How Will AI Impact People Analytics in 2024 and Beyond?

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In 2024, people analytics is facing a pivot point.  And that pivot point is focused in on AI ML and how that's both creating advantage for organisations, and also a great deal of activity and work in HR that the data science analytics teams inside of HR have a unique position to look into.

What is required to move people analytics from insight to impact? How can people analytics and HR professionals influence business leaders? What is the impact of AI and machine learning on people analytics now and in the future?

These are just three of the topics that we tackle this week as the Digital HR Leaders podcast returns from its winter break. I am joined by three guests who have all personally inspired me – as well as countless others, and who between them have over 40 years of experience in the people analytics field:

• Dawn Klinghoffer , Global Head of People Analytics at Microsoft and a board advisor at Insight222, who has spent the last 20 years building and leading the people analytics function at Microsoft.
• Jeremy Shapiro , Global Head of Workforce Analytics at Merck & Co, and co-convenor of the New York Strategic HR Analytics meet-up group.
• Thomas Hedegaard Rasmussen , VP of Organisational Development and Learning at Shell, who has previously built and led people analytics functions at National Australia Bank, Shell and Maersk.

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

In the conversation, we explore driving business value with people analytics, highlighting findings from the paper (Moving People Analytics from Insight to Impact) Thomas recently co-authored with Mike Ulrich and Dave Ulrich as well as the eight characteristics of leading companies identified in Insight222's People Analytics Trends 2023 Report.

It's easier to be influenced by the strategic conversations in a business if you have access to them.  And it's also easier to prioritise if you have the backing of senior leaders to pursue those relatively few high-value projects at the expense of trying to do too many things at once. 

Dawn, Jeremy, Thomas and I also discuss:

• Three ‘I’s’ of people analytics: insight, impact, and influence
• Techniques on prioritising people analytics work and aligning it to business needs
• How to forge a successful relationship between people analytics and finance
• How AI and machine learning are supporting people analytics work
• How AI will transform the world of work in the next 12 months and years ahead.

I'm hoping that AI really helps HR be energised and empowered to do meaningful work by removing the drudgery of so many of the tasks that happen today in HR.

RESOURCES

Here are links to some of the materials discussed during the episode:

• The paper Thomas published with Mike Ulrich and Dave Ulrich: Moving People Analytics from Insight to Impact
• Insight222’s People Analytics Trends 2023 study: Investing to Deliver – A New Model for People Analytics
• Dawn’s article on thriving: Why Microsoft Measures Employee Thriving, Not Engagement
• The seminal HBR article Jeremy co-authored with Tom Davenport and Jeanne Harris : Competing on Talent Analytics

THANK YOU

Thanks to Dawn, Thomas, and Jeremy for sharing their time, expertise, and vision with listeners. Thanks too to Manpreet Randhawa, Stefan Kesić, Jasmine Panayides, and the team at Insight222 and myHRfuture for bringing the podcast to life.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR - SCREENCLOUD

This episode and series of the Digital HR Leaders podcast is sponsored by ScreenCloud , with special thanks to Luke F. :

ScreenCloud is the digital signage platform that helps HR teams at over 10,000 organisations around the globe to elevate their digital employee experience, with 'screens that communicate' - Easy for IT to set up, Easy for HR to use, And, Easy for employees to engage with. To learn how ScreenCloud can enable your organisation to increase employee engagement, drive productivity, and improve compliance, visit ScreenCloud.com.

NEXT WEEK

Join us next week on the Digital HR Leaders podcast where my guest is Serena H. Huang, Ph.D. , where amongst other topics we’ll be discussing career opportunities and pathways in people analytics.

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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, 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 ME AT THESE EVENTS

I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work, and data driven HR at a number of upcoming events in 2024:

• Jan 25 - The Strategic Agenda for HR in 2025 (webinar - register here)
• Feb 21 - Discover how Leading Companies shift People Analytics from insight to impact (Webinar)
• Feb 28 - People Analytics World 2024: Exploring the Potential of Analytics and AI in Employee Experience (Zurich)
• March 4-6 - Gloat Live! (New York)
• March 14-15 - Wharton People Analytics Conference (Philadelphia)
• April 24-25 - People Analytics World (London)
• May 7-9 - UNLEASH America (Las Vegas)
• September 24-26 - Insight222 Global Executive Retreat (Colorado, US) - exclusively for member organisations of the Insight222 People Analytics Program
• October 16-17 - UNLEASH World (Paris)

More events will be added as they are confirmed.