The Most Popular HR & People Analytics Resources of 2020
2020 has been one for the history books. The global pandemic and economic crises of 2020 have highlighted the importance of HR as function, with the role of the CHRO in the pandemic being likened to that of the Chief Financial Officer in terms of importance in navigating the 2008-9 global financial crisis.
Another key function that has supported organisations through the Covid-19 crisis is People Analytics. At Rabobank, for example, the People Analytics team helped the business respond quickly to changing employee needs. In just five days, Tertia Wiedenhof, People & Insights Product Owner, Martijn Wiertz, Employee Listening Lead and their colleagues developed and deployed employee listening surveys to understand employee needs during the pandemic. As Tertia explains: “People were open with us, and as a result, we revealed a number of insights that helped Rabobank respond to the enforced ‘work from home’ shift that gripped the nation and most of the working world.”
Our recent research at Insight222, conducted with 60 global organisations during the pandemic, finds that people analytics continues to grow, investment in analytics technology is increasing and leading people analytics teams are reorganising themselves to focus on business challenges and delivering value at scale.
We’ve also seen the future of work accelerate faster than anyone could have predicted, with the majority of organisations being forced to shift to a hybrid model of work almost overnight. Despite this huge disruption in the way many employees are now working, one area that has remained consistent throughout 2020 is a focus on building a data-driven culture and capability in HR. We’ve really seen this come to life through the continued engagement and sheer number of certifications awarded to members of the myHRfuture Academy.
As we near the end of the year we thought we’d share some of the most popular HR and People Analytics resources being leveraged to support HR professions build their data-driven skills. Take a look at the list below — we’ve curated the most popular blogs, people analytics certifications and Digital HR Leaders podcast episodes of 2020 to help you kick 2021 off with a bang and press PLAY on your Career®.
The most popular blogs of 2020
Four Emerging Strategic Workforce Planning Trends
Strategic workforce planning is one of the key components of effective human capital management and a topic widely discussed as having an ever-growing importance on the future of work and an area that is seeing considerable evolution. As more emphasis is placed on workforce planning across organisations, we’re seeing new trends emerging that are really evolving the way that workforce planning is carried out and shaping what ‘good’ strategic workforce planning looks like.
2. COVID-19: The Role of HR & People Analytics in the Crisis
In this article David Green has gathered together resources and provided commentary aimed at helping HR and People Analytics teams care for their workforces and support their organisations during the crisis and beyond as we hopefully begin to emerge on the other side. It is designed to complement his earlier collection of 120+ Covid-19 resources for HR and People Analytics.
3. What are the Skills needed to Create a Culture of Lifelong Learning?
Innovation does not just change our behaviour, but also what we need to master to be relevant in the economy. Simply put, the faster we innovate, the faster jobs are redesigned to incorporate new technologies. The data on this issue suggests that there is a general trend towards more relationship-based and expertise-driven work. However, it also suggests that the type of expertise deployed is also changing more quickly. This results in a shrinking shelf life of technical skills. This is why concepts like ‘growth mindset’ and ‘agile mindset’ have caught the attention of business and HR leaders. In this blog Lewis Garrad outlines the critical core skills necessary to create a culture of lifelong learning within an organisation.
4. People Analytics in 2020: Growth, Leading Practices, Case Studies and Ethics
David reflects on LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends 2020 report as well as research by Insight222 to examine the state of People Analytics. David examines the accelerating growth of People Analytics, the successful practices of leading organisations, case studies from the likes of Microsoft, HSBC, Nestlé and Unilever and how ethics is the foundation of delivering value from workforce data.
5. How Companies are using Talent Marketplaces to Promote Internal Mobility
Careers are changing. The era of linear career paths as the #1 form of professional growth is coming to an end. Slowly but surely, “career switches” are becoming less of a surprise (or even concern) as the global workforce acknowledges the rapidly changing job market. What’s more, the spotlight is on lifelong learning to keep employee skillsets – and employees – agile throughout their careers. In this blog Caroline Styr examines the role of the Talent Marketplace in attracting and retaining top talent, along side the three components of a culture that supports internal mobility and talent marketplace adoption.
What were the top skills being built by HR professions in 2020?
As the myHRfuture academy continues to grow, here are the most popular certifications people are taking to build their data-driven capability…
1. The People Analytics Starter Kit.
The ‘People Analytics Starter Kit’ learning pathway, empowers you to build the technical skills and knowledge you need to drive real success with your People Analytics projects that result in actionable outcomes. By completing this certification you’ll build a foundational knowledge of what people analytics is and its importance within an organisation. You’ll also understand why HR needs to be data-driven and how to create excellence in your people analytics projects.
2. Analysing and Interpreting HR Dashboard Data
The course explores the types of questions you might start to ask as you conduct your analysis and how you can look at the data from multiple angles. In each module, we explore some of the different ways that you might look to slice and dice the data to test your hypothesis and how having conducted your analysis, you can start to translate that analysis into insights. The course also walks through examples of how to ensure that you add relevant business context to your analysis and present your recommendations back to the business in a way that your stakeholders understand the story you are telling and will take action on your recommendations.
3. Building a Workforce Planning Capability
The ‘Building a Workforce Planning Capability’ learning pathway empowers you to build the technical skills and knowledge you need, to be able to align the changing needs of your organisation with your people strategy. By completing this certification you’ll build a foundational knowledge of what workforce planning is and why it is an important process for organisations to invest in. You’ll also build the core skills you need to get started with workforce planning.
4. An Introduction to People Analytics
The objective of this course is to provide aspiring people analytics professionals and HR business partners with a solid foundation in why HR analytics is critical to helping HR provide real business value. By taking this course you will get an excellent grounding in what people analytics is, and how the best companies are using HR analytics to become more successful and provide an exceptional employee experience.
5. Getting Started with Workforce Planning
Workforce planning is a core business process to align changing organisation needs with people strategy. As companies try to create more agile organisations with a mix of full-time, part-time, permanent, contractor and freelance talent, the ability to plan effectively, forecast skill gaps, and understand the supply and demand of talent has never been more important.
What are the most popular episodes of the Digital HR Leaders podcast?
Over the course of 2020 we’ve had some of the most amazing, trailblazing HR leaders join us over the 6 series of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, below we’ve shone a spotlight on the top five most listened to episodes of 2020.
1. How to Create Psychological Safety at Work with Amy Edmondson
Psychological safety is present when colleagues trust and respect each other and feel able, even obligated, to be candid - those are the words of Amy Edmondson. In this episode Amy and David discuss The definition of psychological safety, what it is and what it is not. The role of leaders and HR in creating psychological safety and the link between psychological safety and culture, learning, and innovation, as well as how to create psychological safety in virtual teams.
2. How to Scale Employee Experience with Volker Jacobs CEO at TI People
Employee experience is pretty much the biggest topic in HR and it's set to get even bigger in 2021. In this episode we speak to Volker Jacobs CEO of TI-People about how to scale employee experience. Why employee experience is growing in importance, who owns it and why a change in manager mindset is required to implement EX properly. Volker also shares how to move from strategy to execution by integrating initiatives in areas like employee listening, journey mapping, and digital technology.
3. Making Learning a Habit that Matters at Ericsson Interview with Vidya Krishnan
Vidya Krishnan, Chief Learning Officer and Global Head of Learning and Development at Ericsson, is at the cutting edge of driving a culture where learning is a habit that matters. In this episode she shares with David Green why she believes the future of learning is wrapped up in the future of people analytics and how to build a skills driven organisation that helps employees identify the skills that they need to grow.
4. How IBM is Reinventing HR with AI and People Analytics Interview with Diane Gherson
During her time as CHRO, Diane led the redesign of all aspects of IBM’s people agenda and management systems to shape a culture of continuous learning, innovation and agility. She has also digitally transformed the HR function, incorporating AI and automation across all offerings resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of net benefits. In this episode Diane discusses how IBM has created a marketplace for talent, encompassing skills, personalised learning, career management and internal mobility.
5. The Role of HR in the Future of Work (Interview with Ravin Jesuthasan
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the changes to the Future of Work. Many of the trends we expected to develop over the next year have come to pass quicker than expected. In this episode Ravin Jesuthansan shares the six imperatives that comprise HR 4.0 which include building an agile learning culture, developing new leadership capabilities, and enhancing the employee experience.
So that’s it for our roundup of content for 2020. We’re excited to launch and share even more great content with you all in 2021 and would love to know what your focus areas are for the year ahead or if there are specific topics you’d like to see us share more insight and information on. Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you that has taken the time to read our content, join the myHRfuture Academy and subscribe to our newsletter, we look forward to helping you Press PLAY on your Career® in 2021.
Happy Holidays from the team at Insight222.