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

Recorded after Cole Nussbaumer's most recent Data Visualisation Masterclass in London in February, David Green asks her about the philosophy behind Storytelling With Data. They talk about a couple of the lessons that were explored during the full-day session, and we also heard from fellow bestselling author and globally-recognised thought leader Bernard Marr, who was a participant in the workshop. If you're unsure about whether you need to attend this course, the next 8 minutes should make up your mind! Cole returns to London on 20 November for another public Storytelling With Data masterclass with Tucana. Sign up here: www.storytellingwithdata.co.uk

Max Blumberg speaks again with Alec Levenson about the strategic mindset that's needed for an organisation to work as an efficient whole. - Register for Alec's masterclass on this topic, 10 April, London HR's position in business strategy is the subject of much discussion, as is the ongoing challenges in connecting the traditional people-centric culture of HR with the financial and operational culture of other areas of the organisation. In reality, there should be no disconnect at all. The underlying problem that leads to the siloed mentality - in all departments, not just HR - is a lack of Systems Thinking. The result is a situation where the various parts of the organisation work often in opposing directions, and the organisation as a whole suffers from this inefficiency. Alec's recent work has been around promoting this Systems mindset, and the enormous performance benefits that it can yield. In this week's episode, they discuss: The concept of Systems Thinking The interconnectedness of disparate functio

David Green speaks with Bernard Marr about the future directions in which People Analytics will take the HR profession. Bernard Marr will be launching his latest book "Data-Driven HR" at the People Analytics World conference on 11-12 April. As part of his research, as well as his consulting work, he has been exploring areas such as Blockchain, Machine Learning and AI, and Organisational Network Analysis in a practical sense of how they are applied in real organisations. The insights that these concepts and tools make possible can transform the operational capacity of HR - along with all other functions that embrace them - to a level that is more reactive, predictive, and intelligent in its actions. He talks with David Green about the way in which HR Analytics is changing the way the rest of business sees HR, and how the massive potential of this new technology is demanding a transformation in the mindset and operational structures of the People function of organisations both large and small.  In this week's e

Mark Lawrence speaks with Cole Nussbaumer, one of the world's leading authorities on high-impact Data Visualisation techniques. It doesn't matter how good your data is; if your message is lost in clutter and noise, you're giving yourself an uphill task in driving the action you want. Cole has spent her career training professionals in how to communicate clearly, concisely and effectively with data, and how to tell a compelling story that drives home the message. She chats with Mark Lawrence about her career spanning Finance, Technology and HR - including being a key member of Google's original People Analytics team, where she taught them her own techniques that are now sought-after by organisations globally. They discuss some key themes in Data Visualisation, some common mistakes, and some extremely insightful and valuable tips on removing clutter and giving your presentations an enormous boost in impact. In this week's episode, they discuss: The concept of storytelling with data Cole's experiences in variou

David Green speaks with Hani Nabeel, Director of Behavioural Analytics at Alderbrooke Group. Hani has been researching ways to quantify and measure employee behaviour, and demonstrate the causal links that contribute to - or detract from - the stated goals of the organisations. It's an elusive concept but one that is becming increasingly essential, in certain industries in particular that are facing stricter regulation and closer scrutiny of the internal culture. Until now, these have often been largely steered by simple goals such as revenue and productivity, but more complex challenges such as social responsibility, customer engagement, diversity and sustainability. In this week's episode, they discuss: The history and nature of Behavioural Analytics The research currently taking place into putting behaviours into a practical and useful framework The false assumptions and contradictions that are present in a huge number of organisations The relationship between behaviour and work environment What you can d

Max Blumberg talks with Uri Gal, Associate Professor for Information Systems at the University of Sydney. The push to use data and analytics to drive decision-making in HR - as in the wider business - continues apace around the world. To varying degrees of advancement and success, human instinct continues to give ground to algorithms in guiding business strategy. As a sociologist as well as an analyst, Uri talks with Max about what he sees as the potential pitfalls along the seemingly inexorable data-driven journey: The major assumptions behind People Analytics, and how valid these assumptions really are The dangers involving bias, and whether analytics is a help or a hindrance in overcoming it Ethical issues involved in People Analytics - privacy, employee isolation and the mechanised workforce Practical issues - the impact on managerial skills, innovation and worker motivation. A provocative conversation that challenges a lot of the mainstream thought in this area. Please leave your comments below - join

People Analytics Podcast - Recorded live at PAWorld17, QEII Centre, London   Facilitator: Max Blumberg - Visiting Professor, Leeds Business School - Saima Poorghobad - Head of Commercial Projects, XpertHR - Gareth Jones - Chief Technology Officer, The Chemistry Lab   Part 2   Max talks with two people with a different perspective on the People Analytics industry, coming from the consultatant/vendor side as well as press and industry commentary. They discuss some of the key sessions, and how they see the practice developing currently and in the future.

Laurie Bassi, a leading figure in HR Analytics for many years, as well as former Economics professor and co-author of the industry textbook 'The Good Company', talks with Max Blumberg about the reasons why Employee Engagement fails to find traction outside HR, and how data and analytics can transform it from an HR cost centre to a demonstrable driver of business performance.   Max Blumberg talks with Laurie Bassi, one of the most senior figures in HR Strategy & Analytics, and co-chair of the People Analytics Forum 2017. One of the mantras in HR, especially over the last decade, has been that Engaged Employees Are Good For Business. On this basis, HR professionals have looked for ways to measure, foster and improve this metric, but outside of HR, the enthusiasm for investing in this area has been significantly less. The challenge, as with anything in business, is to demonstrate how and to what extent this somewhat ambiguous concept connects to the much more rigid world of profit and loss, financial

People Analytics Podcast - Recorded live at PAWorld17, QEII Centre, London Facilitator: Max Blumberg - Visiting Professor, Leeds Business School - Ekkehard Ernst - Chief Macroeconomic Policy Officer, International Labor Organisation - Sjoerd van den Heuvel - People Analytics Researcher, University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht - Michael Carty - Benchmarking Editor, Personnel Today / XpertHR   Part 1   People Analytics World was a very busy two days. We somehow managed to pin down two of the speakers and a key industry commentator, amid a flurry of amazing sessions towards the end of Day Two, to give us their reflections on the event and the key themes that emerged. They cover: Cole Nussbaumer, and her showstopper presentation on Data Visualisation Ross Sparkman of Facebook discussing the marriage of workforce planning and comon sense True North Analytics, and their excellent report on analysing the impact of the Gender Pay Gap The long term ROI and competitive advantage afforded by People Analytics Standardis

David Green chats with Laurence Collins, Global Lead for HR Transformation and Workforce Analytics Consulting at Deloitte, for the final episode of thie season. As People Analytics gradually becomes part of the workings of HR departments around the world, the concept of decision-making based on employee data has growing implications for people’s working lives. As co-author the People Analytics chapter in the recent Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report, Laurence is more in touch than most people with the global strategic direction of analytics in HR. The report is in many ways a go-to point for professionals around the world for learning about the current business landscape and where they stand in relation to other organisations. There are few areas more fast-changing than analytics and data-crunching technology, and the knock-on effect can often be that the long-term questions are sidelined in favour of more immediate operational challenges. This was a fascinating conversation between two people advisi

Max Blumberg talks with Kevin Moore, Head of People Analytics at Gannett, home of USA Today. Kevin shares his experience and lessons with us, describing how he built this new function to serve customers across the enterprise. What is the roadmap for creating cost-effective yet highly effective analytics function Finding the right balance between what to insource and what to outsource How to decide which analytics projects to monetize and how to approach this How effective is predictive analytics in the real world. Kevin Moore is the Head of People Analytics at Gannett, publisher of the USA Today newspaper. He developed the HR analytics and reporting programme to serve all levels of clients across the organisation consisting of standard reports, ad-hoc reports, predictive analytics, special studies, and surveys. Prior to Gannett, Kevin spent the majority of his career in HR Consulting serving clients across industries with HR analytics, change management, workforce planning, employee survey, and process impr

Episode 14: Strategic People Analytics Max Blumberg talks with Alec Levenson, Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations, University of Southern California. He conducts research and consulting with companies on strategy, organisation design and talent management, and is a thought leader in HR analytics. His recent book is titled Strategic Analytics, which is the subject of this discussion. In this week's episode, they discuss: What causes gaps between HR and the business? Building causal models which link people investments to strategic outcomes Which HR processes require analytics focus and which do not When people analytics ROI can be a dangerous thing

Within global Fortune 100 organizations, executives heavily rely on the rich analytics to inform business decisions about the products they create, the markets they serve, and how operations are run. But what about measuring managers, one of an organisation’s most vital assets?  A Gallup study found that at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores is driven by manager behaviours. While executives can quantify discrete business outcomes like revenue generated, the actions that drives these results is often unclear, unmeasured and unseen. Microsoft has identified the tacit connection between workplace behaviours and employee engagement and survey responses. In this presentation attendees will learn specific behaviour changes that can make managers more effective based on insights from within Microsoft as well as best practices based on research conducted by Microsoft for Fortune 100 companies. Max Blumberg talks with Becky Thielen, Director for Global Workforce Data Insights, and her colleague i

Episode 12: Strategic Enterprise Analytics - Keeping HR Relevant As People Analytics is growing in data quality, capability and scope, so other departments are beginning to draw workforce data into their own analytics programmes. Similarly, technology is developing and further permeating business on all levels - from internal messaging to AI-driven insight to the Internet of Things. All of this is leading some more advanced organisations to begin combining analytics and technology across domains, blending the tools, expertise and initiatives to form a strategic Enterprise Analytics function. As departments like Marketing, Procurement and Finance are often further ahead in terms of analytics capability and sophistication, the challenge for HR is to step up and assert the importance and usefulness of workforce data in this new, integrated analytics approach. One of the most recognisable names in HR and Business Analytics, Bernard Marr discusses with Max Blumberg several topics around the outlook

If this is what your organisation is doing now, what will you need to do in 10 years’ time? If your strategy is to be operating at 50% or 500% of your current size, how can you know what people and skills you will need, and where? Strategic Workforce Planning is in many ways one of the most complex - and also most essential - fields of HR. Having an optimised workforce that is properly positioned and skilled to handle emerging and anticipated business challenges is of immeasurable benefit to the success of a business strategy. And of course, the converse is equally true. It is therefore a massive opportunity to demonstrate a real, practical and commercially-beneficial use for workforce data, which delivers exactly what the CEO needs from HR. One significan challenge in Workforce Planning is for rapid growth or downsizing, since it introduces a lot of unknowns into the equation. How do you anticipate the needs of your organisation when your whole operational structure has transformed entirely? Clearly, one com

Episode 10: Building Global Enterprise Analytics at Nestlé This week's episode was recorded live at the People Analytics Forum 2016 in London last November.   Being the world's biggest food company, with operations in more countries than the United Nations, Nestlé is never going to be the easiest organisation at which to oversee a global transformation of any kind. Jordan Pettman led a development team at company HQ to create People Analytics and Workforce Planning tools and methodologies. The success of this project led to the need for a global roll-out for over 300,000 people in 194 countries. Recorded on camera in the media lounge at People Analytics Forum 2016, Max Blumberg got an unmissable chance to speak in person with Jordan Pettman, and hear his own personal experiences of being at the helm of a project of jaw-dropping scale: Creating an enterprise analytics function when you're one of the world's largest companies Managing data privacy across regional boundaries Dealing with vastly d

Does your organisation have a standard set of definitions for all concepts, relationships and interventions related to your workforce? Does your employee data all fit neatly into pre-defined boxes, with all interconnectivity already clearly mapped out? No? Well, unsurprisingly, you're not alone. The goal of standardising HR can seem mirage-like at times, and one could be forgiven for wondering if attempts to impose a framework of logic and statistics on every aspect of Human Capital Management is futile at best. Nevertheless, most other areas of business operate in precisely this way. As we all know, dealing with humans is very different to dealing with materials and financials. But if the uncountable can be rendered countable, it would mean an immense operational - and consequently strategic - advantage. Effective real-world analytics of any kind relies on precisely this.   For the opening episode of the second season of the People Analytics Podcast, Max Blumberg talks with John Boudreau, one of the most rec

This week, Max Blumberg chats with Niall Cluley, former Global HR Director of Fitness First, about the critical link between culture and employee engagement, and how this ultimately impacts on business performance. Hear his thoughts on why it’s critical to get to grips with the links between engagement and performance, along with his approach and lessons learnt whilst at Fitness First. In this week’s podcast you’ll hear Niall and Max discuss: Why it is critical to get to grips with the links between behaviour and performance How HR teams approach this challenge A case study of the approach and lessons learnt at Fitness First HR and data – what the challenges and opportunities are 5 tops tips for measuring and linking engagement to business performance

Ian Bailie speaks about his personal journey in becoming a People Analytics leader at a global tech company, as well as the company’s journey in becoming a leader in this space, using analytics across the talent lifecycle. Cisco Systems is one of the most recognisable brands in the technology industry, and Ian plays a very senior role in ensuring they are able to capture the very best talent in a notoriously competitive industry. He talks with David Green about: Why People Analytics is important for HR and the business The journey so far at Cisco, and what’s on the horizon Some of the challenges that have been overcome How the People Analytics team is organised Advice for practitioners and organisations looking to get started What the next trends are likely to be in the People Analytics space A preview of Ian’s session at the upcoming People Analytics Forum in November.

What if publicly-listed companies had to report their HR metrics like talent capability and training costs in the same way that they reported profit-to-earnings and material investment? It might sound unrealistic to some, but that view is not shared by the UK government, which has been working with the CIPD, CIMA and several other organisations on a project that aims to achieve precisely that. The ‘Valuing your Talent’ initiative was the brainchild of Dr. Anthony Hesketh, professor at Lancaster University, and Peter Cheese, head of the CIPD. Dr. Hesketh went on to write the seminal paper that gave birth to the movement, which is slowly gaining momentum among businesses and professional associations. Max Blumberg talks with Anthony Hesketh about this project, and also with Krysta Gough, who has been working with the CIPD, along with several others (Max included), to help design and implement this coming shake-up in how business views and measures its human capital. Key questions they will answer: Why is a hum