Power of People, The: Learn How Successful Organizations Use Workforce Analytics To Improve Business Performance
Description
Transforming the immense potential of workforce analytics into reality isn't easy. Pioneering practitioners have learned crucial lessons that can help you succeed. The Power of People shares their journeys-and their indispensable insights.
Drawing on incisive case studies and vignettes, three experts help you bring purpose and clarity to any workforce analytics project, with robust research design and analysis to get reliable insights. They reveal where to start, where to find stakeholder support, and how to earn "quick wins" to build upon.
You'll learn how to sustain success through best-practice data management, technology usage, partnering, and skill building. Finally, you'll discover how to earn even more value by establishing an analytical mindset throughout HR, and building two key skills: storytelling and visualization.
The Power of People will be invaluable to HR executives establishing or leading analytics functions; HR professionals planning analytics projects; and any business executive who wants more value from HR.
Reviews / Votes
" The Power of People provides an exceptional primer for doing workforce analytics. It includes wonderful insights from thought leaders, and specific and usable tools for performing analytics."-Dave Ulrich, Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and Partner of The RBL Group
"Data analytics is a crucial and fast evolving organisational capability. This intriguing and fascinating book demonstrates not only the power of people analytics, but also creates a clear blueprint for building action-taking capability. A must read for any manager determined to add this valuable skill to their portfolio."
-Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice, London Business School
"Trusting your gut on people issues turns out to be a bad idea. Analytics on your workforce is the most rapidly growing field of analytics. The Power of People is an excellent guide to this important and burgeoning topic."
-Thomas H. Davenport, Distinguished Professor, Babson College, and Research Fellow, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy
"I believe you will find, like I did, that the frameworks and insights in The Power of People offer valuable steps toward realizing the potential of your workforce to create sustainable strategic success."
-Dr. John Boudreau, Professor, Marshall School of Business; and Research Director, Center for Effective Organizations, University of Southern California
"This is quite an exceptional book. Extremely well-researched, it constitutes essential reading for those involved in the burgeoning field of Big Data, giving first-rate advice on good practices for all those involved in Workforce Analytics."
-Professor Peter Saville, Chairman 10X Psychology and Founder SHL and Saville Consulting
"To build an extraordinary workplace, you need to harness the power of analytics. The Power of People provides a comprehensive look at latest research, offering best practices for leveraging the wealth of data now within our reach. If you want to master HR, you need to read this book."
-Ron Friedman, Author of "The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace"
"Today's business executives are applying pressure to all aspects of their business (including HR and workforce areas) to use analytics to improve their bottom line. Despite this pressure there remain few resources for those looking to begin. The Power of People is an excellent primer providing definition and guidance for identifying, framing, and successfully deploying analytics solutions to solve workforce challenges."
-Greta Roberts, CEO Talent Analytics, Corp.
"We are barreling along toward the collision between Big Data, Analytics, and the successful acquisition, development, and retention of people in our organizations. The Power of People gives data-led comfort and practical guidance to business leaders that shows we not only can survive the collision, we can harness its potential and emerge with a stronger workforce that is motivated for business and personal success."
-China Gorman, Board Chair, Universum Americas
"Finally! An authoritative, thoroughly researched, clearly written book to help HR professionals be more data-driven. This volume discusses everything you always wanted to know about workforce analytics but were afraid to ask, with answers from top practitioners in the field."
-Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Professor of Business Psychology (UCL and Columbia University), CEO of Hogan Assessments, and author of The Talent Delusion
"Today Workforce Analytics is an emerging discipline which, in a few years' time, will become mainstream. The Power of People is exceptionally practical and inspiring- essential reading for those executives willing to take on the challenge of transforming their organisations. By leveraging the authors' as well as other leaders' extensive experience, this book is a true compendium for those wishing to navigate their transformation."
-Manish Goel, CEO TrustSphere
" The Power of People is a great book for those who want to build, refine, or fundamentally improve their HR Analytics offering. The authors have clearly undertaken some extensive research and are drawing on the experience of a wide range of people analytics experts. As a result, their book is full of great advice and can be considered a really good guide for those wanting to realise the full potential of workforce analytics in their organisation."
-Dr. Martin Edwards, Kings College London Business School
"Listening to what employees tell us and acting on it distinguishes 'average HR' from 'HR excellence.' New analytical capabilities mean we can discern what people are telling us by their actions rather than what they say they would do. The Power of People is an excellent book describing how to harness organizational capabilities using workforce analytics to predict what workers are most likely to do in the future and therefore how to impact business outcomes."
-Alan Wild, Vice President Human Resources; Employee Relations and Engagement, IBM
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Persons
Jonathan Ferrar i s a respected consultant, speaker, and influencer in HR strategy, workforce analytics, and the future of work. He advises clients on how to establish human resources strategies that will improve business performance and make HR more relevant. He was listed as one of the global Top 50 HR Analytics Influencers on LinkedIn in 2014 and as one of the 15 HR and People Analytics Experts to Follow for 2017 by Jibe. Before he started his own consultancy business, Jonathan worked for more than 25 years in corporate business in IBM, Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), and Lloyds Bank, for many of those years in senior executive management roles in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Jonathan has worked with C-suite clients and business leaders across the globe on human resources management and workforce analytics. He holds a bachelor of arts degree and a master of arts degree from the University of Cambridge and a postgraduate diploma in human resources management from Kingston Business School. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Chartered FCIPD).
Sheri Feinzig is a director at IBM, where she leads a global team of consultants, content development experts, and the Smarter Workforce Institute. Sheri has more than 20 years of experience in human resources research, organizational change management, and business transformation. She has applied her analytical and methodological expertise to numerous research-based projects on topics such as employee retention, employee engagement, performance feedback, social network analysis, and organizational culture. Sheri received her Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York. She has presented on numerous occasions at national conferences and has coauthored a number of publications and white papers. She has served as an adjunct professor in the psychology departments of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois, where she taught doctoral, masters, and undergraduate courses on performance appraisal, tests, and measures. Sheri is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP).
Content
Foreword by John Boudreau xv
About the Authors xix
Interviewees xxi
Vignettes xxv
Preface xxvii
PART I: UNDERSTANDING THE FUNDAMENTALS 1
Chapter 1 Why Workforce Analytics? 3
Adoption of Analytics 4
HR's Contribution to Business Value 4
The Changing Nature of HR 7
The Future of Work 11
Summary 13
Chapter 2 What's in a Name? 15
Focus of the Function 16
Activities of the Function 17
A Name Fit for the Future 18
Summary 18
Chapter 3 The Workforce Analytics Leader 19
Reporting to the Chief Human Resources Officer 20
Responsibilities of the Workforce Analytics Leader 20
Business Acumen 22
Leadership Attributes 23
Summary 26
Chapter 4 Purposeful Analytics 27
A Model for Purposeful Analytics 28
Project Sponsors 38
Why Do Analytics Projects Fail? 40
Summary 42
Chapter 5 Basics of Data Analysis 43
Research Design 44
Objectives of Analysis 47
Unstructured Data 52
Traditional Statistics versus Machine Learning 53
Social Consequences of Algorithms 54
More on Design and Analysis 56
Summary 56
Chapter 6 Case Studies 57
Eight-Step Methodology 58
Case Study: Improving Careers Through Retention Analytics at Nielsen 59
Case Study: From Employee Engagement to Profitability at ISS Group 65
Case Study: Growing Sales Using Workforce Analytics at Rentokil Initial 71
Case Study: Increasing Value to the Taxpayer at the Metropolitan Police 76
Case Study: Predictive Analytics Improves Employee Well-Being at Westpac 80
Summary 83
PART II: GETTING STARTED 85
Chapter 7 Set Your Direction 87
You Have the Job! Now What? 88
Listening to Prospective Project Sponsors 90
The Seven Forces of Demand 91
Agreeing on the Scope of Analytics 95
Developing a Vision and Mission Statement 95
Summary 97
Chapter 8 Engage with Stakeholders 99
Who Are Stakeholders? 100
Stakeholders Served 101
Stakeholders Depended Upon 106
Stakeholders Impacted 113
Working Effectively with Stakeholders 118
Summary 121
Chapter 9 Get a Quick Win 123
Identifying Potential Projects 125
Complexity-Impact Matrix 125
Assessing Complexity and Impact 129
Summary 133
PART III: BUILDING YOUR CAPABILITY 135
Chapter 10 Know Your Data 137
A Pragmatic View of Data 138
Solving Data Quality Challenges 138
Data Types and Sources 147
Data Governance 152
Remember the Basics 152
Summary 155
Chapter 11 Know Your Technology 157
Starting with Vision and Mission 158
Components of Workforce Analytics Technology 159
On-Premise Versus Cloud 164
Technology Vendor Relationships 165
Summary 167
Chapter 12 Build the Analytics Team 169
Six Skills for Success 170
Configuring Team Roles 181
Remember the Fundamentals! 184
Summary 185
Chapter 13 Partner for Skills 187
Why Consider Partners? 188
Options for Building the Team 188
Choosing Among the Options 197
Summary 200
Chapter 14 Establish an Operating Model 203
Defining Your Operating Model 204
Strategy 205
Governance 205
Implementation 212
Accountability 221
Summary 224
PART IV: ESTABLISHING AN ANALYTICS CULTURE 225
Chapter 15 Enable Analytical Thinking 227
Perspectives of Analytics in HR 228
The Translator Role 234
The Importance of Leadership 236
Summary 237
Chapter 16 Overcome Resistance 239
Resistance to Workforce Analytics 240
Stakeholder Skepticism 240
Financial Frugality 245
HR Hesitancy 246
Summary 252
Chapter 17 Communicate with Storytelling and Visualization 253
What Is Storytelling? 254
Effective Visualization 263
Knowing Your Audience 269
Keeping It Simple 273
Summary 275
Chapter 18 The Road Ahead 277
Analytics Provides New Opportunities for HR 278
Emerging Data Sources 278
Considering New Data Sources 280
Evolving Technology 282
The Workforce Analytics Function 283
Summary 286
Glossary 287
References 295
Index 301