event Archives - Littal Shemer Haim

There is so much more in my People Analytics circle

Littal Shemer Haim — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 08:00:00 +0000

(Reading Time: 8 minutes)

(Updated: July 1st 2022, 9 interviews, 10 reviews) I love many aspects of my work, and consider myself fortunate to have my career path as a People Analytics mentor and educator. But there is one thing I am most grateful for: The people I meet at work – both clients and colleagues. As I always say in my classes and lectures, you must be eternal students in our industry, so you better choose wisely who you learn from. Each person in the following interviews and reviews that I published in my blog recently offered me a valuable lesson. I’m honored to share it all again, with the entire People Analytics community, which hopefully will keep its open-source culture.

Each of my clients enriches my perspective

1.

I find the onboarding of People Analytics Leaders, and especially those who are the first to take that role in their organization, fascinating and worth following. So how do you enter a People Analytics Leader role, when you are the one who establishes it? I was privileged to further explore this process at one of my old clients – Amdocs. Although organizational researches that fall within the category of People Analytics have been conducted in Amdocs long before, this global company, which operates in over 50 locations, has a new People Analytics Leader – Gal Mozes.

Read interview

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2.

Taking the first steps on the journey to data-driven HR is always difficult. The barriers may include a variety of issues, including data integrity, knowledge gaps, and an excessive amount of HR-Tech solutions. Furthermore, a small or medium business may lack the appropriate volume of data, the resources for shiny Analytics tools, and the right talent to lead initiatives and projects. Nevertheless, with the right guidance and mentoring in People Analytics, and with the right attitude and will power, HR leaders in SMBs can successfully overcome those barriers, and use People Analytics practices to impact their business. I was honored and fortunate to take part in some success stories of HR leaders in SMBs. One of the most inspiring is Michal Shoval, who leads the HR department in GIA

Read interview

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Each of my colleagues has plenty to offer

3.

Another cycle of the introductory course, The People Analytics Journey, is about to end. This training program is unique because it covers the fundamentals of the domain and demonstrates them with real career stories and experiences of HR and People Analytics leaders. Thus, the course contributes to a new professional community in Isreal. The last session of the course will be a special one. We’ll discuss the future of People Analytics as a profession, and the importance of new skills, e.g., procurement processes and ethical considerations. Our guest will be Yael Epstein, former HR analyst at Microsoft, who will talk about the role of technology in People Analytics, base on her experience. Here is the interview I had with Yael before the learning session.

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4.

How would you define a professional expert in the field of data-driven HR? Certainly, there are many definitions of the People Analytics domain, that may include skills, practices, and responsibilities. However, today for a change, I’d like to suggest a different angle: a professional expert is someone you would always want to learn from and be inspired by. I had the honor to host my colleague from Amsterdam, that definitely fits this definition: Hendrik Feddersen, an expert in HR business processes and analytics.

Read interview

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5.

My personal endeavor to educate HR leaders by exposing them to data science fundamentals is continuing. Fortunately, a valuable part of my tailwind comes from my global community of experts who dedicate their career to help executives and managers, especially in the domain of HR, to become more data-driven. I was privileged to interview lately one of my data heroes, Tracey Smith, about her experiences and efforts. I was happy to find out that her opinions resonate with my own.

Read interview

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6.

Among many questions, the issue of career growth stands out. While organizations struggle with the instability of the workforce, research already points to the fact that internal mobility may be the cure to raising rates of employee attrition. But how exactly can HR practitioners address such a huge challenge? What would be their first steps? I was privileged to talk with a prominent professional, both in the field of People Analytics and Learning and Organization Development, Orit Cohen (Schwarz), who is leading the People Analytics function at HP, and learned from her perspective and experience, how organizations could move forward with this important topic.

Read interview

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Global events validate local steps

7-10.

October 2019, it has been only a year since my last visit to Unleash, but in terms of the workforce revolution that we’re witnessing and experiencing, this time span is an eternity. So much has been changed, as clearly stated by thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and many of my colleagues in the field of People Analytics and HR-Tech, who gathered again for two days of networking and learning, and this time – in Paris!
I covered my key takeaways from sessions and demos, and organized by the aforementioned themes: 1st blog was focused on broader topics of future of work; the 2nd blog covered new technologies for career paths; the 3rd was grounded on People Analytics practices; the 4th summarised insights about the digital transformation of HR. In all four themes, I tried to listen mostly to new speakers, or a least new to me. Therefore my key takeaways include many new and interesting players in our professional community.

Read review #1
Read review #2
Read review #3
Read review #4

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11.

April 2019, I crossed the ocean to meet colleagues and clients in the Big Apple. A highlight of my journey to Manhattan was HackingHR, a professional community event where I met and was inspired by influencers and thought leaders in HR and Tech. HackingHRis a global forum for collaboration, networking, and discussion about HR, technology, and the workplace of the future. Founded by Enrique Rubio, the community explores the way HR and tech interact to impact the future of work — when, where, and how we work, who we work with, and what skills the organizational leaders of tomorrow will need.

Read review

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12.

October 2018, I packed my vision and questions about the future of work and flew all the way to Unleash Amsterdam, to learn from the world’s influencers, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs, and to meet again many of my professional community fellows in the field of People Analytics and HR-Tech, who gathered from all over the world, for two days of intellectual adventure, inspiring experience, and entertainment.

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13.

We witnessed the change in HR leaders’ mindset, here in Tel Aviv, in regards to HR data and business insights. The People Analytics learning session, conducted by the Israeli Association of Human Resources in July 2018, was just a part of this vibe. The growing interest in People Analytics brought 150 HR leaders to gather and learn from the experience we gained in this. I was honored to be the keynote speaker and to partner in curating the event contents.

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14.

People Analytics World was a leading European annual conference on HR Analytics, Workforce Planning, and Employee Insight, in which I was privileged to attend in April 2018. I traveled to London with huge expectations, to learn more about the contribution of People Analysts, which are now becoming an essential part of HR groups across all industries. The growing importance of data-driven HR was well reflected in the conference’s attendees, both speakers, exhibitors, and delegates. My experience in the event exceeded my expectations.

Read review

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15.

IBM Cognitive café 2017 in Tel Aviv, was a great opportunity to meet and hear data leaders of some Israeli companies. I listened to them very carefully, knowing that their experience is most valuable for any journey in the field of People Analytics and data-driven HR. This should not be new for any business leader, but Daniel Melka, CEO IBM Israel, nicely reviewed the mega-trends of the digital era, when he talked about “organizations which re-invent themselves to deal with the ever-changing business environment, and tied their success to insights derived from data”.

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Data heroines are everywhere

16.

At the end of 2017, I was selected by HR-Tech-Nation to be among top bloggers to follow. It was a great honor to be mentioned in a list of excellent writers, which are my source of inspiration and learning. One of them, William Tincup, commented that next time he would like to see more women on the list. Well… I decided to take his note as a personal challenge and salute 365 women, one for each day in a year. There is only one IWD (International Women Day), but for me, every day is a woman’s day. My list of women worth watching, however, encompasses not only HR Tech leaders but also Data heroes and People Analytics exceptional practitioners. My selection order is completely associative, i.e., there is no ranking here. Each of the following women is truly inspiring!

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Being A Data Scientist in The HR Department

A successful data science function in the HR department requires balancing the analytics maturity of the business and HR leaders with the data scientist's skills. It is essential and fascinating to explore how data science and HR needs are knitted.

ABCs of People Analyst’s success

The culture of the People Analytics community is remarkably open. While datasets, analytics, and insights are restricted, experiences, resources, and advice are generously shared. It inspired me to list the ABCs of success: autodidact habits, business understanding, and coding skills.

Professional Journey and Daily Work of A People Analysts

Aspired People Analysts often ask about competencies, challenges, tasks, and tools in this profession. I was privileged to discuss these topics with a colleague in one of the most desired roles.

Leveraging workforce data as it was a state security project

An interview about People Analytics with a Lieutenant Colonel in the Israeli Military intelligence - A rare chance to explore practices in the most secure organizations, and to discuss experience with AI, business insights and ethics.

The role of technology in the evolution of People Analytics

An interview with a former HR analyst at Microsoft, discussing the role of technology in People Analytics and data Ethics: challenges, success stories, and advice - one of many perspectives we had in "The People Analytics Journey" course.

Actionable insights for the right people at the right time

Professional experts are people you would always want to learn from and be inspired by them. I have the honor to host a colleague who fits this definition, and I'm happy to refer to his open-source contribution.

HR Challenges in A Data-Driven World

A valuable part of my tailwind comes from my global community of experts who dedicate their careers to helping executives and managers, especially in the domain of HR, to become more data-driven. Here's an interview with one of my data heroes. Her opinions resonate with my own.

People Analytics Leader – Survive Your Onboarding!

Most case studies that we encounter represent mature stages. However, most new players in this rising profession struggle with different challenges. The onboarding of People Analytics Leaders is fascinating and worth following. Here's one example.

People Analytics in SMBs: Small Data, Huge Impact

This interview with an HR manager in a fireside chat during a People Analytics class offers an introspective approach to a joint journey, as a mentee and mentor: the motives, the obstacles, the quick win, the team participation, and more.

Can you reinvent career development by using analytics?

An interview with a professional in the field of People Analytics, Learning, and Organization Development, about career-growth challenges and internal mobility.

The post There is so much more in my People Analytics circle appeared first on Littal Shemer Haim.

Productivity Measures: Time or Outputs?

Littal Shemer Haim — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 15:45:38 +0000

(Reading Time: 4 minutes)

What is the right productivity measures: time or outputs? The traditional HR department knows how to accountably measures its activity. The innovative idea behind People Analytics practices is not measurement, but the associations between HR activities and the business KPIs. Productivity is one of the most critical business results, and therefore relevant to projects and products in the domain of People Analytics. However, when I present these basics ideas of People Analytics to HR professionals at all levels, I often hear rejections.

The productivity of knowledge workers

I recall that a global VP of HR once mentioned that since she works in a tech company, she can not possibly hypothesize about the association between HR activities and line of business productivity. I advised her to raise the subject in discussion with R&D leaders in her organization. Like any other business leaders, they must be accountable, and for sure, they measure their productivity. The only question is, How?

However, I do agree with her that measuring the productivity of knowledge workers is more complicated. When we explore employees’ outputs in sales or customer success (for example, in a call center or a field role), outcomes are more straightforward. It’s relatively easy to derive goals and rewards from them. But to measure the productivity of someone who works in a team, in which skills, knowledge, and creativity of the entire team members serve together to reach a goal, is naturally more daunting. And yet, tech organizations do that.

One interesting example was presented this week in an Israeli panel, obviously in a virtual event, by Eldad Maniv, President & COO at Taboola. The panelists discussed “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of measurement in working from home in Covid19 times. But I’ll take only the good from what Maniv shared, as a remarkable example of measuring remote workers. For those of you who are not familiar with Taboola, this company employs about 1400 people in 18 locations worldwide and helps people find relevant content online. They have all worked from home since mid-March. Maniv demonstrated how working from home impacted company measures in R&D, such as Deployed Package and Resolved Tickets.

Time is a common denominator

Clearly, such productivity measures enabled the company to cope with the crisis that severely affected it. And so, we can conclude that R&D organizations know how to measure productivity, and People Analytics leaders can integrate such data into HR data and bring valuable insights. But it also emphasizes the idea that People Analytics practices serve the entire management, particularly Finance. CFOs should use talent data, especially in crisis times, to target the best ways of capturing ROI from people processes and well-being solutions.

Although Maniv emphasized the outcomes in his discussion, it doesn’t mean that the company neglected to measure the facet of time. Indeed, and like many other case studies about working hours in covid19 times, the company experienced increased working hours during the day. For many reasons, people worked longer hours: the need to juggle between work and parenting duties, the lack of leisure activities outside, the pressure to demonstrate engagement and keep the employment status, and more.

Measuring outcomes is crucial, but time is, and always will be, the common denominator that enables us to objectively sum up the productivity of different roles in the organization. People at different levels of the organization should understand what proportion of working hours contributes to the company outcomes. We don’t spend the entire time creating direct contributions. Sometimes we’re socializing, other times learning, and many other human activities are essential to both individuals and the company as a whole but are not associated with outputs. If this time proportion, in general, is sufficient, we should keep it, otherwise improve it. Within it, we can be more productive and produce even more.

I’m a productivity prodigy!

Personally, I strive to boost my productivity both in outputs and time, and I continuously learn new hacks and use new tools for that. But I must also prevent my own burnout, and there is no one other than me to be in charge of my well-being. Working as self-employed makes me a unique case because I’m both the employer and the employee. However, it emphasizes the mutual responsibility of the employers and the employees. Both should discover the relevant means to enhance productivity without the burnout trap. Engaged employees are considered a blessing for any organization. But even employee engagement has its hazards.

What keeps me productive both in terms of outcomes and time? I want to mention two kinds of digital tools that everyone can embrace this way or another. My outputs as a writer and speaker are my content. While writing these words, I use Grammarly. It keeps my writing correct and precise, and also speeds it up. Grammarly counts each word that I write and reports the number of words checked weekly. It compares my result to previous weeks and other users. Over time, I get better (last week, I was a productivity prodigy!), and I can decide whether to adjust my goals and plans or take a rest.

If you read my blog, you know that it’s hard for me to take a rest. But to be productive over time, I control my calendar in reverence. That’s why I insist people in my network, with whom I’m thrilled to interact by Zoom these days, will use my Calendly. My friends, clients, students, and colleagues book me when I’m less productive in creating content. It works for me and many others in SMBs and enterprises. For example, if you haven’t done so before, check the Microsoft case study that proves that you get more productive and happier if you wisely book your meeting. Indeed, in that sense, I sit on giant shoulders.

The post Productivity Measures: Time or Outputs? appeared first on Littal Shemer Haim.

Key takeaways from Unleash, Paris 2019 – Part 4: The Digital Transformation of HR

Littal Shemer Haim — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 08:11:48 +0000

(Reading Time: 3 minutes)

This blog is a part of four blog series that covers my key takeaways from sessions and demos at Unleash, Paris 2019. The 1^st blog was focused on the future of work and learning. The 2^nd covered new technologies for career paths. The 3^rd was all about the People Analytics journey. This last blog in the series explores insights about the digital transformation of HR.

HR will focus on what matters

How we can create real value for managers, employees, customers, and businesses in our data-driven age? Janina Kugel, Chief Human Resources Officer at Siemens shared her point of view about the digital transformation of HR. Kugel believes that HR must step up to create real value for all its stakeholders to realize the real power of digital transformation. She discussed how a company of 380,000 people prepares for the digital future and offered valuable insights from an insider’s look at a cultural and technological transformation.

According to Kugel, in order to create value for clients around the world, the company depends on the collective intelligence of diverse and cross-functional teams. For HR, the challenge is to create value both for employees and business, while shaping the future of work. This is done by encouraging self-responsibility and career ownership and developing smart tools and platforms that allow people to be more flexible, efficient, and creative. HR automation, via chatbots and job tagging, enables HR to focus on what matters: continuous learning and personal growth, fostering collaboration across levels and teams, and encouraging leaders to put people in the center.

Technology will power the future of work

A different approach to the technological change in HR was offered by Mark Brandau, Principal Analyst at Forrester, who discussed the new Core HR systems that will power the future of work. Core HR systems are redefined. Brandau examined the converging use of AI, Blockchain, and Skills Ontologies to create a new ‘foundation’ for adaptive workforces and people management.

Brandau described the future of work as adaptive enterprises, which go beyond agile and digital transformation. “They win by anticipating tomorrow’s customer and employee’s needs – today!” he emphasized. Then, they will proactively re-configure themselves to meet those needs. However, most organizations are not ready, according to Forrester Research: Employees doubt their skills and leaders haven’t mastered new technologies or change management. While freelancing continues to rise, organizations don’t have the right skills, roles, and structures. “Adaptive talent management will leverage people’s skills, teams, new analytics, and AI, to continuously attract, develop, and retain a comprehensive fluid workforce that delivers customer-obsessed strategies,” he explained.

Implementations and concerns

One example of a vision for HR technology was offered by Oracle. Guy Waterman, Senior Product Strategy Director, shared Oracle’s point of view on the Human Capital technology landscape, how it sees HR technology as an enabler of business success, and its ideas for what the future of work will look like and how workplace technologies will evolve and advance to help create that future. He suggested ways to align HR and workplace technology strategies with where the future of work and workplace technology is headed.

According to Waterman, in order to meet the greatest challenges of the future, HR core systems will improve employee experience, work as an innovative platform, and will enable career mobility. The three core elements of pervasive AI will be adaptive intelligent apps, intelligent UX, and digital assistants. The human-centric user design will enable conversational experience, machine responsiveness, predictive search, and notifications.

The main concern I have, after exploring the future of work with these fascinating perspectives of HR leadership, industry research, and vendors, is that all of this innovation in the hands of organizations will strengthen their power and control over people. Just as the seemingly free communication of social networks ended with bad implication on democracy, the predictive abilities that organizations will have may not always be in favor of employees. But, time will tell.

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Key takeaways from Unleash, Paris 2019 – Part 3: The People Analytics Journey

Littal Shemer Haim — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 06:36:21 +0000

(Reading Time: 5 minutes)

This blog is a part of four blog series that covers my key takeaways from sessions and demos at Unleash, Paris 2019. The 1^st blog was focused on the future of work and learning. The 2^nd covered new technologies for career paths. The future blog will explore insights about the digital transformation of HR. But for now, in this blog, let us discuss the state of affairs in People Analytics. We’ll start with an overview based on industry research, and then explore the exceptional case studies. As all People Analytics consultant knows, case study curations in conferences are usually success stories, that do not represent the struggle of most organizations. But that’s good, as the presenting companies offered a lot to learn from.

A gap between investments and perceived impact

As I wrote during the last year, People Analytics as a discipline moves from research projects to analytics products. In order to anticipate trends and stay ahead, organizations must learn to manage their workforce with new tools. Gut feelings are out, informed decisions based on internal and external data are in. David Mallon, Chief Analyst at Bersin by Deloitte, offered a review of the overlapping market for People Analytics solutions. He highlighted findings from Bersin’s latest People Analytics market research, including what prospective buyers should understand about the market today and an analysis of common and differentiated capabilities.

The most prominent findings in this research, in my opinion, were the gap between investments in People Analytics and the perceived impact gained by those practices. As Mallon puts it, while 72% of organizations invested in improving People Analytics, less than 30% of organizations have reported an impact of People Analytics on employee engagement, cost of efficiency, or productivity.

Common use cases are not targeted at individuals – yet

Among other insights about this market that Mallon offered, two caught my attention: Most People Analytics technology automates descriptive activities, and solutions are still designed around HR and business leaders and leaves behind the employees. Common People Analytics use cases deal with retention, engagement, inclusion, learning, high potentials, productivity, collaboration, and future of work planning. Only the last three are targeted at individuals.

If you are equipped with a comprehensive market review, you may find broader perspectives in any discussion among People Analytics experts. Such was the panel of our four colleagues: Melissa Kantor, VP of People Analytics and Insights at LEGO Group; Robert Carruthers, Senior Director Talent Acquisition Operations at Celgene; David Shontz, Global Head of Workforce Analytics & Organization Management at Nokia, and Lexy Martin, Principal Research at Visier, who moderated the session.

The discussion was focused on gaining a return on investment in People Analytics. The panel mix did not contradict the findings aforementioned, as it included different stages of People Analytics maturity. People Analytics solutions cost, and so, organizations need to create their ROI on efficiency gains. However, the best outcome of People Analytics implementation is bringing the value of data directly to the bottom line of the business.

Relevance for senior management decisions

According to Martin, research reveals that European organizations with People Analytics function outperform all others on return on equity by over 50% and on profit margins by 48%. The panelists, whether Visier clients or not, shared their journey to value from achieving cost efficiencies with cloud solutions to improving HR effectiveness on metrics important to HR, to achieving business outcomes on metrics that matter to the C-suite. They also discussed the process of hypothesis, discovery, curation, journalism, and collaboration that they have used to ultimately get to successful interventions that drive bottom-line value.

The People Analytics journey, as the panelists agreed, has its peak at the c-suite level. Indeed, using people’s data as an enabler for strategic business decisions is the most important aspect of People Analytics in practice. Heine Zahll Larsen, SVP HR at Danske Bank, shared how People Analytics changed HR. He presented some of the considerations on how to make People Analytics relevant for senior management decisions and showcased some examples of how new technology provided valuable business intelligence on how the Bank relates to source pools compared to peers. What most impressed me was the usage of external data, like keywords analytics, to explore gaps between external and internal perceptions about the bank as an employer.

The data science of HR

People Analytics at its best is actually the data science of HR. Claudia de Andrés-Gayón, Group Head HR Services at Deutsche Bahn AG, presented first-hand insights about unlocking the power of HR data science. HR data science is a key driver of workplace transformation. However, many organizations are still struggling to gain a true understanding of what data science in HR is all about, and its actual relevance in driving business success. The session included key success factors but also stumbling blocks of implementing HR data science into the business and provide practical advice along with some HR data science use cases at Deutsche Bahn.

The HR data science approach focuses on use cases that deliver quick and tangible value. The most impressive example was the use case of location: Which are the optimal locations for employing new train drivers, considering both commuting distance and job market supply. Andrés-Gayón shared the output of a cluster analysis algorithm. I consider her presentation as a great emphasis on the importance of storytelling, visualization, and understanding of practical machine learning – competencies that are required now by all HR leaders.

Showing the ROI of people processes

Isabel Naidoo, Global Head of People Strategy & Analytics at FIS, described how strategic talent function was build in the company, based on data. Naidoo offered an inside look at how informed decisions are made at FIS regarding the combination of people, skills, and solutions that will enable everybody in the company to thrive in the future of work. She explained how key aspects of the function were digitalized. Among her examples, I like most the one about attrition and leadership. The People Analytics function managed to prove, based on data, that People are half as likely to leave their manager if the manager has been through leadership training. It is a great example of how People Analytics enables us to show the ROI of people processes.

Another innovative use case of People Analytics was presented by Caitlin Bigsby, Director of Product Marketing at Visier. Bigsby discussed the optimization of the hourly workforce, which may influence their health and happiness. Even little changes make a big difference when the bottom line depends on hourly workers’ productivity. Bigsby showed how payroll, timekeeping, and performance data are crucial to ensure that the little changes are the right changes. However, for me, the most interesting use case in her presentation was in regards to safety. Bigsby described how analytics enables us to examine incidents by employee characteristics, identify who is at most risk, correlate training with safety, and make sure to have the right impact.

More great examples for business impact via People Analytics were presented in a session by Kiran Pasham, President, Chief Architect, and Co-Founder of SplashBI. Pasham discussed the ways successful HR Departments leverage massive amounts of people’s data to fulfill business goals and present the data to management in an effective way. His interactive session included examples of how predictive analytics forecast the ROI of HR initiatives and prescribe a cost-effective course of action. Some of Pasham’s tips for a successful People Analytics implementation, to which I totally agree, were to align with the goals of business leaders, deliver actionable analytics to the right people, measure outcomes of interventions, and provide them with terms familiar to business leaders.

The post Key takeaways from Unleash, Paris 2019 – Part 3: The People Analytics Journey appeared first on Littal Shemer Haim.

Key takeaways from Unleash, Paris 2019 – Part 2: Career paths

Littal Shemer Haim — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 18:57:29 +0000

(Reading Time: 4 minutes)

This blog is a part of four blog series that covers my key takeaways from sessions and demos at Unleash, Paris 2019. The 1^st blog was focused on the future of work and learning. Future blogs will be grounded on People Analytics practices and insights about the digital transformation of HR. This blog covers new technologies for career paths and inner mobility, of which I participated in a demo session. It is worth to mention that in 2020, I’ll cover the entire category of career path and inner mobility in a special report that will include many more vendors – only some were present on the expo floor at the event.

People’s ownership over career management

In the new world that is driven by data, placing people at the forefront means using new tools for Talent Management, which are based on new data sources. However, as I see it, Talent Management is only one side of the equation, the organization’s side. What about the other side – the talents’ side? In a world where employees are already considered as stakeholders, and when the consumerization of HR data is almost old news, we can’t ignore people’s ownership over their career management and their data. Personally, this is my favorite domain in the industry, which is aligned with my background in Positive Psychology. I can only be thrilled to find more and more solutions that enable people to thrive by combining their abilities with opportunities. Therefore I explored some innovative solutions in this domain.

Career ladder becomes career climbing wall

It’s no secret: engaged employees stay longer and perform better. Matthieu Durif, Solution Consulting Director at Cornerstone OnDemand presented the way this HCM suite facilitates career mobility and helps to keep people happy, productive, and at their full potential. Engaging and intelligent HCM platforms can be used to identify high-performers and close talent gaps. At times when the career ladder becomes a career climbing wall, they can reduce time to productivity with targeted, predictive learning and retain employees by giving them more visibility on career development and job opportunities.

In his demo, Durif emphasized the importance of integrating data sources. Performance rating is important, but so does team collaboration. Dedicated learning paths are important, but so does personalized experience. Therefore, a platform that ties all ends is essential. Durif demonstrated this by a use case of an employee career path, from onboarding to promotion, and pointed to the manager’s involvement in this process.

My concern, however, and it is related to all platforms in this category, is the extra power offered to organizations. For the sake of personalized experience, do employees lose control over their learning data? What is the right balance between employee personal learning decisions and the control of her manager? Though this and other platforms are GDPR verified, I would prefer, as an employee, to take my learning data with me – as I decide to move on to another organization.

Intelligent platforms encompass the entire talent experience

Another Talent Experience Management platform that I saw is Phenom. In a nice live and interactive demonstration, Mahe Bayireddi CEO & Co-Founder presented how a single intelligent platform can encompass the entire talent experience by breaking silos. The integration of data from different sources, i.e., applicant tracking system (ATS), human capital management (HCM), Learning management system (LMS), and vendor management system, all under an Artificial intelligence layer that enables personalization, smart search, and user intent, enable to tie all experiences – candidates, recruiters, employees, and managers.

Talentsoft invited the audience in its demo to be the driving factor behind the change. Elodie Champagnat, Global Head of Product Marketing, talked about innovative opportunities to grow the organization: reinvent the way employees work by helping them to express their potential and by adopting the right technology to prepare the organization internally for what’s happening externally.

In her presentation, Champagnat pointed to future challenges, based on the latest research. First, 85% of future jobs haven’t invented yet. Secondly, 65% of children entering now to primary school will end up working in jobs that do not exist yet. Third, 45% of managers don’t feel comfortable in their ability to develop their teams. Therefore, we need technologies that accelerate the transformation, enable future skills management and continuous upskilling and reskilling plan, and empowerment for managers to become in-context coachers, with continuous conversation and dynamic goal setting. Talentsoft impressive new features can help to anticipate skills gap, encourage collaboration, accelerate productivity, and match the right people to new opportunities.

Invest in human capital today to thrive in the future of knowledge economy

Organizations across the globe are seeking to tip the talent balance in their favor. Betsy Kolkea, an HR Consultant at Meta4, shared some client stories with one thing in common: They are all focused on releasing talent’s full potential by leveraging digital transformation. This means that employees own their data and development and have visibility to opportunities, while managers optimize team delivery by talent tools and gain insights into talent strengths and vulnerabilities. Kolka presented the building block of such value proposition: First, functional integration – of core HR, Talent management, compensation, and workforce management. Secondly, efficient people processes, by guided actions, workflows, and HR ticketing. Lastly, equipping managers by automation and visibility to team data.

Another tool to act upon the future is offered by PeopleFluent. Stephen Bruce, Managing Director, presented the Talent Management imperative for the future knowledge economy. Since in 10 years from now, according to expert predictions, more than 80% of the jobs will be roles that don’t exist today, new skill sets and competencies will be needed. The companies that will thrive in this future knowledge economy are those that invest in intellectual and human capital today, i.e., rethink, retool, and reskill their workforces. Bruce discussed trends in Talent Management technology. He emphasized the importance of linking an agile talent assessment approach with robust talent acquisition, ongoing performance management, microlearning programs, and analytics that enable c-suite executives to track-back to organizational success.

Bruce offered some tips to handle the pace of change: Blend communication into your talent and learning strategies. Teach new skills just ahead of need. Balance “just in case” learning with “Just in time” performance support systems. Augment “learning on the job” through immersive techniques that accelerate experience.

The post Key takeaways from Unleash, Paris 2019 – Part 2: Career paths appeared first on Littal Shemer Haim.

Key takeaways from Unleash, Paris 2019 – Part 1: Future work and learning

Littal Shemer Haim — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 10:46:02 +0000

(Reading Time: 4 minutes)

It has been only a year since my last visit to Unleash, but in terms of the workforce revolution that we’re witnessing and experiencing, this time span is an eternity. So much has been changed, as clearly stated by thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and many of my colleagues in the field of People Analytics and HR-Tech, who gathered again for two days of networking and learning, and this time – in Paris!

When I planned my visit (and I really did! Spontaneously is not the best policy in an event with 250+ speakers, 200+ industry vendors, and 100+ start-ups!), I decided to focus on themes that will enrich my conversations with local HR practitioners, in the learning sessions that I run in Tel Aviv. Naturally, the chosen themes include new case studies and experiences in the field of People Analytics. But since the entire landscape of HR-tech, and the reconfiguration of careers and work, both pave the journey of People Analytics, I decided to further explore those broader domains too.

And so, this blog, and the following three blogs, cover my key takeaways from sessions and demos, and organized by the aforementioned themes: This 1^st blog is focused on broader topics of future of work; the 2^nd blog covers new technologies for career paths; the 3^rd is grounded on People Analytics practices; and the 4^th summaries insights about the digital transformation of HR. In all four themes, I tried to listen mostly to new speakers, or a least new to me. Therefore my key takeaways include many new and interesting players in our professional community.

Earn to continuously learn

My intellectual journey into the future of work started with the keynote speaking of Heather E. McGowan, Future-of-Work Strategist. McGowan discussed the preparation for jobs that do not exist. We are fortunate (or unfortunate, depends on your point of view) to face the greatest velocity of change in human history, driven by an exponential technology change and rapidly expanding globalization. Humans are also expected to live much longer. Therefore, we’ll experience more cycles of change. The bottom line is that the future of work is learning and adaptation. Our career identity won’t be centered around a single occupational function or industry anymore. We’ll define ourselves less by jobs and more by purposes.

Practically, what does it mean? The measures of success are about to change, from “codified and transferred predetermined skills and existing knowledge” to “learn and adapt to create NEW value”. In the past, we used to learn to earn, but in the future, we’ll work to continuously learn. The validation of our success will move from the external to the internal, or in McGowan’s words: we will move from bestowed identity to self-actualized identity. It is challenging for people who are currently working, as we stand at the border of these two realities, one leg is still in the old world, and the other leg already touch the ground of the new world.

The hidden layer of your learning iceberg

People define themselves by three questions: Who? (gender, age, religion, etc.) What? (education, occupation, expertise, etc.) and Where? (human relations and populations). The answers to these questions are tremendously changing, research reveals. Add to that the change in jobs due to automation and augmentation, and you’ll have a completely new career map, in which you have to learn and adapt. However, learning and adaptation are like an iceberg, according to McGowan. You see only the upper layer, which is the skills for which you were hired and part of what makes you better at your job. Underneath, and out of sight, are your agile learning mindset, your resilience, and your purpose. All of these have to do with your identity.

It is crucial to ask ourselves not only about applying gifts and current purposes to present job opportunities but rather about personal drivers, interests, and unique abilities. We should start to explore the hidden layers of the iceberg. Can we do that? And how X gen workers reach their agile mindset for learning and adaptation?

A life journey to crystallized intelligence

While fluid intelligence reaches its peak at about the age of twenty, according to intelligence research, crystallized intelligence is at the top when you reach your sixties! I remember that I was very encouraged to learn that in my Psychology studies more than twenty years ago. Obviously, it encourages me even more now. People get better in many abilities as they get older, e.g., concentration, reading emotions, learning new information. Critical thinking, complex problem solving, and creativity may also rise as you get older. These compatibilities are so relevant to collaboration, which guarantees the learning in modern teamwork. As long as you offer, as a manager, both psychologically safe environment, and cognitive diversity. But that’s how future value will be created.

I considered McGowan’s vision a positive one. I’m an eternal student and already transformed my career about five times. So personally, I look forward to such a future of work. However, the exponential technologies that are transforming industries, organizations, and every aspect of our lives, may have negative implications too. So naturally, a part of my interest in the following demos and sessions was technologies that are enablers of McGowan’s vision. And so, I explored many tech solutions and case studies, that validated my opinion that career path and mobility are important trends in HR-tech. I cover it in Part 2 of my key takeaways from Unleash Paris 2019.

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Changing the Analytic Mindset of HR for Good

Littal Shemer Haim — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 11:07:50 +0000

(Reading Time: 6 minutes)

(This article is based on my Hebrew “TED” talk at the conference People Geekup Tel Aviv in June 2019. I dedicated this talk to HR professionals who make their first steps on their data-driven journey. Read also my list of Public Speaking).

How to change the analytic mindset of HR for good? I deal with this question for years. I’m a People Analytics consultant and mentor. I help HR teams to leverage people’s data and HR technology to drive insights that contribute to business success. A nice side effect of my activity as an advisor is making HR professionals heroes in their organizations. I’m an applied researcher for more than two decades now – a multidisciplinary professional with a background in Economics, Business Strategy, Psychology, Statistics, Programming, and more. Connecting all dots into a diverse role is not only a millennials theme. It is the reason I started my own business many years ago.

Connecting the dots

Here’s a fun fact about me: I’m a photographer artist. I’m also an eternal student, a curious character who learns about ideas and human experiences, and an autodidact in wide-ranging fields of interest – Positive psychology is one example. A few years ago, I realized that principles of Positive Psychology, which I learned from books and lectures, are nicely reflected in my personal experiences as a photographer artist. I started to document those reflections, and soon enough, I introduced to the world a new therapeutic photography method, that was proved to be effective to my students and audience. I called it Focus on Happiness.

If there a single sentence that sums up my entire therapeutic photography method, this would be it: “The view is an interaction of ability and opportunity”. Every picture or frame of our lives is a combination of the things we can do and the circumstances that enable us to do so. As simple as that. This insight is most relevant for me today, as I mentor HR managers on their data-driven journey. The impact of HR professionals in their organization is a combination of what they can do with data, and the business needs, i.e., the circumstances in which they express this ability. Today I’ll share the three key practices (and a bonus one too) that enable such a combination, between ability and opportunity. If HR professionals follow them, their success in impacting the business by People Analytics is guaranteed.

Computers are useless

Why not start with the bonus, for a change? The first quote I added to my diverse inspiration list has been attributed to Pablo Picasso, the most vital artist of the 20^th century: “Computers Are Useless. They Can Only Give You Answers”. Obviously, Picasso had no clue about People Analytics, but his idea is applicable to all of us in this domain. There is no point in running the most sophisticated analytics or building a shiny dashboard, without the attempt to answer a business question. Start your analytical journey with a business question that involves actionable insights. Picasso was right! Computers can only give us answers. We are the ones who must come up with the right business questions in the first place. Only then, we can proceed with the data, our people data.

Experiment with data – our own data

In my recent article, People Analytics – Build the Value Chain, I mentioned that there are plenty of online courses for People Analytics. Some are pretty good; others are nothing but excellent because they enable students to be exposed to the invaluable experience of experts, respected colleagues in this field. However, all online courses lack the opportunity to exercise actual business questions of your company and real people data from your own HR-tech solutions. This can be done only in Intra-organizational training and mentoring. Such training enables up-skilling HR to be more data-driven, and moreover, it may also be the actual foundation of People Analytics projects.

So, whatever you do to educate yourselves, make sure that your learning opportunities include experiments with your own data. Master business questions in your organization and your own data, so you’ll be able to build your company HR data strategy in the near future – move from business question to actionable insights by owning your data sources, storages, analytics and visualized outputs.

Hack #1 – when you afraid to fail

I was recently a panelist in HackingHR Tel Aviv. For me, the most exciting moment in the event was when half of the audience raised hands after I asked, “Who works today or is going to start working soon in People Analytics?” I knew most of those faces in the audience, and I realize my contribution to establishing this profession in my country. But it doesn’t mean I didn’t fail. And personally, I know a lot about the fear of failure.

When you start your journey to data-driven HR, be prepared to fail. However, if you create psychological safety in your learning environment, you won’t be afraid to start again. Your failure will only mean that you are not there, yet, but you are getting there. Take Adam Grant’s advice – always question your default solutions and try other options. Or, in the word of a mentee testimonial, in a case study of people Analytics is SMBs – “We could afford to experiment with data, and making mistakes, knowing that we had the support of a professional framework… In our mentoring sessions, but also between sessions, each of us could comfortably ask any question, raise ideas, and make a mistake. Thanks to the openness that was created within the team, everybody felt that we were able to cope with the challenge.”

Hack #2 – when change is difficult

Change is inevitable, and that is also true in the HR domain. But the experience of leading a change is hard. Why? Scientific evidence connect the challenge of change to the way the human brain is wired and explains why most change initiatives fail. As I previously mentioned, “A core driver of the brain function is maintaining safety and stability. Therefore, even a beneficial change can be perceived as a threat. When you lead a change in your organization, you directly conflict with your brains’ core needs.”

To overcome this barrier, and help against the reflexive resistance, you need to create new rituals within learning sessions, that would generate a sense of security. While mentoring HR teams, I discovered that rituals are effective: “When meeting agenda and pace of learning are predictable, and when new social norms such as asking questions and thinking out loud are created, people practice openness and curiosity. Familiarity with the setting gives them a sense of certainty and stability.”

Build the Value Chain

I followed all these key practices – Practice your own data, psychological safety, and rituals – As I built my training program for data-driven HR, which I offer now to organizations worldwide. I help HR professionals to build the People Analytics value chain through sixteen lessons and four milestones. Each HR team can create, with my guidance, its unique rituals. The team members learn by using their own data to solve their business questions, in an experimental environment, where mistakes and failure are welcome as an opportunity to learn. I’m very excited to mold my experience, both my failure and successful case studies, into a structured course that suits each organization, no matter how large or small.

Data Makes you fly

When I started this blog, I chose one of my crane’s photographs for the main page slider. As I previously wrote, cranes are a great metaphor – always on a worldwide journey, with their large flocks, dynamic roles, and inter-dependencies. They are just like us, people in organizations, who are on their journey to data-driven HR. When I wrote on that slider that “data makes you fly”, I couldn’t imagine that in three years I would be recognized as one of the global influencers in the HR-Tech industry, and have such a fascinating career opportunity. In my mind, I only had my career path up to that point. But I also thought about HR leaders who embrace analytics and become heroes in their organizations.

I hope that the HR journey in the data world will last, as the cranes’ endless journey. However, we face such dramatic change now, that may turn everything to other directions. The demand for new skills in the HR role, i.e., the Procurement and Ethics of HR-Tech breathe down our neck. HR people can’t procrastinate their own change. They must up-skill and be more data-driven. I call you to join this journey today.

Featured in the book

"This book is not a typical textbook about People Analytics practices. It offers readers an opportunity to learn and change while enjoying themselves, taking time to contemplate, absorb ideas, and, hopefully, overcome barriers."

"You will find in this book sixteen lessons, organized in four milestones that, from my experience, build the People Analytics value chain."

Littal Shemer Haim

Author

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HR and Tech Evangelists in HackingHR Manhattan

Littal Shemer Haim — Sun, 28 Apr 2019 14:26:30 +0000

(Reading Time: 2 minutes)

April 2019, I crossed the ocean to meet colleagues and clients in the Big Apple. A highlight of my journey to Manhattan was HackingHR, a professional community event where I met and was inspired by influencers and thought leaders in HR and Tech.

Hacking-HR – Who?

Hacking-HR is a global forum for collaboration, networking, and discussion about HR, technology, and the workplace of the future. Founded by Enrique Rubio, the community explores the way HR and tech interact to impact the future of work — when, where and how we work, who we work with, and what skills the organizational leaders of tomorrow will need. This is a community of like-minded HR and tech professionals and enthusiasts interested in human development and in technology, and in how to make them work for the benefit of everybody. The community’s purpose is to empower the future of HR through engaging conversations, world-class speakers, and events in every city of the world.

Hacking-HR Manhattan

The NYC event was a unique opportunity to explore, within two hours or so, a variety of challenges that HR practitioners must face today, from completely different professional angles. How was it possible in such a short time?

The program included five presentations, eight minutes each, and a Q&A session with the entire speakers. The event was successfully moderated by Jill Katz, who did not only kept the time but also energized the audience and encouraged them to ask questions. Hard questions, if I may judge.

Since I shared some posts on social media during the event, I witnessed the FOMO (fear of missing out) of my colleagues. So, for all of you who missed the event, here are my key takeaways. However, we are all fortunate to have access to the entire presentations on YouTube. Hurray!

Marc Effron, President at The Talent Strategy Group, presented three points that HR should focus on in the age of millennials workforce: Big goals that deliver big results; Accountability in diversity efforts; and Being intelligent consumers who and not distracted by shiny tools. Link to presentation

David Mathison, Chairman, CEO and Founder of CDO Club, described the growing demand for CDOs (Chief Data Officers) and their strategic role in organizations. Link to presentation

Margaret Regan, President & CEO at The Future Work Institute, Inc. emphasized questions about being a human in the next decade when we’ll have virtual identities and virtual learning environments and experiences. She shared her concerns about ethics and biases in AI. Link to presentation

Mariam Kakkar, Chief Talent Development Unit at UNDP shared her experience about moving forward in Talent Management while using internal resources and creativity, so lack of budget won’t inhibit progress. Link to presentation

Anna A. Tavis, Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor of Human Capital Management, Academic Director at New York University, focused on the new workplace design, and the need to create a customer experience in HR services, to enable employees to become a better version of themselves. Link to presentation

So, what next? Hacking-HR Tel Aviv!

Next month HackingHR will arrive, for the first time, to Tel Aviv. Who will be the speakers? What will be discussed? Save the date — May 23^rd, 2019 — and stay tuned! Hint: I’ll be one of the speakers and bring a brand-new agenda related to HR-Tech and the future role of HR. Looking forward!

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Key takeaways from Unleash, Amsterdam 2018 – Part 1

Littal Shemer Haim — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:43:15 +0000

(Reading Time: 6 minutes)

So I packed my vision and questions about the future of work and flew all the way to Unleash Amsterdam, to learn from the world’s influencers, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs, and to meet again many of my professional community fellows in the field of People Analytics and HR-Tech, who gathered from all over the world, for two days of intellectual adventure, inspiring experience, and entertainment.

There is one thing you can’t do in Unleash as an individual: cover the whole event. Imagine a parallel show in 16 stages, with 250 speakers, 140 industry vendors, and 50 start-ups! Nevertheless, thanks to Unleash app, and my acquaintance with some speakers and presenters, I could plan my visit, and bring my readers comprehensive key takeaways that completely represent my interest at this point. In this blog, I share six key takeaways from the 1^st-day sessions, case studies, and demos, in which I attended. My next blog covers the 2^nd day, again, in six key takeaways. To recover my horrible FOMO (fear of missing out), I may add to this blog comments section some references for sessions I missed, and so do you.

My Intellectual adventure on the 1^st day went from understanding the global trend of the HR-Tech market to more specific applications, from the point of view of organizations that embrace new technologies, and People Analytics practitioners who oversee the organizational adoption of innovation.

#1. A rapid change in HR Tech will bring more disruption in 2019

Josh Bersin, a top influencer in HR globally, opened the event with his perspective about HR-Tech disruption, and highlighted the big trends for the year ahead, in productivity, employee experience, and the potential of AI.

Bersin describes the HR-Tech industry as a wild world: workforce markets are growing; demographics are changing; employees are less connected to their employers; careers are not controlled by organizations but rather by employees themselves; rapid technological changes demand new skill sets; productivity declines despite or due to new digital tools, and at the same time people are exhausted; digital transformation changes the way people work together and in fact reinvents work, while trust decays in general and in regards to technology.

The HR-Tech market is concentrating on how to deal with this state: how to make work better, i.e., more productive and engaging; how to help people and teams work together in networks; and how to transform organizations to be more inclusive. The amount of investments in this market is huge as the size of the market itself, and while all the giant players, e.g., IBM, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, want to be in this market now, most of the investments go to plenty of brand-new companies — so many that it is hard to categorize them.

The battle or competition in this industry is on employees as first users, and respectively is the investment on AI solutions and UX: seeing workforce pipeline as the development of individuals; seeing the long career span of individuals in one hand, and the gig economy on the other hand, as an alternative to recruitment; and seeing organizations as networks.

HR department must have their own internal analysts now, to explore this market and make sense of it, to find the tools that create the right employee experience, to make sure to eliminate bias, and to incorporate all the systems and data from different sources to understand how to make work better, how to help people become more productive, and how to build a successful organization.

As Bersin implies, the rapid changes in HR-Tech, the massive investments and plenty of new players, encourage organizations to embrace innovation from the outside, by specialized new roles within HR which learn how to work with start-ups. It only makes sense that I would look for a case study that demonstrates exactly that.

#2. Working with start-ups on equal footing is the key to success

Jochen Wallisch, Executive Vice President of Human Resources, and Carolin Widenka, Head of Future of Work, both at Siemens, described how they select, prototype and scale external technologies. They worked with start-ups and created a co-learning experience that enabled successful projects in a few months. The company expands now this program, upon the pillars of agility, simplicity, equality, and mutual growth.

“No business is too big to fail, or too small to win!”, But Sharks and sardines need to swim together. The steps Wallisch and Widenka suggest includes the following: Innovate within HR, as change always starts with yourself; Prototype, develop ideas in a protected environment; Get supported, by a broader community through more transparency; Scale-up, or find a second chance for a fit within the company; Grow, by the exchange of great ideas, know-how, skills, and data; Accelerate cooperation processes, by learning from best practices.

Wallisch and Widenka shared two examples of working with start-ups: Everskill – a digital coach for training reinforcement, and VideoMyJob – Videos that change the way of recruiting. In both examples, they emphasized the importance of organizational sponsorship, idea validation, sharing experience, scouting for relevant innovation, and sandbox mindset, before the implementation.

The case studies of Siemens were great examples of an organization that acts today to be prepared for the future. But to do so, the organization certainly needs data and insights, to monitor and control the change. So naturally, it should turn to People Analytics.

#3. People Analytics is the key to navigate in a complex world of work

As already mentioned, work is changing faster than ever before, with the implementation of new technologies. HR departments should be at the heart of this change. Unfortunately, most of them are not ready yet. Learning the practices of People Analytics in leading organizations is valuable for HR professionals who do not want to lag.

Amit Mohindra, who among his variety of analytics roles built the People Analytics team at Apple, presented the People Analytics journey, i.e., preparing the foundational data and technology infrastructure, eliciting actionable insights from curated data, and converting talent insights to advantage in the product and labor market through action. However, he chose to present it originally, using the Buddha’s four noble truths as a metaphor.

Mohindra suggests we ask ourselves three questions: Do we know enough about our people and the external labor market to make the right decisions about individuals, teams, and organizations? Are talent data and insights fully considered in business planning? Do we know what we need to do today to ensure we have the right talent to support the business in the future?

The success, or liberation in Mohindra’s words, is made possible by five actions: communicating a roadmap; establishing standards, data discipline, and accountabilities; democratizing data and insights; shifting the analytics center of gravity outward; move towards “pervasive” analytics.

Mohindra’s ideas indicate a change in the HR role, which becomes more data-driven. This ongoing change is an important subject of the current research and managerial approach. A deeper understanding of the experience of this change was made possible in a roundtable discussion of HR practitioners.

#4. The future HRBPs will be data-enabled

Lexy Martin, Principal, Research and Customer Value at Visier Inc., and Dominic Podmore, Head Information System, HR At Anglo American, presented the barriers and solutions in the journey of HRBPs who support their business leaders in data-driven decisions.

HRBPs are not analytics savvy, but we do have some ways to prepare them. The technology already enables them to integrate data from different sources. Technology also points to the significant patterns in the data, by the touch of a button. However, HR practitioners should be the ones who tie data and patterns to action. To do so, they should suggest well defined and actionable metrics that are connected to actual business issues, and support them by discussing the interventions needed, as metrics suggest.

Aligning HR leadership with the business is crucial. It guarantees the use of technology in HR to support the business goals with decisions related to people. Nevertheless, offering analytics to managers is not sufficient. The conversation between HR leadership with managers must be based on HR leaders’ business understanding.

The change in the HRBPs’ role will not end in becoming more data-oriented. New technologies, namely AI-based solutions, will disrupt much more of their work. My next learning step, then, included some new possibilities that AI offers.

#5. AI will disrupt HR work by redefining career development

Alexander Gibson, Solutions Consultant Leader, Watson Talent Europe, IBM, described how AI creates new possibilities across every profession, including HR. AI improves recruiter efficiency and candidate quality. It encourages inner mobility and improves the employee experience with personalized career guidance.

AI systems are characterized by the following capabilities: they receive and process unstructured information in ways similar to humans; they rapidly analyze information to produce relevant responses; they improve through new data.

AI effectiveness is not derived from replacing human interactions, but rather from augmenting human capability for better decision making. Workforce decisions are complex and require inputs from a variety of data sources. Therefore, AI means at least two new opportunities for HR: developing better candidate profiles and making improved decisions about prospective employees; offering personalized recommendations for learning and career management.

So, how everything is binding together – future of work, collaboration with start-ups, People Analytics, the data-driven role of HR, and implementation of AI? Here is a case study of a company that embraces it all.

#6. Achieve massive learning by AI throughout the entire employee lifecycle

Marcus Millership, Director of HR Global Services at Rolls-Royce, presented how the company uses digital technologies, namely Workday solutions, to shape its future workforce.

Millership described three key trends that define the world’s future power needs, and therefore disrupt this industry: electrification, digitalization, and growing demand for cleaner and safer power. These trends demand new skillsets that the company obligates to build within its future workforce while dealing with new expectations of millennials.

The massive learning processes that the organization is going through mean a cultural change towards a startup-like company, and the establishment of collaboration across the organization. To achieve these massive learning processes and change, the company uses now AI throughout the entire employee lifecycle: talent attraction, onboarding, career development, talent management, and internal movement.

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From HR Data to Business Insights: People Analytics in Tel Aviv

Littal Shemer Haim — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 13:46:54 +0000

(Reading Time: 3 minutes)

This summer, we witness the change in HR leaders’ mindset, here in Tel Aviv, in regards to HR data and business insights. The People Analytics learning session, conducted by the Israeli Association of Human Resources in July 2018, was just a part of this vibe. The growing interest in People Analytics brought 150 HR leaders to gather and learn from the experience we gained in this domain while enjoying the kind hospitality of Maccabi Healthcare. I was honored to be the keynote speaker and to partner in curating the event contents. In this blog, I share some of my messages and my key takeaways from the case studies presented.

My talk meant to answer two simple questions: “What we have?” and “What to do?”. I challenged my self to describe the state of our practice in only five sentences, and to point to the next steps, again, in five sentences. (My future article will include the full content of my lecture, so stay tuned!)

What we have? The state of our practice

– Adoption rates are high, but barrier overcoming is slow.

– Multidisciplinary profession: understanding and misconceptions.

– Combing new data sources, technologies, and good old practices.

– Different objectives and questions of old and new stakeholders.

– Movement from a research perspective to analytics products.

What to do? Links for recommended next steps

– Understand the traditional five perspectives of People Analytics.

– Prepare to interview business leaders.

– HR data is a mess! Do something about it, starting today.

– Understand the profession’s future: Procurement and Ethics.

– Learn, curate, share: be eternal students in open-source culture.

Case studies

The case studies presented in the event were an interesting mix of organizations from the Israeli public and private sector and global companies who have business units in Israel. All of these organizations deal with the challenge of Employee Engagement and Retention, but each one of them has a unique solution. So from the various talks in the conferences, I picked four creative ways to deal with this challenge:

Best Team Study

Sagit Lesin Shadmon, Global HR Manager at Cisco, presented the “Best Team Study,” and explained how the company revealed which among its 200 teams, is considered excellent, regarding engagement. Cisco has based its research on Gallup’s questionnaire. The company developed an internal platform, called “Team Space” which points to the most characterizing items of Engagement. Managers and HRBPs can use the platform to be constantly aware of team engagement scores, in comparison to the organizational benchmark. The platform assists them to discuss the results of the quarterly engagement surveys, and make sure they use employee strength, share values and get managerial support – all influencing engagement. The research ROI is clear: the best teams tend to retain employees almost three times more!

Mental Attrition

Yoav Kardontchik, Director of Organizational Development at Bank of Israel, described a variety of HR data resources that derive business insights. Employee reviews, attendance, interview summaries, HR reports, organizational surveys, and inner mobility, were part of the resources he integrated, by using R, Tableau, and other quantitative analysis tools. His research objective was to predict employee engagement and to evaluate the units’ efforts and interventions, by calculating the probability of retaining or improving employee engagement. Since most employees in the Bank of Israel are employed permanently, i.e., the organization can not fire them, Kardontchik coined the term “Mental Attrition” which can be explored by employee attitudes and behavior. He used decision tree algorithms to find that the propensity to mentally leave, is influenced by the quality of interaction with managers. His research results motivated decision-makers to invest more in mentoring and in the organizational culture of entrepreneurship. His presentation inspired the audience to continue to use traditional HR processes and data, yet to add the creative use of research methodologies, to influence the business.

Inner Mobility

Orit Schwartz Cohen, who globally leads the domain of People Analytics in HP, shared a research brief about career opportunities and attrition. In her analytics initiative, she discovered that at HP people voluntarily leave after 3.5 years in their last role. Her findings encouraged the organization to proactively pull employees who have been in their current role for 3+ years, create a smart segmentation of these employees (i.e., high potential, critical roles, jobs that are expected to fade in 1-2 years), and openly propose relevant development within the role or consider a promotion or experience move. I recently talked with Orit about the opportunity that analytics offer in reinventing the term Career Development, an interview that inspired me to study the domain of Inner Mobility in organizations further. (I’ll publish more insights shortly, so stay tuned!)

Sectorial Attrition

Michal Hadas from Maccabi Healthcare shared her use of decision trees algorithms to predict employee attrition in different sectors. Although this approach was widely presented and previously discussed in learning sessions and conferences, including my notes about its controversial use and risks, the impact of this particular research led the organization to update its hiring policy and to further control and document managerial interventions. The operative conclusions and recommendations, on behalf of the people analysts, is an important reminder that analytics should always be actionable. There is no point in using advanced analytics without the actual impact on the organization.

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