HR ANALYTICS BLOG

Dutch Railways (NS) has about 1,000 managers. What makes these managers effective? To answer that question Hanneke Beelen (Leadership) and Jean-Paul Lucassen (People Analytics) of NS worked together with the University of Amsterdam to study the effectivity of leaders in operations. Read on to learn about their findings. The impact of good leadership Leadership is…

Recruitment analytics, also known as recruiting analytics, plays an increasingly important role for recruiters and recruitment managers. Recruitment analytics can help to make better, data-driven choices when it comes to sourcing, selection, and hiring. In this article, we will explain what recruiting analytics is, and how to get to value-adding analytics in three steps. What…

Together with eRecruiter, we have recently asked over 500 employers how they measure the efficiency of the undertaken recruitment activities. Here are the 5 most popular recruitment efficiency metrics. What do they tell us about how recruitment is handled? I will explain everything in the post below. All of the data quoted is from the…

The HRIS analyst is a specialized role that touches on both IT and HR. In this guide, we will explain what an HRIS analyst is and what their main responsibilities and job description entails. Content What is an HRIS analyst? HRIS analyst job description HRIS analyst qualification HRIS analyst salary HRIS analyst certificationFAQ What is…

The absenteeism rate is a key measure of organizational health and well-being. Whether you measure it for the entire organization or an individual, knowing the exact absence rate will help shape interventions. In this article, we will explain the absence rate, how to calculate this rate according to ISO norms, and give some benchmarks on…

Employee performance is one of the key outcomes that we try to predict in HR analytics. In this article, we will explain why comparing average performance does not always give us the full picture. We will also present several methods that can be used to examine and understand changes in employees’ performance and show how…

In HR, one of the challenges we face is to gain an understanding of what goes on in the hearts and minds of our people. There is typically one overlooked source of data that may provide the most direct reflection of that: text. Through text, we can gain insights as to what people are discussing,…

As we are approaching the festive season, I wanted to take a moment to wish you happy holidays, an amazing New Year, and to thank you for being a loyal member of our audience! Without you, and our other subscribers, customers, partners, and colleagues, AIHR would not exist. Our promise to you is that we…

Together with AIHR, I worked on a digital HR diagnostic. With this diagnostic tool, it is possible to get an overview of the current state of Digital HR at your organization by completing a 30-minute questionnaire. In this article, I will go through some of these data to give you an overview of the state…

The HR scorecard, or Human Resource Scorecard, is a well-known HR tool. In this article, we will explain what the HR scorecard is, the difference between the HR scorecard and the balanced scorecard, modern-day critique, and show an example template of the HR scorecard. What is the HR scorecard? One of the key problems that…

An HRIS, also known as a Human Resources Information System, or Human Resource Management System (HRMS), is the ultimate combination of Information Technology (IT) and Human Resources (HR). This article will explain how an HRIS works, how they relate to HR analytics, and how they can be successfully selected and implemented. Traditional HRIS systems and…

I must confess that I have a guilty pleasure: I truly enjoy building PowerPoint slide decks… It’s likely that Building PowerPoint slide decks is something that most of us did either back in college or as a professional, in a typical office job. It’s one of today’s most frequently used, and yet, most hated media.…

“…whenever we are faced with a new people issue at Google now, we don’t ask ourselves, what does successful organization X do with this topic? Instead, we ask ourselves, what does the literature say? And if I have one piece of advice to give all the businesses that are in the audience out here, it…

How can you make the business case for change and engage the team in delivering it? Introduction You’re a change agent – in HR or as an advisor. You know that change is needed, but the organization hesitates. Why? And what can you do about it? This article deals with two aspects – the rational…

Dave Ulrich recently spoke in front of 2,500 HR practitioners in Denmark on the role of HR. He argued that HR is not about HR; it is about creating value for others. According to Ulrich, this value is all about how to win the market because without a win by the company, there are no…

It goes without saying that the role of data in the HR function has grown substantially in the last decade, and will continue to do so for decades to come. In an ideal world, an HR professional should be able to access data that are: Fresh (recently updated) Clean (consistent application of definitions) Explorable (able…

Out of the many themes in HR, diversity frequently gets the spotlight. Yet seeing advanced analytics or AI solutions applied to diversity is rare, especially when compared to themes like turnover and absenteeism. Of course, putting numbers on gender, ethnicity, etc. is tricky: the very insights to counter discrimination might also be used to discriminate.…

HR data sets are rare finds. In this article, I will list the 7 best HR data sets available online. In addition to the data set, I will also list the challenges in the data. This can be a potential analysis or something to look out for in the data. We strongly advocate using data…

At one point in my career, I was working as an HR-manager for a subsidiary of Belden, a company which, at that time, was making cables and wires for electronic equipment, like shavers, TVs, and computers. During this time the company had a relatively large proportion of “blue collar employees”. Supervisors were struggling with a…

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things. – Rene Descartes. Conducting research to demonstrate the effectiveness of HR practices is important and valuable. Traditionally, researchers generated such evidence by collecting data using surveys, interviews, or…

A growing body of experts is of opinion that the future of talent and career management is moving towards customization. Some call it ‘consumerization of HR’. Accenture calls this ‘Workforce of One’. Workforce of One is a logical next step in the evolution of HR, where business-driven HR goes hand in hand with people-centric HR. In essence,…

People analytics delivers value to organizations. I can point to countless surveys that show that organizations that adopt people analytics outperform those that don’t. Bersin says so. Corporate Leadership Council says so. The Sierra-Cedar HR Systems Survey says so. The Visier Age of People Analytics Survey says so. I can also show countless case studies…

This article lists the nine most-used HR analytics tools. Adopting HR analytics is a big step for many people and organizations. Indeed, I often get asked: “What are the best HR analytics tools to use?” This article will give you the answer to this question. Here’s a list of the nine best HR analytics tools…

We know that an effective HR strategy can increase company performance. With the rise of HR analytics, companies can better measure whether HR strategies actually pay off. Proving the added value of HR is a very useful first step. However, doing so proves hard to do. In this article, I will focus on the HR…

I attended an HR analytics conference in 2014, and was very impressed by the HR analytics work done in excel by Elouise Leonard-Cross, then of Home Group, in the North-East of England. The Home Group HR team did a great job by keeping things simple. They did the basics of HR right, they ran a…

A Human Resources Information System, or HRIS, is the most used software in HR. In this article, we will give an overview of what an HRIS is, its main functionalities, and everything more you need to know to have a basic understanding of the HRIS. Contents What is an HRIS?HRIS functionalitiesDifferent kinds of HRIS systems…

In a previous article, I have explained and advocated the use utility analysis for estimating the financial return of learning interventions. As highlighted in this previous article, utility analysis refers to a specific tool designed to estimate the institutional gain or loss anticipated to a company from various HR interventions designed to enhance the value…

In the community of our AIHR Academy, we’ve had a few discussions about how to calculate employee turnover and retention. In the people analytics space, employee turnover is arguably the most-discussed metric. However, calculating turnover is much trickier than it seems. In this article, we will propose a best practice to measuring employee turnover. Calculating…

If only we could know things in advance, especially those things that bother us the most today. Machine learning and predictive analytics are often touted as the ultimate solution – and they can be. However, certain misconceptions limit effectiveness of predictive models or even hinder their development to begin with. In this article, I will…

It is time that HR analytics starts to show the value it delivers to the business. This is hard to do as people analytics is still an emerging field. For this article, I have collected 15 of the best HR analytics case studies I’ve come across in the past two years. Each of these case…

As HR professionals and executives are trying to move the workforce analytics agenda forward, we are still facing challenges. Although the urgency for data-driven decision making in HR is increasing, the maturity of workforce analytics is still quite low in most organizations. Why is this? The primary reasons I’ve found working with HR leaders are:…

One of the articles of faith of the analytics movement is that we should move towards predictive analytics. There is a lot of appeal in the idea that we should ditch backward-looking measures for forward-looking ones.  “You can’t drive by looking in the rear-view mirror”, we might quip with a smile. The first hint that…

As a founder of AIHR, today marks an important day for me. For the first time, we are growing our business with an acquisition instead of through hard work and a ton of content. To be honest with you, I could never have imagined that less than 3 years after founding AIHR in June 2016,…

The way we work is changing. According to a popular estimation reported by the World Economic Forum, around “65% of children entering school will eventually work at jobs that don’t exist today”. The main cause of this is rapidly changing technology. In this article, we will explore the impact of automation. More specifically, how it…

This week I had the pleasure of discussing topics such as assessments, gamification and candidate experience with Ryne Sherman, Chief Science Officer at Hogan Assessment Systems. Enjoy! Erik: Welcome, everyone, to a new episode of AIHR Live. I’m here with Ryne Sherman. Ryne, how are you doing? Ryne: Hey, I’m great, Erik, good to see…

‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’ Even the legendary Chinese general Sun Tzu was a sucker for benchmarking. But honestly, aren’t we all? One of the most common human traits is our strong desire to always compare with others. ‘Did you see the…

Who wouldn’t want all the competencies in the world? We keep hearing that companies have a desperate need for talent. Some competencies are so important it is worth seeking them out and treasuring them. A top computer programmer works 10x faster and better than a second rate programmer; a great primary school teacher can transform…

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) is a commonly used term for a multitude of approaches to achieve a singular goal: having enough employees of sufficient quality in the future. In other words, it is about having the right person for the right job at the right time, across the entire organization. In this article, I will…

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting the Digital HR Summit in Amsterdam. It was an excellent event with some of the best speakers I’ve listened to. Don’t worry if you missed the Amsterdam edition – on 19 and 20 November 2019 the next edition is happening in Nice. Advertized as the…

I started my research into HR analytics over a year ago. After a careful review of the growing – but limited – existing literature on HR analytics, I bumped into a substantial lack of clarity across HR and management scholarship, and by so-called HR analytics experts in the industry. There was – and there is…

It may not feel like it, but people analytics has been in a lovely honeymoon period. Over a number of years, vendors and the press convinced everyone from the CHRO to the Board that it made sense to invest in analytics.  As a result, people were hired to do analytics and investments were made in…

Workforce planning is often mentioned – but rarely explained. What is workforce planning, and how do you do it? When used well, strategic workforce planning enables HR to plan for the capabilities they need in the future. In this article, we will dive into what workforce planning is, the process, give a number of examples,…

At UNLEASH Amsterdam I was lucky to run into Littal Shemer Haim, an independent people analytics consultant based in Israel. Littal has 25 years of experience doing analytics, starting long before the field was even called people analytics. You can read the full transcript below the video. Alternatively, you can also turn on subtitles! Erik:…

In previous articles, I have given multiple examples of how employees can benefit from data analytics. In this article, I would like to explore a set of different, advanced data analysis techniques to see how they can be used to analyze people data for improved organization success. Data science is increasingly incorporated in businesses, products,…

If you read this article, chances are you work in HR and you have a more than average interest in data. If so, you are probably familiar with the ‘Wall of Boudreau’. For those of you who are not: the wall famously describes the struggle that organizations face in the transition from descriptive analytics to…

In this interview, I talk with Tako Zoutman. Tako is an experienced HR professional who has always focused on HR systems, data, and transformation. This is exactly the topic of this new episode of AIHR live. Erik van Vulpen: Hello everyone, and welcome to AIHR Live. I’m here with Tako Zoutman. Tako, welcome! Can you…

“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion”, is arguably Edward Deming’s best-known quote. It is impossible to improve at managing people if you do not measure the results of your work. If you do not define what ‘good performance’ looks like and how you can measure it, how will you find out if…

At UNLEASH Amsterdam I had the pleasure of interviewing Amit Mohindra. Amit has a background in engineering and economics before becoming People Analytics lead at Apple. In this interview, we speak about people analytics nirvana, the importance of education, and the future of analytics. Enjoy! Erik van Vulpen: Hello everyone. I’m here with Amit Mohindra.…

We are one month into the new year and as a reader of AIHR I am sure you have stumbled on many lists showcasing what the latest HR trends are. These lists consist of themes that come and go – from year to year. Nothing strange about this, because while the world is changing, HR…

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is among the most trending topics in People Analytics. HR analytics professionals are now starting to conduct SNAs to unearth collaboration, detect silos, and identify potential leavers. Even though SNA is only now starting to become a standard tool in People Analytics, advanced network and graph theory can already provide various…

In early January 2019, a headline on the McKinsey Leadership and Organization blog caught my eye – “The critical importance of the HR business partner.” A key point made in the piece is that HR continues to struggle to deliver effective talent strategy. The disconnect centers on the lack of capability of HR business partners…

At UNLEASH Amsterdam, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rainer Schlienkamp and Jasmin Wölke from the People Analytics team at Bosch. In the interview, we spoke about how to establish a data-driven mindset, skill management, and various other initiatives at Bosch. Erik: Welcome, everyone. We’re sitting here at UNLEASH and I’m here with Rainier and…

In this short interview, Erik discusses the most important HR and HR analytics topics with the one and only “HR Curator”. Find out about the digital future of HR from the expert, Dave Millner! Transcription: Erik van Vulpen: Hello, and welcome to AIHR Live. I’m Erik van Vulpen, and with me is Dave Millner. Hi…

A lot of people analytics professionals are looking into the drivers of performance in their respective companies. Not too long ago, we undertook a study to establish the drivers of performance for a financial institution. The question was which Human Resources factors in staff influenced the performance of different branches and professionals in the organization.…

Christmas and the holidays are always a good time to look back and reflect on what has happened over the past year – and what a year it has been! In this article, I briefly want to look back at 2018 and take a glimpse ahead at 2019. I remember reading a hypothesis on why…

Data quality is one of the biggest obstacles to overcome in creating meaningful people analytics. In this article, I will go over 5 tips to get better data quality through smarter system design. Unreliable, incorrect and untrustworthy data keeps companies from realizing the benefits of their HRIS systems and often results in HR departments executing…

Despite the title, this blog is not primarily about baking. (Sorry!) Rather, it’s based on my personal observations as a data scientist on how our thinking and approach to People Analytics can make or break our chances of success. I found inspiration for this blog when I saw my wife working on the preparation for…

In most of our articles, we assume that our readers are working at large enterprises. However, we’re getting the question more and more whether people analytics also applies to small and medium enterprises. In this article, we will answer this question. Is People Analytics relevant for SMEs? To answer this question we should first take…

In our previous article “Workforce Data: Is Legislation Enough?” we discussed the implications of the recent European Union’s privacy legislation: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We compared it to various pieces of similar legislation and discussed whether simply complying with legislation is enough when undertaking people analytics projects. In this paper, we extend our previous…

On Monday, 543 possible errors were found. Tuesday: an additional 79. Wednesday: 378 more. Just three average days. Imagine what would happen if these possible errors would not be handled on a daily basis. No matter what your organization looks like, what systems you use or how talented your administrative team is: there are always…

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Vlad Sterngold, director people analytics & research at Booking.com, an online booking travel platform with over 17,000 employees. Vlad and I spoke about the milestones of his people analytics journey at Booking.com. According to Vlad: “there are just many small steps and as long as…

Welcome to this fall edition of our ‘Most Trending Articles’ of 2018! Here at Analytics in HR, we’re definitely noticing the weather changes. We hope that you’re all sitting warm, with a fresh cup of coffee beside you.  Enjoy the following top articles in the HR Analytics space of October 2018! #5: 3 common mistakes…

What is the secret of a good HR dashboard? The right metrics? Clean data? An ability to drill down? By now we should know that those are not the secret because we’ve been trying them for years with uninspiring results. The true secret of a good dashboard is that it is composed of questions. I…

At a recent conference I sat with a friend who is the managing director of the pharmaceutical division of one of the largest marketing research conglomerates in the world. His daily routine could not be more different from mine, the independent consultant. My friend spends a great deal of time on the phone managing global…

After two years of hard work and a ton of content, we have recently hit two major milestones. Yes, you read that right. AIHR has been here for two years already. The company actually turned 2 back in June this year but we wanted to hold off on the celebrations until hitting another important milestone.…

HR analytics influencers Luk Smeyers, Melissa Kantor and David Green discuss the ethical considerations of People Analytics at the Unleash conference.

At one point in my career, I was working as an HR-manager for Belden, a company which, at that time, was making cables and wires for shavers, TVs and other electronic equipment. I envied some of my colleagues in the management team who “battled” for their share of the annual budget. Especially the marketing manager…

Find out what the leading experts think is the reason for People Analytics results lagging behind their potential. This AIHR video on the UNLEASH conference features Luk Smeyers and David Green.

Organizations are more than a list of people. Agile Organization Design is much more than redrawing the org chart. Analytics are central to understanding the organization and designing its future. But organizations often end up with the wrong data and ineffective analysis in preparation for organization design. As a consequence they pay the costs of…

We’re back with the latest edition of our monthly “Most Trending HR Articles”! We’ve selected the best HR analytics articles of September 2018 for you to read. So grab a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy these next 5 articles. #5: What Your Boss Could Learn by Reading the Whole Company’s Emails If the…

The Pipeline Problem Another year has passed, and despite major commitments from various firms and monumental efforts by individuals, diversity in tech continues to see a sparsity of meaningful improvement. A common explanation is the pipeline problem. It describes the challenge of hiring members of underrepresented groups for technical roles (women, people of color, veterans,…

Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) is making waves in the HR space. What makes analytics experts excited about ONA? So Organizational Network Analysis or ONA is a subject that a lot of people in analytics teams are investigating at the moment. When I go to conferences and that question is asked, what are you looking at, ONA always comes…

Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Hannah Spell, co-author of Predicting Business Success, about the value of people analytics, different case studies, the use of advanced statistical analytics techniques, and tips for getting started with people analytics. Watch the full interview below!

One of the most interesting challenges in the field of people analytics at the moment is to create a data-driven culture in HR. If you already have a great people analytics ‘machine’ in place, with all the governance, processes, and tech, you still need HR professionals to make this machine actually work and add business…

The labor market is globalizing at high speed. Students are doing foreign exchanges and internships to boost their CVs, young professionals are eagerly applying for international assignments, virtual teams and frequent, long-distance commuting have become mainstream, and intercultural management experiences are these days a requisite to get ahead in corporate life. In sum, people are…

Welcome to the latest edition of our monthly “Most Trending HR Articles”! Once again, we’ve selected the best HR analytics articles of last month for you to read and inform yourself. Enjoy! #5: 3 Dos and Don’ts of People Management Starting off at our #5 spot, we have an excellent article written by Neelie Verlinden…

Diversity & Inclusion initiatives are more than only counting demographic or gender headcounts and reporting these metrics in bite-size “diversity” scorecards or dashboards. These types of metrics are quota-based metrics and will tell you how many women hold a leadership role or how many people from black, Asian, and other minority backgrounds are part of…

At AIHR we get a lot of requests for case studies to make the analytics process more tangible. In their new book, Predicting Business Success, Scott Mondore and co-authors provided one of the most interesting studies we’ve come across. In this article, they will show how smart people analytics helped to counter a downward trend…

Millennials have proven to be challenging in the organizational context, having managers all over the world racking their brain on how to handle, motivate and retain them. Unlike their predecessors, they are not spontaneously motivated by ‘key performance indicators’ (KPI) but rather crave continuous learning. Millennials are seemingly continuously looking for a higher purpose in…

As the dust around the GDPR is starting to settle, I am now sufficiently comfortable to write a piece about privacy again. Before you stop reading, worry not; I won’t take a legal perspective in this article. I will adopt a common-sense approach instead. Working with HR Analytics and, more specifically, compensation and benefit analytics,…

Welcome to the latest edition of our ‘Most Trending Articles’ of 2018! Here at the Analytics in HR headquarter we’ve been experiencing some intense heatwaves in the past few weeks. To keep this weather bearable, we’ve gathered the top 5 articles of July that you can enjoy reading in the shade. Happy reading! #5: The…

Last UNLEASH in London, our good colleague Neelie Verlinden, founder of the Digital HR Tech blog, recorded a few interviews for us with three thought leaders: David Green, Melissa Kantor, and Luk Smeyers. The first clip is about the benefits of analytics for employees. We published about this two weeks ago in an article titled…

Measuring employee engagement the right way is something companies often struggle with. This article answers the questions whether you want to measure it yourself or work with a survey provider. In addition, we dive into the two most common employee engagement scales and discuss their characteristics. After reading this article, you will measure employee engagement…

When hearing about People Analytics, we usually think of how the use of analytics can have a positive impact on the company and its HR department. In other words, how can the employers use data to gain new insights on people topics and affect their organization? But what if the employees could also use and…

Welcome to this summer edition of our ‘Most Trending Articles’ of 2018! Here at Analytics in HR, we hope that you’re out enjoying the weather with your family and friends. Whilst relaxing and enjoying the weather, now’s a good chance to catch up on your monthly HR Analytics reading. To help you along the way,…

According to McKinsey, People Analytics is going mainstream. Where we used to talk about what People Analytics is and how we could get started, the conversation is now shifting to how we can speed it up, implement it faster, and deliver a decent return on People Analytics investment. This is an important conversation to have…

The information explosion and the quantum growth in computing capability has provided organizations with unprecedented levels of workforce data. While the opportunity to collect, integrate, and analyze employee data in greater volumes can be enticing, it simultaneously raises several important questions. What level of employee monitoring is appropriate? What rights should employees have regarding their…

Welcome to the 5th edition of our ‘Most Trending Articles’ of 2018! There have been a lot of great articles in the past month, including articles on ONA, the role of the HR Analyst, red flags in analytics programs, and more. I loved reading these articles, and I’m sure you will too. Happy reading! #5:…

A couple of years ago I was working as a HR controller for a large organization. We decided it was time to start working on strategic personnel planning, so I built a model. The model turned out to be terrible. In this article, I’ll explain why it failed and how we should have fixed it.…

Workforce planning tools are an essential part of the HR professional’s toolkit. In this article, we’ll go over 5 strategic workforce planning tools, explain their use and give examples and excel templates on how to use them. What are workforce planning tools? Workforce planning tools are instruments that help analyze current capabilities and future needs…

Workforce analytics is developing and maturing. In this article, we will first explain what workforce analytics is and then jump into the 10 major trends in this area. What is workforce analytics? Workforce analytics is the approach of measuring behaviors of people (candidates, employees) and analyzing them to improve people and business performance. This is…

Welcome to this April edition of our ‘Most Trending Articles’ of 2018! People analytics is emerging and becoming mainstream. The top articles of April features a new book on people data and analytics, a podcast, and a few in-depth articles on the role of value creation and AI in people analytics. I’m sure you’ll find…

The question “What value does HR add to an organization?” has always been difficult to answer. In this article, I will discuss the HR value chain. Not only helps this tool to show the added value of HR, it also constitutes an excellent framework for people analytics. In fact, it helps analyze how HR contributes…

GDPR. The four-letter initialism that’s looming over every business scrambling to ensure compliance come the deadline. GDPR will affect companies across the globe who hold, or will hold, any data on EU and UK persons. Knowledge of GDPR, therefore, is vital for an effective global people data management strategy. On May 25th 2018, GDPR will…

“How satisfied are you with your job?” We have all come across this, or a slightly different version of this question about how satisfied we are with our job. In People Analytics, job satisfaction is among the most important constructs. Employee surveys often use this item to come to a verdict about how happy the…

Most large organization use personality testing in one form or another. This can be to select the best candidates or to help in improving performance of individuals and teams. Examples include the Myers-Briggs personality inventory and the Five Factor Model. How useful are these assessments really? Personality assessments have long proven to be better predictors…

Each year, we survey hundreds of HR and business professionals and publish an HR Trends Report. In the survey, we ask questions about the state of metrics and analytics within HR departments. As a professional that focuses on this area, it is disappointing to see the yearly results. In 2018, HR metrics & analytics was…

Welcome to this Easter edition of our ‘Most Trending Articles’ of 2018! Here at Analytics in HR, we hope that you’re all out celebrating Easter with your family and friends. With these extra days off, now’s a good chance to catch up on your monthly HR Analytics reading. To help you along the way, here…

Alec Levenson is a senior research scientist at the Center of Effective Organizations and a highly regarded academic thinker in the field of people analytics and writer of multiple books in the people analytics field. His action research and consulting work with companies optimize job and organization performance and HR systems through the application of…

Here’s the interview we did with David Green at HR Tech World in Amsterdam (now UNLEASH). This is the transcript of the interview above. David Green: So my name’s David Green. I’ve got quite a lucky job really, I travel the world and write and speak about people analytics and its role in the future…

At my home, my wife calls it ‘Dutch Prosperity’. Every sunny Sunday morning road cyclist set out to ride their bikes. These bikes are usually made of carbon and quite expensive. In fact, they are of similar quality as the ones that the professional cyclists use. A while back we undertook a modest bike ride…

We all want to make good decisions – however, doing so is often a challenge. The question in people analytics is how we can make decisions that are objectively good. According to economic theory, the most efficient way of making decisions under uncertainty is to take a rational approach. With this approach you look at…

What’s the difference between people analytics and HR analytics? When we started our Analytics in HR blog, we had to pick a name. Because everybody was talking about HR analytics, Analytics in HR made sense. It was simple, recognizable, worked well for traffic from Google and everybody would understand the website would be about HR…

Welcome to the 3rd edition of our ‘Most Trending Articles’ of 2018! Here at Analytics in HR, we’re excited about the explosive growth of HR Analytics. With such an explosive growth, also comes an explosive growth in quality articles regarding this topic. Here are the top 5 articles we enjoyed reading the most last month.…

Today, data science touches every aspect of business functions. It enables greater speed, accuracy, and quality of business decision making. As an inherent part of core business operations, “people functions” hasn’t been immune to this development. The best data science practices are known to combine management tools with statistical- and machine learning insights. These combinations…

At HR Tech World in Amsterdam (now UNLEASH), I asked four leading people analytics expert what HR analytics will look like in 5 years. The answers provide a window into the trends that they are seeing on how analytics is developing. In the video, Laura Stevens, Tom Haak, David Green, and Luk Smeyers see a…

Imagine you’re about to engage on your first HR analytics project. You want the project to be a success – obviously. How do you make sure you have the right people and the right skills to start quickly and finish the job successfully? The skills matrix, or competency matrix, is your best friend. What is…

Brian: You’re all different! The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different! Monty Python’s Life of Brian Can you segment employees as we do with customers, so that activities like talent development improve and correspond to each employee’s profile? In this post, I show you in a very practical example how we’ve brought a classic marketing…

Welcome to the second edition of our ‘Most Trending Articles’ of 2018! Here at Analytics in HR, we hope you’ve had a great start of 2018 and are ready to continue on your HR Analytics journey. Here are the top 5 articles we enjoyed reading the most last month. #5 The role of the People…

Last HR Tech World (now UNLEASH), we interviewed some of the leading experts in the field of people analytics. One of the questions we asked was: How will data capturing evolve in people analytics? This is the first piece of a four-part video series. In this series, we spoke to different experts, including David Green,…

Today’s world is more interconnected than ever before, across continents, companies, institutions, generations and cultures. But how do we handle the increased speed and pressure that accompanies this interconnectedness? In this article I will review the topic of culture and launch the concept of cultural analytics using multiple examples. When leveraged correctly, cultural analytics can…

Is gender equality real? Many studies point in the opposite direction. Women receive lower salaries, are promoted less frequently, and are heavily underrepresented in C-level positions. Does it have to do with job performance or gender biases? There’s a very limited amount of data about why career prospects are worse for women. Available data collection…

Turnover analytics is an often mentioned topic in HR. However, there’s not much written about how to do it. In this article we will explain one of the most commonly used analyses for turnover, the survival analysis, using a real dataset. Note: for this article a minimum knowledge about survival analysis is required. We therefor…

“People analytics should be used to build insight rather than simply removing the human aspect from building strategy. After all, you can make data alone prove any fact!” My 2018 wish for you is that you become more of a troublemaker in your business. Yes, you read right. With the increasing demands coming in from…

Last HR Tech World (now Unleash), we interviewed some of the leading experts in the field of people analytics. One of the questions we asked was: what are you most excited about in HR analytics? This is the first piece of a four-part video series. In this series, we spoke to different experts, including David…

Here at Analytics in HR, we hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday and are ready to continue your HR Analytics journey in 2018! To get you started in the New Year, we’ve made a list of our favorite HR articles of December. Happy reading! #5 How to Successfully Select and Implement an HRIS We’re starting…

Over the past year, you have visited our website quite regularly – we are thrilled that you chose Analytics in HR (AIHR) as your source of information for the exciting and rapidly developing field of HR/ People Analytics. As we are approaching the festive season, I want to thank you for being a loyal reader…

Measuring Human Resource costs (HR costs, also called Human Resource costing), is a key component of HR accounting. In this article, we’ll explain what Human Resource costing is, why you should measure costs, how to do it and why just measuring Human Resource costs is not enough. Traditionally, the human resource department has been regarded…

We’re back with the latest edition of our monthly “Most Trending HR Articles”! We’ve selected the best HR analytics articles of November 2017 for you to read. So grab a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy these 5 articles. #5: The ‘Data-Driven Time Machine; of People Analytics Starting off, we have an excellent article…

Imagine you gain key insights into your people by measuring and analyzing what matters to your organization. Imagine that these insights are actually used by your people in their day-to-day business and operations. And, imagine that these key insights on your people then have a profound impact on the success of your organization. Utopia, or…

Human resource practitioners are continuously developing tools and technology to help maximize employee performance to achieve organizational goals more efficiently. One of the most commonly used HR tools today is the Bradford Factor. In this article, I will explain what the Bradford Factor is and why you should use it to manage employee absence. What is…

In the movie ‘Back to the Future’, Marty Mcfly travels to the past and accidentally interacts with his mom before she married his dad. This accidental interaction altered the future in unexpected ways which he then tried to fix. People Analytics can learn from Mcfly about our use of predictive analytics. Specifically, predictive and prescriptive…

A lot of HR professionals ask the question “what is HR analytics?” and want to make analytics part of their profession. This post covers the basics of HR analytics and a few ways to simplify its implementation. Let’s start with the big question.   What is HR analytics? An in-depth analysis of an organization’s people…

Welcome to the latest edition of our monthly “Most Trending HR Articles”! Once again, we’ve selected the best HR analytics articles for you to read and inform yourself. Enjoy!   #5 Podcast: Busting the myths of employee engagement. We’re starting this edition off with something a little different: A podcast! In Max Blumberg’s latest podcast,…

While a company’s value has always been closely tied to its talent, the qualities that make up this “talent” are often considered intangible assets. Because everything in our digital world is connected to data, HR executives can now draw meaningful insights and build strategies around measurable criteria instead of “soft” or qualitative data. This is…

“To understand God’s thoughts one must study statistics for they are measure of his purpose in the Universe” – Florence Nightingale As a statistics instructor in the early part of my career, I know how boring statistics can be (to most of us). However, grasping the fundamentals of statistics is critical for your success as…

Welcome to the 1-year anniversary edition of our ‘Most Trending Articles’! This month we’ve got another amazing line-up, highlighting several of the best HR analytics articles of September. Enjoy. #5 Leading Analytics Teams in Changing Times Coming in at #5, we have an article from Lori Bieda who talks about leading analytics teams in changing…

Privacy is hot. 81% of people analytics projects are jeopardized by ethics and privacy concerns. This number will only increase if companies do not comply to the new European privacy regulation, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which will be enforceable from 25 May 2018 onward. This article will look at the formation and developments…

Every analytics story contains two little white lies. If you can see them, they do no harm; but the unwary will be led astray. The First Little Lie: “It was amazing” If you are giving a presentation in front of hundreds of people you want your analytics project to sound a little bit amazing. You…

Lyndon Sundmark has been very active in the HR analytics space for the last few years. He has shared his passion for analytics in multiple articles and participated as an instructor in one of our online courses. Earlier this month, he has written a book titled ‘Doing HR Analytics – A Practitioner’s Handbook With R…

Welcome to the 11th edition of ‘Most Trending Articles’! Once again, we’ve selected the best (HR) analytics articles of this month. I put HR between parenthesis because two of this month’s articles are about more general analytics. However, I am sure you will appreciate these articles as they provide valuable lessons to anyone interested in…

Early in life I developed a love for microeconomics. All of my electives at uni were micro or mathematical economics based. At the time this was unfashionable but over the last 15 years it’s risen in stature. Microeconomics is all about understanding how people react to incentives. When we’re doing People Analytics we’re not dealing…

Big data, business intelligence, and HR analytics are three buzzwords that are frequently talked about. Do you really know what they mean? And what added value does big data and business intelligence bring to the field of HR? This article will explain everything you need to know to answer these questions using different examples. Big…

When the financial crisis started in 2008, a lot of accountancy firms either stopped or slowed-down hiring new accountancy student. These students normally started working at these firms while doing their university studies. The reason was simple: “we have too many people on our payroll, so why would we invest in the development of new…

We’re back again! People analytics trends, The Power of People, recruiting metrics, more ‘best of’ articles and a very practical case study by McKinsey: This month’s top HR analytics articles provide a great overview of what’s been going on in the HR analytics field. We will start at #5 and work our way down to…

Why organizational network analysis and people analytics are the ingredients for successful change initiatives You are responsible for making a success out of a change initiative at your organization. The books and articles you have read in the past make you a bit frightened with this responsibility, because the literature is more about the failure…

Some amazing articles were written last month. We searched the web and compiled a list of the five most shared HR analytics articles of June. It includes some great reads for you to enjoy! 5. HR Should Understand the Risk and Rewards of Using Data Analytics In this article, Dr. Zen Eigen explains the role…

In HR analytics, we speak a lot about integration and alignment: of our HR (and beyond) systems, of data in our HR strategy, and of our HR strategy with our broader business strategy. One example we don’t often speak of is aligning our HR survey data and survey strategy. Doing this the right way will…

It might have started off slow, but things in the world of People Analytics are now accelerating. The number of conferences, experts and blogs have exploded. On top of that, the promise of People Analytics has begun to deliver, and we’ve started seeing real, concrete results. More and more companies have deployed People Analytics projects…

The field of HR Analytics has come a long way in recent years: not only have more and more organizations recognized the value of data-driven HR, but HR analysts themselves have delved into a wider variety of data sources to provide their insights as well. A great example is the current explosion of using unstructured…

Employee privacy, tracking employees, HR analytics tools, common sense and Alec Levenson: this month’s top HR analytics articles provide a great overview of what’s been going on in the analytics field. We will start at #5 and work our way down to number 1! Here are this month’s most trending articles. #5 CHRO’s Meet –…

It’s easy to say that your company is diversified and inclusive. With the recent news of numerous employee diversity and inclusion issues in a lot of industries, including Serena Williams joining a Silicon Valley boardroom to help companies diversify their workforce, companies are becoming increasingly aware of their activities when it comes to hiring. This…

We’re back! The last few month’s we’ve been very busy preparing the brand new HR analyst course and we had to skip our Trending Articles post. However, we have now finalized the analytics course and are ready to bring you the top 5 articles again. And what a month it has been! I have selected…

Analytics in HR is quickly emerging as a trend in the corporate world due to its in-depth processes which provide the framework in formulating solutions for various issues. According to a report from Modern Distribution Management, company leaders are relying on analytics to gain more “actionable information and insights.” If you’re looking for ways on…

HR analytics is used in many businesses worldwide. The use and integration of HR analytics into a business structure offers significant benefits, with more and more businesses seeing a better return on their investments. So how can HR analytics help with improving your bottom line? This article will give you five examples. How Your Bottom…

This article provides some unique people analytics insights into the best practices in onboarding and managing high performing employees. One of the key tasks of HR is to hire high-performing employees. This task is in particular crucial in a world of shifting demographics and globalizing workforces. These high-performing employees are expected to increase the organizational…

The Human Resource dashboard and HR report are an important part of managing Human Resources. Both tools are part of HR reporting and for the basics of informed decision making. Why? Because it is hard to make informed decisions when HR business partners and other stakeholders lack insight into their own organization. Never fear, HR…

It’s very difficult to kick-start HR analytics within an organization, especially when this organization is not used to fact-based thinking in HR. When you begin, it’s important to follow a step-by-step approach. The question I’ll answer in this article is: What are the most important topics for you when you start to implement HR analytics…

In the past few years, HR has been growing increasingly excited about People Analytics. There’s no doubt that this emerging field has huge potential to revolutionize the way we support, develop and manage our talents. A few weeks ago, I stated that although it can come across as complex, People Analytics as such doesn’t have…

Employee engagement is a hotly debated topic. Let’s take a look at an example in sports. Tennis legend Rafael Nadal writes in his autobiography: “I put the two bottles down at my feet, in front of my chair to my left, one neatly behind the other, diagonally aimed at the court. Some call it superstition,…

Today we’ve got data on almost everything and the amount is growing with exponential speed. There is no disputing that we are well and truly into the 4th industrial revolution; an exciting digital era. With the availability of complex algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning, our predictive powers are rapidly growing and becoming increasingly precise.…

The attention to people analytics has increased enormously over the last few years. Many organizations have established people analytics teams, and several promising start-ups have developed software that can help HR with people analytics. The assumption is that if we have access to the right data, if we have the right analysis tools and clever…

This is already the sixth edition of ‘Most Trending Articles’! Once again, we’ve selected the best (HR) analytics articles of this month. I put HR between parenthesis because one this month’s articles is about more general analytics. However, I am sure you will appreciate this article as it provides some very valuable lessons to the…

Data scientists get the glamour, but the success of your people analytics program depends on your HR business partners. The core analytics team can never handle all the questions that get sent their way; and so if you are serious about analytics you’ll train you HR business partners to do their part. “Wait! Wait!” Those…

Handling Human Resources is complex enough in a corporate entity of some kind. It is ten times as complicated and as difficult in healthcare and there are a few reasons for this. For one, if you thought that the money is tight in commercial organizations, you simply have to see what kind of financial constraints…

Last August, the New Talent Management Network published an interesting report on The State of People Analytics. Here are some of the most interesting findings we selected for you. People analytics is still early stage Everyone is engaging in people analytics. According to the report, 85% of organizations say they engage in people analytics. Of…

Data cleaning is a key element in HR analytics. Before you can analyze your data, it needs to be ‘clean’. In this data cleaning guide, we will explain why data cleaning is important and how you can do it. At the bottom of the article we included a helpful data cleaning infographic. A common saying…

There is a lot of talk about HR analytics these days. However, companies often still struggle to start with analytics. This article is about having the right foundation for analytics. Before we begin, it is important to understand the different maturity levels of Analytics. These levels do not only provide the opportunity to create a…

January is the best time to look back at the previous year. That’s what we do in this article. Read about 5 top people analytics stories of 2016 – and some more. In December 2015 David Green predicted that people analytics would (finally) go into orbit in 2016. The conversations David had with HR leaders…

Customer service performance is a key business objective that boils down to making customers happy. But what makes customers happy? In this article, we will present the scientific research on the factors that influence customer service performance. This will help both HR and managers make better decisions that are proven to increase revenue. We also…

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! December was a quiet month with fewer articles than usual. However, the quality of this month is superb and this month’s list is therefore again very exciting. Enjoy! #5 HR analytics skills: strong demand but short supply We talk a lot about HR analytics but how about…

Starting with people analytics does not have to be complex. This infographic contains clear guidance for organizations who want to start using HR data in a smart and easy way. With 8 understandable steps, your organisation will be able to move from static reporting to dynamic interaction, making analytics a core competency for management and…

When a UK local authority agreed to a People Analytics role, did it really know what that entailed? “People Analytics, what is that?” – was the stock question I received when the local authority I work for took the plunge and let me loose in delivering metrics and analytics, away from the standard reporting management…

HR analytics is exciting and offers great opportunities. Unfortunately, not all projects are successful, and a common reason for this is a lack of a structured approach towards analytics. The people analytics process cycle solves this. The people analytics process can be divided in five sequential steps. Every organization should take these steps in order…

November was an interesting month for people analytics. I noticed that the number of likes and shares this month was lower than usual. However, the quality of articles is even better and this month’s list is therefore very exciting! I listed the articles in reverse order: from the 5th most shared article, all the way…

There are several great videos about different applications of HR analytics. We have collected the best clips to answer 5 common questions about how to build analytical capabilities, how HR analytics can add to bottom line performance and how Google’s people analytics team recruited and promoted better managers. What does HR analytics have to do…

I often talk with people about the advantages and disadvantages of hiring an external data scientist to take care of HR data analyses. I am not a salesperson so I am usually too honest: Hiring external expertise offers opportunities but also has drawbacks. As this is a recurring topic, I would like to share the…

At Analytics in HR we realize we’re not the only ones writing articles about HR analytics. That’s why we’ve created a new section on our website for popular third party articles about HR and people analytics. Starting today you don’t have to miss out on any relevant articles anymore and access even more people analytics…