The best HR & People Analytics articles of September 2022

The next three weeks are going to be extremely busy and exciting. For the first time since the autumn of 2019, I will be travelling for three successive weeks! While it will feel strange to be away from my home office for so long, it will be wonderful to enjoy the serendipity of face-to-face interaction once again.

The first jaunt is to Paris on October 5 and 6 for the European leg of the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, our annual event for leaders of companies that are part of the Insight222 People Analytics Program. The theme for this year’s Retreat is ‘Executive Impact in the Post-Pandemic World’, and delegates will have the opportunity to Think, Reflect and Plan for the next year in the company of our guest speakers Rob Cross , Diane Gherson and Thomas Hedegaard Rasmussen .

The following week sees the release of Insight222’s People Analytics Trends 2022 report. The central purpose of this year’s research, which saw over 180 participating companies, was to answer this question: How Are Leading Companies Impacting Business Value Through People Analytics? Our analysis found that Leading Companies display seven characteristics that enable them to create more impact and deliver more value with people analytics. Pre-register here to gain early access to the report on October 11.

I’ll share some of the headline findings of the People Analytics Trends 2022 study on October 12 and 13, when I have the honour of being the main stage MC at the UNLEASH World show in Paris. This promises to be a special event. First, it’s UNLEASH ’s tenth anniversary. Second, it’s the first UNLEASH show in Europe for three years due to the pandemic. Finally, if that’s not enough, Marc Coleman and the UNLEASH team have organised a stunning line-up of speakers over the two days.

I have been attending UNLEASH throughout the last decade, and the show has been instrumental in helping to shape my thinking and grow my network. As an example, at the UNLEASH show I attended in London in 2013, one of the speakers was Jonathan Ferrar, who was showcasing some of the people analytics work he was then leading at IBM. This led indirectly, a couple of years later, to me joining Jonathan at IBM, then helping to found Insight222 and co-writing Excellence in People Analytics together!

If you’d like to go to Paris but haven’t booked your ticket yet, you can get a 20% Discount to UNLEASH World in Paris here. If you are going, please take some time to visit the Insight222 team at Booth A803, and meet my colleagues – Anastasia Marshall (née Ktena) , Cedric Borzee and Stefan Kesić – and me.

Finally, after two successive weeks in Paris, I’ll be heading to Boston for the North American leg of the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, where Jeremy Shapiro will join Rob Cross and Diane Gherson as our guest speakers.

Lots to look forward to!

Enjoy reading the collection of resources for September and, if you do, please share some data driven HR love liberally with your colleagues and networks.

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.

FUTURE OF WORK, HYBRID WORK, RETURN TO OFFICE

MICHAEL ARENA, GLENN CARROLL, CHARLES O’REILLY, JOHN GOLDEN AND SCOTT HINES - The Adaptive Hybrid: Innovation with Virtual Work

Many of the initial studies on the shift to virtual working since the onset of the pandemic highlight positive increases in productivity and wellbeing, as well as access to more diverse labour pools and lower costs. But can innovation thrive in a virtual context when research finds that proximity and serendipitous encounters are critical to the flow of new ideas? In their excellent paper, Michael Arena , Glenn Carroll , Charles O'Reilly , John Golden, Ph.D. and Scott Hines, PhD present research from companies including Uber, Workday, Amazon and Microsoft. They also draw on social network theory to show how each of the three stages of innovation (idea generation, idea incubation, and scaling) can be undermined by virtual work. They then present an alternative organisational design that companies can adopt to overcome these challenges - the Adaptive Hybrid Model. This approach outlines how the network connections required for each of the three stages require different types of social capital and identifies how managers can blend virtual and face-to-face work to avoid the loss of connections and social capital that virtual work brings (see FIG 1). Thanks to John Golden, one of the writers, for highlighting this paper, which I recommend all people analytics leaders, chief human resources officers and business executives read to help them determine the vagaries of hybrid working.

FIG 1: Adaptive Hybrid Intervention Framework (Source: Michael Arena, Glenn Carroll, Charles O’Reilly, John Golden and Scott Hines)

MICROSOFT WORK TRENDS INDEX - Hybrid Work Is Just Work. Are We Doing It Wrong?

Microsoft continues to publish insightful data on the new era of hybrid work with their latest Work Trends Index identifying three urgent pivots to help employees and organisations thrive: i) End productivity paranoia (see FIG 2), ii) Embrace the fact that people come in (to the office) for each other, and iii) Re-recruit your employees. Data, insights, visualisations, and guidance are provided for each pivot along with a powerful quote from Satya Nadella : “Thriving employees are what will give organizations a competitive advantage in today’s dynamic economic environment.”

FIG 2: Productivity Paranoia (Source: Microsoft Work Trends Index)

ANDRÉ DUA, KWEILIN ELLINGRUD, BRYAN HANCOCK, RYAN LUBY, ANU MADGAVKAR, AND SARAH PEMBERTON - Freelance, side hustles, and gigs: Many more Americans have become independent workers

Perhaps the standout finding from McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey is that of the 25,000+ adults surveyed as part of the study; 36% per cent identify as independent workers (up from 27% in 2016). As ever with McKinsey’s research, there are some astute insights and powerful visualisations included in the article. Another fascinating finding is that despite the many challenges they face (see FIG 3), independent workers are significantly more optimistic about economic opportunity than workers overall.

FIG 3: Challenges faced by independent/gig workers (Source: McKinsey)

PEOPLE ANALYTICS

JONATHAN FERRAR – How Can I Be More Successful at People Analytics

Based on research we have conducted at Insight222 and for our book, Excellence in People Analytics, Jonathan Ferrar outlines seven questions for CHROs and people analytics leaders to answer to help set them up for success with people analytics: Do you have an Ethics Code of Conduct for people analytics? Are your people analytics projects selected and prioritised using proper governance and criteria? Do your senior business executives sponsor people analytics projects? Does your chief human resources officer invest in people analytics? Does your people analytics leader have the skills to "get things done"? Do you measure the ROI of your people analytics projects? Are your HR business partners capable of having evidence-based discussions? Jonathan’s article provides data, guidance and case studies to highlight the importance of each of the seven questions, plus a link to a survey so leaders can test their own level of excellence in people analytics by taking our Seven Question Survey.

FIG 4: People analytics practitioners recognise the need for transparency in a complex ethical data landscape (Source: Insight222 People Analytics Trends 2022)

ERIC LESSER AND GARY PARILIS - Behind the crystal ball: Realizing value from predictive retention projects

With predictive retention or attrition initiatives being a common use case for people analytics, this guide by Eric Lesser and Gary Parilis from Deloitte on the key challenges companies face to build retention models is invaluable. The authors present a three-step approach: i) Sense (“Identifying the internal and external trends that are most relevant to the business to explore in greater detail”), ii) Analyse (“Using the data to formulate insights and build predictive models and determine attrition drivers”) and iii) Act (“Making the results come to life”). Lesser and Parillis provide guidance on each step as it relates to a successful analytics attrition project, highlight helpful questions to consider before diving in e.g. What roles or segments of the workforce do I want to focus on and why is retention important to the organization’s strategic direction? Do I have a clear set of hypotheses that are guiding my data collection and analysis? Have you developed a clear change management strategy at the beginning of the project that addresses stakeholder management and communications to ensure follow through and actions?  

FRANCISCO MARIN AND MARIA MAYEROVA - The Role of Social Capital in Unveiling Inclusion Dynamics

In our annual analysis on the field of people analytics, we ask respondents to rank the top three areas where people analytics adds most value in their organisation. For the last two years, diversity and inclusion has come out on top. In their article, Francisco Marin and Maria Mayerova from Cognitive Talent Solutions outline how companies can effectively measure and enable inclusion by adopting systems that account for both social and human capital metrics and, for example, help understand internal collaboration dynamics. Their article includes a case study from a Fortune 500 biotech company, where analysis revealed two areas for improvement related to the exclusion of black and African American employees from the organisation’s informal network, and gender-based homophily in employees’ daily interactions (see FIG 5). Thanks to these insights being identified, the company was able to set a baseline to improve inclusion through targeted interventions supported by prescriptive analytics.

FIG 5: Distribution of interactions by gender (Source: Cognitive Talent Solutions)

MATTHEW HAMILTON - Use people analytics to uncover unconscious bias in hiring decisions

Another great read from Matthew Hamilton (check out his other articles here), who leads people analytics at Protective Life. This time, Matthew explores how people analytics can be used to identify and mitigate bias by providing insights on gender representation in hiring by job level, by organisational hierarchy by hiring manager and other dimensions. As Matthew highlights, the insights from people data “is a great way to help bring the lessons from unconscious bias training closer to home for managers,” as well as being an “opportunity for a partnership between People Analytics and DE&I COEs to help make the training feel more real and relevant to a company.”

FIG 6: Example of a breakdown of external hires by both their gender and the gender of their hiring managers (Source: Matthew Hamilton)

ELIJAH ROSS - The empirical evidence of team diversity on high performance outcomes

The third resource in a row highlighting how people analytics can support diversity and inclusion. In his paper, Elijah Ross , who is a People Analytics and DEI Analyst at TIBCO, shares his quantitative analysis on the impact of diverse teams on retention, engagement and belonging. Elijah’s analysis is based on the Shannon Index methodology, and “uses gender, age and tenure - as a proxy for diversity of thought - as well as regional representation to distil individual team diversity into a singular, composite score. That score is then used in panel regression analysis to determine the impact diversity has on voluntary attrition within smaller teams as well as self-reported senses of belonging and engagement.”   Thanks to Nick Jesteadt for highlighting Elijah’s insightful paper.

FIG 7: Source – Elijah Ross

MATIAS HVIID, CHRISTIAN MAY, STEPHEN HAIGH AND NICK JONES - The LEGO Group People Analytics Journey

Matias Hviid and Christian May of the LEGO Group’s people analytics team share examples and learnings from their journey of democratising people data, implementing a ‘single source of truth’ technology platform and upskilling HR and building a data driven culture at the iconic company. The article perfectly captures the three elements identified in Insight222 research required to create a data-driven culture in HR: i) invest in the people analytics function through people and technology (e.g. the LEGO Group’s investment in Visier soon after creating the people analytics function in 2018), ii) embed data driven decision making (e.g. the LEGO Group’s initiative through their internal learning program – ‘Power up PO&D’, and iii) focus on delivering business value (“To keep usage high, the team showed leaders specific data available and drew attention to the digital solutions that HR could access and create to quickly react to business needs.”)

ALEXANDER LOCHER AND ISABELLE STAIGER - How can people analytics put humans at the center of your ESG strategy?

In the epilogue of Excellence in People Analytics, Jonathan Ferrar and I presented four themes that we believe will drive the continued growth of people analytics. One of these is improving society through using people analytics to provide value beyond the organisation in areas such as inclusion, sustainability, and climate. In their article, Alexander S. Locher and Isabelle C. Staiger of EY Switzerland, explain how people analytics can support and enhance ESG strategy, offering insights beyond that found in typical ESG reporting: “A good ESG strategy is closely aligned with an employee’s experience through its different stages. Be it to measure the carbon footprint of an employee including the business travel (environmental), value and care for your employees wellbeing (social) or give the human factor in risk management the right attention (governance).”

FIG 8: Data driven Employee Lifecycle (Source: EY Switzerland)

VEERAL DESAI, TIM FOUNTAINE, AND KAYVAUN ROWSHANKISH - A Better Way to Put Your Data to Work

In Insight222’s People Analytics Trends 2022 study, which will be released on October 11, we identify seven characteristics for Leading Companies in people analytics that enable them to create more impact and deliver more value. One of these characteristics is that Leading Companies have a strong focus on personalising people analytics products for employees. In their article for Harvard Business Review, Veeral Desai , Tim Fountaine and Kayvaun Rowshankish echo this approach to productisation by outlining how successful companies treat data like a commercial product, and generate impressive returns through data products. While the article looks at productising data across the enterprise, there are numerous insights for HR and people analytics leaders looking to generate value from developing products based on people data.

Companies that treat data like a product can reduce the time it takes to implement it in new use cases by as much as 90%

FIG 9: Traditional data consumption versus the data product model (Source: Veeral Desai, Tim Fountaine and Kayvaun Rowshankish)

EMPLOYEE LISTENING, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

ANDREW MARRITT - Using your employee survey data to prioritise Employee Experience projects

Andrew Marritt , founder and CEO at Organization View, is my go-to expert on applying text analytics to people data. In one of his recent articles, Andrew provides a ‘how to’ guide for practitioners looking to use verbatim data from employee surveys (as well as other employee lifecycle surveys such as exit or onboarding) to help understand, shape, and improve employee experience. The article provides guidance on areas such as how to classify text into themes and co-occurrence of themes (see example in FIG 10), identification of key topics and those that link cause and effect, building personas and potential options, and combining other data sets.

FIG 10: Co-occurrence network showing how themes link for a large firm. The data is taken from a question about “what could we do to improve working here”. (Source - Organization View)

NICK LYNN - Co-creating your employee experience strategy

I can heartily recommend revisiting Nick Lynn ’s excellent article on why organisations should co-create their employee experience strategy with employees and guidance on how to do this. Nick presents a framework for prioritising options and making choices (see FIG 11), which is designed to ensure consistency of purpose across all the key decisions a company makes with regards to EX. Finally, Nick provides a list of six factors for companies to keep in mind when it comes to EX strategy including: i) Make sure EX is owned by the business rather than HR, ii) Prioritise the areas where EX impacts CX directly, and iii) Listening to employees is at the heart of EX strategy.

FIG 11: A framework for co-creating EX strategy (Source: Nick Lynn)

WORKFORCE PLANNING

SUE CANTRELL, MICHAEL GRIFFITHS, ROBIN JONES AND JULIE HIIPAKKA - The skills-based organization: A new operating model for work and the workforce

The Deloitte team of Susan Cantrell , Michael Griffiths , Robin Jones and Julie Hiipakka continue their excellent series of articles about the evolution of the skills-based organisation “to meet the demand for agility, agency and equity.” The consequence of this shift is that the dominant structure of work for the past century – the job – is increasingly being disrupted. For example, the article quotes Anish Singh of Unilever: “We’re beginning to think about each role at Unilever as a collection of skills, rather than simply a job title.” The article draws on a Deloitte survey of more than 1,200 professionals to highlight how companies are increasingly decoupling work and provides a wealth of insights and visualisations including: both executives and employees want a new approach to jobs and work (e.g. 73% of workers say skills-based practices would improve their experience at work), skills-based organisations see better results (e.g. 63% of organisations that embed a skills-based approach are more likely to achieve results than those that have not adopted these practices), and the case for changes continues to develop (e.g. 77% of business and HR executives say flexibly moving skills to work is critical to navigating future disruptions). Finally, the team present a skills-based operating model (see FIG 12) based on four principles: i) liberating work from the confines of the job, ii) reconceiving workers from being employees in jobs to being a “workforce of one, iii) using skills, rather than jobs, to make decisions about work and the workforce, and iv) building a ‘skills hub’. A must read.

FIG 12: The skills-based organisation: A new model for work and the workforce

JOSH BERSIN - We Are Becoming A PowerSkills Economy

In one of his recent essays, Josh Bersin highlights the rise of what he refers to as the ‘PowerSkills Economy.’ He highlights what ‘PowerSkills’ are (see FIG 13), how they can be developed, how they drive growth in wages and how thanks to automation, today: “We need workers with empathy. We face issues with focus, productivity, and performance. We need workers with wisdom, empathy, and heart.”

FIG 13: What are PowerSkills? The Skills of Success (Source: Josh Bersin)

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE

KATHLEEN HOGAN - Why Leaders Can’t Ignore the Human Energy Crisis

As Kathleen Hogan , Microsoft’s Chief People Officer, highlights in her compelling article, since the World Health Organization categorised burnout as an occupational phenomenon in 2019, it has only become more widespread. Kathleen describes it as a ‘Human Energy Crisis’ requiring “a new kind of workplace sustainability that’s an imperative for every organization,” where the task for leaders is about “regenerating energy for our employees at work and ensuring it’s renewable and sustainable.” Kathleen highlights work Dawn Klinghoffer and the people analytics team has done to enable Microsoft to shift “from measuring how productive and engaged employees are to how well are they thriving,” before outlining six key areas where leaders can tackle the Human Energy Crisis: Putting culture and purpose front and centre, making wellbeing holistic, supporting career growth in meaningful ways, focusing on leader and manager capabilities, building supportive team connections, and being intentional to offer flexibility where possible. To learn more about the work Kathleen is leading at Microsoft, including how she and CEO Satya Nadella undertook a successful culture transformation at the tech giant, listen to my conversation with her on the Digital HR Leaders podcast: Microsoft's Chief People Officer on Creating a Data Driven Culture in HR.

DONALD SULL AND CHARLES SULL - How to Fix a Toxic Culture

There's lots to unpack in the latest research from Donald Sull and Charlie Sull on how to address toxicity in the workplace. With more than 90% of North American CEOs and CFOs believing that improving their corporate culture would boost financial performance, the fact that one in ten workers experience their workplace culture as toxic is a damning indictment of leadership. In their article, Donald and Charles highlight data revealing the three leading drivers of a toxic culture (see FIG 14): leadership, social norms and work design. Then they present a variety of evidence-based interventions, organised around these three drivers, that leaders and companies can implement to fix a toxic culture.

Employers that have ignored feedback about toxic behavior — whether widespread or in small pockets — should not be surprised when employees’ loyalty wears thin and they head for the exits.

FIG 14: Leadership, Social Norms, and Work Design Drive Toxic Culture (Source: CultureX )

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING

MONIKA HAMORI, ROCIO BONET, PETER CAPPELLI, AND SAMIDHA SAMBARE - Women Are Stalling Out on the Way to the Top

In a recent episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, Rasmus Hougaard shared the findings of research he had conducted that found that women are more effective leaders than men. So, where are we with regards to the advancement of women in the most visible leadership roles in our biggest businesses? To answer this question, the writers of this MIT Sloan Management Review article analysed the career histories and demographics of executives in the 10 highest-ranking jobs in Fortune 100 companies during the past 40 years. Findings from the research include: i) Despite accounting for 47% of the U.S. labour force, women held just 27% of the Fortune 100’s top leadership positions in 2021, which while an increase is still woefully short of equal representation, ii) Women are mostly stuck in support roles, with only 6% being at the highest tier (CEOs, presidents, and COOs), iii) Women take less time than men to reach a top-tier executive position from the start of their careers (see FIG 15), and iv) Women switch companies more often. The article also provides guidance on how companies can do better including around hiring and development as well as in promoting more women to ‘feeder’ roles.

FIG 15: Women reach the top faster (Source: Monika Hamori , Rocio Bonet , Peter Cappelli and Samidha Chitnis )

ALEXANDRA KALEV AND FRANK DOBBIN - The Surprising Benefits of Work/Life Support

Research shows that women and people of colour need work/life support more than other employees, mainly because they face greater challenges and have fewer resources available to them. They are also the least likely to receive it, however, and as a result are often forced to change or leave jobs and lose out on opportunities for advancement. With this in mind, the authors of this Harvard Business Review article sought to gain a deeper understanding on the effects various corporate work/life programs have on the management workforce. They analysed data from more than 800 American companies over 30 years, and found that when companies offered flexible work schedules, family leave, and childcare support to all employees, the percentage of women and people of colour in management rose significantly (see FIG 16). Indeed, those work/life benefits actually had a larger impact than the most popular racial-equity programs did. An illuminating and powerful read.

FIG 16: How work/life benefits affect organisational diversity (Source: Alexandra Kalev and Frank Dobbin )

THE EVOLUTION OF HR

DAVE ULRICH - HR N.0 Ten Ideas Shaping the Future of Human Capability

Perhaps no single figure has done more to shape modern HR than Dave Ulrich . So, this collection of ten ideas shaping what Dave deliberately refers to as ‘HR N.0’ (“not 2.0 or 3.0 or 4.0, but n.0 which implies somewhere in the future”) immediately feel prescient. The ideas are summarised in FIG 17 and explored in more depth in the article.

FIG 17: Ten ideas shaping HR N.0 (Source: Dave Ulrich)

MICHAEL KIM - HRBP 2.0: Connecting Humanity With Business

Spotify’s HR Blog continues to provide a rich vein of insights on the practices of a leading-edge HR function and how it delivers value for employees and the company. The recent article by Michael Kim , who leads HR for Spotify in JAPAC and SAMEA, is a good example. In his piece, Michael outlines the context in which the role of the human resources business partner (HRBP) role has changed from both a ‘human’ and ‘business’ perspective, as well as sharing some of the skills that Spotify looks for in HRBPs. These include the ability to adapt to change and to be a champion of change management for the businesses they support.

In today’s world, a good HRBP is someone who can connect the human side of their job and align it with the business priorities. This is the golden ticket to driving positive change across your organization

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 September that I recommend readers delve into (see below).

• ALICIA ROACH – Strategic Workforce Planning as a Category of People Analytics – Alicia Roach of eQ8 reacts to Sierra-Cedar categorising Strategic Workforce Planning as the most complex category of people analytics (see FIG 18). If you’re interested in workforce planning, do listen to Alicia on the Digital HR Leaders podcast too: How Strategic Workforce Planning Contributes to Business Success.

FIG 18: Maturity of Workforce Analytics (Source: Alicia Roach)

• RALF BOVERS - Productization: how to scale for success – Ralf Bovers from Crunchr provides some helpful guidance on how to productise people analytics and overcome challenges such as security, compliance and UX.
• IAN MCVEY - 4 Ways People Analytics Helps Enterprise Leaders Create Strategic Alignment – Ian McVey , who leads Visier Inc. in EMEA, breaks down four ways people analytics can build strategic alignment including: i) Clarify organizational dynamics and build a strategically-aligned workforce, and ii) Build an inclusive culture that empowers everyone to fulfil your strategic goals.
• ZACH STINEBAUGH - How to Prioritize People Analytics Initiatives in Small Teams – Writing for the Orgnostic blog, Zach Stinebaugh , who leads people analytics at The Citadel, provides guidance on how to set people analytics up for success in a SME through effective prioritisation, automation and storytelling: “Drive the most value by prioritizing “needle-moving” statistics for people within and outside of HR.”
• NICK GARBIS - Why You Need Both HR Reporting and People Analytics – One Model ’s Nicholas Garbis provides a helpful guide to HR Reporting and People Analytics and how they connect together.

FIG 19: Source – One Model

PODCASTS OF THE MONTH

In another month of high-quality podcasts, I’ve selected six gems for your aural pleasure (you can also check out the latest episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast – see ‘From My Desk’ below):

• ROB CROSS AND KENSA GUNTER – Mindful Collaboration – Rob Cross , who I’m delighted will be speaking at the Insight222 Global Executive Retreat in Paris and Boston in October, joins Kensa Gunter, PsyD, CMPC on the Resilience at Google podcast to discuss why over-collaboration, particularly in the hybrid workspace might be hurting us more than it’s helping.
• NAOMI HUDSON, PHIL KIRSCHNER, MARTIN ROSENDAHL, AND DAPHNE LUCHTENBERG - People and places: How and where to work next – This recent episode of the McKinsey Talks Operations podcast focuses on where the best place is for sales, general and administrative functions to work in the era of hybrid.
• MALA SINGH AND LARS SCHMIDT - Prioritizing Innovation in People Strategies With Electronic Arts – EA’s Chief People Officer Mala S. joins host Lars Schmidt on his Redefining HR podcast to discuss innovation at scale in hybrid work, the importance of listening to your workforce and prioritising mental health.
• DAVE ULRICH, DANI JOHNSON, STACIA GARR AND CHRIS PIRIE – The Power of Connection – Dave Ulrich joins the RedThread Research team for a discussion on trust and its importance to building connection with employees.
• MIKE KNOTT, COLE NAPPER AND SCOTT HINES - Disability analytics as part of people analytics – Mike Knott , who is part of the workforce analytics function at Medtronic, joins Cole Napper and Scott Hines, PhD on the Directionally Correct podcast for a discussion on how disability can be better (and more safely) accounted for in people analytics.
• LYNDA GRATTON AND TERENCE MAURI – Hack the Future – Lynda Gratton joins host Terence Mauri to discuss what’s new and trending in the future of work from quiet quitting and burnout to jobs to care and friendships, as well as insights from her new book: Redesigning Work.

VIDEO OF THE MONTH

CASSIE KOZYRKOV - Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about machine learning Medium | YouTube

An absolute tour de force from Cassie Kozyrkov as she makes her Making Friends with Machine Learning (MFML) course, originally prepared for Google’s employees, freely available via Medium and YouTube. In Cassie’s words: “The course is designed to give you the tools you need for effective participation in machine learning for solving business problems and for being a good citizen in an increasingly AI-fueled world. MFML is perfect for all humans; it focuses on conceptual understanding (rather than the mathematical and programming details) and guides you through the ideas that form the basis of successful approaches to machine learning. It has something for everyone!” The course trailer is below.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

RUPERT MORRISON – Organizational Planning and Analysis: Building the Capability to Secure Business Performance

The follow-up to Rupert Morrison ’s brilliant first book Data-Driven Organization Design, explains how to take a data-driven approach to workforce planning premised on enabling the business to achieve its strategic goals. The book covers everything from how to build an OP&A function, the difference between strategic and operational workforce planning and how to manage demand and supply through to how to match people to new or changing roles and develop robust succession planning. Rupert first outlined the key concepts outlined in this book to me when he was a guest on the Digital HR Leaders podcast (see: Data-Driven Workforce Planning and Org Design). I was captivated. If you want to understand how to use data and analysis to build organizational capabilities through workforce planning and drive business success, then this is the book for you.

RESEARCH REPORT OF THE MONTH

SARA KASSIR, LEWIS BAKER, JACKSON DOLPHIN AND, FRIDA POLLI - AI for hiring in context: a perspective on overcoming the unique challenges of employment research to mitigate disparate impact

A new white paper with authors including Frida Polli, PhD , pymetrics CEO, comparing the disparate impact of traditional candidate assessments against those delivered through a machine learning model. As the Abstract to the paper explains: “In this paper, we explain that since the Civil Rights Act, industrial and organizational (I/O) psychologists have struggled to produce assessments without disparate impact. By examining the utility of ML for conducting exploratory analyses, coupled with the back-testing capability offered by advances in data science, we explain modern technology’s utility for hiring. We then empirically investigate a commercial hiring platform that applies several oft-cited benefts of ML to build custom job models for corporate employers. We focus on the disparate impact observed when models are deployed to evaluate real-world job candidates. Across a sample of 60 jobs built for 26 employers and used to evaluate approximately 400,00 candidates, minority-weighted impact ratios of 0.93 (Black–White), 0.97 (Hispanic–White), and 0.98 (Female–Male) are observed. We find similar results for candidates selecting disability related accommodations within the platform versus unaccommodated users. We conclude by describing limitations, anticipating criticisms, and outlining further research.” Thanks to the brilliant Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic for highlighting.

FIG 20: Comparison of Selection Rates by Race (Source: Sara Kassir , Lewis Baker , Jackson Dolphin and Frida Polli, PhD )

FROM MY DESK

September saw the return of the Digital HR Leaders podcast after its extended summer break, as the first three episodes of Series 25, sponsored by our friends at ChartHop were published:

• RASMUS HOUGAARD - How To Be a More Compassionate Leader – Rasmus Hougaard , co-author of the book Compassion Leadership, joins me to explain the difference between empathy and compassion (“Compassion is where you take empathy and add action”), and discusses how we can be more effective leaders through the power of compassion.

• MOLLIE WEST DUFFY AND LIZ FOSSLIEN - How to Help Your Teams Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay – The co-authors of Big Feelings: How to Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay, Mollie West Duffy and Liz Fosslien join me to share their research on the concerns employees have about burnout, uncertainty and perfectionism, and offer practical tips on how we can combat them as individuals, colleagues and leaders.

• IVORI JOHNSON AND EMILY CONNERY - How To Maintain A Positive Employee Experience During Rapid Growth - Emily Connery and Ivori Johnson (She/Her) share insights on how they have shaped employee experience, inclusion and belonging at ChartHop - a company that has grown from 50 to over 200 employees in the last year, and recently won an award for Best Remote Workplace: “I think of belonging as the result of DEI. So, diversity is around having that representation from all communities, equity around fairness and making sure that we're doing the right thing, and inclusion is just making everyone feel like they have a voice and that they're heard. If you're able to focus on those three things, belonging is a result of that.”

THANK YOU

Finally, a special thank you this month to Pablo Manuel Valli Barreto for his generous review of Excellence in People Analytics (see here).

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Green 🇺🇦 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 90 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 was published in the summer of 2021.

See David speak at:

• Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, Paris, October 5-6 (Invite only event for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program)
• UNLEASH World, Paris, October 12-13
• Insight222 Global Executive Retreat, Boston, October 19-20 (Invite only event for member companies of the Insight222 People Analytics Program)
• People Analytics World LATAM, October 25-26
• Workday Rising Europe, Stockholm, November 15-17