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The Best HR & People Analytics Articles of May 2020

David Green

After three months of working remotely, I have to say that I have grown rather tired of days of endless Zoom calls. I’m confident I’m not alone in this sentiment.

In one of the articles featured in this month’s selection, Michael Arena highlights research from MIT’s Human Dynamics Lab that as much as 80% of our ability to influence someone else, happens in face-to-face interactions. The lab has also determined that up to 35% of a team’s ability to drive performance can be explained by the number of times team members engage face-to-face.

In short, meeting face to face inspires trust, increases learning and creates the energy needed to influence others.

It is perhaps surprising therefore that a growing number of companies have made bold announcements stating that they will be either fully or mostly remote moving forward. It would be fascinating to see the data (if it exists) that supported these decisions.

Certainly, several studies including this one by PwC, suggest that CFOs see opportunities in increasing remote work in the long-term and shifting towards a more hybrid at-home/on-premise model. This has a multitude of implications around future strategy on estates, technology and operating costs as well of course for people. 

Satya Nadella, the CEO that has led an astonishing transformation at Microsoft, cautioned in an interview in The New York Times that switching to entirely remote offices would be “replacing one dogma with another dogma.”

Whatever the answer with regards to remote work (and I’m more inclined to Nadella’s point of view), it is to be hoped that people analytics teams will be heavily involved in shaping the future and that human-centred design will be at the heart of their efforts.  

This month’s collection has been extended beyond the usual twelve articles to fifteen, which demonstrates one of the silver linings of the crisis – a significant increase in the quantity and quality of writing on people data inspired content.

Enjoy, share some data driven love with your network, and above all – stay healthy and safe.

CULTURE & EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

ANDREW CHAMBERLAIN & ZANELE MUNYIKWA - What’s Culture Worth?

Do companies in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work (BPTW) award outperform the stock market? In other words, what is the value of culture to an organisation? According to this joint report by Glassdoor’s Chief Economist and MIT Sloan School of Management, which analyses longitudinal data over an eleven-year period, the evidence is stark. On average, stocks of BPTW winners earned 20.3 percent per year between 2009 and 2019, compared to 12.9 percent for the S&P 500. The full report contains a wealth of data points and analysis to pore over.

FIG 1: Annual Stock Performance of Best Places to Work vs. S&P 500 Index (Source: Glassdoor Economic Research)

ALEXANDRA KEUNEN, TERTIA WIEDENHOF & MARTIJN WIERTZ - How Rabobank Uses Continuous Listening to Understand Employee Sentiment During COVID-19

As I’ve been hearing regularly from our clients at Insight222, the primary focus of People Analytics teams during the crisis has been to support organisational efforts to maximise employee wellness and safety. In this article, Alexandra, Tertia and Martijn from Rabobank’s People Analytics team share seven insights they’ve learned on how to create a healthy balance between sending information and surveys to employees, listening to what they say and making fast improvements based on employee feedback.Open text analysis reveals a lot about what employees appreciate in this situation and gives glimpses of what we should keep in the future

KATHI ENDERES & NEHAL NANGIA - 5 Ways to Enable a Human-Centered, Virtual Workplace | JEANNIE WALTERS - How to Revise Employee Experience for Social Distancing

Whatever the world of work looks like once the pandemic passes, it’s likely to be very different. Organisations that put employees first – as many have during the crisis - are the ones most likely to thrive. Kathi Enderes and Nehal Nangia outline five ways companies can enable workers to collaborate in a virtual environment including the different behaviours required by workers and leaders (see FIG 2). On a similar theme, Jeannie Walters adds a fifth element – Purpose – to the four core elements of Employee Experience identified by LinkedIn in its Global Talent Trends Report before suggesting five ways to revise EX for social distancing.Customer experience is directly connected to employee experience. The best customer experiences are delivered by engaged, solutions-oriented employees

FIG 2: Workforce behaviours (left) and leadership behaviours (right) required to collaborate effectively virtually (Source: Bersin by Deloitte)

STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING

AMY WEBB - How to Do Strategic Planning Like a Futurist

Strategic Workforce Planning was already a hot topic before the pandemic, which provides a good indication of why it is the subject of our current co-creation with the 70 companies that comprise Insight222’s People Analytics Program. What was already an increasingly complex profession due to the shift to need to plan around skills/tasks from jobs has been further complicated by Covid-19. Perhaps a different approach is required? Amy Webb is a quantitative futurist who says she thinks about time differently and that company strategists could learn from her approach. Amy recommends the use of Time Cones, not Time Lines (see FIG 3), which enables short- and long-term thinking to be done simultaneously. It’s certainly an interesting concept and the article is sprinkled with examples and methodologies to back Amy’s thinking.

FIG 3: A futurist’s framework for Strategic Planning (Source: Amy Webb, Future Today Institute)

DAVE ULRICH - Harnessing Uncertainty: How to Prosper in the Unknowable New Normal

Continuing his formidably insightful writing during the pandemic, Dave Ulrich advocates the need for companies to harness uncertainty and couple this with realistic optimism to help navigate a path through the crisis. Dave then explains why harnessing uncertainty is important (“uncertainty is real; harnessing it determines our reality”), what it actually means (“turning the threat of not knowing the future into opportunity by becoming more energized, psychologically safe, focused, and agile”) and offers six principles on how to harness uncertainty (see FIG 4).

If business and HR leaders can learn to harness uncertainty, they will help individuals and organizations prosper in the unknowable new normal

FIG 4: Six Principles of Harnessing Uncertainty (Source: Dave Ulrich)

SERENA HUANG - Five Ways People Analytics Can Help You with Return-To-Office Planning

One of the main themes of the recent virtual peer meeting of our North American clients of the Insight222 People Analytics Program was the challenges leaders shared on the return-to-the-office work they are involved in. This article by Serena Huang, Global Head of People Analytics at Kraft Heinz, provides a few clues on how people analytics teams are supporting this delicate task, such as evaluating new technologies, studying collaborative overload and implementing continuous listening programs.People Analytics teams can help evaluate not only the algorithm and analytics technology vendors provide, but also help you think through the ethics of such analytics on employees

LEARNING

SAPANA AGRAWAL, AARON DE SMET, SÉBASTIEN LACROIX & ANGELIKA REICH - To emerge stronger from the COVID-19 crisis, companies should start reskilling their workforces now

It may seem counterintuitive in the midst of a global crisis, but this is actually the ideal time for companies to increase their learning budgets and commit to reskilling so that the skills and roles of employees can be adapted to post-pandemic ways of working. This article from McKinsey provides six steps companies can take – including protecting learning budgets - to ensure that their employees are equipped with the skills critical to support recovery business models.Now is the time for companies to double down on their learning budgets and commit to reskilling

FIG 5: Source: McKinsey

JARED VALDRON - A Q&A on Starting a Career in People Analytics

Who better to ask about how to start a career in people analytics than a people analytics leader themselves? In this helpful guide, Jared Valdron has compiled a list of common questions he receives, along with the answers. Not only should this prove invaluable to those looking to get into the field, but it is also the perfect example of how collaborative and open to sharing the people analytics community is.

MARC EFFRON – Does Growth Mindset Actually Work?

We hear a lot about the concept of growth mindset. Proponents of the principle say people can improve if they just believe. Marc Effron considers “it’s time to separate positive intention from scientific proof” and his article examines the science and reaches a conclusion that will surprise some, dismay others and should provoke a healthy debate. It’s certainly a powerful, well researched and strongly argued piece where Marc dissects the concept of growth mindset and examines if it actually works.

The growth mindset concept captures the best of our humanistic spirit (anyone can improve if they just believe!) and confirms the worst of our scientific ignorance (can’t anyone improve if they just believe?)

FUTURE OF WORK

BECKY FRANKIEWICZ & TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC - Digital Transformation Is About Talent, Not Technology

With most pundits predicting that Covid-19 will act as an accelerant to digital transformation it is important for companies to remember that successfully achieving this is less about technology and more about people. Organisational ability to adapt to digitisation depends on developing the next generation of skills, closing the gap between talent supply and demand, and future-proofing potential. The suggestions outlined here by Becky Frankiewicz and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic should act as a helpful guide, focusing as they do on putting people first, soft skills, driving change from the top and acting on insights from data.

Data without insights are trivial, and insights without action are pointless

ORGANISATIONAL NETWORK ANALYSIS

MICHAEL ARENA - The Power of Proximity: Influencing in the Era of Social Distancing

We are in the midst of the biggest remote working experiment in history and `I must admit to being surprised at bold announcements from companies less than ten weeks into the crisis saying they will operate wholly or mostly remote in the future. What does the data say? According to Michael Arena’s excellent article the evidence suggests that physical proximity matters and is crucial to success. Michael explains that these interactions inspire trust, increase learning and emit the energy required to influence others with up to 35% of a team’s performance depending on the frequency members engage face-to-face. This means that both during the crisis and beyond we need to be careful in how we manage our virtual interactions.

35% of a given team’s ability to drive performance can be explained by the number of times team members engage face-to-face

DION HINCHCLIFFE - The Most Vital Digital Management Skill: Network Leadership

Dion Hinchcliffe also cites the loss of real connection thanks to the mass remote working forced by the pandemic in his excellent article examining the very different skills required to lead digital organisations. His article outlines the differences between traditional and network leadership (FIG 6) and then provides guidance on five facets of what the best leaders do to cultivate and exert effective network leadership both within and beyond their organisations e.g. building reach, being transparent and communicative and orchestrating at scale. A fascinating read.

FIG 6: Comparing traditional leadership with network leadership (Source: Dion Hinchcliffe)

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

DAVID PEDULLA - Diversity and Inclusion Efforts That Really Work

Programs designed to increase diversity and inclusion in the workplace often fail. Stanford sociologist David Pedulla highlights five pointers to help your next D&I initiative succeed, based on brand new research from the What Works? Evidence-Based Ideas to Increase Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace report. The report is certainly worth a read, and features essays from the likes of Frida Polli, Kelly Trindel and Kate Glazebook on how technology can improve fairness in hiring as well as Iris Bohnet and Siri Chilazi on how to overcome the small-n problem.

Companies need to proactively test new technologies for disparate impacts on workers before they go in the field and need to audit their procedures after implementation to ensure that biases are not creeping in

TECHNICAL ARTICLES FOR THE ANALYSTS

ANDREW MARRITT - Thinking about training data | MAX BLUMBERG - Why PeopleAnalytics should NOT be using regression to predict team outcomes

Two articles for the more technically minded. First, Andrew Marritt shares some of the insights he has absorbed from developing training data, which as he highlights is important for those doing People Analytics in an applied, commercial setting. Then Max Blumberg looks at the merits or otherwise of using regression to predict team outcomes. The article itself is a fascinating read and the comments that accompany it from the likes of Mark Lawrence, Keith McNulty, Natasha Ouslis and a host of others are even better.

As analysts we spend a lot of time trying to build the perfect model, but in our experience much of the time developing better training data offers more valuable returns

HR TECH & COVID-19 SPECIAL

JAMES KILLIAN & MANISH GOEL - Managing times of crisis using active and passive listening | DIRK JONKER - People Analytics guides employers to keep homeworkers engaged and productive | JONATHAN LARSON, NEHA SHAH, KEVIN SHERMAN & NATALIE SINGER-VELUSH - Uncovering resilience: Measuring organizational networks during crisis | PHILIP ARKCOLL - Update: The Impact of COVID-19/WFH on Work Habits

One of the features of the crisis has been the way that many HR Tech companies have stepped up to support the community. Four examples are collected here. First, James Killian of Qualtrics and Manish Goel of TrustSphere join forces to explain how combining ‘active’ survey data and ‘passive’ network data can reveal powerful insights to support employee wellbeing. Then, Dirk Jonker reveals insights from research Crunchr led into identifying and personalising the support different groups of employees need to work from home more effectively. Next the Microsoft Workplace Analytics team outline how ONA has helped organisations measure and manage resiliency during the crisis. Finally, Phil Arkcoll updates the findings Worklytics has identified on the impact of remote working on working hours and habits during the crisis (see FIG 7).

FIG 7: The impact of remote working during Covid-19 (Source: Worklytics)

PODCASTS OF THE MONTH

ADAM GRANT – How science can fix remote work | IAN BAILIE & JOHN SUMSER - HRExaminer Executive Conversations | THOMAS RASMUSSEN & DAVID GREEN – How National Australia Bank has scaled People Analytics

A trio of great podcasts to for your aural pleasure. First, in the finale to the best series of his WorkLife Podcast yet, Adam Grant examines how to improve remote teamwork—and build resilience. Then, Ian Bailie joins John Sumser to share how the myHRfuture Academy is equipping the current generation of HR Professionals with next gen skills. Finally, Thomas Rasmussen joins me on the Digital HR Leaders podcast to discuss how National Australia Bank has created one of the most advanced people analytics capabilities in the world.

VIDEO OF THE MONTH | TRAINING COURSE OF THE MONTH

HEATHER WHITEMAN – Using statistics in HR

Heather Whiteman lectures on people analytics at the Berkeley Hass School of Business at UCL and previously spent six years as the Global Head of People Strategy, Analytics, Digital Learning and HR Operations at GE Digital. In short, Heather is a smart cookie. So this opportunity to learn from Heather on how to use statistics and bust some of the myths and misconceptions associated with using statistics in HR is too good to miss. As a taster from the course watch the video below and read Heather’s seven tips for using statistics on people data.

FROM MY DESK

COVID-19: The role of HR & People Analytics in the crisis

Some of my observations on the crisis from a HR lens with links also to 70+ resources all with an underlying theme of ‘people data for good’.

Six imperatives for HR in the Future of Work

Ravin Jesuthasan joins me on the Digital HR Leaders Podcast to discuss the paper he co-authored for the World Economic Forum on HR 4.0: Shaping People Strategies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including the six imperatives in FIG 8.

FIG 8: HR 4.0 - Six imperatives for HR in the future of work (Source: World Economic Forum)

How Covid-19 is accelerating the future of workHeather McGowan joins me on the Digital HR Leaders Podcast to share insights from her new book – The Adaptation Advantage, discuss how culture, leadership and continuous learning are central to the future of work and how Covid-19 is acting as a catalyst.

THANK YOU

I’d like to offer a big thank you to HRE and the HR Technology Conference team for including me in their Top 100 HRTech Influencers list for the second successive year. I should say here that whilst I'm not usually a huge fan of lists like these, I’m happy to be on this particular one as it contains some of the genuine giants of our field.  

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.