Tucana People Analytics Podcast | Insights & Interviews From The World Of Human Resources

The challenges that HR faces in launching a sustainable People Analytics initiative, from gaining support among key partners and building influence around the organisation, to demonstrating value for them and proving the value of HR as a data-driven function of the business. A People Analytics project – like any project – that doesn’t have external and senior support is unlikely to get off the ground. It’s essential to identify the key partners and build trust and support around the organisation. Linda Kennedy has worked in senior HR roles in several major organisations, including SIG plc and T-Mobile. She has successfully launched several such initiatives, and is well-versed in the politics and psychology of lobbying, building influence, and convincing others of the actual and potential value of data-driven HR. In this episode, she speaks with Max Blumberg – himself a qualified psychologist – about: Identifying key partners How to get them onside The art and science of lobbying The role of technology in dri

In this week’s episode, Max Blumberg spoke with Andrew Woolnough (at the time, Value Proposition Director, Willis Towers Watson) about the concept of People Risk – what it means, what role HR needs to play, and why it is critically important for the finances of the business. Risk is a huge business issue, and considering the financial commitment that a company makes to Reward, Training, Recruitment and other People-related costs, the financial implications of analysing and controlling People Risk are immense. As an insurer, Willis have been working extensively in this area, and Andrew gives a behind-the-scenes look at what they are finding. He explains how a Risk- and data-savvy HR department can have a direct and significant impact on a company costs, which is a prime concern of the C-Suite. Ideas covered this week: What is People Risk? Who owns People Risk? Risk mapping: what stage is HR at? How does cross-functional collaboration enable better People Risk management? What do insurers look at when assessin

People Analytics presents one of the greatest opportunities HR has ever had to become a chief driving force in business, but HR has largely not realised this potential. Despite CEOs across the world saying publicly that they need an assertive and data-driven HR department, few HR leaders claim to be making significant progress in this area. Mark Berry has built People Analytics functions at several companies, and has been recognised as one of the world’s top influencers in HR and in People Analytics. He was recognised an HR Trendsetter by HR Magazine, as well as receiving several other accolades over the last few years. He talks with David Green about why HR is not delivering on it’s potential in analytics, how the internal dynamics of HR can hamper progress, and what skills and attitudes are needed in the CHRO to allow HR to fully grow into the data-driven organisation the that business desperately needs it to be.

David Ulrich and Max Blumberg discuss the idea of quantifying the value that both leaders and employees bring to the business: What creates the value for a company? How do we define this value? Which are the companies that are doing the best work in this area? What are the metrics of successful leadership? They discuss Dave’s concept of the Leadership Capital Index, and how companies are now quantifying the aspects of good leadership. They discuss measuring the contribution of employees across the organisation towards business success in financial terms: What workforce metrics can be directly related to business success? How do we justify to investors the investment in developing leadership and people management? How do you convince investors of the value of people analytics? Dave Ulrich outlines three ways to value a firm, and raises the question: how able are you to measure these things? And how do you communicate these values to investors and shareholders? Finally, they discuss the challenge of focussi

Received wisdom tells us that an engaged workforce is more productive. But how do we quantify this ‘engagement’ in order to measure its effect on performance? How does a company know what to measure, when and how often to measure it, and what value to put on various indicators, in order to be able to analyse this information about the workforce? In order to demonstrate the ROI of Employee Engagement initiatives, it must be shown that there is a direct impact on business performance. Doing this may be easier said than done. Peter has worked in senior, global roles at two of the world’s largest companies. Here he shares his perspective with Max Blumberg on where the concept of engagement has come from, what it means in the age of big data and analytics, and how companies can get commercially-useful insight into their workforce that justifies investment in engagement and motivation.   4 key questions:   1. If people are important to organisations, why is the media so full of stories about companies removi