Tucana People Analytics Podcast

Recorded after Cole Nussbaumer's most recent Data Visualisation Masterclass in London in February, David Green asks her about the philosophy behind Storytelling With Data. They talk about a couple of the lessons that were explored during the full-day session, and we also heard from fellow bestselling author and globally-recognised thought leader Bernard Marr, who was a participant in the workshop.

If you're unsure about whether you need to attend this course, the next 8 minutes should make up your mind!

Cole returns to London on 20 November for another public Storytelling With Data masterclass with Tucana. Sign up here:

www.storytellingwithdata.co.uk

David Green speaks with Bernard Marr about the future directions in which People Analytics will take the HR profession.

Bernard Marr will be launching his latest book "Data-Driven HR" at the People Analytics World conference on 11-12 April. As part of his research, as well as his consulting work, he has been exploring areas such as Blockchain, Machine Learning and AI, and Organisational Network Analysis in a practical sense of how they are applied in real organisations.

The insights that these concepts and tools make possible can transform the operational capacity of HR - along with all other functions that embrace them - to a level that is more reactive, predictive, and intelligent in its actions.

He talks with David Green about the way in which HR Analytics is changing the way the rest of business sees HR, and how the massive potential of this new technology is demanding a transformation in the mindset and operational structures of the People function of organisations both large and small. 

In this week's episode, they discuss:

• How things are not as bad for HR as some would have us believe
• The new tools that are now available
• What is holding the function back in the face of these opportunities
• Bernard's framework of organisational intelligence
• How HR can take the next step from Intelligent to Super-Intelligent
• The importance of storytelling for making sense of - and communicating the value of - the new insights that are being generated
• Issues of privacy, transparency and ownership
• What people can expect from his keynote at People Analytics World 2018.

Mark Lawrence speaks with Cole Nussbaumer, one of the world's leading authorities on high-impact Data Visualisation techniques.

It doesn't matter how good your data is; if your message is lost in clutter and noise, you're giving yourself an uphill task in driving the action you want.

Cole has spent her career training professionals in how to communicate clearly, concisely and effectively with data, and how to tell a compelling story that drives home the message.

She chats with Mark Lawrence about her career spanning Finance, Technology and HR - including being a key member of Google's original People Analytics team, where she taught them her own techniques that are now sought-after by organisations globally.

They discuss some key themes in Data Visualisation, some common mistakes, and some extremely insightful and valuable tips on removing clutter and giving your presentations an enormous boost in impact.

In this week's episode, they discuss:

• The concept of storytelling with data
• Cole's experiences in various roles throughout her career
• Common pitfalls and styling choices that will cripple any presentation
• How to think about your data in the right way
• Cultural considerations that can have significant unforeseen consequences
• Practical advice on framing, reducing, highlighting and delivering your insight and message.

David Green speaks with Hani Nabeel, Director of Behavioural Analytics at Alderbrooke Group.

Hani has been researching ways to quantify and measure employee behaviour, and demonstrate the causal links that contribute to - or detract from - the stated goals of the organisations. It's an elusive concept but one that is becming increasingly essential, in certain industries in particular that are facing stricter regulation and closer scrutiny of the internal culture.

Until now, these have often been largely steered by simple goals such as revenue and productivity, but more complex challenges such as social responsibility, customer engagement, diversity and sustainability.

In this week's episode, they discuss:

• The history and nature of Behavioural Analytics
• The research currently taking place into putting behaviours into a practical and useful framework
• The false assumptions and contradictions that are present in a huge number of organisations
• The relationship between behaviour and work environment
• What you can do to identify and cultivate the behaviours that will genuinely contribute to the culture and strategy your organisation needs to flourish.

Max Blumberg talks with Uri Gal, Associate Professor for Information Systems at the University of Sydney. The push to use data and analytics to drive decision-making in HR - as in the wider business - continues apace around the world. To varying degrees of advancement and success, human instinct continues to give ground to algorithms in guiding business strategy.

As a sociologist as well as an analyst, Uri talks with Max about what he sees as the potential pitfalls along the seemingly inexorable data-driven journey:

• The major assumptions behind People Analytics, and how valid these assumptions really are
• The dangers involving bias, and whether analytics is a help or a hindrance in overcoming it
• Ethical issues involved in People Analytics - privacy, employee isolation and the mechanised workforce
• Practical issues - the impact on managerial skills, innovation and worker motivation.

A provocative conversation that challenges a lot of the mainstream thought in this area. Please leave your comments below - join the conversation.

People Analytics Podcast - Recorded live at PAWorld17, QEII Centre, London

Facilitator: Max Blumberg - Visiting Professor, Leeds Business School

- Saima Poorghobad - Head of Commercial Projects, XpertHR

- Gareth Jones - Chief Technology Officer, The Chemistry Lab

Part 2

Max talks with two people with a different perspective on the People Analytics industry, coming from the consultatant/vendor side as well as press and industry commentary.

They discuss some of the key sessions, and how they see the practice developing currently and in the future.

People Analytics Podcast - Recorded live at PAWorld17, QEII Centre, London

Facilitator: Max Blumberg - Visiting Professor, Leeds Business School

- Ekkehard Ernst - Chief Macroeconomic Policy Officer, International Labor Organisation

- Sjoerd van den Heuvel - People Analytics Researcher, University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht

- Michael Carty - Benchmarking Editor, Personnel Today / XpertHR

Part 1

People Analytics World was a very busy two days. We somehow managed to pin down two of the speakers and a key industry commentator, amid a flurry of amazing sessions towards the end of Day Two, to give us their reflections on the event and the key themes that emerged.

They cover:

• Cole Nussbaumer, and her showstopper presentation on Data Visualisation
• Ross Sparkman of Facebook discussing the marriage of workforce planning and comon sense
• True North Analytics, and their excellent report on analysing the impact of the Gender Pay Gap
• The long term ROI and competitive advantage afforded by People Analytics
• Standardisation of HR definitions and indicators
• The shift in skill sets in HR
• Career progression as an HR professional in analytics
• Employee happiness as a corporate asset
• Automation and the future of work
• Collaboration and long-term strategic planning

Among many other topics. Listen to this pacy recap of just some of the fascinating highlights of this world summit.

David Green chats with Laurence Collins, Global Lead for HR Transformation and Workforce Analytics Consulting at Deloitte, for the final episode of thie season.

As People Analytics gradually becomes part of the workings of HR departments around the world, the concept of decision-making based on employee data has growing implications for people's working lives.

As co-author the People Analytics chapter in the recent Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report, Laurence is more in touch than most people with the global strategic direction of analytics in HR. The report is in many ways a go-to point for professionals around the world for learning about the current business landscape and where they stand in relation to other organisations. There are few areas more fast-changing than analytics and data-crunching technology, and the knock-on effect can often be that the long-term questions are sidelined in favour of more immediate operational challenges.

This was a fascinating conversation between two people advising global businesses at the highest level – a great opportunity to hear about opportunities and challenges that are likely to affect all organisations at some point in the future, if not already.

They cover:

• The main trends in the market
• The common obstacles that companies typically have to overcome
• What separates those companies who are successful from those that aren't
• Innovative projects that are taking place around the world
• Advice for HR and Analytics leaders on growing their capability
• The old vs new rules of People Analytics, and recalculating the route (as alluded to in the GHCT Report)
• AI and cognitive technology, and the likely impact on employee experience
• The changing expectations of employees
• Trust and privacy
• The outlook for People Analytics, and advice for leaders on Digital Transformation.

Max Blumberg talks with Kevin Moore, Head of People Analytics at Gannett, home of USA Today.

Kevin shares his experience and lessons with us, describing how he built this new function to serve customers across the enterprise.

• What is the roadmap for creating cost-effective yet highly effective analytics function
• Finding the right balance between what to insource and what to outsource
• How to decide which analytics projects to monetize and how to approach this
• How effective is predictive analytics in the real world.

Kevin Moore is the Head of People Analytics at Gannett, publisher of the USA Today newspaper. He developed the HR analytics and reporting programme to serve all levels of clients across the organisation consisting of standard reports, ad-hoc reports, predictive analytics, special studies, and surveys.

Prior to Gannett, Kevin spent the majority of his career in HR Consulting serving clients across industries with HR analytics, change management, workforce planning, employee survey, and process improvement efforts.

Kevin holds a Masters in Human Resources Management and is a Certified as a Strategic Workforce Planner.

Dr Max Blumberg is founder of the Blumberg Partnership, a Top 50 analytics consultancy which provides innovative analytics consultancy to organisations including Nestle, Lloyds Register, the BBC, Rentokil Initial, Barclays Corporate and the CIPD. Max is also a Visiting Researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London, a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Within global Fortune 100 organizations, executives heavily rely on the rich analytics to inform business decisions about the products they create, the markets they serve, and how operations are run. But what about measuring managers, one of an organisation's most vital assets? 

A Gallup study found that at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores is driven by manager behaviours. While executives can quantify discrete business outcomes like revenue generated, the actions that drives these results is often unclear, unmeasured and unseen.

Microsoft has identified the tacit connection between workplace behaviours and employee engagement and survey responses. In this presentation attendees will learn specific behaviour changes that can make managers more effective based on insights from within Microsoft as well as best practices based on research conducted by Microsoft for Fortune 100 companies.

Max Blumberg talks with Becky Thielen, Director for Global Workforce Data Insights, and her colleague in the new Workplace Analytics division, Jeremy Tyers.

In this week's episode, they discuss:

• How Microsoft uses analytics to transform HR both internally and at its clients
• Where the people analytics industry is heading
• Competing technologies
• How to measure the impact of managers behaviour on business performance and culture.