The Best HR & People Analytics articles of January 2021

 
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“Hope” as principal character Andy Dufresne opines in The Shawshank Redemption “…is a good thing. Maybe the best of things.” And ‘hope’ has underpinned the first month of 2021. A new, more empathetic, more collaborative (and dare I say it, saner) incumbent in the White House, and the emergence of a number of vaccines to equip us in our struggle with the pandemic. 

In our field, January has also proved to be a momentous month. It saw significant developments in the field of people analytics technology. Stacia Garr provides insightful analysis on three: explaining why Workday’s acquisition of Peakon was no surprise, revealing the story behind the Qualtrics IPO and delving into Microsoft’s launch of Viva. The latter brings together Glint and Workplace Analytics, and threatens to further shake up the employee experience segment of the market. Like Stacia, I suspect we may see a scramble from other vendors to add continuous ‘passive’ data sources to their offering.

Two other interesting developments are Visier’s partnership with Emsi and One Model’s launch of its Labour Market Intel offering, which means their customers will be able to combine external labour market data and their internal people data into one single platform. All these developments demonstrate the buoyancy of the space captured by RedThread Research in their recent People Analytics Technology market study.

This collection of articles from January, which also highlights the quality of innovation in our field, is a little later than usual. That is because Jonathan Ferrar and I were putting the final touches to the manuscript for our book – Excellence in People Analytics, which will be published this summer. You’ll hear more about the book in the coming weeks and months, but let’s just say writing it has been a welcome distraction while being in lockdown in the UK!

Enjoy this month’s collection, and as ever – please share some data driven love with your network!

EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

LAURA STEVENS - Continuous Listening: Are We There Yet?

While Continuous Listening was already on the rise in HR, the onset of the global pandemic has seen many companies step up their efforts to listen, analyse and act on employee feedback - using both active and passive data. That makes this article from Laura Stevens especially timely. In it, Laura examines what four leading organisations are doing in the space, examines how continuous listening will evolve and provides guidance on the core principles that should underpin your continuous listening program (see FIG 1). Features extensive insights from: Patrick Coolen, Tertia Wiedenhof, Martijn Wiertz, Valérie Dubois and Stefan Hierl.

 
FIG 1: Four principles that should frame Continuous Listening programs (Source: Laura Stevens)

FIG 1: Four principles that should frame Continuous Listening programs (Source: Laura Stevens)

 

JONNY GIFFORD & JAKE YOUNG | CIPD - Employee engagement: an evidence review

Employee engagement is a firmly established HR topic and is referenced in decisions by investors, boards and managers alike. As such this thorough study by the CIPD is a hugely helpful resource. The research covers the meaning of employee engagement (see FIG 2), how to measure it, what drives it, and the link between engagement and performance. Thanks to Andrew Marritt for highlighting this resource in his Empirical HR newsletter.

 
FIG 2: A model of employee engagement as an umbrella term (Source: CIPD)

FIG 2: A model of employee engagement as an umbrella term (Source: CIPD)

 

JOSH BERSIN - The Crusade for Employee Experience: How Did We Get Here?

Josh provides a comprehensive overview of the history of Employee Experience (see FIG 3) and defines it as “a company-wide initiative to help employees stay productive, healthy, engaged, and on track.” In his overview of the ‘Design for Success’ phase, Josh suggests three keys to building a successful EX strategy: i) create a cross-functional initiative, ii) ‘design’ the experience you want, and iii) look at service delivery.

Done well, the EX program drives employment brand, productivity, engagement, retention, and customer success.

 
FIG 3: The Four Phases of EX History (Source: Josh Bersin)

FIG 3: The Four Phases of EX History (Source: Josh Bersin)

 

FUTURE OF WORK

AARON DE SMET, CHRIS GAGNON, AND ELIZABETH MYGATT - Organizing for the future: Nine keys to becoming a future-ready company

Future-ready companies share three characteristics: they know who they are and what they stand for; they operate with a fixation on speed and simplicity; and they grow by scaling up their ability to learn, innovate, and seek good ideas regardless of their origin. This article looks at nine organisational imperatives (see FIG 4) that will separate future-ready companies from the pack.

Experiment-and-learn environments encourage accelerated personal growth and improvement for employees

 
FIG 4: Nine organizational imperatives will separate future-ready companies from the pack (Source: McKinsey)

FIG 4: Nine organizational imperatives will separate future-ready companies from the pack (Source: McKinsey)

 

JAIME TEEVAN, BRENT HECHT & SONIA JAFFE - The New Future of Work- Research from Microsoft into the Pandemic’s Impact on Work Practices

We are in the midst of the largest remote working experiment in history. Since the start of the pandemic, Microsoft has been researching the impact of remote work and identifying opportunities to create new ways of working, with the aim that they will lead to a better future of work. The findings from the research, which references some of the work Dawn Klinghoffer’s People Analytics team have been involved in, are presented here.

FUTURE OF HR

DAVE ULRICH, NORM SMALLWOOD & ALAN TODD - HR’s Reinvention: Moving from Benchmarking and Best Practices to Guidance

In a recent episode of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast on the Future of HR, Dave Ulrich, together with Brigette McInnis-Day and Rupert Morrison, emphasised the need for HR to focus on creating, delivering and capturing value. In this article, Dave develops this theme further by suggesting that if HR wants to reinvent itself it has to pivot from a focus on benchmarking and best practice to a focus on guidance (see FIG 5),and he provides a six-step process on how to do so.

 
FIG 5: HR Reinvention: From Benchmarking to Best Practice to Guidance (Source: Dave Ulrich)

FIG 5: HR Reinvention: From Benchmarking to Best Practice to Guidance (Source: Dave Ulrich)

 

PEOPLE ANALYTICS

AMIT MOHINDRA - From Personnel Economics to People Analytics

Paying tribute to Edward Lazear, Amit Mohindra takes a look at Personnel Economics, a field which Lazear founded, and compares it to today’s People Analytics landscape. Personnel economics examines how firms attract, motivate, and retain employees and was a clear precursor of People Analytics, as it applied the economist's heavily quantitative toolkit to the improvement of the HR function.

ADAM D. MCKINNON - Show Me the Money! A People Analytics Guide to Measuring Impact Over Time

This article introduces Causal Impact Analysis — a method initially developed in product marketing — to demonstrate a way to quantify impact in HR. Causal Impact Analysis is an approach to estimate “the causal effect of a designed intervention on a time series.” An HR example would be: Does our recent marketing campaign, intended to encourage UK employees to reduce leave balances, have an impact? Also do check out Adam’s new website where this article can be found on.

 
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AMY ARMITAGE - Preparing for the New Era of Human Capital Transparency and Disclosure | KEVIN MARTIN - Companies must prepare to share much more non-financial data

Two articles that examine how a growing swell of investors, regulators and society at large are increasing the pressure on companies to publicly disclose information related to what Kevin Martin describes in his FT article as the ‘four P’s’: people, profit, planet and purpose. As Amy Armitage describes in her article, “the age of human capital transparency is upon us,” but is HR ready to grasp this opportunity? One suspects that the level of people analytics capability an organisation possesses will determine whether this is led by HR or Finance. Both Kevin and Amy provide some sound advice to help guide the way.

The era of greater transparency, reporting and disclosure of non-financial and human capital data has arrived.

STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING

Two brilliant and thoughtful pieces highlighting a shift in thinking on how to tackle workforce planning.

RAVIN JESUTHASAN AND JOHN BOUDREAU - Work Without Jobs

Following on from their popular work on reinventing jobs, Ravin Jesuthasan and John Boudreau look at why companies need a new operating system built on deconstructed jobs and organisational agility. They present a new work operating system based on four design principles: i) Start with the work (current and future talent) and not the existing jobs, ii) Combine humans and automation, iii) Consider the full array of human work engagements (such as employment, gig, freelance, alliances, projects, or other alternative work arrangements), and; iv) Allow talent to “flow to work” versus being dedicated to fixed, permanent jobs.

The rapid evolution of work is making it increasingly urgent for leaders, workers, organizations, and society to master deconstructed work.


ELIZABETH J. ALTMAN, DAVID KIRON, JEFF SCHWARTZ, AND ROBIN JONES - The Future of Work Is Through Workforce Ecosystems

Effectively managing a workforce comprising internal and external players (i.e. not only employees, but also contractors, gig workers, professional service providers, application developers, crowdsourced contributors, and others) in a way that is both aligned with an organisation’s strategic goals and consistent with its values is now a critical business necessity. As the authors suggest by highlighting four shifts, deploying workforce ecosystems as a structure for managing the new world workforce might be the best way forward. A good article highlighting the additional complexities involved in modern workforce planning as well as the need to shift away from legacy linear career paths.

Instead of (only) asking, “What workforce do I need for my strategy?” workforce ecosystems enable leaders to ask, “What strategy is possible with my workforce?”

LEARNING

CAROLINE STYR - 4 Steps to Building the HR Skills you need for the Future

Caroline highlights recent research from Degreed, which finds that only 43% of HR professionals believe their core skillset will erode in the next three years, and then explains why more urgency is required! She presents a four-step process designed to help support HR professionals acquire the skills they need to future proof their careers (see FIG 7) as existing skillsets continue to erode, and new skillsets emerge.

 
FIG 7: Four steps to building the HR skills of the Future (Source: Caroline Styr, myHRfuture)

FIG 7: Four steps to building the HR skills of the Future (Source: Caroline Styr, myHRfuture)

LEADERSHIP & CULTURE

MICHAEL SCHRAGE, BENJAMIN PRING, DAVID KIRON & DESMOND DICKERSON – Leadership’s Digital Transformation: Leading Purposefully in an Era of Context Collapse

A fascinating new research collaboration between MIT Sloan Management Review and Cognizant, which finds that employees expect digital transformation to better reflect and respect their concerns and values, not just boost business capabilities and opportunities. There are some interesting findings in the report that expose the differences between organisations depending on how purpose driven they are, such as FIG 8 on the importance of diversity and inclusion practices.

FIG 8: Diversity and Inclusion practices are a top management agenda item (Source: MIT Sloan Management Review and Cognizant)

FIG 8: Diversity and Inclusion practices are a top management agenda item (Source: MIT Sloan Management Review and Cognizant)

ROB CROSS, KAREN DILLON & DANNA GREENBERG - The Secret to Building Resilience

Since the start of the pandemic, there has been an increasing focus on resilience and how it positively influences engagement, wellbeing and stress. New research by Rob Cross, Karen Dillon and Danna Greenberg finds that resilience isn’t just down to individual grit but that it is heavily influenced by strong relationships and networks. Their article highlights the key findings of the research and provides guidance on how to identify your top resilience needs (see FIG 9) and advice on how to expand your network. As ever, as with everything Rob Cross is involved in, it provides fascinating reading.

FIG 9: Relational Sources of Resilience (Source: Rob Cross, Karen Dillon and Danna Greenberg)

FIG 9: Relational Sources of Resilience (Source: Rob Cross, Karen Dillon and Danna Greenberg)

MICHAEL ARENA – Adaptive Space: Shifting from Structural to Social Design

One of the biggest challenges facing organisations today is the need to be agile. To achieve this goal, leaders must seek a deeper understanding of the power of social interaction in furthering the flow of ideas, information and insight. Michael Arena, who featured in a recent episode of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, explains how building relational structures that foster 4D connections – discovery, development, diffusion and disruption – can usher in the new innovative ideas and concepts necessary to positively disrupt. The article contains several examples including one where two recently merged financial services companies used network analytics to help foster better collaboration and innovation (see FIG 10).

FIG 10: Financial Service Integration – 4 months and 7 months post-merger (Source: Michael Arena)

FIG 10: Financial Service Integration – 4 months and 7 months post-merger (Source: Michael Arena)

DIVERSITY

STACIA GARR & PRIYANKA MEHROTRA – Diversity Equity Inclusion Belonging (DEIB) Tech 2021: A Market Maturing to Meet the Moment

Stacia and Priyanka summarise the key findings from their second annual study of the DEIB Technology market, which perhaps buoyed by some of the unfortunate events of 2020 is booming. Key findings include that the number of DEIB vendors has risen to just under 200 and their combined size has more than trebled to USD $313 million. Interestingly, people analytics is highlighted as the primary challenge customers want vendors to solve whilst 30% of all DEIB vendor customers have less than 1,000 employees.


JOHN SUMSER - The Uncoded Bias in AI Hiring | ANNA TAVIS - New York City May be the First to Regulate Hiring Algorithms | DANIELLE LI - Design of hiring algorithms can double diversity in firms

Three articles specifically about the use of algorithms in hiring. First, John Sumser examines the ethical considerations raised by using machines in the hiring process (“Unlike people and their unconscious biases, machines can only change their approach with new measurement and new coding”). Then, in wake of a new bill being considered in New York to regulate hiring algorithms, Anna Tavis highlights the need for HR to adapt (“HR has to be prepared, technically and analytically better skilled and strategically sophisticated to work with vendors and legislators to be able to address this issue at all levels of complexity”). Finally, Danielle Li reveals findings of a recent MIT study that sought to answer the research question: What if an algorithm actively seeks out job applicants it knows less about, in order to continuously improve our understanding of which candidates will be a good fit?

If firms want to identify and hire the best applicants, they should consider building algorithms that understand the value of exploration and learning

 

ETHICS

TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC AND RICHARD BUCHBAND - If You’re Tracking Employee Behavior, Be Transparent About It

As I wrote in my 12 Trends for HR in 2021 article, one of the unwanted consequences of the largest remote working experiment in history has been the rise of a number of sinisterly named ‘employee monitoring’ tools, which are being used by some companies to snoop on their employees. The brilliant Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (writing here with Richard Buchband) shares my concern. They advocate a transparent approach whereby clear communication is provided to employees about corporate monitoring programs: what they are, why they’re being used and what benefits they provide (to employees as well as the company). Use of these technologies should go hand in hand with a transparent culture and a relationship of trust.

Our goal should be to instill trust and create an ethical climate where fairness and transparency are the dominant currencies, and people experience safety rather than stress or anxiety.

HR TECH

GEORGE LAROCQUE – USD $5 Billion HR Tech VC Floods Market in 2020

One of my go to market analysts, George Larocque, provides some great insights on the growth of investment in the HR Tech market. Despite the travails of the pandemic and uncertain economic situation, investment hit USD $5 billion for 2020 – the second highest in the last decade. The impact of the pandemic, and the consequent focus on collaboration, learning and wellness saw these areas lead the way in terms of monies invested (see FIG 11). 

FIG 11: Top ten HR Tech investment sub-categories (Source: George Larocque, Worktech)

FIG 11: Top ten HR Tech investment sub-categories (Source: George Larocque, Worktech)

BRIAN KROPP - 9 Trends That Will Shape Work in 2021 and Beyond | SOPHIA LEE - 3 ways to prove the ROI of HR | PAUL RUBENSTEIN - The new top challenge for HR teams: Get comfortable with being uncomfortable | SARAH DANZL - Upskilling is Key to Your Business Recovery Strategy

In this month’s round-up of the articles from HR Tech vendors that caught my eye we start off with Brian Kropp (Gartner) providing a thought-provoking set of trends that he believes will shape work in 2021. Sophia Lee (Culture Amp) highlights empowering managers, implementing active employee listening and embracing technology as three ways to demonstrate the ROI of HR. Paul Rubenstein (Chief People Officer at Visier) highlights three initiatives around workforce planning, diversity and inclusion, and employee experience that have emerged in the wake of the pandemic – and explains how people analytics and ONA can help. Finally, Sarah Danzl summarises the highlights from Degreed’s State of Skills Report 2021, which provides a plethora of insights not least that good data is holding back organisations from investing in skills and employees across all functions (see FIG 12) believe that the pandemic has accelerated thee need to acquire new skills.

FIG 12: Source: Degreed State of Skills Report, 2021

FIG 12: Source: Degreed State of Skills Report, 2021

PODCASTS OF THE MONTH

LEENA NAIR, ANISH SINGH & RACHAEL HENNIN - What's it like being CHRO of one of the biggest businesses in the world? | DAVID JAMES & SATOSHI PROBALA - Applying Digital Marketing To L&D at SwissRe | DANI JOHNSON, CHRIS PIRIE & CLINT KOFFORD – The Purpose Company

Three podcasts for your aural listening pleasure this month, which all feature practitioners doing ground-breaking work in their organisations. First, Leena Nair reveals what it’s like to lead HR at one of the world’s largest companies and why gritty optimism is important at this time. Next up Satoshi Probala tells David James how his team at SwissRe upskilled themselves in digital marketing approaches and tools to get closer to employees and create a compelling digital learning offering. Finally, Clint Kofford, Global Head of Talent Development at Johnson & Johnson, explains why purpose is the glue that holds talent together.

VIDEO OF THE MONTH

DAVE ULRICH, BRIGETTE McINNIS-DAY & RUPERT MORRISON – The Future of HR Panel Discussion

In a very special episode of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast Dave Ulrich, Brigette McInnis-Day, Head of HR at Google Cloud, and Rupert Morrison, CEO at orgvue join me to discuss the Future of HR in the wake of the crises of 2020. In a wide-ranging discussion we explore how HR can be more value and business focused, the skills Google looks for in its HR Business Partners, the impact of the pandemic on workforce planning, the shift towards analytics that provide guidance, why culture is at the heart of business success and the five emerging skills for HR professionals.

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

LARS SCHMIDT – Redefining HR – Transforming People Teams to Drive Business Performance | SØREN SMIT – Mastering Employee Experience – 16 Specific Steps to Take in Your EX Transformation

Having just submitted the manuscript for a book, I have a new-found respect for anyone who manages to author a book. I was fortunate enough to be sent two new books this month, which I am looking forward to devouring. First, my friend and all-round good egg Lars Schmidt has published his bible on Redefining HR: Transforming People Teams to Drive Business Performance, which features a Foreword by Katelin Holloway and insights from people professionals at the leading edge of HR’s transformation at companies including Hubspot, Reddit, Mastercard and Stripe. Second, Søren Smit has published what from leafing through is an excellent book on Mastering Employee Experience, with a Foreword from Thomas Rasmussen who highlights that EX is best served “when fully integrated with digital technology, continuous listening and people analytics, and when headed by a senior executive.”

TRAINING COURSE OF THE MONTH

RUPERT MORRISON, STEVE KELLY, OTTO PRETORIUS & CHRISTINA NAUGHTON – Data-Driven Organisation Design and Workforce Planning

In the latest course in the myHRfuture Academy, Rupert Morrison, Steve Kelly, Otto Pretorius and Christina Naughton provide a practical, end-to-end guide on how to do data-driven organisation design and workforce planning. This training course will help you to understand the ‘work’ not just the workforce, so that by using data and analytics you're able to build a framework to understand the roles, skills, objectives and activities that are available in your organisation today, and that your business needs for the future.

FROM MY DESK

Most of January was taken up with finishing the book, but we did manage to get some excellent episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast out there, as well as another labour of love…

The best HR and People Analytics articles of 2020

My annual collection of the best articles from the previous 12 months numbers 60 articles for 2020, cover a broad range of topics and highlight how people analytics moved into the mainstream in what proved to be a momentous year.

How Singapore uses skills data to support lifelong learning

Wenshan Xu, for SkillsFuture SG joined me on the Digital HR Leaders Podcast to talk to me about how Singapore connects employers, education providers and citizens together to create a skills and learning ecosystem, to meet the changing requirements of jobs in the country.

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How HR enables business transformation at Prudential Financial

Wagner Denuzzo, the Head of Capabilities for Future of Work, joined me on the Digital HR Leaders Podcast to describe the work he leads at Prudential Financial, which is designed to create an extraordinary end-to-end employee experience.

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'All eyes on HR' : Predictions for HR in 2021

Finally, Ian Bailie and I got together for a special episode of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast to kick off the year. Ian and I ponder whether the ‘future of work’ is already here, how HR can capitalise on the pivotal role it has played in the crisis, examine the growth of people analytics, discuss how skills, learning and careers are coming together, and assess what all this means for the HR function.

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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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David 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. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast on myHRfuture.

SEE ME SPEAK AT THESE EVENTS

I’ll be chairing and/or speaking about how to drive business value and employee experience through people analytics as well as the Nine Dimensions for Excellence in People Analytics model at the following upcoming events:

People Analytics, Future of Work, Digital HR, Customer Experience of HR, Workforce PlanningDavid GreenPeople Analytics, Workforce Analytics, Workforce Planning, Strategic Workforce Planning, HR Strategy, HR Skills of the Future, Digital HR StrategyComment