The Best HR & People Analytics Articles of March 2020

 
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I don't operate on what I hope or what I would like to see or what my expectation is.

I operate on the data and on the numbers and on the science...

That was New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s riposte to President Trump’s assertion that New York doesn't need the tens of thousands of ventilators the governor has requested to tackle the Covid-19 health crisis.

The myriad ways in which data and science has been used by governments during the pandemic is one of the defining features of the crisis, and a boon for evidence-based decision making – albeit with one notable and reluctant exception in the Oval Office.

Companies too have put data at the centre of their response to Covid-19 and it is HR leaders and People Analytics teams who are at the fulcrum. Indeed, The Economist recently compared the role of the Chief People Officer in this crisis to that played by the Chief Financial Officer during the Global Financial Crisis: “In a pandemic, a chief people officer can make or break a company.”

The Economist article profiled how Chief People Officers Diane Gherson (IBM), Beth Galetti (Amazon) and Mala Singh (EA) are helping steer their companies through the crisis with people analytics at the fore

The pandemic makes people analytics more relevant

Covid-19 has increasingly dominated our hearts, our minds and our fears throughout March and is likely to do so in the months that lie ahead. The largest remote working experiment in history is in full throe and many of us are having to get used to juggling our work and home responsibilities whilst we isolate ourselves away from colleagues, friends and family.

However, first and foremost, this is a human tragedy. As such I want to pause and wish everyone reading this article good health to you, your family and your colleagues. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, March has been dominated by innumerate articles about Covid-19 including its impact on leadership, culture HR and people analytics. I’ve been collecting some of the best resources together in Covid-19: Resources for HR and People Analytics, which I’m updating twice a week. Some of these resources are highlighted below.

I also wanted to provide some relief from the pandemic, so the remainder of the articles are not directly about the crisis. The selection this month includes powerful articles from several people analytics leaders including: Patrick Coolen, Thomas Rasmussen, Serena Huang, Piyush Mathur, Richard Rosenow and Andrew Marritt. It’s a terrific collection and one I hope that will provide a brief respite from Coronavirus.

There's also news at the end of a terrific initiative by Al Adamsen, who has just this week launched the PAFOW Europe Online conference on 28-30 April.

Enjoy. Please share some data-driven love, and above all stay healthy, stay safe and stay at home.

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, HR AND PEOPLE ANALYTICS

DAVID GREEN - COVID-19 Resources for HR and People Analytics

The response by the HR and People Analytics community to the pandemic has been remarkable. I’ve sought personal solace in collecting together articles and resources, which I am updating twice a week. There are over 60 resources thus far, which I have organised into sections including: The role of HR, The role of People Analytics, Learning, Leadership & Culture, Remote Working, the Future post Covid-19 and external data sources. I highly recommend delving into the following:

 
FIG 1: Example of the kind of network analysis questions to ask of your data in an era of social distancing (Source: Dan George)

FIG 1: Example of the kind of network analysis questions to ask of your data in an era of social distancing (Source: Dan George)

 

EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

PATRICK COOLEN, JAAP VELDKAMP, ANOUK BREUGELMANS & SABRINA KORTEMAN - Visualizing the voice of the employee

Listening to our workforce and acting on what we learn has never been so important, so this article highlighting how ABN AMRO is combining continuous listening, employee experience and people analytics is extremely timely. The bank’s Continuous Listening Framework (see FIG 2) is presented together with insights on how people analytics is deployed to understand what is on the minds of employees. The article also includes how the People Analytics team is using text analytics, and how insights are visualised and shared every month with executives, managers and the workforce to create transparency and drive action.

FIG 2: ABN AMRO’s Continuous Employee Listening Framework (Source: Patrick Coolen et al)

FIG 2: ABN AMRO’s Continuous Employee Listening Framework (Source: Patrick Coolen et al)

JOSH BERSIN - Employee Experience: It's The #1 Issue At Work - Even Right Now

Josh provides a detailed analysis of LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends 2020 report, which found that Employee Experience and People Analytics are the two main trends affecting how companies hire and retain their workforce. The pandemic has only further elevated the importance of these two closely related fields. Josh’s analysis as ever strikes the right chord (“EX means that "we work for the employees" and not the other way around”), is insightful (Leading organisations “look at HR data, employee relationship data, engagement data, and business data - all in an integrated way. THIS is where People Analytics is going”), takes the study to a new level (see example in FIG 3) and also looks at the two other trends highlighted in the study (Internal Mobility and the Multi-Generational Workforce).

 
FIG 3: The evolution of the employee engagement market (Source: Josh Bersin)

FIG 3: The evolution of the employee engagement market (Source: Josh Bersin)

 

Leading organisations “look at HR data, employee relationship data, engagement data, and business data - all in an integrated way. THIS is where People Analytics is going

ANDREW MARRITT - How to think about potential effects of AI on your workforce

AI will have many different effects on the way we bundle tasks into jobs. The shift in cost structure that it enables will create new markets, rebalance resource allocation and provide opportunities for competitive advantage. In this article, Andrew Marritt examines the choices from a ‘human’ perspective, providing a helpful list of things to consider when deciding what should (or shouldn’t) be automated. As Andrew says: “Thinking of AI as simply reducing the need for workers is simplistic.” The reality will be far more nuanced.

I strongly believe that the best ‘AI’ related approaches involve, at least in some instances, a combination of humans and algorithms

PEOPLE ANALYTICS LEADERS ON PEOPLE ANALYTICS

THOMAS RASMUSSEN & RY CROZIER - NAB uses 'people analytics' to unlock power of 40k staff

A powerful account of Thomas Rasmussen’s recent speech at PAFOW Sydney, which highlights three people analytics use cases at National Australia Bank. The first case demonstrated how employee engagement drives customer satisfaction (“In branches where we have the highest employee engagement, the customer satisfaction is twice as high). The second case looks at how the bank uses people analytics to accelerate time-to-productivity in tandem with engagement for new hires (“There's significant value to be had by just extending time in role”). The third and final case looks at attrition in the bank’s call centres, which identified situations where more people were required (“when grade of service or workload drops below a certain level, it starts a chain of events that we can't control - a negative spiral.”). I’m fortunate to have known Thomas for a number of years and have also spent time with his team when I was in Melbourne in 2018. They are one of the leading teams on the planet and demonstrate clearly the value of investing in people analytics.

We have an abundance of research showing that if you treat your employees well, they will take care of your customers and that will take care of your shareholders

PIYUSH MATHUR & MANPREET RANDHAWA - 3 Tips for a New People Analytics Leader

Like Thomas, Piyush Mathur is one of the most accomplished people analytics leaders on the planet. I had the pleasure of sitting down with him earlier this year to record an episode of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, where we explored how he had developed the People Analytics function at Johnson & Johnson. In this article, Manpreet pulls out three tips from Piyush for aspiring people analytics leaders to learn from.

 
 

RICHARD ROSENOW - People Analytics: Platform Operating Model

Richard Rosenow is one of the most talented, collaborative and generous people in our space, and he may well have produced a masterpiece with this article that outlines his vision for a future people analytics platform operating model (see FIG 4). In what is a long but ultimately rewarding piece, Richard looks at the evolution of the traditional operating model many organisations have adopted before laying out his framework for the next phase, which Richard terms the platform operating model. With people analytics being elevated in the pandemic, Richard’s vision is likely to be envisioned sooner rather than later in many leading organisations around the world.

 
FIG 4: Envisioning a People Analytics Platform Operating Model (Source: Richard Rosenow)

FIG 4: Envisioning a People Analytics Platform Operating Model (Source: Richard Rosenow)

 

SERENA HUANG - My First 120 Days as Global Head of People Analytics at Kraft Heinz

If you land a new role as Head of People Analytics, how should you focus your efforts when you start? This helpful article from Serena Huang, who joined Kraft Heinz as their Global Head of People Analytics in October 2019, provides some clues. Highlights include creating a three-year roadmap and mission statement, assessing team structure and skills, creating and deploying a new employee listening strategy and taking steps to foster team collaboration. Impressive work.

While we have data, we are not merely data providers. We are here to solve business problems with data

ORGANISATIONAL NETWORK ANALYTICS

CHRIS SHEEDY - Social network analysis: what it is and why it matters | MICHAEL ARENA & KEVIN OSBORNE – How Organisational Network Analysis works in the real world

From conversations I’ve had with People Analytics Leaders since the advent of the pandemic, a number of them are using (or considering using) active and passive Organisational Network Analysis. As such, this pair of articles are both timely and helpful. First, Chris Sheedy provides a great description of what ONA (or as he terms it Social Network Analysis) is and why it is important. Then Michael Arena, one of the leading proponents of ONA and formerly of GM and now at Amazon, explains to Kevin Osborne how the practice works in the ‘real world’ providing several examples of his work. For more on ONA, please see: The role of ONA in People Analytics.

If anyone asks me to run a network analysis I ask the question, "for what?" What are you trying to solve? What is the challenge?

 

HR TECH

ADAM McKINNON & LEANDRA GRIEP – 4 key insights on the HR Tech landscape… analysis from London Unleash 2019

In normal circumstances the HR Tech cognoscenti would have gathered at the London’s ExCel for UNLEASH on 24-25 March. Sadly, the pandemic meant that Marc Coleman and the team had to cancel the event, and the ExCel is now being used for a much less happier purpose. If you had been planning to attend UNLEASH you will likely enjoy this ingenious study by Adam McKinnon and Leandra Griep, examining the HR Tech vendor landscape from the London show in 2019 network analysis. Key insights include: i) Talent Acquisition is a main influencer, and ii) People Analytics and Employee Experience are “up and coming”.

 
FIG 5: The “influence” of HR Tech Vendors from UNLEASH London 2019 (Source: Adam McKinnon and Leandra Griep – see live: https://www.kenedict.com/networks/hr_tech/)

FIG 5: The “influence” of HR Tech Vendors from UNLEASH London 2019 (Source: Adam McKinnon and Leandra Griep – see live: https://www.kenedict.com/networks/hr_tech/)

 

STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING

MANPREET RANDHAWA - Four Emerging Strategic Workforce Planning Trends

Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) 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. It is also an area that is seeing considerable evolution. As more emphasis is placed on workforce planning across organisations, four trends are emerging that are helping to reshape the way organisations approach SWP: i) SWP needs to be jointly owned with Finance and the business, ii) Using skills data to inform internal mobility, iii) Incorporating external labour market data, and iv) Focusing on tasks not jobs. 

Organisations that are effectively ‘doing’ strategic workforce planning experience an average of 10% higher business outcomes such as revenue per employee, ROE or profit per employee 

LEARNING

ALOK KSHIRSAGAR, TAREK MANSOUR, LIZ McNALLY & MARC METAKIS - Adapting workplace learning in the time of coronavirus

An excellent article by McKinsey on tactics and strategies companies can employ to support virtual workforce learning – a need exacerbated by the pandemic. This includes advice on creating a learning response team, adapting learning delivery and techniques to set up and deliver virtual sessions (see FIG 6).

FIG 6: How to create engagement and community in virtual learning sessions (Source: McKinsey)

FIG 6: How to create engagement and community in virtual learning sessions (Source: McKinsey)

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

GREGORY LEWIS - LinkedIn Data Shows Women Are Less Likely to Have Strong Networks — Here’s What Companies Should Do

Interesting research from LinkedIn highlighting that women around the world are 14-38% less likely to have as strong a network (in terms of size and diversity) than their male counterparts (see FIG 7). The article then provides three tips for recruiters and organisations to mitigate the ‘gender network gap’. After finishing this article, I recommend reading Greg Newman’s article: Moving from counting diversity to measuring inclusion.

 
FIG 7: Women are less likely than men to have a strong network (Source: LinkedIn)

FIG 7: Women are less likely than men to have a strong network (Source: LinkedIn)

 

PODCAST OF THE MONTH

ADAM GRANT – WorkLife: Burnout Is Everyone's Problem | KATICA ROY - AI’s Role in Achieving Gender Equity | COLE NUSSBAUMER KNAFLIC & DAVID GREEN - The role of storytelling in People Analytics and Data Visualisation

In my view, Adam Grant’s WorkLife is the doyen of podcasts, so I’m particularly pleased that Series 3 is now in full swing. Episode 1 on Procrastination (yes, me too) was superb but somehow topped by Episode 2 on Burnout. As Adam rightly points out: “During a pandemic, the jobs of health and safety workers become even more critical. As they put themselves in harm’s way, we need to make sure we care for the caregivers.” For more on this topic, read Adam’s recent New York Times article: Burnout Isn’t Just in Your Head. It’s in Your Circumstances. In the second podcast Katica Roy explains the role that AI and natural language processing can play in addressing bias in career development. Finally, Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic joined me on the Digital HR Leaders Podcast to talk about the critical role of storytelling in analytics and data visualisation.

 
 

VIDEOS OF THE MONTH

PETER HINSSEN - The Never Normal - How to thrive as a company in VUCA times

I’m excited that Peter Hinssen is an upcoming guest on the Digital HR Leaders Podcast (the episode will be released on 7th April). Peter is one of the best keynote speakers I’ve seen and a leading authority on how companies can thrive in disruptive times. In this video, Peter has created an abridged version of his keynote, which has been updated for our current troubled times. Brew a cup of tea, sit down and enjoy.

 
 

DAVE ULRICH - Discover Opportunities in This Present COVID-19 Crisis

Here’s a great initiative from Dave Ulrich. For every day, for ten days, starting from March 30, Dave is posting a series of 10 tips for discovering opportunity in a crisis with a daily 60-second video on LinkedIn. The first video is entitled ‘Learn Always’ and the other videos in the series are listed here.

RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH

MERCER - Win with Empathy: 2020 Global Talent Trends Study

I always enjoy the insights and fresh ideas offered in Mercer’s annual Global Talent Trends Study, and the 2020 edition does not disappoint – and the title ‘Win with Empathy’ is a timely clarion call for our current troubled times. The report highlights four trends and is full of charts, analysis, insights and case studies. The four trends are: i) Focus on future, ii) Race to reskill, iii) Sense with science, and iv) Energise the experience. At Insight222, we were delighted to contribute the FAIR values from the Ethics Charter we created with members of The People Analytics Program (see p43 of the report). The study also highlights a surge in the maturity level of organisations when it comes to people analytics (see FIG 8). A terrific read from Kate Bravery and the team.

 
FIG 8: Analytics maturity level 2016-20 (Source: Mercer 2020 Global Talent Trends)

FIG 8: Analytics maturity level 2016-20 (Source: Mercer 2020 Global Talent Trends)

 

CATCH UP ON THE DIGITAL HR LEADERS PODCAST

If you haven't listened to all of the episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, you can catch up now by clicking on the links below.

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PAFOW EUROPE ONLINE 28-30 APRIL

The conference world has been decimated by Covid-19, so a big shoutout to Al Adamsen, Barry Swales, Lara Osborne and the PAFOW team for quickly transitioning the PAFOW show in London from a traditional in-person event to a virtual conference from 28-30 April.

I'll be resuming my traditional role at PAFOW as co-chair with Al, albeit from the confines of my home office.

You can find out more about PAFOW Europe Online and how to join here, but with the program still coming together it's heartening to see that the likes of Josh Bersin, Madhura Chakrabarti, Patrick Coolen, Stacia Garr, Frida Polli and Adrian Medhurst are already confirmed alongside Al and me.

 
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If you’re looking to build the HR skills of the future checkout the myHRfuture academy and our online training courses. Our content helps HR practitioners to become more knowledgeable about how to get started in workforce planning, how to gain buy-in and how to implement every step of the workforce planning process Invest in your career and learn the HR skills of the future. The myHRfuture Academy provides you with an on-demand platform where you can get access to over 500+ pieces of short, bitesized learning content all expertly curated to help you build knowledge in the skills that you need to prepare for the future of HR. Get access to exclusive content on People Analytics, Digital HR & HR Technology, Design Thinking, Workforce Planning, Consulting & Influencing and Stakeholder Management. Whether you prefer to watch videos, listen to podcasts, read articles or complete an expert-led training course, myHRfuture has you covered.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Green is a globally respected writer, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As an Executive Director at Insight222, he helps global organisations create more cultural and economic value through the wise and ethical use of people data and analytics. Prior to joining Insight222 and taking up a board advisor role at TrustSphere, David was the Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM Watson Talent. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations embark upon and accelerate their people analytics journeys. 

People Analytics, Workforce Planning, Future of Work, Digital HRDavid GreenPeople Analytics, Digital HR, Digital HR Leaders, Future of WorkComment