-company webinar on what to expect from AI in HR or how to prepare for Equal Pay please reach out - I’ve got you covered!
Thinking about the Future of Work is important. And yes, you’d already assumed I would say that. I've spent years analyzing trends at the intersection of economics, business, technology, and human resources. Each year, I've distilled these insights into trend articles, aiming to forecast the year ahead. However, I've realized that our rapidly evolving world demands a different approach. In this newsletter, I'll share why I've moved away from annual trend predictions and why we need a more dynamic, continuous strategy in understanding and navigating HR challenges. I'll explore how embracing a fluid, responsive stance can better equip us to handle HR (tech) developments.
Why I am not writing 2024 HR trends
I've always been deeply invested in keeping a finger on the pulse of our industry. For years, it was a tradition of mine to sit down at the end of each year and write an article on emerging trends in Human Resources, based on my analysis of developments in economics, business, technology, and HR. I wrote them to reflect on the past year and help you - and me - prepare for the next.
I stopped this tradition. And if you wonder why, it's not for a lack of trends or changes in the industry—far from it. The HR landscape is as dynamic as ever, perhaps even more so. But I've realized that these annual trend articles, while insightful, may not be as beneficial as I once thought. Sure, they give a nice overview of what’s happening and what might happen, but you can’t run after every trend. And most years there were way too many of them.
The world of work is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and the tools and strategies that were groundbreaking a year ago might now be outdated. In this fast-paced environment, I believe that what we need isn't annual predictions but a continuous, adaptable approach to understanding and navigating HR challenges. When you want to provide a stable environment for employees and your company, thoughtful, strategic adjustments might be much more impactful.
So, instead of offering predictions, I'm taking a different path. I want to share with you the reasons behind this shift in my thinking and why I believe it's crucial for all of us in HR to adopt a more fluid, responsive stance towards industry trends.
Embracing a fluid approach
This change was sparked by several realizations. Firstly, the very nature of HR is fundamentally about people, and people are inherently unpredictable. People also like stability. And while trends can give us a broad outline, they can't capture the nuanced, often sudden shifts in employee needs, workplace dynamics, and organizational cultures. We all remember the start of the pandemic, when we put everything aside to make sure that employees could work safely, and where possible, from home. And while we might think this was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, we also know the world has become more unpredictable, and we should be ready to deal with similar sudden events.
And that means we should think more in terms of how we can offer a stable base that can handle these sudden shifts. That also means we should not be so quick in dividing work in “the past” and “the future”. While some people argue you should only look at the future of work, I believe we should take a much more nuanced approach.
As example, the picture above: it’s often used to show the past and the future of work. In my thinking, both sides represent the future. It’s not either/or, it’s and/and. And when I speak about the New Employee Experience, I use it to encourage HR professionals to cast a wide net: how can you offer all work options, so you appeal to a larger section of the workforce? It’s not about discarding the past and looking at the future. It’s embracing both where you can. Some people like the 9-5 day, working from an office. Some people find profit more important than purpose. It’s about offering a wide range of choices, to attract and retain people in a time when the labor market is tight. That’s especially important when you work in the Global North, and a next major shift is upon us: a shrinking workforce due to demographics in combination with the lack of skilled workers.
How useful are predictions anyway?
Secondly, I noticed a pattern over the years. Many of the trends I predicted would either rapidly evolve or be overtaken by entirely new developments before the year was out. Just look at Generative AI: at the end of last year, no one predicted that this would be the main topic of 2023. This rapid (r)evolution made me question the usefulness of annual predictions: why do we write them only at the end of the year? In a world where change is the only constant, static yearly forecasts seem almost counterintuitive. How can we even begin to predict what is coming, when recent events put everything we know upside down?
And lastly, I also started to wonder if focusing too heavily on future trends might pull us away from the present. When we always look ahead, we might miss crucial opportunities to address current issues effectively or fail to build on the strengths we already have. It can sometimes cause us to miss out on addressing the immediate needs and challenges facing our employees and organizations.
By constantly chasing what might be ahead or new, we risk not fully leveraging the strengths and successes we currently possess. It's vital to strike a balance between preparing for future changes and optimizing our current practices. This way, we can ensure that our efforts are not only geared towards what the 'future of work' might look like but are enhancing today’s HR strengths, thereby creating a more holistic and effective HR strategy.
2024 Challenge
And to illustrate the above with a practical example, let me ask you this: what percentage of your HR solution do you actually use? I am not asking for an exact number, just an estimated guess. When you look at its current functionality, do you use all of it? Half? Maybe even less?
When you close a contract for an HR cloud solution, the vendor will not only maintain the solution in its current state, but also improve it over time. And the fee you pay covers all those new features and functionalities. That means you get more bang for your buck. But if you don’t activate any of these features, then the vendor is wasting development capacity, and you are paying for something you will never see. Would you consider that good use?
And the problem isn't just the use; you will also miss out on the potential to support your workers better and change your workplace. Every unused feature in your HR solution is a lost chance to improve employee engagement, streamline processes, or uncover people insights.
So, here’s my 2024 HR challenge for you:
1. Guess: How much of your HR solution do you use today?
2. Pick one unused feature in your HR solution, explore it, and make it available!
Try to make a gradual change every month. Repeat that during the first six months of 2024 and then evaluate your success or learn from your mistakes! And don’t forget to tag me with the results! Instead of focusing on yet another 2024 HR trend, let’s make sure that we first use our HR solution to the fullest, one feature at a time. I think this will be more helpful to your organization than you might think.
Let’s continue the conversation
I don’t want to leave you with the impression that looking forward isn't important. On the contrary, it's crucial. If only for the reason that what we build today will affect our future workforce the most. But we should do it with the understanding that HR is less about predicting the future and more about creating it through proactive, ongoing engagement with our workforce, our company, and the world around us. To maybe not take giant leaps but make incremental changes that benefit the people we work with most. People are tired of constant change. However, we can draw inspiration from social media tools - by implementing small, gradual improvements, we can consistently enhance the experience, allowing people to smoothly adapt to these changes over time.
This shift is not just about how we talk about HR trends; it's about how we do HR. It's a move towards a more dynamic, responsive, and collaborative approach that recognizes the complexity and fluidity of our work. It's about creating a living dialogue that evolves with our ever-changing environment.
We must talk about the future. But it shouldn’t be confined to the end of the year. There is no reason for such a hard cut. I look forward to engaging with you, in continuous conversations about what we're seeing, doing, and expecting in real-time. This approach, I believe, will not only keep us more connected to the immediate needs of our organizations but also better prepared to adapt to whatever the future holds.
While I don’t write HR trend articles anymore, my commitment to helping you understand and make sense of the future of work is as strong as ever. I will keep you posted on the latest developments as I see them. I will continue to write this newsletter about my observations on how we can improve work with the help of technology, especially new tech.
Good luck with planning the year ahead. And let me know if you would have preferred a list of 2024 HR trends,
Have a great day, Anita
What’s next for compensation?
Pete Tiliakos, Anke Mogannam and I participated in an online #WDAYChats. We shared insights and POV’s on modern payroll operations and how payroll leaders can help their organizations minimize cost and accelerate innovation.
Decusoft asked me how companies can prepare for pay transparency and equal pay. You can find my answers here.
Indeed asked people if money really makes them happy. Find the surprising answers, an interview with yours tryly and more compensation charts in this insightful Dutch report: De toekomst van compensatie.
观点
2023年12月01日
观点
Don’t Be A Copy-Cat: People Analytics as the Antidote to HR Strategy Copy-CatsThis article is written to discuss: why copying the HR practices that everyone else uses doesn’t lead to the positive outcomes you assume it will.
DISCLAIMER: If you like the HR strategy at your organization, you can probably stop reading now… If not, feel free to keep reading.
Context
Childhood wisdom: No one likes a copy-cat.
We all remember being children once. Kids are known to tease each other from time to time. One common reason to be teased when you were a child was being called a “copy-cat”. It didn’t feel good, often because we knew that if we were labeled a copy-cat, it was likely true. We were copying someone else. It felt bereft, unoriginal, and commonplace. We knew we were capable of being more, but we had settled for less. We were better than that. HR strategy can be better than that too.
Fast forward to the present, in HR being a copy-cat is all the rage. A priestly caste of HR influencers, HR tech consultants, FAANG companies, and sometimes even academics determine what is considered ‘en vogue’ as an HR strategy. Then, early adopter HR departments fall in-line; followed by the early majority and late majority after a few HR monkeys get “shot into space” without injury. The laggards may never arrive because they are still trying to move away from using paper files stuffed in filing cabinets, but nonetheless, being a copy-cat all the sudden became cool. Why be original when you could be doing what everyone else is doing? Perhaps, this is why Forrester is forecasting an EX winter coming soon…
In the African savanna, large numbers of herd animals, such as wildebeest, zebra, and gazelles, travel in packs. Why do they do this? Because there is safety in numbers. A zebra with a single imperfection or mark is easily identified and pulled from the pack by predators. Is the same true for HR? Are we safer in a pack? Is there wisdom in being a copy-cat? Would anything different make us stand out and therefore be put in danger? I think not. I think the opposite is true, in fact.
If you do all the same things as your competitors, how can you expect to get different results?
Does this HR strategy sound familiar?
“We’re going to try to hire the best talent, but only pay at the 50th percentile.”
“We’re a performance-driven organization, but we’re going to do performance reviews once a year on a 5-point rating scale, and we’ve got to implement a pay-for-performance incentive structure.”
“Our HR operating model is to use HR Business Partners, Centers of Excellence, and Shared Services.”
“We’re going to copy what Google did 10 years ago, or what GE did in the 80s.”
“We’re going to make data-driven decisions. I know! Let’s create another HR dashboard.”
If your organization wants to be radically better, it’s going to have to try some things that are radically different. Did anyone see Coinbase’s recent blog on Talent Density? I’m not saying I agree with the changes to their HR strategy, but at least they are trying to differentiate their HR strategy to be something different. They are getting into the game, for better or worse.
Source
What To Do, What To Do?
HR strategy should be composed of elements that are as unique to your business as your business strategy is unique to your business. It’s really as simple as that.
HR Strategy is upstream of people analytics. A vanilla, copy-cat HR strategy is going to lead to vanilla, copy-cat people analytics. In my opinion, people analytics doesn’t spend enough of its resources trying to familiarize itself, influence, and control HR strategy. People analytics should speak in the social currency of the organization. We should embed ourselves and influence key decision making, and have a seat at the table by speaking in the language of the business. There is social capital to be had, and the more I learn, the more I realize the necessity of this alternative currency. We should drive strategy.
With generative AI disrupting the value that human capital brings to organizations, who are the organizations that are going to be the innovators of tomorrow? Who are the organizations who will get the message early? Who will treat the need for differentiation with the existential demand that it dictates? Who will survive?
Source
“Best Practices”
I’m tired of the term ‘best practices’. I’m at a point in my career where I bristle when I hear someone say it. Perhaps it's one of the reasons why some people hate HR.
Organizational research is important, but best practices are a road to mediocrity. No one ever got fired for going with IBM, and no one ever got fired for using best practices… Until the whole firm loses to its competition, and everyone gets fired. Read it again, and think about that. It’s a short-term vs long-term thinking dilemma. Obviously, balance the two, but make sure to think with the long-term in mind.
What if instead of copy-catting, you:
A/B tested your HR strategy against those of other firms
Used opposition research to understand your competitors HR strategy better, so you can do something different
Implemented evidence-based practices on commoditized work, but experimented with firm-specific practices in the most strategically-relevant work
Focused on first-principles thinking as to how firm value is derived by its talent
Choose function over fad, when it comes to HR strategy
Rebuild HR strategy like the Oaklands As (and the Houston Astros) tore down and rebuilt their teams based on talent derived from data. Embed data, measurement, accountability, and the “improvement feedback loop” into every single workstream that HR engages. Henry Ford once said “if you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always got.” HR could be convicted of being mediocre. Average is over (or maybe even above average is over?). Differentiation is king. Strategic neglect (i.e., neglecting things that don’t add value) is also a valuable tool. Where do we need to be world class? Where can we be average? Answer those questions, then execute.
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Rebuilding HR Around Data & Measurement
In most HR functions, data is only used to validate, not to guide. No one thinks for themselves. Mimicry and mimesis abound.
People analytics is a competitive advantage for firms who use it properly. People analytics is the future of HR. Proclamations such as this have been made consistently in the past (e.g., HR is over, remote work is the future, there is no need for management, human tasks at work will be automated with AI, etc.), but this one is for real. Firms who are not embedding data into the way they do business, evaluating what they do with data, and projecting the future with data are going to be irrelevant.
In the future, even in the age of generative AI, there is only one currency, and that is truth. Truth can only be derived as data put into practice. Classical test theory states that all measurement is “truth-plus-error”, with error being any deviation between measurement and the truth. Some stakeholders believe that to mean that truth can never be attained because error will always exist. Practically, this is a misinterpretation. Organizations that can manifest the best data with the least error will be the closest to truth, and therein lies the root of competitive advantage via data. People analytics is not inherently useful. Data is not inherently useful. Only accurate data, with analysis and cogent results, derived into a form that facilitates timely and accurate decision making, and that is put into action, is useful. And across the aggregate of thousands, if not millions of small decisions made leads one organization to prevailing over another. May the odds ever be in your favor.
Source
Moving Forward
“Traditional HR” has been on the way out for decades. This article is for HR people who believe in challenging the status quo. Deep down they know there is a better way; a way forward for their organization. To not outsource their originality to others. To not be a copy-cat. Let’s focus on what the pathway forward looks like with a new highest principle – no longer “what is everyone else doing?” – but with data and measurement at the center. This article is for the HR professional who knows that HR can be smarter, faster, and better at their organization, and they are bound to make it happen. Join the movement. Don’t be a copy-cat. Let’s see how high we can fly together.
PS - I’m thinking of writing a book on this topic. If you’re a publisher and you are interested in this topic, or others I’ve written about before, please contact me directly.
Special shout out: Thanks to Brad Harris & Pat Downes for our previous conversations on this topic.
I hope you like this article. If so, I have a few more articles coming out soon. Stay tuned. If you are interested in learning more directly from me, please connect with me on LinkedIn.
Cole’s recent articles
What’s Old is New: The Quest for Excellence in Workforce Planning
A Historian, Demographer, & Data Scientist Walk Into a Bar…
The Phoenix & The Dragon
Why Buy When You Could Rent: SEC’s Push for Human Capital Disclosure
Elephant Hunting: Weighing Human vs. Algorithmic Input to Decision Making
For access to all of Cole’s previous articles, go here.
By: Cole Napper
原文来自:https://directionallycorrectnews.substack.com/p/dont-be-a-copy-cat-people-analytics
观点
2023年11月30日
观点
How to Strategically Plan a Budget for HR in 2024The article discusses strategies for planning an HR budget for 2024, emphasizing the need for advanced HR technology and digital tools to enhance employee experience. It highlights the importance of focusing on talent retention due to high attrition rates in Asia and adapting to changes in the workforce market. The article stresses compliance with labor law changes and the need for a data-driven approach to budgeting. It outlines key budget components, including recruitment, training, salaries, HR technology, and employee well-being, to ensure a comprehensive plan for organizational growth and success.
As companies brace themselves for 2024, many HR teams are busy preparing comprehensive budgets for the coming year. Fortunately, with a host of cutting-edge HR technology and digital tools available, companies can plan a budget with more resources at their fingertips to better plan for the year ahead, significantly enhancing the overall employee experience.
In terms of a direction for 2024, companies are encouraged to channel more efforts towards talent retention, given the high attrition rates across Asia. In an effort to further empower their workforce and improve organisational culture, having the right HR tech is also a crucial consideration.
On that note, let’s look at how to create your 2024 HR budget and what to include in it.
What’s Most Important in Your 2024 Budget Plan
Keeping up with recent advancements for your workforce:
Understand how the talent market in 2023 will differ from 2024’s and plan for your manpower accordingly.
Consider if there has been a new shift towards or an increased use of AI tools to enhance both employee experience and candidate experience. According to analytics and advisory company Gallup, higher employee engagement translates to increased profitability – 23% more, according to their research.
Compare the workforce flexibility levels in your company with that of the overall job market – bearing in mind that there is a greater inclination towards a more flexible workforce, in terms of temporary and contract vs. permanent staffing.
Consider any increase in costs due to inflation, as salary (and potentially benefit) increments will have to be made accordingly.
A greater focus on talent retention:
To be able to maintain a robust and healthy workforce means to prioritise talent retention. With high employee attrition rates and talent retention being a top HR challenge in 2023, a key focus for businesses should be on how to retain their workforce better in 2024.
After conducting a thorough review internally, consider looking into programmes, practices and systems that can improve employee satisfaction, provide stronger employee assistance programmes and support, as well as streamline the overall HR experience for your employees.
Remaining compliant with labour law changes:
Given that 2023 has been a year with many labour law developments across various countries in APAC – such as Malaysia’s massive overhaul of its Employment Act and Singapore’s introduction of the COMPASS framework for Employment Pass applications – it is highly crucial for companies to remain compliant with upcoming labour law changes in all locations, particularly those with a presence in multiple countries.
Compliance can come in the form of adhering to minimum wage hikes, new tax brackets, increased number of leave, and so on – all of which can incur additional costs and would need to be accounted for in the HR budget. Additionally, remaining compliant with labour laws ensures there are minimal legal and financial repercussions, leading to a more prudent budget.
How Do You Prepare an HR Budget?
When you plan a budget for HR, some crucial pointers to have in mind when listing down what to include are:
Building a Strategy for Smart Expansion: Consider your company’s expansion plans for 2024 – if any. Coming up with a solid plan if you want to expand in 2024 is crucial, and you can consider a low-cost and minimal-risk option such as an employer of record. According to an article by Yahoo! Finance, in 2023, the worldwide EOR market reached a value of USD 1890.29 million and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.07% over the forecast period, ultimately reaching USD 3745.43 million by 2030.
For companies with multiple locations, when revising the budget, HR will look at which locations are now more mature and stable compared to last year to allocate the budget more evenly.
Investing in The Right Software and HR Tech: Get acquainted with the latest AI trends in hiring and find out how the right tools can enhance your journey of finding the right people to join your workforce.
Integration Options for Different Business Sizes: Speaking of knowing what works for your company size, if you’re a regional company, you’d likely work with a payroll outsourcing provider to streamline your regional payroll. Revisit your current service to see if its integration capabilities are still suited to your business – depending on if your headcount has been expanded or downsized recently.
A Data-Driven 2024 budget: A budget that is tailored heavily based on data allows for better foresight, less errors and allows you to make better informed decisions for your businesses. A report by McKinsey Global Institute shows that data-driven organisations are likely to be 19 times more profitable, and 6 times more likely to retain those customers. You can use data from previous budgets to get insights on what to do differently this time.
What are the must-haves in your HR budget?
If you’re wondering what a complete 2024 budget should entail, the following list can serve as a general checklist of what to cover:
Recruitment and hiring
Hiring Agency / Job advertisements
Employee assistance programmes
Interviews, screening candidates and background checks
HCM software management
Onboarding procedures
Employee relocations
Recruitment marketing
Talent retention
Outplacement Services (if required)
Visas and work permits
Training and development
Employee Certifications
Trainer/expert/consultant fees
Addressing skills gaps
Learning systems
Salaries and other benefits
Employee salaries
Overtime pay
Payroll system management and maintenance
Insurance & healthcare
Other statutory contributions
Retirement plans
Paid time off
Employee bonuses
HR Technology
HR Information Systems
Payroll Outsourcing Systems and Integration costs
HR Vendor
HR Team Upskilling
HR Certifications
Workshop and Training budgets for HR team
Diversity and Inclusion
Increase in diversity hiring
Implementation of inclusive hiring practices
Employee safety and well-being
Employee health
Security at work
Physical and mental employee well-being
Others
Employee/employer appraisals and surveys
Upkeep of recreational areas in the office
Company trips
Fitness facilities
Safety trainings
Some resources to use when you plan a budget for HR:
Having a wealth of handy information can help you plan a budget more efficiently. If you’re looking for resources on the latest HR developments across idea, here are a few you might want to look at.
Resources
Guide to Hiring in Asia – A compilation of in-depth guides for various countries across Asia on how to compliantly hire employees in each country.
APAC Labour Law Insider – Quarterly updates on HR legislations across 17 locations in Asia.
China Labour Law Updates – Monthly updates on China’s labour laws.
Labour Law and Compliance Workshop Webinars – Complimentary webinars on labour law updates across various locations in Asia.
Templates and Checklists
HR Onboarding Checklist Template
Payroll Request For Payroll Template (RFP) Template
Handover List Template
Layoff Planning Checklist
China Personal Information Protection Law HR Compliance Checklist
Out of Office Message Template
In conclusion, having an HR budget is essential for companies as it provides a structured financial plan to effectively manage and optimise their most valuable asset – their workforce. It ensures that resources are allocated for hiring, training, and retaining employees, ultimately contributing to organisational success and growth.
Looking for a HR provider that can offer you HR outsourcing, advisory and HR tech services? At Links, we look forward to providing you with complete HR solutions to drive your organisation. Contact us today for more information!
观点
2023年11月28日
观点
微软首席人力官Kathleen Hogan:员工如何充分利用人工智能
Kathleen Hogan Chief People Officer at Microsoft [Photo: courtesy of Microsoft]
微软首席人力官 Kathleen Hogan表示,人工智能对我们工作方式的影响将比个人电脑更大。
AI是我们时代的决定性技术,创造了一个巨大的范式转变,它将改变我们的工作方式,影响力甚至超过了个人电脑的引入。我们曾经有一个大胆的愿景,“每个办公桌上、每个家庭里都有一台电脑”,而今天,我们希望在“每个人的口袋里都放一个副驾驶”。
当然,AI的影响也伴随着挑战。我们必须解决关于工作流失、算法偏见以及组织快速培养技能的真实担忧。但最终,我相信AI的潜力太大,不能采取观望态度。
领导者需要创造正确的环境,让AI获得积极的势头。这将需要准备和有意识的方法,以便这些新的AI工具不仅帮助员工提高生产力,而且帮助他们茁壮成长。我建议关注这三个方面,以更快实现这些好处:培养基于敏捷的文化、重新想象我们的工作方式、投资于更深层次的人类技能。
培养基于敏捷的文化
为了充分利用AI的承诺,团队必须保持敏捷。
即使是那些多年来一直在内部使用AI进行数据分析、预测建模和任务自动化的公司,生成性AI也代表着一个重大转变。通过能够理解人类语言、导航大量文档知识并创造内容,更多职能的员工现在可以使用这些AI工具。
一个基于敏捷的文化还将加速组织建立推动AI价值的更广泛基础和最佳实践的能力。我相信,在AI时代培养这样的文化意味着拥抱适应性领导力,领导者必须愿意深入未知。
重新想象工作方式
20世纪80年代和90年代的机器人自动化进步使制造业生产力翻了一番。这不是仅仅通过给工人提供更高效的工具实现的——公司通过重新思考生产技术和重新设计工作流程,优化人与机器之间的流程,实现了机器人自动化的全部价值。
同样,要充分利用AI采用的价值,领导者需要重新想象工作是如何完成的。这始于将工作分解为更小的任务,以确定AI能做什么,以及或者比人类做得更好。除了自动化一些重复或乏味的工作任务,我们还需要确定AI可以如何协助员工处理更复杂和微妙的任务,如研究、写作和分析。
这个想法是让领导者利用这段时间,不仅是自动化流程,而且是与AI一起重新想象流程,寻找新的工作方式。这将最终帮助人们更聪明地工作,而不是更努力地工作,给他们带来更多的精力,并发现更有意义和更令人满意的工作。
关注人类技能
生成性AI已经被训练了大多数人类语言,所以任何人都可以使用它。但就像任何新技术一样,仅仅给人们新工具而不提供使用它们的技能是不够的。
而且,尽管这似乎与直觉相反,人类技能与技术技能一样重要,以有效使用AI。这包括分析判断力、灵活性、情商、创意评估、智力好奇心、偏见检测和处理能力,以及委派任务的能力。
事实上,我们现在发现,基本的管理技能是发掘AI副驾驶的全部潜力的关键。就像委派给人类员工一样,与副驾驶合作需要能够清晰地沟通,设置背景和参数,定义期望,分析结果,并提供反馈。
一个好的起点是根据学科开发AI技能培训和实践。随着我们从自动驾驶AI转向副驾驶AI,对人们来说,仍然扮演飞行员的角色,用批判性的视角评估他们从AI工具中获得的输出是必要的。这包括验证准确性和评估偏见。最终,飞机的船长有责任成功着陆。
我相信,解锁AI的全部潜力是领导者的责任。AI的创新正在以惊人的速度发生。当我们导航AI对工作场所的影响时,组织领导者必须立即开始培育正确的环境,以确保没有人被遗留在后面。仅仅将AI工具放在员工手中是不够的。当我们培养基于敏捷的文化、重新想象我们的工作方式,以及建立获得AI最佳效果所需的人类技能时,我们可以帮助我们的组织和员工在这个新时代中茁壮成长。
对我来说,能够成为这个令人难以置信的时刻的一部分,既令人兴奋又令人振奋。
英文原文来自:https://www.fastcompany.com/90982077/microsofts-chief-people-officer-heres-how-workers-can-get-the-most-out-of-ai
观点
2023年11月27日
观点
David Green:The best HR & People Analytics articles of November 2023
November has been a month of travel to three continents where I’ve attended and spoken at four events, learned a lot about how companies are using people analytics, AI and machine learning in HR, and met a lot of talented HR professionals. The month started in Chicago, where Berube, Derek, Jack Liu and their team hosted North American member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program at McDonalds’ iconic Hamburger University.
Two weeks later I was in Barcelona for Workday Rising EMEA, where I spoke on stage with Caroline O'Reilly, GM Workday Analytics, about the future of people analytics and workforce planning in the age of AI, and also did a book signing of Excellence in People Analytics. On the following day, also at Rising, I had the pleasure of presenting findings from the recently published Insight222 People Analytics Trends 2023 study. For more on the takeaways from Workday Rising EMEA, read this edition of the Digital HR Leaders newsletter, and check out the series of articles by Alexandra Nawrat on the UNLEASH blog such as AI regulation is like the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once.
I’ve just returned from Copenhagen where the final in-person Peer Meeting of 2023 took place for European member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, where attendees explored in depth two topics that are critical to the success of people analytics – influence and value. Thanks to Alan Susi, Kevin Erikson and Claude-Alain Descloux, and Lucie Vottova for sharing some of the brilliant work they are doing at S&P Global, Novartis and ING respectively.
Tomorrow, I will embark on my final trip in November – to India, where I will be speaking on People Analytics 2.0: Unlocking the Transformative Power of Data and AI in HR at the Indeed FutureWorks event in Bangalore.
November travel snapshots
Benchmark your organisation against the Leading Companies in People Analytics
As previewed above, November also saw the release of the fourth annual Insight222 People Analytics Trends study, which this year was informed by a survey of 271 global organisations. In addition, we’ve also developed the Leading Companies Diagnostic, which enables you to get a personalised report into how your organisation rates against Leading Companies in People Analytics. Take the Leading Companies Diagnostic here.
Insight222 Leading Companies People Analytics Diagnostic
Looking for a new role in people analytics or HR tech?
Before we get to this month’s collection of resources, I’d like to once again highlight the wonderful resource created by Richard Rosenow and the One Model team of open roles in people analytics and HR technology, which now numbers nearly 500 roles. This is another indicator of the continued growth in the field.
Share the love!
Enjoy reading the collection of resources for November and, if you do, please share some data driven HR love with your colleagues and networks. Thanks to the many of you who liked, shared and/or commented on October’s compendium (including those in the Comments 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.
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
JONATHAN FERRAR, NAOMI VERGHESE, AND HEIDI BINDER-MATSUO - Investing to Deliver Value: A New Model for People Analytics | Article | Full Report | Diagnostic
People analytics continues to grow despite a challenging global economy. This is one of four key findings from the fourth annual Insight222 People Analytics Trends study. The other three are: (1) Measuring and delivering value, from people analytics efforts, is key for the impact of the function. (2) Developing relationships with C-suite and senior stakeholders is essential to deliver on key business priorities. (3) There are eight defined characteristics that Leading Companies display to create impact (see FIG 1). Every people analytics function, in any organisation, can now diagnose themselves against these eight characteristics. The Insight222 Leading Companies Model (see FIG 2) will help CHROs and people analytics leaders understand their current position and pinpoint the characteristics that will enable them to deliver more value. Kudos to my colleagues and authors of the report: Jonathan Ferrar, Naomi Verghese, and Heidi Binder-Matsuo, as well as the practitioners who contributed case studies: Jane Puckey, James Reynolds, Sharon Doherty (she/her), Alan Susi, Jaesun HA, Laura Wright Shubert, and Eden Britt.
FIG 1: The eight characteristics of Leading Companies. Source: Insight222 People Analytics Trends Report 2023
FIG 2: Leading Companies in People Analytics Model Source: Insight222 People Analytics Trends Report 2023
HEIN KNAPPEN - Boosting Growth: How People Analytics Elevates Enterprise Value
Hein J.M. Knaapen, formerly chief human resources officer at ING and now Managing Partner, Europe at CEO.works, provides a compelling narrative on the profound impact of people analytics on business success. Hein sets out that when used effectively, people analytics (1) Uncovers strategic opportunities driven by effective people management. (2) Provides actionable insights into performance challenges. (3) Enhances employee engagement and productivity. (4) Establishes a robust link between business needs and HR solutions.
People analytics helps build a more solid bridge between business needs and HR interventions. It values evidence over assumptions. It moves HR professionals from supporting the overall business to providing specific, data-driven solutions to true business challenges.
AMIT MOHINDRA - Shapely Values: Game Theory in People Analytics
Amit Mohindra is one of the pioneering practitioners in people analytics, having led functions in companies including Apple, McKesson and Wayfair, lectured on people analytics at Stanford, and published a number of thoughtful articles such as the seminal Three "Laws" of Workforce Analytics. In his latest piece, Amit explores how people analytics can benefit from the connection between cooperative game theory and machine learning, and provides an example of a force plot (see FIG 3): “The red sections represent the factors that push attrition risk higher, and the blue sections are the mitigating factors pushing attrition risk lower. The base value is the average attrition risk in the dataset and is, therefore, the same in both plots.”
Explaining AI models, especially via compelling visualizations, builds comfort with and confidence in people analytics among decision-makers in HR and the business that drives adoption and improved talent, customer, and operational outcomes
FIG 3: Source – Amit Mohindra
JAPNEET KAUR AND NITIN RAZDAN - People analytics maturity in India
The country I receive the most enquiries about people analytics from is India. The progress of people analytics in the country is significant as this study by Deloitte’s Japneet Sachdeva and Nitin Razdan finds. Their research highlights four findings: (1) In the last 12 months Indian companies have shifted to realise value from people analytics across multiple dimensions, including individuals, teams, organisation, and society. (2) There is a significant shift in priorities from attrition last year to retention, well-being, and skills in 2023. (3) There is some hesitation around analytics and AI taking over decision-making from humans. (4) There is curiosity and enthusiasm around Gen AI and its potential in the People Analytics space.
FIG 4: The four levels of shared value (Source: Deloitte India)
MATTHEW HAMILTON - Do you understand probability better than a second grader? | LYDIA WU - People Analytics’ Awkward Place on Org Charts | STEPHANIE MURPHY – From Theory to Practice: Insights on the Future of People Analytics | KAI WEHMEYER - How Bertelsmann Group is Accelerating HR Transformation with People Analytics | ALLIE NAWRAT AND JULIEN LEGRET - Cartier HR data director: People analytics is a business necessity SEBASTIAN SZACHNOWSKI - This is the Last Call: Data Literacy for HR
November has seen a slew of articles published by current and recent people analytics leaders, which typically act as a spur and inspiration for the field. Six are highlighted here: (1) Matthew Hamilton, head of people analytics and HRIS at Protective Life, writes on the important of data literacy and probabilistic thinking to driving value from people analytics. (2) The prolific Lydia Wu continues her excellent ‘Oops, did I think that out loud’ series with an article on the vagaries of where people analytics resides in the organisation structure. (3) Stephanie Murphy, Ph.D. formerly the people analytics leader at Dell, answers ten questions for HRForecast related to the future of people analytics including the challenges and potential ethical concerns, and the role of people analytics in the future. (4) Kai Wehmeyer, Senior Vice President of Corporate HR Strategy & Systems at Bertelsmann shares his experience on effecting meaningful HR change in large, complex organisations. (5) Julien Legret shares aspects of the people analytics journey at Cartier with Alexandra Nawrat of UNLEASH. (6) Sebastian Szachnowski, Head of People Analytcis at Volvo Group, examines why HR professionals need to be more data literate, the skills they need, and how they can grow these skills.
Insights require action; otherwise, you are undertaking a costly science experiment
GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
BCG AND THE WORLD FEDERATION OF PEOPLE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATIONS - Creating People Advantage 2023: Set the Right People Priorities for Challenging Times Article | Full Report
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)’s bi-annual Creating People Advantage collaboration with the World Federation of People Management Associations (WFPMA) is consistently one of the best studies in our field. The 2023 edition continues this rich vein of quality. Two findings that stand out from the report are: (1) Only 35% of HR professionals agree that their company’s people management function is using relevant digital technologies. (2) Just 30% say that HR is using data and analytics to anticipate people challenges. This is despite People and HR strategy, planning, and analytics, being ranked as the #1 future people management topic (see FIG 5). There is a ton of insights in the report’s 28 pages, which includes a powerful visualisation (see FIG 6) of 32 people topics sorted by prioritisation. The report also outlines five recommendations for people management leaders to adopt to prepare for challenging times: (1) Leverage data to accurately plan for talent supply and demand. (2) Get better at talent acquisition. (3) Invest in upskilling and reskilling the current workforce. (4) Unlock value through AI. (5) Focus on change management and organizational development. A must read for any HR leader or professional. Kudos to the authors: Jens Stefan Baier, Vinciane Beauchene, Julie Bedard, Jean-Michel Caye, Dr. Philipp Kolo, Fang Ruan, Alexander Alonso, PhD SHRM-SCP, Anthony Ariganello, Kai H. Helfritz, Bob Morton, Chartered CCIPD, Lucas van Wees, and Wilson Wong.
FIG 5: Ranking of future importance of nine people management topics (Source: BCG)
FIG 6: The most pressing priorities for people leaders (Source: BCG)
KATHLEEN HOGAN – Microsoft’s Chief People Officer shares how AI will impact workers | What Can Copilot’s Earliest Users Teach Us About Generative AI at Work?
Two articles by Kathleen Hogan, chief people officer at Microsoft. In the first article, for Fast Company, Kathleen outlines three elements for companies to realise the benefits of AI for employees quickly: fostering an agility-based culture, reimagining how we work, and investing in deeper human skills. In the second article, Kathleen unveils the impact on productivity, creativity, and time of Copilot’s earliest users, with 70% saying they were more productive, 68% saying it improves the quality of their work, 64% saying that it helped them spend less time processing email, and 85% saying it helps them get to a good first draft faster (see also FIG 7).
AI is the defining technology of our time, creating a massive paradigm that will transform the way we work with even greater impact than the introduction of the PC
FIG 7: Copilot makes people more productive and creative, and saves time (Source: Microsoft)
PAUL LEONARDI - Helping Employees Succeed with Generative AI
Paul Leonardi unveils his STEP framework, which comprises four interrelated activities designed to help employees take advantage of new technologies: (1) segmenting tasks for either AI automation or AI augmentation; (2) transitioning tasks across work roles; (3) educating workers to take advantage of AI’s evolving capabilities; and (4) evaluating performance to reflect employees’ learning and the help they give others. Paul also highlights learnings from three companies that have adopted the STEP framework, including trusting employees to experiment, creating the right conditions for learning, and rethinking workforce planning. For more from Paul, tune in to his conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How To Help Your Teams Develop A Digital Mindset.
Because AI tools are constantly evolving, employees can’t learn new skills once and be done.
JOHANNES SUNDLO - 307 ChatGPT Prompts for CHROs | BERNARD MARR - How Data And AI Are Reshaping Contemporary HR Practices
Two helpful resources for HR leaders and professionals looking for practical guidance on incorporating generative AI into their work. (1) In an article from his FullStack HR blog, Johannes Sundlo sets out 307 ChatGPT prompts for CHROs covering topics such as organisational design and people strategy, recruitment, engagement and retention, learning and development, performance management, compensation, talent management, culture and engagement, workforce planning and analytics, change management and HR tech. (2) Bernard Marr writes about the rise of ‘intelligent HR’ in areas such as people analytics, recruitment, and performance management.
Intelligent HR is the strategic application of data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) in human resources to improve decision-making, streamline operations, and create a better workplace experience.
THE EVOLUTION OF HR AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
JONATHAN GORDIN, SHARI CHERNACK, KAREN SHELLENBACK, AND YAMILE BRUZZA | MERCER - Evolving the CHRO role in a rapidly changing world of work
Forty-one percent of CHROs wish they had had a greater depth of knowledge in people analytics before stepping into their roles (see FIG 8). That is the one of the standout findings from Mercer’s recently published 2023 CHRO report. Many CHROs also conceded that they wish they had assumed the role with a greater understanding of business and strategy: “The ability to understand the business you are in is critical to success as a CHRO — the people strategy must be an extension of the business strategy.” The report, which was written by Jonathan Gordin, Shari Chernack, Karen Shellenback, and Yamile Bruzza, also digs into the growing importance of technology and analytics including the need for CHROs and their leadership teams to upskill themselves and act as role-models in areas such as data literacy, how the CHRO role will evolve (see also FIG 9), actions to develop HR leaders, and key attributes of CHROs.
FIG 8: What CHROs wished they’d known more about before assuming their roles (Source: Mercer)
FIG 9: How the CHRO role will evolve (Source: Mercer)
DAVE ULRICH, NORM SMALLWOOD, AND MIKE PANOWYK - Using Human Capability Information to Upgrade Business Decisions
Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood, and Mike Panowyk present their work on Governance and Guidance for Growth through Human Capability (G3HC). The article details their six-step framework (see FIG 10), which is built on gathering relevant human capital and business information and data to inform decision making in eight specific business use cases including board meetings, strategy discussions, and mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. As ever, the guidance offered is insightful and practical, and even provides a helpful table of Dos and Don’ts for each of the six steps in the framework (see FIG 11).
FIG 10: Information choices to improve human capital (Source: Dave Ulrich et al)
FIG 11: G3HC Information Dos and Don’ts (Source: Dave Ulrich et al)
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
SIMMI MEHTA, KEVIN MOSS, AND DHRUV PATEL - Meet business outcomes by evolving to strategic workforce planning Article | Report
A helpful report by Simmi Mehta, Kevin Moss and Dhruv Patel of Deloitte to highlight their partnership with Anaplan and provide guidance to organisations on how they can pivot from operational to strategic workforce planning. The report explains how these two processes are interconnected, and outlines the considerations required to evolve to SWP (see FIG 12). Thanks to Brian Heger for highlighting this resource in his excellent Talent Edge newsletter.
FIG 12: Considerations to evolve to Strategic Workforce Planning (Source: Deloitte)
SIMON BRADBERRY AND BRUCE MORTON - Unlocking the Potential of a Skills-Based Organization
In their article for MIT Sloan Management Review, Simon Bradberry and Bruce Morton present their Workforce Target Operating Model (see FIG 13), which is assembled around four components: (1) The Workforce Business Partner (“…a senior and experienced individual, able to deconstruct roles into tasks and, where appropriate, look for automation opportunities, such as using AI). (2) The Workforce Acquisition Manager (“The WAM owns the execution for all hiring for their business area across all channels to market.”). (3) The Change Manager. (4) Sourcing. The authors then outline how the Workforce TOM is backed by a simplified workforce technology ecosystem and also provide examples illustrating real-world successes with the approach.
FIG 13: Workforce Target Operating Model (Source: Simon Bradberry and Bruce Morton)
ROBERT MOTION AND COLE NAPPER - What’s Old is New: The Quest for Excellence in Workforce Planning
As Robert Motion and Cole Napper highlight in their treatise on the topic, workforce planning is both an art and a science that has its root in data and strategy. Their article offers six lessons on the topic: (1). Strategy is hard, but that doesn’t make WFP impossible. (2) Workforce planning can both help fight and respond to the Wall Street earnings cycle pressure. (3) Process is necessary, but don’t overdo it. (4) Analytics is and will continue to be king. (5) Winning the war for talent requires Talent Intelligence. (6) We can’t fall in love with our own ideas.
As WFP practitioners, influencing with data is THE key to gaining credibility with the business. It shows that WFP is not “touchy-freely HR”, but data-driven and quantified.
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
KEN MATOS AND DIDIER ELZINGA - 7 charts that define the employee experience in 2023 | ANTONIO PANGALLO AND SARAH MARRS - The 5 employee experience trends redefining work in 2024
Two insight and data rich studies on the key trends in employee experience from two of the leading employee survey technology companies in the field. In the first article, Kenneth Matos and Didier Elzinga of Culture Amp explore the current EX trends, what employees need to connect with their work, and how companies can step up. They also provide some powerful visualisations including a breakdown of engagement by country and industry, the key drivers of engagement, and what successful companies are doing right (see FIG 14). In the second article, Antonio Pangallo, Ph.D. and Sarah Marrs highlight five key trends that emerged from Qualtrics’ 2024 EX Trends report: (1) Employees would rather AI assist them than manage them (see FIG 15). (2) Frontline employees are the most unhappy, poorly supported, and least trusting of leadership. (3) The new-job honeymoon phase has vanished. (4) Employees don’t mind if you monitor their work messages and emails. They want to be heard! (5) Some time in the office is better than none — just not 5 days.
FIG 14: What successful companies are doing right in employee experience (Source: Culture Amp)
FIG 15: Source - Qualtrics
The more positive you feel about your organisation, the more likely you are to believe that it will use AI for your benefit
LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE
TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC - How to Strengthen Your Curiosity Muscle
The opening keynote at the recent Workday Rising EMEA event in Barcelona by Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic was based on his recently published book, I, Human: AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique, which I highly recommend. Tomas is a prolific writer, and in one of his recent articles, for Harvard Business Review, he writes about one of the most critical and sought after dimensions of talent: curiosity – a skill that is vital for leadership effectiveness, learning, and career development. In the article, Tomas shares five recommendations to develop our curiosity muscle: (1) Ditch all excuses. (2) Find the right angle. (3) Change your routine. (4) Experiment. (5) When bored, just switch. For more from Tomas, please tune in to his recent conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How AI Can Unlock Human Potential and Make Work More Meaningful.
While we may not know what tomorrow’s jobs will be, employees’ motivation and ability to upskill and reskill for those jobs will significantly increase if they are curious.
MICHAEL ARENA - The Disruptive Nature of Small, Cohesive Teams
Jeff Bezos attributes much of Amazon’s ability to innovate at speed to ‘two-pizza teams’: “We try to create teams that are no larger than can be fed by two pizzas. We call that the two-pizza team rule.” In his article, Michael Arena explains the science behind why when operating in the right conditions, cohesive teams are able to move faster and innovate more boldly, and goes on to provide an example of a one of the marketplace leaders in AI (see FIG 16). He shares five ways to maximise cohesion and so foster speed and disruption: (1) Limit team size. (2) Streamline communication. (3) Encourage entrepreneurial activity. (4) Ask challenging questions. (5) Stimulate critical thinking.
FIG 16: Example of how a marketplace leader in AI operates with small, cohesive teams (Source: Michael Arena)
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
PAUL RUBENSTEIN - Prioritizing DEI Is the Secret to Future-Proofing Your Business
Paul Rubenstein outlines that rather than rolling back on investments in diversity, equity and inclusion and belonging programs, companies should instead broaden the scope to groups such as parents, new immigrants, and people with disabilities. Moreover, he explains why these efforts should be enriched with people analytics approaches like organisational network analysis, and smart compensation tools. For more from Paul, please tune in to his recent conversation with me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: How to transform HR practices with data.
Pledges and statements are nice, but data lights the path to accountability and change.
STELA LUPUSHOR - Let’s talk about age(ism) in the age of generative AI
Stela Lupushor explains the business benefits of investing in age-diverse teams: (1) More productive teams (“Age-diverse teams are generally more productive and can lead to an increase in overall productivity by up to 12%”). (2) Better decisions (“Age-diverse teams make better decisions 73% of the time”). (3) Higher retention. Stela also outlines ways that generative AI can be used to influence gendered ageism at work.
Organizations that choose to fight ageism and embrace an age-diverse workforce position themselves for long-term success and competitive advantage
HR TECH VOICES
Much of the innovation in the field continues to be driven by the vendor community, and I’ve picked out a few resources from November that I recommend readers delve into:
JEROEN VAN HAUTTE - How unlocking skills lies in capturing business data – Jeroen Van Hautte ? of TechWolf explains why in order to get skills data deep in your organisation, it is key to combine business and people data together (see FIG 17).
FIG 17: Source - TechWolf
PHILIP ARKCOLL - Using ONA to Find the Optimal Team Size – Another good example from Philip Arkcoll of Worklytics on how organisational network analysis can be used to provide fresh insights on common people questions - in this case: What is the optimal team size? Does flattening middle management have a negative impact on culture? The analysis suggests that a span of 3-7 is associated with the optimal manager support (see FIG 18).
FIG 18: Using ONA to find optimal team (Source: Worklytics)
FRANCISCO MARIN - Unlocking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with Organizational Network Analysis – Another good example of an ONA use case comes from Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions. In his article, Francisco explores the many ways that ONA can support initiatives on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
FIG 19: Source – Cognitive Talent Solutions
BEN ZWEIG AND STEPHANIE HAO - Demand for Compensation Professionals Soars – Ben Zweig and Stephanie Hao of Revelio Labs provide insights that finds demand for compensation professionals has surged in recent years especially from companies exposed to pay transparency regulations, and that these professionals are increasingly required to have skills in data analytics tools.
FIG 20: Source – Revelio Labs
KAYLA BAUM - Shaping the Future: White House Unveils Groundbreaking AI Executive Order – Kayla Baum of FairNow (where former people analytics leader Guru Sethupathy is CEO) digs into the recent AI Executive Order from President Biden, and looks at the implications including for HR and CHROs:
CHROs should be aware of global AI trends and regulations, especially if their organization operates internationally.”
PODCASTS OF THE MONTH
In another month of high-quality podcasts, I’ve selected six gems for your aural pleasure: (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):
SHANNON CUSTARD, DANI JOHNSON AND STACIA GARR - Partnerships Focused on Learning Equity - Shannon Custard, Global Competence Development Manager at Ingka Group, joins Dani Johnson and Stacia Sherman Garr on RedThread Research ’s Workplace Stories podcast to share insights on the transition to a skills-based organisation, why the Ingka Group believes it’s important, and the impact it’s making on their frontline population.
JOSH BERSIN - Performance Management Revisited and The Ray Dalio Dot Collector | Trailblazer HR Technology Vendors – Two episodes from Josh Bersin’s podcast. In the first, Josh explores performance management and feedback using insights from the ‘feedback-rich example of Ray Dalio and Bridgewater Associates. In the second episode, Josh walks through six of his ‘Trailblazer HR Technology vendors’: STRIVR, SeekOut, Sana, HiBob, Rippling, and ServiceNow.
ANEESH RAMAN AND MOLLY WOOD - Why Adaptability Is the Skill of the Moment – Aneesh Raman joins Molly Wood on Microsoft’s WorkLab podcast to break down the significance of key findings from LinkedIn’s research on how generative AI is changing work.
BRYAN HANCOCK, BROOKE WEDDLE, AND LUCIA RAHILLY - Right skills, right person, right role – in this episode of the McKinsey Talks Talent podcast, Bryan Hancock and Brooke Weddle join host Lucia Rahilly to discuss how a shift from credential-based to skills-based hiring could be a key to filling technical roles amid talent shortages.
Q HAMIRANI AND LARS SCHMIDT - The Impact of GPTs in HR Explained – In an episode of Redefining Work, Q Hamirani and Lars Schmidt break down GPTs, discuss real-world applications for HR, ethical considerations, and where they see this developing in the future.
KRISTIN SABOE, COLE NAPPER AND SCOTT HINES – Employee Voice, Policy and the Army - Kristin Saboe, Ph.D., Head of Employee Voice at Google, joins Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD on the Directionally Correct podcast to discuss using science and research to drive strategy and policy through an employee voice function.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
DAVID WHITE AND SHUJAAT AHMAD - Driving culture change for business outcomes
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the recent LinkedIn Talent Connect in New York, but fortunately all the sessions from the event are now available to view here. I particularly enjoyed this session with David White and Shujaat Ahmad, leaders inLinkedIn’s People Analytics team. In their talk, David and Shujaat explain how to use analytics to shape culture and drive business outcomes.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
FRANCES FREI AND ANNE MORRISS - Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader's Guide to Solving Hard Problems
The new book from leadership experts Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, who have just been included on the prestigious Thinkers 50 list for 2023, is a highly recommended read. In Move Fast and Fix Things, Frances and Anne reinvent the playbook for how to lead change, based on their work with companies including Uber, Riot Games and ServiceNow. The book lays out a five-step process to moving fast and fixing things: (1). Identify the real problem holding you back. (2) Build and rebuild trust in your company. (3) Create a culture where everyone can thrive. (4) Communicate powerfully as a leader. (5) Go fast by empowering your team.
FROM MY DESK
November saw the final three episodes of Series 34 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, sponsored by eQ8, and the first episode of Series 35, sponsored by HiBob. Thank you to Angela Shori at eQ8, and Louis Gordon at HiBob.
ALICIA ROACH AND CHRIS HARE - How to Democratise Strategic Workforce Planning – Two of my go-to experts on workforce planning – Alicia Roach and Chris Hare, co-CEOs at eQ8, join me to discuss how to democratise and derive business value from strategic workforce planning.
NICK BLOOM - Unmasking Common Myths Around Remote Work – Stanford professor Nick Bloom, who has been studying working from home for over 20 years, shares the past, present and future of remote and hybrid work, and provides guidance on how to develop work models that help organisations and employees thrive.
ALEX BROWNE - Nestlé's 4B Methodology to Strategic Workforce Planning – Alex Browne, Head of People Analytics Innovation and Data Science at Nestlé, takes us on the ten year journey of strategic workforce planning at the company, how it has shifted to a skills-based approach, and their 4B model: build, buy, borrow and bot.
JACOB MORGAN - How to Lead with Vulnerability in Uncertain Times – Jacob Morgan joins me to share insights from his new book, Leading with Vulnerability, which was informed by interviews with over 100 CEOs and a survey of 14,000 employees. As Jacob explains: “People want to work for leaders who they can connect with, because connection is where trust, motivation, engagement, and inspiration comes from. (They) also want to work for a leader who is good at their job, who they can learn from, who can coach them, who can mentor them.”
THANK YOU
Finally, this month I’d like to thank:
Caroline O'Reilly, Shannon Paschal, and Charlie Yuan for inviting me to join them on stage at Workday Rising in Barcelona for their session on Workday Workforce Analytics and Planning
Thinkers360 for including me on their Top Voices EMEA 2023 list
The Workday Analyst Relations team of Angela Barbato, Alexandros Stratis, Chris Phillips, Jennifer Neumann, and Brienne Steinke, as well as Sophie Barnes and Ankita Jha for their brilliant organisation and hospitality at Workday Rising EMEA.
APERHU - Asociación Peruana de Recursos Humanos (here), Pacífico Business School (here) and Miguel Augusto Huerta Valverde (here) for all posting about my recent talk at the Human Capital Congress in Lima
Sebastian Szachnowski for referencing Insight222’s research on Upskilling HR in his article - This is the Last Call: Data Literacy for HR
Konstantin Tskhay, PhD for referencing the recent Insight222 webinar with Naomi Verghese, Courtney McMahon and me on the importance of data literacy in HR in his article: Data Literacy 101
Dariush Franczak for including the October edition of Data Driven HR in his list of resources for HR professionals
Luciana Langhanz (here) Jui Hasan (here) and Mehedi Hasan Soykot (here) for including me in their lists of people to follow on LinkedIn for HR and people analytics content
Riley Moore for including two episodes of the Digital HR Leaders podcast with Alicia Roach and Rupert Morrison in his collection: A Strategic Workforce Planning Guide
Jeremy Shapiro for including the Digital HR Leaders podcast on his list of favourite podcasts
Lanteria HR for including the episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast with Piyush Mehta in their list of 10 podcasts not to miss
Michael Corrigan for posting on LinkedIn about Excellence in People Analytics
Kerstin Rothermel for featuring me in her ‘Leading Voices’ series – see here.
__________________________________________________________________
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 2023:
30 November - Indeed FutureWorks (Bengaluru)
观点
2023年11月27日
观点
Sam Altman 重返 OpenAI 成为首席执行官,前美国财政部长 Summers 加入董事会
- 这一反转是在 OpenAI 的大投资者强烈压力下发生的
- 如果不恢复 Altman 的职位,员工威胁要辞职
2023年11月23日最新消息:
OpenAI 将迎回 Sam Altman,并对董事会进行重大改组,引入包括 Larry Summers 在内的新董事,这一变动在硅谷和全球 AI 圈引起了极大关注。
Altman 将以 CEO 身份回归,新董事会将由 Salesforce.com的. 前联合 CEO、在被 Elon Musk 收购前担任 Twitter 董事的 Bret Taylor 担任主席。其他董事包括在比尔·克林顿总统任内担任美国财政部长的 Summers,以及现任成员、Quora Inc. 联合创始人兼 CEO POE的创始人 Adam D’Angelo (早先被认为是报复Sam的)。OpenAI 正在 X 平台上发布声明,称公司正在“商讨具体细节”。
各方人士的推特表达:
OpenAI:
我们已基本达成共识,Sam Altman 将以首席执行官(CEO)的身份重返 OpenAI,并组建一个新的董事会,成员包括 Bret Taylor(担任主席)、Larry Summers 和 Adam D'Angelo。
我们正携手协商具体事宜。感谢大家在此过程中的耐心等待。
Sam Altman:
我对 OpenAI 充满热爱。过去几天,我所做的一切都是为了保持这个团队及其使命的凝聚力。周日晚上,当我决定加入微软(Microsoft)时,我深信这是我和团队最佳的选择。有了新董事会以及 Satya Nadella的支持,我满怀期待地回到 OpenAI,希望能在我们与微软牢固的合作基础上再创佳绩。
Satya Nadella:
我们对 OpenAI 董事会的新变化感到振奋。我们认为这是迈向更稳固、更明智、更高效治理的重要第一步。我与 Sam Altman、Greg Brockman 和其他 OAI 领导层进行了深入交流,一致认为他们在确保 OAI 持续发展和推进其使命中将扮演关键角色。我们期待在我们坚实的合作基础上进一步发展,并将这一代 AI 的价值带给我们的客户和合作伙伴。
Greg Brockman:(题图就是Greg的推文提供)
今晚我将重返 OpenAI,并重新开始编程工作。
今天我们取得了惊人的进展。我们将以前所未有的团结和强大姿态回归。
有关Sam Altman从OpenAI被解雇及其后果的时间线:
11月16日:Ilya Sutskever,OpenAI的首席科学家和联合创始人,周四晚上向Altman发送短信,安排周五中午的电话会议。Mira Murati,OpenAI的首席技术官(CTO)和现任临时CEO,被告知Altman将被解雇。
11月17日:Greg Brockman,在收到Sutskever的短信后,被告知他将被从董事会主席职位上撤下,但仍是公司重要人物,并保留总裁职位。同时,他得知Altman被解雇。随后,OpenAI宣布了这一高层变动。当天下午,OpenAI召开全体员工会议,Sutskever在会上辩护解雇Altman的决定。
11月17日:Greg Brockman宣布从OpenAI辞职,引用“今天的新闻”为原因。在内部发送备忘录后,他在X平台上发布了文本。随后,包括研究总监Jakub Pachocki和准备工作负责人Aleksander Madry在内的三名高级OpenAI研究员也辞职。
11月18日:OpenAI首席运营官Brad Lightcap在周六早上发送的一份内部备忘录中指出,前一天的公告“让[管理团队]感到惊讶”,并表示管理团队与董事会进行了“多次对话,试图更好地了解他们决策的原因和过程”。
11月18日:据报道,Altman告诉投资者,他计划启动一个新的创业项目,Brockman有望加入这一努力。投资者对事件的发展感到愤怒,正向OpenAI的董事会施压,要求恢复Altman的职位。
11月19日:Altman没有作为CEO返回,而是由Twitch联合创始人Emmett Shear接替成为临时CEO。
11月20日:Sam Altman、Greg Brockman和其他同事宣布,他们将加入微软,领导一个新的AI研究团队。
11月20日 Ilya Sutskever在X平台上发布文章,表示他后悔自己的决定,将尽一切努力让Altman重新成为CEO。几乎有500名OpenAI的大约770名员工——包括Sutskever在内——发表了一封信,表示除非创业公司的董事会辞职并重新任命被罢免的Altman,否则他们可能会辞职。
观点
2023年11月20日
观点
AIHR:Measuring Employee Experience: A Practical Guide for 2024
Keeping your employees engaged, motivated, and satisfied throughout their journey with your organization is key to business success. Measuring employee experience allows HR professionals to understand how their workforce feels and ensure the team remains fulfilled.
In this article, we’ll explore how to measure employee experience, evaluate the results, and turn them into meaningful action.
Contents
What is employee experience (EX)?
Why measure employee experience?
How to measure employee experience
Best practices for measuring employee experience
FAQ
What is employee experience (EX)?
Employee experience (EX), in its simplest form, is how employees perceive their stay at your organization from when they apply for a job to after they leave.
It encompasses various dimensions – ranging from the physical workspace and technological tools being used to the organizational culture, professional growth opportunities made available, and social interactions they have with colleagues or superiors.
It’s more than just a collection of daily experiences at work; EX profoundly shapes an employee’s perceptions about their employer and impacts their decision to stay or leave.
DIVE DEEPEREmployee Experience vs. Employee Engagement: 4 Differences To Know
Why measure employee experience?
87% of employee experience experts say that a great employee experience helps retain and attract talent. However, only 51% of employees feel that their organization is delivering on the experience they promised.
By measuring employee experience, you can uncover and fix issues and discrepancies to reap the benefits of a satisfied and engaged workforce.
Let’s break down the reasons why you should measure employee experience.
Enhanced productivity and performance
Research shows that superior employee experience (EX) may lead to enhanced productivity.
Employees who feel satisfied, empowered, and valued are more motivated to perform at their highest level. They significantly contribute to organizational goals, which can result in an over 50% increase in revenue.
By focusing on optimizing the employee journey – from end to end – companies can foster a work environment that stimulates both individual and team performance.
LEARN MORE23 Key Employee Experience Statistics You Should Know in 2024
Retaining talent
Monitoring and enhancing EX levels significantly contributes to improving retention rates. Employees who resonate with their company culture and find meaning in their work stay longer in their organizations.
Examining facets like workplace habits or preferences provides employers invaluable insights related to employee experience – which ultimately feeds into long-term staff retention strategies.
Making informed decisions related to HR practices
A robust method of measuring employee experience offers in-depth insights into how employees perceive things such as career development opportunities or even intricate details like office seating arrangements.
This helps HR shape policies and practices strategically and make smarter decisions that maximize the workforce potential while actively minimizing discontentment factors.
Enhanced customer experience
A happier workforce equals happier customers. Companies with great employee experience report 2X as high customer satisfaction levels compared to businesses scoring low on employee experience.
A well-executed EX strategy will aid your organization in delivering higher standards of service, creating a ripple effect that extends far beyond merely measuring employee experience for internal benefit.
Australian Defence Bank collaborated with the employee and customer experience management platform Insync to measure and improve EX and CX.
Investing in their employees has helped them build a motivated workforce and get outstanding business results. Not only are they in the top 10% for employee engagement compared to other financial organizations, but they have also achieved record deposit growth in transaction and savings account balances.
Innovation, growth, and improved organizational performance
As we’ve already alluded to, keeping your finger on the pulse of EX can set the scene for broader innovation and growth within an organization.
Employee experience goes hand in hand with employee engagement, which helps foster an innovative culture and a passionate commitment to ongoing improvement—an infallible recipe to drive the company performance northward.
To sum it up, measuring employee experience isn’t simply good practice, but it can bring numerous strategic benefits that make a profound impact on organizations and their competitive standing in the market.
How to measure employee experience
Employee experience is a multifaceted and intangible concept, which is not easy to quantify at first sight. Successfully measuring it involves defining relevant employee experience metrics and methods of measurement to collect the data.
Let’s take a closer look.
1. Define and track employee experience metrics
Employee experience metrics allow organizations to gain insight into the wellbeing, satisfaction, and productivity of their teams. The following metrics serve as good indicators of the employee experience levels at your organization:
Retention rates
Retention rates signify how many employees remained within the company over a specified period. A high employee retention rate generally implies positive experiences at work, while low rates indicate potential problems or dissatisfactions among staff.
Intent to stay
This metric shows how many employees foresee themselves staying with an organization over a lengthy period. It can provide insights into the workforce’s commitment level and their perception of future opportunities within the company.
Number of employee referrals
The number of referrals from existing staff suggests how highly they rate working within the organization. The higher this figure is, the more positive opinions workers hold about their employee experience, and that’s why they’re willing to recommend you as an employer.
Productivity metrics
Productivity indicators such as performance ratings or meeting project deadlines can reveal a lot about how efficiently an employee works. High productivity levels generally imply a supportive environment that propels the team towards achieving set objectives.
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
The eNPS asks employees on a scale from 0-10 whether they would recommend their place of work to others – typically friends or family members. The data gleaned helps appraise the overall employee experience levels.
Employee Experience Index
The Employee Experience Index score takes into account an array of factors influencing the overall workplace atmosphere, like engagement levels, empowerment feelings, job fulfillment factors, and key performance indicator achievement. It provides a holistic overview of what it might be like working for your organization.
The exact dimensions of the Employee Experience Index depend on how an organization defines it. Two well-known Employee Experience Index systems have been developed by IBM and Forrester.
2. Administer surveys
Once you know what insights you’re hoping to gain, you can start collecting data. Surveys are an indispensable tool for measuring employee experience.
There are a couple of types of surveys that you can utilize.
Employee experience surveys
Employee experience surveys provide an avenue for employees to confidentially share views about their workplace, its leadership practices, and its culture. Organizations typically conduct employee experience surveys annually, bi-annually, or quarterly.
Including both quantitative and qualitative questions in your survey will provide you with comprehensive data on your respondents’ perspectives.
Quantitative questions, usually closed-ended, help gather structured data that you can do a statistical analysis of, revealing patterns and trends in responses.
On the other hand, qualitative questions, typically open-ended, elicit descriptive and narrative responses that dive deeper into the nuances and complexities of participants’ experiences and feelings. These responses shed light on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ behind the numbers, uncovering the underlying motivations, beliefs, and emotions that drive behaviors and opinions.
By incorporating both types of questions, you can capture the breadth of information and the depth of insights.
Employee experience survey questions examples
Next to the eNPS question “On a scale from 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our organization as a place to work to your friends and family?”, examples of quantitative employee experience survey questions include:
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “Not at all” and 10 being “Extremely”:
How satisfied are you with the opportunities for professional development within the company?
How confident do you feel in your current role and responsibilities?
How supported do you feel by your direct supervisor or manager?
Qualitative questions you can consider covering in your survey are:
In your opinion, what 2-3 changes could be made to improve the overall work environment and culture?
What aspects of our company’s culture do you value the most?
If you could recommend one thing to improve team collaboration, what would it be and why?
Pulse surveys
Pulse surveys are short, frequent surveys designed to quickly capture employee feedback and continuously gauge overall sentiment about their workplace experience.
Focusing on a few key questions, they are less burdensome for employees, leading to higher response rates. These surveys can help organizations zoom in on current events or specific workplace issues that impact employee experience.
However, regularly collecting data can lead to an abundance of information. Organizations must have the capacity and tools to analyze and act on this data to prevent it from becoming overwhelming or underutilized.
It’s crucial to use pulse surveys strategically and in combination with other feedback mechanisms to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the employee experience.
New hire surveys
New hire surveys help you capture insights about one of the most crucial “moments that matter” in an employee’s journey: their onboarding. This initial phase sets the tone for an employee’s tenure with the company, shaping their perceptions, expectations, and overall sentiment toward the organization.
You can glean valuable feedback about the effectiveness of your onboarding processes, the clarity of role expectations, and the cultural immersion experience.
This feedback not only provides a snapshot of the new employees’ experience but also offers actionable insights for organizations to refine their onboarding processes so that they create a positive and lasting first impression.
3. Conduct qualitative interviews
One-on-one dialogues with employees afford a deeper understanding of the intricacies at play regarding the overall employee experience.
By conducting employee interviews, you can complement and enrich your survey data. They provide you with an excellent opportunity to ask open-ended questions and give your employees space to express their opinions and perceptions.
Two common types of interviews to gather qualitative data are stay interviews and exit interviews.
Stay interviews
These discussions aim to find out why employees opt to remain with an organization. HR professionals can then identify the positive aspects of their working experiences that should be reinforced or replicated.
Exit interviews
Exit interviews help you assess why employees leave your organization and how they see their time spent working for you. These discussions allow you to better understand the challenges our employees face at work, providing insights into potential corrective measures.
By adopting these varied approaches blending both quantitative and qualitative employee experience measurement methods, businesses can effectively gauge worker sentiments – thereby improving employee experiences and driving organizational success.
Best practices for measuring employee experience
Measuring employee experience effectively goes beyond defining relevant metrics and conducting surveys and interviews.
To get a comprehensive view of employee experience at your organization and put your findings into action, you need to follow these five best practices.
Setting clear objectives
Begin with a set of distinct objectives that align with your company’s overall business strategy. This is crucial for accurately evaluating the employee experience.
Why exactly do you want to assess employee experience? Are you aiming to increase productivity or retention rates or encourage higher creativity levels across teams?
Your end goals play an indispensable role in determining which part of the employee journey needs focus and what type of feedback you need from the employees.
Conducting research across different employee groups
When you’re measuring employee experience, you need to recognize diversity within your workforce. That helps you accurately capture different facets of the work experiences of diverse groups in your organization.
Make sure to survey or interview employees from diverse backgrounds, different job levels, departments, and lengths of service to understand the unique challenges they might face.
Dell Technologies partnered with an employee experience measurement platform Voxxify to design a hybrid work plan for one of their European offices. Over 60% of employees responded to the survey, providing more than 2,100 individual comments.
The analysis results helped identify four areas of focus. These included updating the handbook for managers and employees for hybrid work considerations, defining the value of coming into the office, supporting employees’ mental wellness, and optimizing facilities and technology to enhance the work environment.
The office now sees occupancy rates of 60% or more on Tuesdays through Thursdays, and the success of the measurement effort has led to plans to repeat it annually.
Overcoming survey fatigue and ensuring participation
It may be tempting to send surveys left and right for comprehensive data collection when measuring employee experience. However, you should really avoid doing so. Survey fatigue can quickly pile up, draining previously enthusiastic participants’ eagerness to provide valuable insights.
To keep engagement high and maximize response rates, make sure your surveys are succinct yet thorough. Carefully plan your survey schedule to not overwhelm your team. For example, you can send out a comprehensive survey quarterly or bi-annually, with a couple of shorter pulse surveys in between.
It also helps to effectively communicate the purpose behind these assessments, so employees see them not as tasks but as avenues towards improving their work lives. You can, for instance, share examples of initiatives you implemented based on employee feedback.
Guaranteeing confidentiality
Nothing squashes honesty quicker than a sense of insecurity surrounding responses’ anonymity, which makes maintaining confidentiality critical to effective employee experience measurement.
If you use external applications for gathering feedback, emphasize their confidentiality features.
You should also invest in fostering an environment where employees feel they can honestly express thoughts and concerns without fear of retribution. Doing so will not only amplify trust but also provide you with more authentic data to work on.
Acting on employee feedback
Once you’ve gathered and analyzed employee feedback, it’s time to take action. Prioritize high-impact initiatives and create a plan for how to implement these.
Employees need to believe that their input sparks real change; otherwise, they might lose engagement in such processes altogether. Recognize employee contributions and communicate plans about future improvements based on their input clearly. Transparency here fosters a sense of responsibility among the staff and improves morale during periods of change.
Ultimately, measuring employee experience is a cyclical process. It starts from setting clear objectives leading up each step to enacting feedback-led changes and then identifying newer areas for improvement continuously.
Key takeaway
Staying on top of your employees’ experiences at work allows companies to detect dissatisfaction early enough and tackle issues before they develop into bigger problems. It’s a great way to improve HR practices and design employee experience that promotes productivity, talent retention rates, and ultimately a better workplace environment.
Relevant employee experience metrics help you quantify the concept and solidify your measurement process. Surveys and qualitative interviews give voice to your employees, offering rich insights into the workers’ perceptions of the workplace.
However, it’s the organization’s responsiveness to feedback that significantly impacts the effectiveness of measuring employee experience. It is key to not just listen but also take action based on employees’ feedback for positive changes.
FAQ
What are the most important employee experience metrics to measure?
When it comes to measuring employee experience, key metrics that organizations use include:
– Retention rates: Your business’s retention rates can reveal much about employees’ willingness to commit long-term to an organization.
– Intent to stay: Beyond just assessing current employee tenure, discerning whether staff members aspire to stay with the company for the foreseeable future is a valuable indicator of how they perceive their journey at your organization.
– Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): This quantifies how likely employees would recommend their workplace to others – a telling sign of overall satisfaction and positive employee experience.
A combination of several employee experience metrics paints a nuanced picture of overall employee experience in any organization.
Are surveys the best way to measure employee experience?
Surveys play an instrumental role in gauging overall employee experience levels—all thanks to their ability for large-scale data collection and sentiment analysis. They also provide insights into potential pain points and highlight areas for improvement according to actual employee sentiments.
However, while valuable, relying solely on surveys can lead to limited insights. Conducting different types of interviews, like stay and exit interviews, helps complement the survey data with deeper insights.
What is the Employee Experience Index?
The Employee Experience Index is a metric that aims to give a comprehensive view of employees’ experience. Essentially, it helps you gauge the overall ‘health’ of organizational culture and environment.
IBM’s Employee Experience Index assesses employee experience on five core dimensions: Belonging, Purpose, Achievement, Happiness, and Vigor.
The Employee Experience Index from Forrester evaluates three elements of EX: Empower, Inspire, and Enable.
观点
2023年11月18日
观点
Exploring the Top 10 HR Tech Trends of 2024The HR field is undergoing significant changes in 2024, with technology playing a pivotal role. Key trends include the use of AI and ML in talent acquisition, a shift to skills-based hiring, and the integration of remote and hybrid work models. Emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is growing, alongside the exploration of the Metaverse for virtual HR practices. Data analytics is crucial for informed decision-making, and there's a focus on optimizing user experience and supporting employee well-being and mental health. Enhancing the candidate experience and ensuring data security and compliance are also critical.
2024年人力资源领域正在经历重大变革,技术发挥着关键作用。主要趋势包括在人才招聘中使用人工智能和机器学习,向基于技能的招聘模式转变,以及远程和混合工作模式的整合。多元化、平等和包容性(DEI)的重视日益增加,同时探索元宇宙在虚拟人力资源实践中的应用。数据分析对于做出明智的决策至关重要,优化用户体验和支持员工福祉和心理健康也同样重要。加强候选人体验和确保数据安全与合规性也是关键。
Human Resources is continuously evolving, and in 2024, it is set to undergo a remarkable transformation. With the integration of cutting-edge technology and innovative approaches, HR departments are better equipped than ever to attract, retain, and manage talent effectively. In this blog, we'll delve into the top 10 HR tech trends of 2024, offering a glimpse of how these trends shape the future of HR.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are at the forefront of HR tech trends in 2024. These technologies are revolutionizing talent acquisition by streamlining the recruitment process. AI-driven algorithms can assess resumes, conduct initial candidate screenings, and predict a candidate's suitability based on historical data. ML algorithms analyze patterns within employee data to provide insights into performance, helping HR departments make more informed decisions about promotions and job placements.
Skills-based Hiring
Skills-based hiring, which prioritizes a candidate's specific skills and abilities, will significantly impact companies in 2024. This approach will help companies swiftly adapt to the changing job landscape and technological advancements. In 2024, skills-based hiring will:
Improve Recruitment Efficiency: Companies will find it easier to match candidates directly to job requirements, reducing time and resources spent sifting through resumes and interviews.
Reduce Skill Gaps: With skills-based hiring, companies can address skill gaps more effectively and invest in training and upskilling for existing employees to meet the organization's needs.
Increase Employee Productivity: Hiring individuals with the right skills results in quicker onboarding and increased employee productivity, driving business performance.
Remote and Hybrid Work:
Remote work has swiftly transformed the modern workplace and is set to become a permanent fixture in 2024. HR professionals are tasked with managing the challenges of overseeing remote teams, encouraging collaboration, and maintaining employee engagement within virtual environments. Moreover, the growing prominence of hybrid work models demands strategic initiatives to enhance productivity and work-life balance for employees, regardless of their location within or outside the office.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI):
Inclusion and diversity will remain at the forefront of HR agendas in 2024. Organizations will strive to create inclusive cultures where employees from all backgrounds feel valued, respected, and empowered. HR professionals will focus on building diverse talent pipelines, implementing unconscious bias training, and developing inclusive leadership practices. Addressing pay equity and ensuring equal opportunities at all levels will also be prioritized.
Focus on Metaverse in HR
The Metaverse is poised to redefine HR practices. This revolutionary technology seamlessly integrates virtual meetings, interviews, onboarding, and learning experiences. By creating lifelike virtual environments, HR professionals can host dynamic meetings, conduct immersive interviews, and foster engaging discussions among remote teams.
Recognizing its vast potential, organizations embrace the Metaverse to reshape traditional HR processes and enhance collaboration across distributed teams. The Metaverse empowers HR to transcend geographical boundaries, ushering in a new era of impactful virtual interactions that elevate employee experiences and boost organizational productivity.
Harnessing Data for Informed Decision-Making
This trend revolves around leveraging advanced data analytics tools to collect, process, and interpret vast amounts of data within the HR domain. By doing so, HR professionals can gain valuable insights into various aspects of workforce management, including employee engagement, performance metrics, talent acquisition, and workforce planning.
This trend is driven by the recognition that data is critical to making strategic and informed decisions. HR departments increasingly adopt predictive analytics to foresee trends, identify potential challenges, and devise proactive solutions. Through data-driven decision-making, organizations can optimize their HR strategies, streamline operations, and enhance overall workforce effectiveness.
Optimize the User Experience
As HR tech evolves, the user experience is optimized for HR professionals and employees. This trend is about making the technology more user-friendly and intuitive. User-friendly interfaces, simplified navigation, and customized dashboards make it easier for HR personnel to access and utilize HR tools, ultimately improving efficiency and reducing the learning curve.
Employee Well-being and Mental Health Support
HR technology trends are placing a spotlight on employee well-being and mental health. Innovative tools and applications are designed to monitor and support employee well-being, offering resources to help individuals manage stress and achieve a healthy work-life balance. This emerging trend underscores the recognition of the significance of comprehensive employee care.
Emphasizing Candidate Experience Enhancement
Even with resource limitations in 2024, CHROs are committed to maintaining their teams' focus on essential tasks. Companies recognize the imperative need to continually enhance the candidate experience, fortify their employment brand, and expedite their recruitment processes to remain competitive in attracting top talent. Among the myriad HR trends discussed, refining the candidate experience remains an enduring challenge for TA teams.
Data Security and Compliance
Data security and compliance are paramount with the growing use of HR tech. HR departments are increasingly implementing data protection measures to safeguard sensitive employee information and adhere to the ever-evolving global data protection regulations.
Conclusion
As we step into 2024, HR tech trends are shaping the future of human resources management. These trends, from artificial intelligence and machine learning to a strong focus on employee experience, enhance how organizations attract, retain, and manage talent. By staying abreast of these top 10 HR tech trends, businesses can position themselves to succeed in an ever-changing world of work. Embracing these technologies will streamline HR processes and create a more engaged, diverse, and resilient workforce.
by Navjot Kaur
David Green:The best HR & People Analytics articles of October 2023
HR is the CEO’s right-hand in enlightened organisations.
Those were the words of Barbara Lavernos, Deputy CEO at L’Oreal, while speaking as part of a panel of CEOs on the main stage at the recent UNLEASH World in Paris. The declaration captures one of my key takeaways from the show: HR has made significant progress in its journey from support function to strategic partner.
One of the key drivers enabling this journey is people analytics. Two of the findings in the 4th Annual Insight222 People Analytics Trends study, are: (1) 21% of people analytics leaders now report directly to the chief people officer (compared to 13% in 2020). (2) People analytics teams have grown by 43% since 2020. As Isabel Naidoo, chief people officer at Wise, said recently at the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat in Colorado:
People analytics is the fastest route to credibility as a chief people officer.
FIG 1
One of my highlights from October was hosting the Main Stage at the aforementioned UNLEASH World show in Paris. I've shared my key learnings from UNLEASH in a LinkedIn post, but would like to highlight what makes UNLEASH unique: a vibrant mix of content, learning, community, and innovation topped off with fabulous production. A huge thank you to Marc Coleman, Paige Richmond, Amelia Donovan, Zoltán Kőváry and Nidal Elfadil – it was a joy to work with you all again. See more on Day 1 and Day 2 at UNLEASH World.
UNLEASH World 2023
What’s in store for November?
The next few weeks are set to be busy. I’m currently in Chicago ahead of a Peer Meeting for North American members of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, hosted by Berube, Derek and his team at McDonalds. In mid-November, I’ll be speaking on the key findings of the Insight222 2023 People Analytics Trends at Workday Rising EMEA. On November 21 and 22, I’ll be in Copenhagen for another Insight222 Peer Meeting, this time for European members of the People Analytics Program. Finally, on November 30, I’ll be in Bangalore to speak at Indeed FutureWorks. If any of you are going to these events, I look forward to seeing you there.
Looking for a new role in people analytics or HR tech?
I’d like keep highlighting 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 450 roles, as well as now also including roles for interns.
Participate in a study on the Modern Work Experience
RedThread Research is collecting data to understand the Modern Work Experience and how it has changed over the last year. This study is for individuals employed full-time at organizations with more than 100 people and will remain open until Monday, November 13, 2023. As a thank you for every response collected, RedThread will:
Donate $10 to DonorsChoose to support students and classrooms
Provide respondents with a free copy of the final report, “2023 Performance Management Trends: The Rise of Employee Expectations”
Share a free copy of the new report summary once published
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GENERATIVE AI AND THE FUTURE OF WORK AND HR
DIANE GHERSON – The New Deal of Work | DAVID ROCK – Irreconcilable Differences | JOSH BERSIN - The Pixelated Workforce Has Arrived ... Are We Ready? | RJ MILNOR – Fractional Work and Your Talent Strategy | JUDITH WIESE – Growth Talks
I can’t recommend the Fall edition of SHRM’s People + Strategy on Rethinking Work and the Workplace highly enough. The guest editor is Diane Gherson, one of the deepest and most original thinkers about the future role of HR. As Diane articulates in her editor’s preface: “New work models, new business requirements and new employee expectations are coming together at full speed, putting at risk our status quo arrangements in the organization—and even the role and scope of HR.” These themes flow through all of the articles in the edition – all of which I happily recommend, they include. (1) David Rock highlights what neuroscience can teach us about the tug of war between employers and employees particularly with regards to the return to office debate. (2) Josh Bersin examines the implications for organisations of the “blowing up” of the traditional model for full-time long-term employees (FIG 2). (3) RJ Milnor highlights four questions for CHROs about the growth of fractional work and its impact on talent strategy. (4) Judith Wiese explains how Siemens replaced performance reviews with a new concept built on dialogues focused on growth.
New work models, new business requirements and new employee expectations are coming together at full speed, putting at risk our status quo arrangements in the organization—and even the role and scope of HR
FIG 2
FRANÇOIS CANDELON, LISA KRAYER, SARAN RAJENDRAN, AND DAVID ZULUAGA MARTÍNEZ - How People Can Create—and Destroy—Value with Generative AI
Together with a group of scholars from Harvard, MIT, Wharton, and the University of Warwick, BCG conducted an experiment on 750 of its own consultants around the globe to test the use of generative AI (GAI). The results, as documented in the article by François Candelon, Lisa Krayer, Saran Rajendran, and David Zuluaga Martínezfind that people mistrust GAI in areas where it can contribute tremendous value and trust it too much where the technology isn’t competent. For example, 90% of participants improved their performance when using GenAI for creative ideation. However, on the flip side, when the consultants participating in the study where focused on business problem solving, a task outside the tool’s current competence, many participants took GPT-4's misleading output at face value. Their performance was 23% worse than those who didn’t use the tool at all. The article also examines some key guidance on related topics including data strategy, roles and workflows, strategic workforce planning and experimentation.
FIG 3
FIG 4
OTHER RESOURCES ON GENERATIVE AI AND THE WORLD OF WORK
LYNDA GRATTON - Want More Clarity on Generative AI? Experiment Widely | LIZ GRENNAN, ANDREAS KREMER, ALEX SINGLA, AND PETER ZIPPARO - Why businesses need explainable AI—and how to deliver it | DONNA SCAROLA - What Most People Get Wrong about AI & Bias | FANGFANG ZHANG AND SHARON K. PARKER - How ChatGPT Can and Can’t Help Managers Design Better Job Roles | KEVIN OAKES - Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
Many of the topics discussed at Unleash World were related to the remarkable acceleration of AI tools and technologies, and their impact on work, organisations and workers. I recommend digging into these five resources: (1) Lynda Gratton shares insights from a webinar she recently ran with 260 global executives, which highlighted that: “Figuring out the right approaches to generative AI is a process replete with ambiguity, experiments, and changes of mind.” Lynda also provides details on what companies are already using generative AI for in HR with the top two areas being internal knowledge management and recruitment. (2) Writing for McKinsey, Liz Grennan, Andreas Kremer, Alex Singla, and Peter Zipparo break down explainable AI (see FIG 5), and why it is important Including to enhance productivity, build trust and deliver value. (3) Donna Scarola provides a helpful primer providing guidance on how to prevent bias – including the creation of an ethics committee. (4) Fangfang Zhang and Sharon Parker unveil their research, pros and cons, and guidance for using ChatGPT for work design and job roles (see FIG 6). (5) Finally, Kevin Oakes summarises the key findings from i4CP’s recent study: Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution? Thanks Erik Samdahl for the heads up.
People use what they understand and trust. This is especially true of AI
FIG 5
FIG 6
THE EVOLUTION OF HR AND DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
DAVE ULRICH AND NORM SMALLWOOD - Six Actions for HR to Create More Stakeholder Value
How can HR create more value for all stakeholders? This is the exam question Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood seek to answer in their article. The article highlights six specific actions and questions that enable organisations to create more value from HR (see FIG 7). The six actions are: (1) Articulate a point-of-view. (2) Define, seek, and track outcomes more than activities. (3) Prioritise what matters most. (4) Apply innovative and relevant methodology. (5) Translate to stakeholder value. (6) Scale, leverage and improve work.
FIG 7:
ROB BRINER - Aligning HR with the business through the evidence-based HR process
Rob Briner makes the case for evidence-based practice and how it applies to HR, explaining what it is and why it is effective. Rob breaks down six key steps in the evidence-based HR process (see FIG 8). He then applies the evidence-based approach to a case study to understand and solve high employee turnover.
FIG 8
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
NAOMI VERGHESE - The Growing Influence of People Analytics in Strategic Business Decisions
In a taster from the Insight222 People Analytics Trends report, Naomi Verghese digs into one of the key findings from the study: developing relationships with C-suite and senior stakeholders. The article focuses on four key elements of influence. (1) What ‘influence’ means in the context of people analytics. (2) Data on how people analytics as a field has grown in influence (including FIG 9, which highlights the growing number of people analytics leaders reporting directly to the CHRO). (3) How a people analytics leader can gain access to senior business stakeholders. (4) Why it is important that a people analytics leader has executive-level influence in organisations today.
FIG 9
THOMAS RASMUSSEN, MIKE ULRICH, AND DAVE ULRICH - Moving People Analytics From Insight to Impact
While I wouldn’t normally include a resource that isn’t open access in this compendium, I’m making an exception for this must-read paper by Thomas Hedegaard Rasmussen, Mike Ulrich and Dave Ulrich, which can be accessed for a fee of a very worthwhile £29.00. The abstract to the paper (see below), which can be considered a follow up to the seminal paper, authored by Thomas and Dave, which was published in 2015: How HR analytics avoids being a management fad, provides a compelling narrative.
KEVIN METHERELL - Intentionality Matters - a GER2023 review | JAY DORIO - How to Get Remote and Hybrid Working Right | HEIDI BINDER-MATSUO - From People Analytics to Chief People Officer: How to Effectively Influence the C-suite JASDEEP KAREER - Why is Adaptive Teaming and Intentional Collaboration Important in a New World of Work?
Perhaps the highlight so far of my year was the recent Insight222 Global Executive Retreat in Colorado. It has already inspired several articles, which are collected here. (1) Kevin Metherell, one of the people analytics leaders present, summarises his takeaways from the three days with the linking thread being the “need for intentionality in everything we do” (2) Jay Dorio explores ways to get remote and hybrid working right through intentionally co-ordinating in-person days, encouraging collaboration by scheduling in-person meetings, and setting the standard that attendance on anchor days is mandatory. (3) Heidi Binder-Matsuo provides insights on what CEOs and CHROs are looking for from their people analytics leaders. (4) Jasdeep Kareer, PhD (née Bhambra) breaks down the role of collaboration modes (see FIG 10) and provides ten steps people analytics professionals can take to gain a deeper understanding of collaboration within their organisations.
FIG 10
LYDIA WU - Seven Lessons I Learned About People Analytics | ADAM TOMBOR – People Analytics Hands-On | ANKIT SAXENA - How does a Global Head of People Insights create a people analytics roadmap? | JACKSON ROATCH - The Lindy Effect in People Analytics | JENNA EAGLESON - R Toolkit for People Analytics: Telling Your Headcount Story JAEJIN LEE - What Career and Academic Backgrounds Do People Analytics Leaders Possess? (Analysis of 279 Global People Analytics Leaders)
October has seen a number of people analytics leaders publishing articles, which is always to be encouraged as insights from practitioners really help the field advance. Six leaders are featured here. (1) As part of her excellent 'Oops, did I think that out loud' series of articles, Lydia Wu documents seven lessons she has learned from working in the people analytics field – my favourite is: “Stakeholders are more important than numbers”. (2) Adam Tombor (Wojciechowski), Global Head of People Analytics at Julius Baer, shares how the three key ingredients of the right technology, the right process and the right skills have helped reshape people analytics at Julius Baer. (3) Ankit Saxena, MBA shares his methodology for developing a progressive people analytics roadmap. (4) Jackson Roatch breaks down The Lindy Effect by using a powerful example using turnover (look at FIG 11 – and decide which worker has the highest turnover risk before reading Jackson’s article). (5) Jenna Eagleson provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to tackle a common people analytics challenge: telling the story of company headcount entirely in R. (6) Jaejin Lee analyses the career and academic backgrounds of 279 people analytics leaders.
FIG 11
MAX BLUMBERG - What to Avoid When Choosing a People Analytics Operating Model
A short but instructive article by Max Blumberg (JA) ?? on the key areas to consider when evaluating whether to implement a people analytics model including trust, investment and the extent of change management required.
Regulations continue to evolve - models that appear compliant today may not be tomorrow.
EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND EMPLOYEE WELLBEING
STEPHANIE DENINO, ANDRÉ FORTANGE, TIMO TISCHER, AND MARIS GARCIA - The APEX model: How organizations can systemically improve employee experience Website | Summary Report
I always learn from TI PEOPLE’s research and analysis on employee experience ever since the company was formed by Volker Jacobs in 2016. In their new study, the team of Stephanie Denino, André Fortange, Timo Tischer and Maris García, present the APEX (Activities driving the Practice of EX) model, which is comprised of 3 focus areas, 6 goals and 28 activities (see FIG 12) which uncovers what it takes to improve EX in ways that are sustainable and replicable. This model, based on research with dozens of global EX leaders and vast client experience, highlights two important threads that run through the model: being data-driven and human-centered. The report also covers big questions like “Is an EX leader essential?” and explains that guided by this model, EX leaders can bring about an EX-centric operating system in their organisations.
FIG 12
BASTIAAN STARINK AND JAN WILLEM VELTHUIJSEN - What every HR leader needs to show the CFO | The benefits of investing in People Where should companies invest to improve the employee experience?
I was drawn to this study, authored by Bastiaan Starink and Jan Willem Velthuijsen for PwC, by one of the key findings: Making investments in 11 key areas of employee experience can yield savings equivalent to 12.6% of revenues (see FIG 13) encompassing reducing absenteeism, reducing employee turnover and boosting productivity. Two additional findings are: (1) Out of the eleven employee experience drivers analysed in the study, well-being, developmental opportunities, and training lead to the best outcomes in terms of benefits. (2) Companies will always have to analyse their own employee experience - effective interventions can only be made on that basis.
FIG 13:
WORKFORCE PLANNING, ORG DESIGN, AND SKILLS-BASED ORGANISATIONS
KATHI ENDERES - Building the Dynamic Organization: Critical for the Post-Industrial Era | ANN ANN LOW - Unlocking Talent Agility to Future-Proof Organizations
Kathi Enderes breaks down the recent research she and Josh Bersin have conducted with Gloat. It highlights that instead of designing a company around jobs, Dynamic Organizations instead organise around people and skills. Kathi’s article provides a framework (see FIG 14), a maturity model, and data on the impact of Dynamic Organizations. Agility is also a key feature of Ann Ann Low’s article, which summarises the recent talk by Amy Schultz of Canva at LinkedIn Talent Connect including their 5Bs Framework (see FIG 15).
FIG 14
FIG 15
LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE
JONATHAN KNOWLES, B. TOM HUNSAKER, AND MELANIE HUGHES – The Role of Culture in Enabling Change
While culture is often described as “how we do things around here”, Jonathan Knowles, Dr. Tom Hunsaker, and Melanie Hughes argue in their article that “It’s more helpful to think of culture as the nervous system of an organization.” They highlight that one of the most important responsibilities of HR is to analyse the aspects of culture that are enabling or hindering performance. They proceed to explain that the first step is to investigate the type of change the team, business unit or organisation requires, and then document three approaches to making such changes: (1) Reinforce magnitude. (2) Reimagine activity. (3) Rethink direction (see also FIG 16)
FIG 16
FRANCES X. FREI AND ANNE MORRISS - Storytelling That Drives Bold Change
“Research has shown that storytelling has a remarkable ability to connect people and inspire them to take action,” write Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, in the cover article of the current issue of Harvard Business Review. In the article, which is a taster from their new book, Move Fast and Fix Things, the duo outline an effective way to leverage the power of storytelling, through four key steps: (1) Understand your story so well that you can describe it in simple terms, (2) honour the past, (3) articulate a persuasive mandate for change, and (4) lay out a rigorous and optimistic path forward. Then they explain how emotions can bring your story to life and help drive stakeholder commitment to change, and highlight ten underrated emotions in change narratives (see FIG 17).
FIG 17
EMILY FIELD, BRYAN HANCOCK, MARC METAKIS, AND DONNIE STUART - Activating middle managers through capability building
As one of the best books I’ve read this year – Power to the Middle (by Bill Schaninger, Ph.D., Bryan Hancock and Emily Field) - outlines middle managers who are equipped with the skills and support they need to succeed can reduce friction, accelerate action, and ensure that an organisation achieves its vision. This article, by Emily and Bryan together with Marc Metakis and Donnie Stuart, provides examples of companies that have built the capabilities of their middle managers (including a global not-for-profit who broke the problem-solving process into seven actions and four distinct phases for their middle managers – see FIG 18), common hurdles to doing this successfully, and how these obstacles can be overcome.
Middle managers can accelerate the execution of a company’s strategy by translating ideas between layers of hierarchy and solving problems with data.
FIG 18:
MICHAEL ARENA - The Ripple Effect: Understanding organizational behavior contagion to cultivate culture at scale
Michael Arena summarises the findings of a study he undertook to investigate the impact of behaviour contagion (the notion that behaviours are akin to contagious viruses within social networks) on organisational culture. The study was based on a comprehensive360-degree review to assess individual behavioural strengths combined with organisational network analysis techniques. The results confirmed that all cultural attributes were contagious to some extent and transmitted among direct employee connections. Moreover, the contagion effect extends up to three degrees of separation in professional networks – ‘The Ripple Effect’. Michael also examines the implications for companies, and how they can harness The Ripple Effect to build a positive workplace culture including identifying key influencers and nurturing strong connections. FIG 19 provides an example of how ‘strong judgement’ spreads across the network.
FIG 19
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
EMILY FIELD, ALEXIS KRIVKOVICH, SANDRA KÜGELE, NICOLE ROBINSON AND LAREINA YEE - Women in the Workplace 2023
The ninth edition of the annual Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey and LeanIn.Org is based on analysis from 276 participating companies employing ten million people between them, and a survey of 27,000 employees and 270 senior HR leaders. It finds that while there have been gains at the top, with women’s representation in the C-suite at the highest it has ever been, progress in the middle of the pipeline is lagging—and with a persistent underrepresentation of women of colour—true parity remains painfully out of reach. The article by Emily Field, Alexis Krivkovich, Sandra Kuegele, Nicole Hardy Robinson and Lareina Yee, focuses on four myths about women at work that the study debunks. (1) Myth: Women are becoming less ambitious. Reality: Women are more ambitious than before the pandemic—and flexibility is fuelling that ambition. (2) Myth: The biggest barrier to women’s advancement is the “glass ceiling.” Reality: The “broken rung” is the greatest obstacle women face on the path to senior leadership (see FIG 20). (3) Myth: Microaggressions have a ‘micro’ impact. Reality: Microaggressions have a large and lasting impact on women. (4): Myth: It’s mostly women who want—and benefit from—flexible work. Reality: Men and women see flexibility as a ‘top 3’ employee benefit and critical to their company’s success.
FIG 20
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 October that I recommend readers delve into:
VISIER - Top 50 HR Leaders to Watch in 2024 – This is clever marketing from Jake Sorofman and the team at Visier Inc. as they highlight 50 HR (mostly people analytics) leaders to watch in 2024, including many who are customers. It’s certainly good to see the likes of Adam McKinnon, PhD., Angela LE MATHON, Dawn Klinghoffer, Doug Shagam, Erik Otteson, Jaclyn Lee PhD and IHRP-MP, Jeremy Shapiro, Kai Wehmeyer, Kanella Salapatas, Julien Legret, Kevin Moore SWP, Lydia Wu, Lydia Low, Kunal Thakkar, MS, PMP, Mark Berry, Matthew Hamilton, Mei Kim, Michael Salva, Nicholas Garbis, Pam Malone, Peter Meyler, Ramesh Karpagavinayagam, Richmond Tan, Sally Smith, Scott Judd, Shakti Jauhar, Shannon Vallina, and Steven Piperno getting some deserved recognition.
ANDREW PITTS - Mapping the Unleash World Exhibitors Network Using LinkedIn Data – Andrew Pitts continues Polinode’s excellent series by using ONA to map the network of the 175 exhibitors at the recent Unleash World show in Paris, which delivers some fascinating insights, not least the influence of The HR Lab.
ANNA AIROLDI - Is the Workplace Undergoing a Mental Health Revolution? – The latest gem from the Workforce Insights newsletter from Revelio Labs sees Anna A. providing analysis to highlight that companies are increasingly offering mental health and wellbeing benefits (see FIG 21). Thanks to Ben Zweig for highlighting.
FIG 21:
PHIL ARKCOLL - The Importance of Passive Listening – An excellent piece by Philip Arkcoll of Worklytics extolling the virtues of combining active listening (via surveys) with passive listening tools that allow forward-thinking organisations utilising both to understand the real-time behavioural drivers of employee attitudes.
FIG 22
FRANCISCO MARIN - Unlocking the Potential of Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) for Hybrid Work Adoption – Francisco Marin of Cognitive Talent Solutions breaks down how ONA can be used to gain insights on hybrid work adoption including by identifying informal communication networks, optimising office space, and assessing collaboration patterns.
FIG 23
MARC RAMOS - Transitioning your learning team to generative AI: Become the exemplar for your enterprise - Marc Steven Ramos of Cornerstone OnDemand writes on how Learning and Development teams are in prime position to be both pioneers in generative AI adoption and to lead by example, helping to conceptualise and implement the holistic generative AI strategy of the organisation.
COLE NAPPER, LUKA BABIC, AND STEFAN VUCICEVIC - People Analytics Operating Model in the Age of AI – In this paper, the Orgnostic team of Cole Napper, Luka Babic, and Stefan Vučićević, outlines how to set up a Lean People Analytics Operating Model that “connects technology, impactful consultation, and strategic decision-making, ultimately enabling ecosystems.”
FIG 24
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):
ADAM GRANT – Why Meetings Suck and How to Fix Them? Podcast | Transcript – Adam Grant’s WorkLife podcast is always insightful, and this episode where, together with Steven Rogelberg, Rebecca Hinds, PhD, and Francesca Gentile, Adam investigates the science of improving meetings is mandatory listening.
TOBY CULSHAW, COLE NAPPER, AND SCOTT HINES – Everything Talent Intelligence- Toby Culshaw joins Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD on the Directionally Correct podcast to discuss what talent intelligence is, what it isn’t, and how it can be effectively applied in organisations.
AMY WEBB AND MOLLY WOOD – The Most Plausible Outcomes for AI and Work – Futurist Amy Webb joins Molly Wood on Microsoft’s WorkLab podcast to discuss the most likely outcomes for how AI will impact humanity and what business leaders can do today to set up their organisations for success.
JOSH BERSIN - The HR Technology Trailblazers: How AI Is Disrupting This Market | Unleash Paris 2023: The Skills HR Tech Confusion. Trailblazers: Docebo, Arist, Cornerstone – Josh Bersin recently announced 15 ‘HR Tech Trailblazers’ who are successfully infusing AI into their products. In these two podcast episodes, he breaks down seven of them: Eightfold Paradox SAP SuccessFactors, Visier Inc. Docebo Arist & Cornerstone OnDemand.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH
ANNE-MARIE ANDRIC AND GARY MUNRO – Bounce. A place to go, know and do
One of the people I was glad to catch up with at Unleash was Katarina Berg, Chief People Officer at Spotify, who shared insights from the company’s Work from Anywhere program on the main stage. One of Katarina’s team – Gary Munro, the Head of People Analytics, is the brain behind Bounce, an ingenious new platform that brings together all relevant workplace content in one place and offers employees a personalised experience. Read Gary’s article on the Spotify HR Blog, and then watch his discussion with the brilliant Anne-Marie Andric on an episode of HR The Real Deal.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
ADAM GRANT – Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
The new book by Adam Grant is brilliantly written, sprinkled with humour, and incredibly insightful. In Hidden Potential, “Grant explores how to build the character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.” The book is also immensely readable – I read over half of it on my flight to Chicago yesterday. I also listened to the highly insightful and at times hilarious podcast on the book, where Grant talks to his old sparring partner, Malcolm Gladwell: Unlocking Hidden Potential with Malcolm Gladwell. A must-read and a must-listen.
RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH
YANQUI TAO, LONGAI YANG, SONIA JAFFE, FERESHTEH AMINI, PETER BERGEN, BRENT HECHT, AND FENGQI YOU - Climate mitigation potentials of teleworking are sensitive to changes in lifestyle and workplace rather than ICT usage
Nick Bloom highlighted this fascinating paper during his recent talk at the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, and summarises some of the key findings in his LinkedIn post here. The main finding of the paper is that, in the United States, switching from working onsite to working from home can reduce up to 58% of carbon footprint of work. Indeed, it finds moving to two days working from home a week reduces carbon use by 11% (see FIG 25). An important paper that highlights how hybrid and remote working can contribute to efforts to reduce an organisation’s carbon footprint.
FIG 25
FROM MY DESK
October saw the final episode of Series 33 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, sponsored by Visier Inc., and the first two episodes of Series 34, sponsored by our friends at eQ8. Thank you to Adedamola Adeleke at Visier, and Chris Hare, Alicia Roach and Angela Shori at eQ8.
KAT BOOGAARD AND DAVID GREEN - 5 common people analytics challenges (and how to overcome them) – An interview with Kat Boogaard for Culture Amp, on the challenges today’s HR teams face in leveraging people analytics – as well as how they can effectively overcome them.
WENDY CUNNINGHAM AND PETER MEYLER - How to Achieve Data-Driven HR Excellence in a Highly Regulated Environment – Wendy Cunningham and Peter Meyler join me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast to share the evolution of people analytics at the Phoenix Group, how it supports the people strategy, and the role of technology.
NICK DALTON – Seven Waves: The Past, Present and Future of HR – Nick Dalton, formerly EVP of HR at Unilever and co-author of The HR (R)Evolution: Change the Workplace, Change the World, takes us on a journey through the past, present and future of the human resources function.
PIYUSH MEHTA - How to Create Personalised Employee Experiences – Piyush Mehta, chief human resources officer at Genpact, describes how the company uses technology and analytics to enhance and personalise the employee experience for its 120.000 employees: “The role of the CHRO is to make sure that the organisation has top-quality talent at the right place and at the right time, and then find a way to enable that talent to be able to stay on in the company and continue to build that talent engine.”
JESS VON BANK AND DAVID GREEN – Now of Work: Learnings from Unleash – I had the pleasure of joining the Mercer | Leapgen Now of Work Digital MeetUp to discuss learnings from Unleash with JESS VON BANK. Thanks to Jess and Jason Averbook for inviting me.
DAVID GREEN - Influencing the World of Work: Key learnings from The Insight222 Global Executive Retreat 2023 – My round-up of the key learnings from the recent Insight222 Global Executive Retreat in Colorado, which was attended by 60 people analytics leaders and senior HR executives from global organisations.
THANK YOU
Finally, this month I’d like to thank:
Racheli Gabel Shemueli and the teams at Pacífico Business School and APERHU - Asociación Peruana de Recursos Humanos for inviting me to speak at the 29th Human Capital Congress On October 24, 2023
The team at Thinkers360 for including me in their list of Top Voices 2023
Antonio Di Benedetto (here) and Rodrigo Santos (here) for posting about and recommending Excellence in People Analytics
Raja Sengupta for creating a heatmap topic model overview of some of the key topics covered in the Digital HR Leaders podcast over the years.
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 2023:
30 October - 1st People Analytics Conference Korea (Seoul - Virtual)
14-16 November - Workday Rising EMEA (Barcelona)
30 November - Indeed FutureWorks (Bengaluru)