Comments on: The Complexity of People Analytics Resolved: 5 Perspectives of Definition

By: Littal Shemer Haim

Littal Shemer Haim — Thu, 30 May 2019 12:56:21 +0000

In reply to Ze'ev Sovik. Thanks, Ze'ev Sovik! People Analytics is not only about numerical methods. Qualitative research is also important, along with complementary tech solutions, e.g., text analysis, graphs methods, and more. To revise the domain definition I would mention every kind of stakeholders, including employees.

By: Ze'ev Sovik

Ze'ev Sovik — Thu, 30 May 2019 12:36:04 +0000

Formally speaking, people analytics should probably be defined by it’s uniqueness – the process and result of using numerical methods to describe humans. However, it’s followed by the really interesting questions such as “why are we doing people analytics”, and that’s, if I understood correctly, the purpose of dividing the definition to 5 different perspectives.
In that context, Tim had an interesting comment, in particular the part about doing people analytics not to understand “what can I do”, but to understand “what could I do”

By: Littal Shemer Haim

Littal Shemer Haim — Sun, 26 May 2019 10:07:03 +0000

In reply to Tim Bleszynski. Hi Tim, Thanks for sharing this perspective. I'm not sure if you noticed, but this article is 2.5 years old... Your comment really represents the huge development in the conversation within the People Analytics domain. So, I'd love to quote this in a future blog. Would you mind?

By: Tim Bleszynski

Tim Bleszynski — Sat, 25 May 2019 08:15:10 +0000

Hello Littal, we are a UK based Predictive People Analytics software company. Interestingly, our first software iteration of our platform was developed in Israel around 2007-8 but we took that back in-house in 2010. Since then we have been in the journey to define (in our minds and in the market) what People Analytics means and how it delivers value to organisations and teams (a broader definition of groups of people working together for paid labour or otherwise). In our experience the terms Talent/People/HR Analytics are pretty much interchangeable in the minds of your average HRD/CPO globally and as such we try instead to focus on the issue from a human perspective and less from an organisational theory / business management / academic point of view. By that we mean honing in on the value equation: what value would this bring in equal measure to the entire cyclical value chain spanning across business owner / employer / employee / society? For us it is firmly rooted in ‘seeing potential’. In an HR world the next 10-20 years AI & Machine Learning will come to dominate the landscape of talent hiring, firing and performance. Many millions of jobs will disappear and never return – many others (hopefully enough but not certainly) will re-emerge to replace those lost. In the middle of this seismic shift of labour, the new frontier that will be central to this challenge for humanity will centre around seeing and understanding human potential. Otherwise, what is left? It’s the last great mystery of humanity we face. If there’s nothing left that the machines can’t do – then what’s left for us? Less dramatically speaking and in a business context, the new frontier of human endeavour will require a contract between employer and employee based not so much on “what can I do’ and more on “what could I do’ as a fundamental value transaction. The potential of what a human can bring to any enterprise or endeavour will become the currency of the era. Therefore, it is logical that understanding and calibrating the notional and actual value of someone’s potential will be critical. Otherwise how could anyone make a decision on such an important transaction? Subjective opinion? Gut feel? Consensus? That’s the system we have at the moment and we all know how desperately flawed and inefficient a human HR process that is. So we see People Analytics as the process by which humans use machines to help them make the best informed decisions they can about people and their potential. It helps us see potential. Because right now – we can’t. And we are going to need to.

By: Littal Shemer Haim

Littal Shemer Haim — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 10:43:18 +0000

“HR has long focused on achieving operational excellence”, says John Schwarz , CEO of Visier , in his article The Disconnect between People and Business Strategy . “Systems such as payroll, performance management, learning and development, compensation and benefits management, and applicant tracking generate lots of data but are not capable of even effective operational reporting, much less comprehensive analytics. The underlying technology of transactional systems, designed to process one record at a time, is simply not suited for any meaningful analytics.” The connection between the two upper layers in the definition of People Analytics, suggested in this article, is validated by Schwarz insights: “When the CEO and CHRO are in sync and using data collected by HR, the impact of the workforce on business results becomes clearer and leadership is able to make better informed strategic decisions.”

By: Littal Shemer Haim

Littal Shemer Haim — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 06:29:53 +0000

Littal’s answer on Quora in this subject:
https://www.quora.com/Is-people-analytics-different-from-HR-analytics/answer/Littal-Shemer-Haim?srid=iYu2