How to Build Excellence in People Analytics and HR (w/ Dave Ulrich, Jonathan Ferrar and David Green)

People analytics is vital to helping HR deliver more value to the business, more value to the workforce and more value to society at large

When Jonathan Ferrar and I discussed who we would most like to write the Foreword to our book, Excellence in People Analytics , we both wrote the same name on our respective pieces of paper: Dave Ulrich. Often referred to as the 'Father of Modern HR', Dave has inspired both Jonathan and I throughout our careers, so we were both humbled when Dave generously accepted our invitation - and incredibly provided a perfect draft Foreword within 24 hours!

Dave also kindly accepted a subsequent invite to take my usual host's chair for a special episode of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, which returns today after our summer sojourn. In the episode, Dave interviews Jonathan Ferrar and I about Excellence in People Analytics, and the role of HR in creating value for organisations.

You can listen by clicking on the image below or by visiting the?podcast website here .?

HR is not about HR. HR is about helping a business succeed

Focus people analytics on work that directly impacts the business

In our conversation Dave, Jonathan and I discuss:

• Some of the key messages from Excellence in People Analytics , and the Nine Dimensions for Excellence in People Analytics model we write about in the book: "Number one, go talk to some business executives, find out what is on their minds, and find out what they truly want to improve across the business."
• How the pandemic has shifted people analytics into a new era – ‘The Age of Value’ – where the focus has shifted from “…people analytics for HR to providing people analytics for the business” and potentially even to benefit wider societal issues like sustainability and DEI: “That is where people analytics will go. It will truly go to affecting society.”
• The traditional HR function’s attitude towards analytics, the skills the future HR professional needs and how, more broadly, people analytics will support a new approach to careers and upskilling for the organisation?
• Throughout the discussion, we cover several of the 30 case studies from Excellence in People Analytics , including from the likes of Microsoft, Nestle and FIS.?

Enjoy - and please let me know in the comments section your thoughts and any questions after listening to the episode.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

To listen to the Podcast and read the transcript of my discussion with Dave and Jonathan, head over to myHRfuture by clicking on this link: How to build Excellence in People Analytics .

WATCH THE VIDEOS

As well as the podcast, there will be a couple of videos available on the?myHRfuture YouTube channel ?highlighting two of the topics Dave, Jonathan and I cover in our conversation. In the clip below, Dave, Jonathan and I discuss how people analytics can drive business value .

THANK YOU

A huge thank you to Dave for taking the reins for this episode, for his inspiration and expertise, for kindly writing the Foreword to Excellence in People Analytics and also for his continuing passion to challenge the HR function to be better. You can follow Dave on LinkedIn , where he publishes an article every two weeks (which I highly recommend). You can also follow Dave on Twitter @dave_ulrich and find out more about Dave's work at RBL here . You can also refer to a helpful list of the books Dave has authored or co-authored?here .

Thanks also to Jonathan for sharing his expertise in this episode of the podcast, for being such a supportive and inspirational co-author, and also for being a friend and partner - first at IBM and now at Insight222. You can follow Jonathan on LinkedIn , on Twitter @jaferrar , and find out more about Insight222 .

You may also want to delve into the six related resources below - two from Dave, two from Jonathan and the final two from me:

• HR’s Reinvention: Moving from Benchmarking and Best Practices to Guidance
• How HR Must Rise to Today’s Opportunity
• How can I be more successful at People Analytics?
• How to Run a Successful People Analytics Project
• The Four Responsibilities for People Analytics in the Consumerisation of HR
• A History of People Analytics in Five Ages

Thanks to TechWolf ?for sponsoring Series 16 of the podcast, and also Ian Bailie, Manpreet Randhawa, Caroline Styr and the myHRfuture team for creating the Digital HR Leaders podcast and video series.?

GET INVOLVED

If you enjoyed listening to this week's podcast episode, I'd be grateful if you could take the following steps:

1. Please?subscribe to the Digital HR Leaders podcast and weekly newsletter ?to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
2. Please take the time to?rate the show on iTunes . We rely on your feedback and support to make the podcast, so this is very helpful!
3. Who would you like to see me interview in future episodes? Let me know in the comments below.
4. Lastly, don’t forget to share on social media with your friends and colleagues, your support is always greatly appreciated!

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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.

• Bonus Episode: Kathleen Hogan -?Microsoft's Chief People Officer on Creating a Data Driven Culture in HR
• EP 75: Toon van der Veer -?How AB InBev uses Data, Analytics and AI in Talent Management
• EP 74: Joanne Kuipers -?How Tata Steel uses skills data for learning and workforce planning
• EP 73: Rick van Echtelt -?What are the benefits of measuring employee skills data?
• EP 72: Tertia Wiedenhof -?How Rabobank Has Created an Agile HR Function
• EP 71: Ron Friedman -?How Can You Reverse Engineer Success?
• EP 70: Steven Baert -?How is Novartis reimagining Performance Management?
• EP 69: Melissa Corwin -?How Does AT&T Link Business Transformation, Culture and Performance Management?
• EP 68: Greg Harris -?Why Employee Experience And Performance Management Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin
• EP 67: Jolen Anderson -?How BNY Mellon Supports Employee Wellbeing and Resilience
• 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.

SEE ME SPEAK AT THESE EVENTS

I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work at a number of upcoming events:

• 8th September -?NYU SPS Human Capital Management and New York Strategic Hr Analytics MeetUp ?(Virtual)
• 28-29th September -?Insight222 Global Executive Retreat ?(Virtual - invite only)
• 6th October -?People Analytics for the Future of Work? (Virtual - webinar)