The role of People Analytics, Employee Experience and AI in the Workplace

I recently had the privilege of being invited as a guest on Jacob Morgan’s excellent The Future of Work Podcast, where Jacob and I had an in-depth discussion on the rise in the role of people analytics in the workplace.

Jacob and I conversed on a number of areas of people analytics, including:

• What people analytics is, why it is growing in importance and the best practices of organisations leading the way in this space (see Figure 1 below)
• The need to focus people analytics on solving business problems
• The role of the CHRO and the Head of People Analytics
• Examples of people analytics in practice including at IBM
• How to overcome the common obstacles in getting started with people analytics, and how to institutionalise it within your organisation
• The importance of transparency and putting employee trust at the centre of your people analytics program
• The coming ‘second wave of people analytics’ fuelled in part by the growth of employee experience, the benefits of harnessing the ‘voice of the employee’ and AI/Cognitive tools that enhance hiring, onboarding, learning, HR services, workforce planning and business performance
• How data and analytics augment rather than replace experience and judgement in decision making

You can listen to the Podcast here or by clicking on the image below. Please let me know your feedback and any questions in the Comments below.

Figure 1: The best practices of organisations leading the way in People Analytics (see here)

THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE ADVANTAGE

Jacob and I got to know each other as part of the research for his new book – The Employee Experience Advantage. From what I’ve read so far, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in people analytics, data-driven HR and the shift from employee ‘engagement’ to ‘experience’.

Read this taster to the book in HBR, which amongst other things outlines:

• The three environments that matter most to employees: cultural, technological and physical.
• That those companies investing more in these three employee experience environments, and who score highly in ‘best company’ lists enjoy happier employees, larger talent pipelines and greater profitability/productivity.
• As the two Figures below illustrate, these ‘Experiential’ companies outperform their peers across a multitude of business metrics and on the stock market

Figure 2: Companies that invest in Employee Experience Outperform Those That Don't (Source: The Employee Experience Advantage by Jacob Morgan - Wiley 2007)

Figure 3: How Investing in Employee Experience Affects Stock Price (Source: The Employee Experience Advantage by Jacob Morgan - Wiley 2007)

This data ties in nicely with part of the Podcast where Jacob and I discussed that the focus on employee experience and the consequent growth of AI tools to support this represent the ‘second wave of people analytics’. I believe that the growth in adoption of people analytics is likely to be fuelled in part by this phenomenon. Certainly, companies that have already invested in people analytics are well positioned to enjoy the benefits associated with investing in long-term experiential initiatives and AI/Cognitive tools that further enhance employee wellbeing and experience.

Thank you to Jacob for having me as a guest on the Future of Work Podcast. For more on Jacob and The Future Organization, please see his homepage.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David is a respected influencer, writer and speaker on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. He was recognised as Best Writer at the 2015 HR Tech Writers’ Awards, and was awarded one of ten LinkedIn Power Profiles for HR in 2016. David’s role as Global Director, People Analytics Solutions at IBM enables him to help clients apply an analytical, insight led and business outcome focused approach to their talent strategies and people decisions. 

David is chairing, speaking and/or attending the following conferences in the first half of 2017. If you are going to one of these conferences and would like to meet up with David, please feel free to contact him via LinkedIn:

• HR Analytics, Metrics & Measurement for Strategic Decision Making(London, 24-26 January 2017) - Chair
• People Analytics & The Future of Work (San Francisco, February 2-3 2017) - Co-Chair
• HR Norge - HR Tech 2017 (Oslo, February 8 2017) - Speaker
• Personal & Chef (Stockholm, February 23 2017) - Speaker
• HR Tech World Spring, Chair, Smart Data breakout (London, March 21-22 2017)
• Wharton People Analytics Conference (Philadelphia, March 30-31 2017)
• People Analytics World (London, April 25-26 2017) - Co-Chair
• HR Norge - HR Analytics 2017 (Oslo, May 31 2017) - Speaker
• HR Tech World San Francisco (San Francisco, June 14-15 2017)

Connect with David on LinkedIn, follow him on Twitter and read his blogs here on LinkedIn and also on HR Tech World and ERE.

Keywords: HR, Human Resources, HR Analytics, People Analytics, Talent, Recruiting, Hiring, Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, HR Metrics, Cost Per Hire, Workforce Analytics, Talent Analytics, Data Driven HR, Employee Engagement, Performance Management, Future of Work, Quality of Hire, Evidence based HR, HR Open Source, #HROS, Cognitive HR, Cognitive Computing, IBM, HR Technology, Flight Risk, Predictive Analytics,