The best HR & People Analytics articles of May 2021

Welcome to my regular collection of the best HR and People Analytics resources of the month, and second edition as a LinkedIn ‘newsletter’.

If you enjoy a weekly dose of curated learning (and the Digital HR Leaders Podcast), the Digital HR Leaders newsletter comes out every Tuesday – subscribe here.

One of my favourite television dramas of recent months is Deutschland 89, which is based around the fall of the Berlin Wall and how this catalysed change for both East and West Germans. The pandemic seems to be acting as a similar accelerant propelling us forward to a hybrid future of work albeit laced with uncertainty and a sprinkling of chaos.  

Consider the following. Firstly, according to new research from McKinsey, only 10% of business leaders expect their office workers to spend more than 80% of their time in the office (compared to 99% prior to the pandemic). Secondly, the bi-annual Edelman Trust Barometer has for the first time, placed employees as the most important stakeholder to a company’s long-term success. Lastly, Heather McGowan writes that we have entered a new age – the human capital era – and pulls together a number of data points as evidence. All these three resources are featured in this month’s selection, which collectively captures that HR has never been so important. It’s our time to shine.

While there is much talk about return to workplace we must not forget that in some parts of our world, Covid-19 continues to wreak a devastating effect. My heart goes out in particular to readers from India, which is suffering from a deadly second wave.

On a happier note, I am pleased to confirm that Excellence in People Analytics: How to Use Workforce Data to Create Business Value, my new book with Jonathan Ferrar, will be published in July. The book features 30 new case studies from leading companies including Microsoft, HSBC, Syngenta, Capital One, Bosch, Uber, Santander Brasil and American Eagle Outfitters, all assembled together around the Insight222 Nine Dimensions in People Analytics? model.

Finally, I’d like to offer a big thank you to Human Resource Executive for including me in their Top 100 HRTech Influencers list for the third successive year. This year’s list sees an influx of people analytics practitioners, chief human resources officers and others at the forefront of redefining our field, so it’s a real honour to be part of this group.

Enjoy reading, and please share some data driven HR love liberally with your colleagues and networks.

THE FUTURE OF WORK

ANDREA ALEXANDER, RICH CRACKNELL, AARON DE SMET, MEREDITH LANGSTAFF, MIHIR MYSORE & DAN RAVID - What executives are saying about the future of hybrid work

New research from McKinsey highlights the extent to how the pandemic has accelerated the future of work: only 10% of executives now expect their office workers to spend more than 80% of their time in the office compared to 99% prior to the pandemic. However, that’s where the clarity ends as most organisations (68%) don’t have a plan communicated or in place for hybrid work. There are a plethora of other insights and powerful visualisations not least that companies with the biggest productivity increases during the pandemic are also those that have actively encouraged and enabled ‘small moments of engagement’ among their employees (see FIG 1): “These organizations are preparing for hybrid working by training managers for remote leadership, by reimagining processes, and by rethinking how to help employees thrive in their roles.”

 FIG 1: Organizations that have kept employees connected have also tended to see their productivity increase (Source: McKinsey)

HEATHER E. McGOWAN - The Future of Work is the Human Capital Era: How We Got Here

As futurist Heather McGowan explained to me in an episode of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, the pandemic has acted as a catalyst to accelerate the future of work. Heather’s view is that this has shifted us into a new era – the human capital era, and in her coruscating article for Forbes, she explains how we got here. As ever, Heather draws on a number of sources to weave a compelling narrative complete with brilliant visualisations. Highlights include: how we have treated humans as a cost to contain rather than as the main generator of value (84% of enterprises value on S&P 500 – see FIG 2), we have under invested in humans halting social mobility (In 1950 you had a 90% chance of doing better than your parents, by 1980 that dropped to 50%), racism is not only immoral, it is expensive (costing $16 trillion over the past 20 years), income inequality depresses growth (perhaps as much as 1% of GDP), and much more. A history lesson and a signpost to (hopefully) a better future. 

FIG 2: The source of value creation has inverted from tangible/physical capital to intangible/human capital (Source: Heather McGowan)

KRISTIN STOLLER - Employees Are More Vital To A Company’s Success Than Shareholders, New Survey Finds | CYDNEY ROACH – Employees now considered the most important group to companies long-term success. What are the boardroom implications?

There’s a neat thread from Heather McGowan’s article on the shift to the human capital era with this pair of articles, which provide insights from the latest data from the Edelman Trust Barometer. This sees a shift in power with employees now regarded as the most important stakeholders to a company’s long-term success (see FIG 3). The Edelman research tallies nicely with a recent Gallup survey cited in Kristin Stoller’s article, which found that companies with engaged employees can see profitability increase by 21%. 

FIG 3: Employees are now seen as the most important stakeholders to long-term success (Source: Edelman, May 2021).

JOSH BERSIN - The Joys of Hybrid Work. Ten Things We Have Learned

As Josh writes in the introduction to his article summarising what he’s learned about hybrid working: “Remote Work is here to stay. Not only did we thrive during the Pandemic, but two-thirds of employees prefer it.” His ten lessons include: i) Hybrid work is good for business, ii) Focus on Culture (“We are not ‘going back’ to the office, we are ‘going forward’ to a new, hybrid work culture”), iii) Integrate hybrid work with wellbeing, iv) Experiment with new ideas, and perhaps most importantly v) Trust (“Work is not a ‘place’ – it’s ‘what people do.’ You and your leadership have to trust people.”). Josh also offers (see FIG 4) his thoughts on the shift from HR Tech to Work Tech.

FIG 4: The big shift: integrating work and life (Source: Josh Bersin)

PEOPLE ANALYTICS

ANDREW GORDON, DAVID F. LARCKER & COURTNEY YU - Human Capital Disclosure: What Do Companies Say About Their “Most Important Asset”? | AMY ARMITAGE - Human Capital Disclosure Facts & Stats

The momentum around human capital disclosure, which I spoke with Adam Etzion of Gloat about back in February continues to gather pace. The first paper from Andrew Gordon et al examines the early choices by companies of human capital disclosure following the SEC guidelines that were issued last year. Perhaps not surprisingly, they find that diversity and inclusion is the area most frequently added. The paper also details the exceedingly generic nature of language used by companies, the metrics that are being disclosed and why this all matters. For more on this human capital disclosure, I recommend delving into Amy Armitage’s invaluable collection on this topic.

FIG 5: Topic areas discussed in Human Capital Management disclosure (Source: Gordon et al)

ANSHUL SHEOPURI & BRENDA SWATEK - Three lessons learned from reinventing and digitizing HR workflows

Analytics, digital technologies and a focus on elevating the employee experience are combining to reinvent HR at IBM as Anshul and Brenda share in their short but insightful article. They offer three key learnings from their work so far: i) Don’t just automate. Re-imagine work (“The first lesson of automation was to re-imagine work before we automate”), ii) Design for speed. Build for scale (“It's not enough just to design for speed for the first few pilots. It is also important to be able to scale to hundreds of use-cases.”), and; iii) Skills is the new currency (“Re-imagining work is about new ways of working. Giving HRBPs the tools to acquire and practice new skills is critical for success”).

With HRBPs leveraging automated solutions for their day-to-day work, they are freed up to strengthen their strategic and consultative partnering skills

ASHISH PARULEKAR - Want a career with meaning, impact and rapid growth? consider People Analytics | DAVID RENE TAY - Why I rejected a senior HR position for an internship in HR Data Analytics

People analytics is one of the fastest growing areas in business. In 2020, LinkedIn reported that it had seen a 242% increase in HR professionals with data analysis skills over the previous five years. Our research at Insight222 last year found that 60% of organisations expected to grow their people analytics functions in the following 18-24 months. These two articles provide a pair of illuminating insights into what attracts people to join the field. In the first article, Ashish Parulekar explains what attracted him to shift from a successful career in marketing and customer management to a head of people analytics role at Capital One. Ashish explains: “People analytics can provide deep meaning, the opportunity to make a massive impact at a global level and to get handsomely rewarded.” In the second article, David Rene Tay explains why he turned down a senior HR position and instead took an internship in people analytics at JLL. His analysis of the difference between a HR Analyst and HR Data Analyst (see FIG 6) is especially insightful. 

FIG 6: HR Analyst vs. HR Data Analyst (Source: David Rene Tay)

KEVIN MOORE - People Analytics and NFTs - A New Innovation Journey

One of my motivators for curating this selection of resources each month is to support my own learning. I certainly learnt something new reading Kevin Moore’s article about the world of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), which as he advises are starting to gain traction on the Ethereum Blockchain. He shares research for the use of Blockchain in HR (citing insights from Gary V and my go-to for Blockchain in HR – Andrew Spence), and describes how People Analytics practitioners might use NFTs in the future.

TERENCE TSE, DILPREET SALL, MARK ESPOSITO AND DANNY GOH - Five steps for companies to make AI pilots a success

In our recent research at Insight222, we presented a new operating model for people analytics, which is designed to scale business value across an organisation. This model is built of three engines, with the third engine being a Product Engine comprised of designers, product engineers and change managers to design, build, iterate and implement valuable analytics offerings at scale across the enterprise. This article via LSE is a helpful companion piece. The authors present a five-step ‘AI Factory’ methodology to improve the odds of success in AI adoption, in an attempt to help more organisations join the “13%” who deliver measurable business results. The steps include (see FIG 7): use case gathering, business analysis, technical feasibility assessment, development of pilot, development of implementation proposal.

FIG 7: AI Factory (Source: Terence Tse, Dilpreet Sall, Mark Esposito and Danny Goh)

DANIEL KAHNEMAN, OLIVER SIBONY, JULIA SPERLING-MAGRO & ROBERTA FUSARO - Sounding the alarm on system noise | KARA SWISHER & DANIEL KAHNEMAN – Daniel Kahneman says humans are noisy (He’s not talking about volume)

Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow is often cited as an influence by many in the fields of people analytics and occupational psychology. Perhaps not surprisingly his new book – co-authored with Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein - Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, which explores topics such as human decision making, biases, judgement errors and the role of technology in enhancing human decision-making, is hotly anticipated. In the first article, Kahneman and Sibony explore key concepts in the book, including “noise”, with Julia Sperling-Magro and Roberta Fusaro from McKinsey. The second article is actually an episode of The New York Times’ Sway podcast, where Kara Swisher talks to Kahneman about how companies and individuals can reduce noise, how systems can become fairer and whether we would all be better off if we let some of these decisions be made by machines.

The answer is not to reject all algorithms; it is to make sure algorithms are not biased.

THE EVOLUTION OF HR

DAVE ULRICH - To Be More Effective in HR: Make the Whole More Than the Parts | PATRICK WRIGHT - HRCS Round 8: Navigating HR's Impact

Last month I featured Dave Ulrich’s preview of the eighth round of the HR Competency Study Mike Ulrich, Patrick Wright and Erin Burns led (with Dave advising) on behalf of Ross Executive Education at the University of Michigan and The RBL Group, which studied data from 29,000 HR and non-HR professionals. In his article, Dave summarises how the research intends to help reinvent HR’s impact through three questions and five paths (see FIG 8) encompassing the competencies HR professionals need to deliver results (Path A), the characteristics of an effective HR department (Path B), the individual competencies shaping HR department effectiveness (Path D), the business capabilities HR should to create to deliver business results (Path C) and the individual HR competencies to help embed business capabilities (Path E). For a deeper dive on the results of the study, I recommend reading Patrick Wright’s article.

FIG 8: Reinventing how to Navigate HR’s Impact HR Competency Study Round 8 (Source: Dave Ulrich)

WORKFORCE PLANNING

ALICIA ROACH - Elevating Human Capital - To Infinity & Beyond . . . with SWP

As someone with children who grew up endlessly watching Toy Story, an article about workforce planning that references Buzz Lightyear was bound to catch my attention – and as with Alicia Roach’s previous articles on the topic, this is a highly recommended read. Alicia presents a model - the 5 Cs of SWP success, an approach grounded in tangible measures to help organisations demonstrate how workforce planning tracks and delivers business impact. The 5 Cs are: capacity, capability and composition (that’s one!), cost, commercial, community and creation (see FIG 9).

FIG 9: The Five C’s of Strategic Workforce Planning Success (Source: Alicia Roach, eQ8)

ETHICS

ANDREW BURT - New AI Regulations Are Coming. Is Your Organization Ready? | JOHN SUMSER - How the EU’s AI rules will alter HR’s relationship with tech | RUTH YEO - What the GDPR Shows Us About the Future of AI Regulation

When Insight222 was formed in 2017, the first co-creation we developed with clients of the Insight222 People Analytics Program? was an Ethics Charter. In part, the need for this work was driven by the EU’s GDPR, which came into effect in May 2018. More legislation of this nature is on the way. In Andrew Burt’s HBR article, he examines the underlying story behind moves in recent weeks by government bodies — including U.S. financial regulators, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and the European Commission — announcing guidelines or proposals for regulating artificial intelligence. John Sumser looks specifically at the EU proposals, and how this will impact HR technology. As he explains: “The proposed regulation implies that both the vendors of automated HR AI systems and their customers need to be fully competent to manage and override AI in HR.” Finally, Ruth Yeo, Visier’s Privacy Director, highlights four GDPR principles (accountability, fairness, data minimisation and security, and transparency) that impact AI regulations. 

As an HR leader, it’s imperative that you understand where the AI is in your organization, how it works, how to turn it off and where it is likely to make errors

LEARNING

FABIAN BILLING, AARON DE SMET, ANGELIKA REICH & BILL SCHANINGER - Building workforce skills at scale to thrive during—and after—the COVID-19 crisis

In the work we do at Insight222 to help build data and digital capabilities in HR functions, we’ve seen a huge spike in demand since the start of the pandemic. McKinsey’s latest global survey finds that this focus on skills building is not confined to HR, with 69% saying their organisations are doing more now than they did before the pandemic began. This article, summarising the key findings, is rich in insights and visualisations including i) the skills enjoying the most focus (soft and advanced cognitive skills), ii) nine key practices that support a skills transformation (see FIG 10), and iii) the formats required to drive success in skills building (FIG 11).  

FIG 10: Nine key practices to support a skill transformation (Source: McKinsey)

FIG 11: The most successful format for building skills (Source: McKinsey)

JOEL PHILIP BROWN Jr - Proving the impact of your learning initiatives

This excellent article tackles the Holy Grail of learning: ‘How do we evaluate the impact of a learning program in a way that isolates its effect on performance from other confounding factors?’ It highlights that despite an increasing desire to use analytics to measure impact, most companies only: “…routinely capture Level 1 (reaction) and Level 2 (learning) data, level 3 (behavior) and level 4 data (results) are obtained by just 35 percent of organizations.” While warning of the danger presented by correlations, a practical example using pilot testing is presented (see FIG 12) to support learning evaluation. Thanks to Lavinia Mehedintu for highlighting this in her excellent weekly Offbeat newsletter on L&D.

FIG 12: Isolated performance of learners in two pilots and a baseline group (Source: Joel Philip Brown Jr)

EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

LEENA NAIR – How we take care of our people at Unilever | AMAN KIDWAI Feat: VANESSA OTAKE, PATRICK HULL & BEN REUVENI - Inside Unilever's program that allows employees to try out new jobs and gig working opportunities at the company

I’m often asked to provide examples of HR functions that are driving business outcomes and employee experience through combining analytics, technology and culture. These two articles, which focus respectively on wellbeing and career development, provide ample evidence as to why Unilever is one of the first names that always comes to mind. In the first article, chief human resources officer Leena Nair shares a summary of Unilever’s impressive wellbeing program (“people’s wellbeing is at the core of an organisation’s success”). While, the second article delves into Flex Experiences, which helps drive career development and internal mobility at Unilever. Three perspectives are shared. First from Vanessa Otake, who took advantage of the program to shift from a career in R&D to a D&I role overseeing gender equity. Then Patrick Hull, vice-president of Future of Work, provides insights into this thriving internal talent marketplace. Finally, Ben Reuveni, founder of Gloat, explains how a focus on skills helps break down siloes. For more on this topic, have a listen to my recent podcast discussion with Jeroen Wels on Unilever’s thriving internal talent marketplace.

For every $1 invested in employee wellness programs, Unilever sees a $2.50 return. This isn't just the right decision, it's the only responsible business decision.

LEADERSHIP, CULTURE & WELLBEING

AMY EDMONDSON AND TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC - 5 ways organizations can encourage employees to fight back against toxic leadership

The benefits of workplaces where people are willing to speak up are numerous, ranging from improved team performance to innovation, to employee satisfaction. When employees believe that it’s not safe to speak up, their colleagues and companies are at greater risk of accidents, quality problems, stagnation, and even scandals. Amy Edmondson and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic look at five ways to cultivate a culture that encourages speaking out against toxic leadership including training and developing leaders on psychological safety.

If organizations invested more in developing critical leadership skills they will improve team effectiveness and organizational culture

CAROLINE STYR – What is the Role of the CHRO in Improving Employee Wellbeing? | BEN LAKER & THOMAS ROULET - How Organizations Can Promote Employee Wellness, Now and Post-Pandemic

Recently, in an episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, I was fortunate to be joined by two fantastic leaders – Arianna Huffington, Global Founder and CEO of Thrive Global and Donna Morris, CHRO at Walmart to discuss the role of the CHRO, workforce agility and wellbeing. In this article, Caroline Styr covers recent research on employee wellbeing and burnout (see recent McKinsey data in FIG 13) and summarises Arianna and Donna’s top tips for tackling wellbeing in the workplace, including the role of the CHRO. Read alongside Ben Laker’s (a professor of leadership at Henley Business School at the University of Reading) and Thomas Roulet’s (a senior lecturer in organization theory at the Judge Business School and a fellow in sociology and management at Girton College, both at the University of Cambridge) piece for MIT Sloan Management Review, which provides evidence on how when leaders support mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, it benefits both the workforce and the company. The writers also introduce (see FIG 14) a ‘Sieve Model of Addressing Mental Health Issues in the Workplace.’ 

FIG 13: Level of burnout felt by employees (Source: McKinsey)

FIG 14: A Sieve Model of Addressing Mental Health Issues in the Workplace (Source: Ben Laker, Thomas Roulet)

STEVEN BAERT & LARRY EMOND - 'Unbossing' Leaders at Novartis AG

In an upcoming episode (due for release on 22 June) of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, I’ll be talking to Steven Baert, Chief People & Organisation Officer at Novartis about their ‘inspired, curious and unbossed’ culture and how it has been applied to the company’s approach to performance management. This discussion between Steven and Larry Emond of Gallup is the perfect hors d’oeuvre as it digs into what ‘unbossing leaders’ means (“It's a provocative term for empowerment, based on behavioral theories around human motivations for change”) and its relevancy in the way work gets done today (“The real value of human capital is the ability to innovate in extremely complex situations. Making sense of very complex situations requires a different type of leadership.”).

BRIAN KROPP, ALEXIA CAMBON AND SARA CLARK - What Does It Mean to Be a Manager Today?

According to the authors of this article, three trends are disrupting the role of the manager: Normalisation of remote work, automation, and changing employee expectations. These three trends have culminated in a new era of management where it’s less important to see what employees are doing and more important to understand how they feel. Organisations can develop modern managers by training in empathy, building resilient manager networks and optimising reporting lines.

Organizations that equip managers to be empathic by holistically addressing the three common barriers — skill, mindset, and capacity — will achieve outsized returns on performance in the post-Covid-19 world

HR TECH

THOMAS OTTER – AI in HR Tech and the Carbolic Smoke Ball legal case

Thomas Otter’s column for Unleash continues to be packed full of insights and sound advice when it comes to HR Tech. In this edition, Thomas helps break through the hype to demystify the talk about AI and machine learning in HR. He distils 14 questions to ask vendors. The parable Thomas describes of ‘The Carbolic Smoke Ball’ provides some nice context.

Ask the vendor for their opinion on the new proposed EU AI regulations

TOON VAN DER VEER & ALIA NAWRAT - Inside AB InBev's HR tech stack and pilot-focused approach

Also on the Unleash blog this month is this insightful interview with Toon van der Veer, global vice-president of people continuity at AB InBev. Like the rest of the organisation, HR is adopting an agile approach and in the article Toon explains how this shows up in its approach to piloting HR technology (including BetterUp, Gloat and Culture X) before rolling it out across the company. In this way, Toon explains that the premise of the company's investment in HR tech is that it “solves a problem and it makes [employees] feel happier, more fulfilled and productive at work”.

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 May that I recommend readers delve into:

• IAN COOK - Why People Managers Need People Analytics Today – Visier’s Ian Cook distils the history of people analytics into three waves (see FIG 15) and provides guidance on how to transition into his third wave: strategic people analytics at scale.
• CHRIS BUTLER - People Analytics needs to Support the Enterprise Data Mesh – An insightful read from Chris Butler of One Model as he explains why people analytics teams that want to control their own destiny have to support the enterprise data strategy, and introduces the concept of a data mesh (see simplified example in FIG 16).
• SARAH JOHNSON - Why Is Employee Engagement Important? – Now that employee engagement has transcended HR and become a pursuit for all companies, Sarah Johnson of Perceptyx helps us by taking a step back to consider: Why is employee engagement important? (and) What, exactly, are we attempting to achieve by pursuing it?
• KELLY PALMER - How to Address Worker Skill Gaps in the Return to Work – Writing in MIT Sloan Management Review, Degreed’s Kelly Palmer examines how companies need to create accessible learning pathways that meet the needs of changing work arrangements.
• STEFFEN WELSCH - The hype around SkillTech is here to stay! - A plea for data-driven HR – Tandemploy’s Steffen Welsch highlights the importance of skills taxonomies and argues that: “digitization is not a by-product of the pandemic, but a profound technological and cultural development of global proportions that is fundamentally changing the way we live and work.”

FIG 15: The three waves of people analytics (Source: Ian Cook, Visier)

FIG 16: A simplified example of an enterprise data mesh (Source: Chris Butler, One Model)

PODCASTS OF THE MONTH

This month I’ve selected seven varied but all brilliant podcasts to dive into (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):

• LAURA COLE, SASHA WIGHT & VOLKER JACOBS - Engaging Business Leaders To Drive Meaningful EX Impact – Volker joins Laura and Sasha for EP9 of The Experience Lounge to discuss how to drive meaningful impact whilst engaging with the right senior stakeholders and how you can accelerate EX outcomes by engaging your people managers first.
• STACIA GARR, DANI JOHNSON, CHRIS PIRIE & NUNO GONCALVES – The Skills Obsession: Learning the Many Languages of Skills - Nuno Goncalves, Global Head of Strategic Capability Building at Mars, joins the RedThread Research team to discuss the link between business strategy and skills, the power of co-creation and how he used transferable skills to build and bridge skills within Mars.
• BRYAN HANCOCK, BILL SCHANINGER, SUSAN LUND & LUCIA RAHILLY - Grabbing hold of the new future of work – In a recent episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, economist Susan Lund joins the hosts to discuss the latest research on the trajectory of jobs, skills, and other workforce trends in the COVID-19 recovery.
• ADAM GRANT - That Blah You’re Feeling Is Called Languishing – In a bonus episode of his superb WorkLife podcast, Adam Grant revisits his powerful recent article for The New York Times “on a feeling many of us are struggling with right now. It's somewhere between burnout and depression: languishing. This neglected middle child of mental health can dull your motivation and focus—and it may be the dominant emotion of 2021.”
• PATRICK COURNOYER & HUNG LEE - The Challenge of Hybrid Work – Hung and Patrick discuss the challenges businesses may face when adopting the hybrid work model in an episode of Peakon’s Be More Podcast. As ever with Hung, it’s well worth a listen.
• ALAN MAIT & PLACID JOVER - The Future of Work and its Impact on Talent and Employment Models – One of the first people analytics leaders I met when I entered the field was Placid Jover, who was the founder people analytics leader at Unilever. Placid is one of the most thoughtful HR leaders I know, so I highly recommend listening to his discussion with Alan Mait of Chapman CG on the future of work and evolution of talent and employment models.
• JOSH BERSIN - HR Technology Demystified: What You Need To Know – Josh distils his five most important things for HR and business leaders to know about HR Tech including: why the market is growing, how to create an HR tech architecture team, how to select vendors and the role of data, AI and analytics. 

VIDEO OF THE MONTH

TIM PEFFERS – Random Walks in HR: Skills inference – the data that will change HR

Tim Peffers’ video blog, Random Walks in HR, continues to shine both for its insight, format and generous sprinkling of humour. In this episode, Tim dives into skills inference and how this relatively new technique will help reshape talent, learning and workforce planning. You don’t want to miss this.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

TSEDAL NEELEY – Remote Work Revolution – Succeeding from Anywhere

Tsedal Neeley is a professor at Harvard Business School, and her new book examines how companies can build and lead a culture of inclusivity and trust in a remote and hybrid work environment. Its release couldn’t be better timed. As this interview outlines, Tsedal has been studying remote working for nearly 20 years, and the roadmap the book provides promises to be an invaluable guide in getting remote and hybrid working right.

RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH

FRANK PEGA, BáLINT NáFRáDI, NATALIE C. MOMEN, YUKA UJITA, KAI N. STREICHER, ANNETTE M. PRüSS-üSTüN, ALEXIS DESCATHA, TIM DRISCOLL, FRIDA M. FISCHER, LODE GODDERIS, HANNAH M. KIIVER, JIAN LI, LINDA L. MAGNUSSON HANSON, REINER RUGULIES, KATHRINE S?RENSEN, TRACEY J. WOODRUFF - Global, regional, and national burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000–2016: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease & Injury 

A sobering study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO), which finds that long working hours led to 745 000 deaths from stroke and ischemic heart disease in 2016. As a summary of the study by the WHO confirms: “The study concludes that working 55 or more hours per week is associated with an estimated 35% higher risk of a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, compared to working 35-40 hours a week.”

FROM MY DESK

CRAIG STARBUCK & DAVID GREEN - Making People Analytics Available to All

“Companies without a people analytics capability are at a competitive disadvantage... The unfortunate reality is that advanced people analytics tech is currently price prohibitive for most companies – especially smaller organisations.” I had the pleasure of catching up with Craig Starbuck, Vice President of People Analytics at Mastercard, who together with some other intrepid people analytics practitioners has created OrgAcuity, which aims to make advanced people analytics technology available (and affordable) to all.

FIG 17: OrgAcuity’s Driver Impact insights help organisations identify where to focus in order to move the needle on opportunity areas (Source: OrgAcuity)

This month we celebrated the second birthday of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – and released three new episodes – the first two sponsored by ChartHop and the third by Quantum Workplace.

JIGNASHA GROOMS - How to build a culture of trust and measure its impact

The Chief HR Officer at Epicor joins me to discuss how she led the creation of a ‘One Epicor’ culture, which has not only made the company a better place to work but has had a direct impact on business performance, customer retention and employee experience.

JIMMY ZHANG - How Vertex has built a world-class people analytics function

Jimmy Zhang is the Head of People Strategy and Analytics at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and over the last three years he has built one of the most agile, innovative and impactful people analytics functions I’ve seen. In a company of just over 3,000 employees, Jimmy “didn’t have the luxury of building out a big team,” so he built out a partnership model and implemented an ethics charter to provide guidance and transparency (see video below).

DAVID ROCK - How neuroscience can help organisations drive meaningful change

David Rock, coined the term ‘neroleadership’, is the Co-Founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute and author of four books including ‘Your Brain at Work’. In our discussion, David and I get deep into his SCARF Model, which is based on neuroscience and is designed to help us work more effectively with others.

Until next month. Stay safe and stay well.

David

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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.

• EP 66: David Rock - How neuroscience can help organisations drive meaningful change
• EP 65: Jimmy Zhang - How Vertex has build a world-class people analytics function
• EP 64: Jignasha Grooms - How to build a culture of trust and measure its impact
• EP 63: Ian White - How to manage and visualise people data to create actionable insights
• EP 62: Isabel Naidoo - How to design HR programs for impact and personalised experiences
• EP 61: Claude Silver - Building a culture that drives business success and wellbeing
• Bonus Episode: Arianna Huffington & Donna Morris - How Walmart is helping its associates achieve healthier habits
• EP 60: Alexis Saussinan - Creating business impact with people data and technology
• EP 59: Karen Powell - Getting started with a skills-based talent strategy
• EP 58: Ruslan Tobulatov - What are the business benefits of a Talent Marketplace?
• EP 57: Jeroen Wels - How Unilever has created a culture of internal talent mobility
• EP 56: Ina Gantcheva - Why Are So Many Companies Building Talent Marketplaces?
• EP 55: Guru Sethupathy - How Capital One delivers value at scale with People Analytics
• EP 54: Ethan Bernstein - How Can HR Help Organisations Prepare for Hybrid Working?
• EP 53: Wagner Denuzzo - How HR enables business transformation at Prudential Financial
• EP 52: Wenshan Xu - How Singapore uses skills data to support lifelong learning
• EP 51: Dave Ulrich, Brigette McInnis-Day and Rupert Morrison - The Future of HR: How can HR can be more value and business focused?
• BONUS EPISODE: David Green & Ian Bailie - 'All Eyes on HR' - HR Predictions for 2021
• EP 50: Renil Kumar - How Wipro uses People Analytics to enable hyper-personalisation
• EP 49: Michael Arena - How ONA can help understand the impact of virtual and hybrid working on innovation and wellbeing
• EP 48: Daniel West - How to Democratise People Analytics to Drive Agile Decision Making
• EP 47: Melissa Harper - How Bayer is redefining the workplace around Purpose, Innovation & Culture
• EP 46: Chin Yin Ong - How people data can drive better business and employee outcomes
• EP 45: Vidya Krishnan - Making learning a habit that matters at Ericsson
• EP 44: Simon Brown - How Novartis promotes learning curiosity to drive business value
• EP 43: Kat Kennedy - Improving Employee Experience through Learning, Skill Development & Mobility
• EP 42: Gianpiero Petriglieri - How Do You Create a Learning Culture in the Workplace?
• EP 41: Lynda Gratton - How can HR help shape the re-skilling and learning agenda?
• Bonus Episode: Diane Gherson - How IBM is Reinventing HR with AI and People Analytics
• Summer Special #5: Sophie Rwegera Khadhraoui - Building a People Analytics Function in a Humanitarian Organisation
• Summer Special #4: Dan Cable - How to help people love what they do at work
• Summer Special #3: Torin Ellis - What is HR's Role in Creating Diverse and Inclusive Organisations?
• Summer Special #2: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic - What is the role of leadership in times of crisis?
• Summer Special #1: Amy Edmondson - How to create Psychological Safety at work
• EP 40: David Green - How can People Analytics drive business value?
• EP 39: Jeremy Shapiro - How People Analytics has progressed in the last ten years
• EP 38: Heather McGowan - How Covid-19 is accelerating the Future of Work
• EP 37: Thomas Rasmussen - How National Australia Bank has scaled People Analytics
• EP 36: Ravin Jesuthasan - Six imperatives for HR in the Future of Work
• BONUS EPISODE: Amit Mohindra & Dawn Klinghoffer - What is the future of People Analytics?
• EP 35: Peter Hinssen - What is the role of HR in driving and enabling innovation?
• EP 34: Bruce Daisley - What do business leaders want from HR?
• EP 33: Dirk Jonker - Why People Analytics needs to behave like a start-up
• EP 32: Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic - The role of storytelling in People Analytics and Data Visualisation
• EP 31: Piyush Mathur - How Johnson & Johnson uses People Analytics to drive business outcomes
• BONUS EPISODE - Heather Whiteman, RJ Milnor & Ian Bailie (Live at PAFOW) - How to develop the HR skills of the future
• EP 30: Katy Gray - How Arup uses reward data to drive behavioural change
• EP 29: Uri Ort - What is the future of talent assessment?
• EP 28: Zara Nanu - The role of People Analytics in Gender Pay Analysis
• EP 27: Julia Shaw - How can technology reduce bias in the workplace
• EP 26: Stela Lupushor - How HR can be a Catalyst for Change
• BONUS EPISODE: Volker Jacobs - How to scale Employee Experience
• EP 25: Julie Digby - How HR Drives Transformation and Org Design at Mars
• EP 24: RJ Milnor - How McKesson uses ONA to identify what drives high performance in sales
• EP 23: Rupert Morrison - Rethinking Workforce Planning & Organisation Design
• EP 22: Dawn Klinghoffer - The Evolution of People Analytics at Microsoft
• EP 21: John Boudreau - Reinventing Jobs: The Future of Work and it's impact on HR
• EP 20: Tanuj Kapilashrami - How Standard Chartered designed an exceptional Employee Experience
• EP 19: Anna Tavis: What is Agile HR and how are companies adopting it?
• EP 18: Sarah Johnson: How to use employee surveys to create strategic value
• EP 17: Leena Nair - How HR drives business value at Unilever
• EP 16: Keith McNulty - HR 3.0: more data driven, more agile and more business focused
• EP 15: Jason Corsello - The Shift From HR Tech to Work Tech
• EP 14: Jill Larsen - How does the CHRO successfully partner with the CEO
• EP 13: Frida Polli - How AI and Behavioural Science can reduce bias in recruiting
• EP 12: Ian O'Keefe - The Workforce Analytics journey at JP Morgan Chase
• EP 11: Dave Ulrich - The role of HR in the Digital Age
• EP 10: Jordan Pettman - How Nestlé uses People Analytics to measure Gender Pay Gap and Equity
• EP 9: Catalina Schveninger - The Evolution of Corporate Learning at Vodafone
• EP 8: Richard Collins - How is Automation, AI and Analytics changing recruiting?
• EP 7: Katarina Berg - Spotify's CHRO on Leading HR in a digital world
• EP 6: Nick Holley - How HR can become more business relevant 
• EP 5: Eden Britt - How to build a People Analytics team in a global organisation | The People Analytics journey at HSBC 
• EP 4: Yvette Cameron - How Blockchain will disrupt the Future of Work and HR Technology 
• EP 3: Didier Elzinga - How to Create a Culture First Company 
• EP 2: Edward Houghton - The Head of Research at the CIPD on Driving Business Performance with People Data 
• EP 1: Sharon Doherty - How to transform HR to be more digital and building a culture of diversity

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David 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 70 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222 and taking up a board advisor role at TrustSphere, 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 will be published in the summer of 2021.