People Analytics: Research Matchmaking Project

TL;DR – I’m kicking off a personal goal to tap into my network of People Analytics practitioners to connect 25 academics in social science, management, and organizational behavior departments to industry partners by the end of 2021.

Read on and complete the survey at the end if you’re interested in being connected or learning more about the project!

People Analytics: Research Matchmaking Project

I’ve been asked a few times recently what motivates me about the People Analytics space. Brilliant colleagues, fascinating projects, mission-driven teams, and an incredibly supportive global #PeopleAnalytics network comes to mind right away. It's the reality of working in this space that you get to tap into those great feature. When I dig into what my personal drive and mission though, it always comes back to advancing science.

For some context I thought for a long time that a PhD in Sociology and heading for academia was my life plan. Sociology was my first love in the social sciences and seeing how and why people come together to form groups and cultures will always light me up. I loved the idea that we could draw an understanding of how communities form from the data about actions people take and not just from what people say.

The idea of advancing human understanding, even a little, of the human social experience was and still is so energizing. I’ve come across a few sites that try to talk about it, but I regularly fall back to Matthew Might’s “PhD in Pictures” to speak to what I always wanted to achieve in this space: PhD in Pictures

I had a series of experiences since then that pulled me over to the applied side and I am thankful every day that I get to learn about people through my work and apply those learnings to help people navigate the world of work a little better.

Now that I’ve been in People Analytics for some time, I look back across to academia and I’m seeing evidence of the gap between private sector work and public sector research. I'm not the first to see it, we all talk about the divide, but I also see many teams in People Analytics that are starting to collect good data on organizations, but don’t have the funding for someone to analyze the data. I see HR leadership teams increasingly looking for evidence-based management practices and advice during "unprecedented times". We need this connection now more than ever between academia and industry.

Even if practitioners and academics can find each other and had a common interest, there are many barriers to partnership between academia and industry around people data, but I think they are surmountable and I'd like to test that theory.

As I started thinking about these barriers I realized that bridging this divide is core to my mission and I might be in a position where I can help. With that in mind, I’d like to set a goal for myself. I want to tap into my network of People Analytics practitioners to connect 25 academics in social science, management, and organizational behavior departments to industry partners by the end of 2021.

I want to tap into my network of People Analytics practitioners to connect 25 academics in social science, management, and organizational behavior departments to industry partners by the end of 2021.

I see this project as a start towards giving back to the sciences and a field that has supported me and my career. I also see supporting foundational social science, management, and organizational behavior science as something that lifts everyone. We’re in trying and “unprecedented” times within the world of work and in times like this we can band together to support an overall understanding of work.

I’m planning to volunteer my time and network to be a bridge as best I can. We’ll see if that goal of 25 is ambitious or something we can close out quickly together! This is a side project for me, but I want to help you where I can to make the connection, and then also advise / consult with you to work through legal, technical, privacy, ethical, and mission alignment barriers to make this work.

If you’re interested in being part of the initial matchmaking exercise, please complete the survey below

Research Matchmaking Survey

If you’re fired up about this mission too, please share the survey and this article with anyone who might be interested!

Thank you!

Richard Rosenow

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If you're still here scrolling, I'll close out with a plug for a few of my favorite organizations in this space!

Science for Work

• Science for Work is a non-profit that makes academic research available to practitioners in a ready to apply format. Every article even has a section at the end of each article to encourage readers to think critically about the sources. I am a big fan of this organization, their work, and their mission. They inspire me regularly.

Center for Evidence Based Management

• The Center for Evidence-Based Management (CEBMa) is a non-profit founded on the goal to drive evidence-based practice into the corporate world.
• Rob Briner, their scientific director, is a light in the dark on LinkedIn for myth-busting in the HR / management / org behavior worlds. He's another inspiration for bridging this gap between management science and industry.

Wharton People Analytics

• Wharton People Analytics is a academic partnership driving real value and community in the People Analytics space. They use data to advance how organizations make decisions about people, and help leaders operate based on evidence rather than intuition.

Center for Effective Organizations (CEO)

• CEO is a public / private partnership out of University of Southern California to provide forward-thinking leaders with the insights they need to help them solve complex problems.

When you think of organizations bridging the gap between academia and industry for social sciences, management, and organizational behavior research, who did I miss? Let me know in a LI message and I'll add them to the resources above. Looking forward to hearing from you.