Introduction to People Analytics

• People Analytics involves the systematic use of statistics and behavioral science in Human Resource Management to produce business benefits.
• People analytics is to people operations what finance is to accounting.
• A key question in people analytics is how to improve shareholder returns through wise investments in people.
• People analytics incorporates workforce, data, individuals, HR, and reporting functions.

Purpose of People Analytics:

• Data are leveraged to enhance HR decision-making and optimize organizational outcomes.

Key Questions in People Analytics:

• Examines methods to boost employee productivity and efficiency.
• Identifies the variables impacting the satisfaction and retention of employees.
• Explores how to improve recruitment and retention of top talent.
• Determines the effectiveness of training and development programs on performance.
• People Analytics emphasizes research and analysis, while HRIS focuses on data management and administration.

The History of People Analytics:

• Data-driven methods have grown in importance in HR decision-making.

Summary of Google's Project Oxygen:

• Google questioned the necessity of managers in an engineering-centric environment.
• A flat organizational structure experiment was tried in 2002 but reversed due to issues in coordination and strategic communication.

Key Points:

• Half of employees leave due to managers, not the work itself.
• 77% of employees feel disengaged within their teams, resulting in significant company losses.
• Individuals tend to become managers based on prior success in non-managerial roles and company experience.
• There's a direct correlation between customer experience and employee experience, as well as revenue growth.
• Organizational culture outweighs strategy in importance.
• HR decisions are best when data supplements gut feelings.
• Hiring decisions should consider job requirements, expectations, and the hiring process.
• Key skills for a manager are not related to which factors are most effective in motivating employees, or predicting performance.
• Beliefs are difficult to change and individuals have biased ways of viewing things.
• 77% of managers are overconfident and overestimate their abilities, leading to biases.
• System 1 thinking: fast, intuitive, prone to bias.
• System 2 thinking: slow, deliberate and rational.
• Data is a means to overcome biased recruiters and intuition.
• Critical thinking improves decision making.
• Incentives may not guarantee performance and can worsen cooperative efforts.

Understanding the Problem:

• Crucial Context matters (Solutions effective in one setting may fail elsewhere).
• Cognitive biases can mislead: Favoring information confirming existing beliefs while over relying on instincts.
• Human Behavior Complexity: Influenced by emotions and social norms versus universal laws.

Employee Experience:

• Data infrastructure for employee experience.
• Employee listening plus people analytics are important.
• A structured approach is required.

Project Oxygen:

• Launched in 2009 to assess the influence of managers at Google.
• Data-driven approach using surveys, reviews, and statistical analysis.
• 8 key behaviors have been identified with highly effective managers.

Key Behaviors of Highly Effective Managers:

• Being a good coach and not micromanaging empowers the team.
• Showing interest for team members' success and well-being.
• Being productive and results-oriented.
• Communicating well and actively listening.
• Supporting Career development.
• Having clear vision and strategy.
• Possessing expertise for advice.
• Management impacts the happiness of teams and the increase of employee engagement.
• Implement feedback reports, training programs, and leadership initiatives.
• Project Oxygen confirmed managers are important.
• Data-driven decision-making was used for human resource management, to enable a more structured leadership model.
• HR practices support decisions with scientific data.

New approach to HR: evidence based ppl mgmt.:

• Bounded Rationality: The small number problem of individual experience and prone to see patterns even in random data
• Critical and large research to support decisions that reduces bias;
• Utilizes HR analytics, surveys, and interviews for data consolidation.
• Seeks to detect wellbeing patterns and predicts burnout and provides actionable insights.
• • People management key concepts is improving hiring, decision making, performance, ROI, workforce trends as tools.

Key concepts in people management.:

• It includes employee lifetime value.
• Includes people analytics and listening.

Decision clarity framework:

• What is happening?, why is it happening?, where and when is it happening?, how is it evolving?, how can we prevent or fix it? are all important questions when approaching decision making.
• The 5 whys and asking why everyone is leaving determines trends.
• There are no absolutes in OB, we need data to know what is going on.
• When people leave, a toxic corporate culture; a failure to recognize employee perspective, high levels of innovation, low pay, and lack of support is to blame.
• Voluntary turnover is a key metric to track in businesses.
• The Scientific Method in HR (Human Resources), applies data-driven, hypothesis-based decision-making.
• The same principles used in science by analyzing problems, testing solutions, and optimizing outcomes, are generally the same Steps: Identify the problem, Form a Hypothesis, Collect Data, and Analyze Data & Test Hypothesis.
• Statistical methods should also be used.
• After performing your assessment, you must implement and observe results and draw conclusions & adjust.

PM takeaways:

• Evidence based solutions outperform intuition-driven strategies.
• The Al and machine learning can predict future workforce trends.
• It is important to use the correct data and HR professionals need the correct literacy.
• There are no universals in people management and it is important to find that evidence on what affects key outcomes.

Session 2

• Al robots are being used for hiring now
• Traditional Hiring challenges faced are Unconscious Bias:; favour certain demographics, Limited Candidate Selection:;biased with certain schools
• Ethical Al principles promote transparency/fairness within the org.
• Update hiring regulations is needed to create clear guidelines
• Hidden profile exercise: job description is needed, work life stigma cannot play a role
• Need to look at shared and unique info to help with bias

To improve Al hiring:

• Training and diverse committees are useful
• Al is efficient, time cost effective, and metrics driven; yet validity, bias, and data are pitfalls.

Session 3: Performance apprisals

• Depends on views
• Inability to understand the world from the perspective of another is due to narcissism.

Managing Difficult Personalities:

• Reward behavior that aligns with corporate values.
• Carve out roles suited to them.
• Balance between performance and fit.
• Recognize productivity suffers when morale is damaged.
• Address workplace narcissism.

Evidence-based recommendations:

• For those who lack effective communication, provide structured communication, and let them know how they are affecting the team.
• Overachievers feel like they must succeed so address this with: Frame Feedback, appeal to competitive nature, make the feedback data-driven and evitable.
• Key is finding that balance between job skills ,individual and group skills.

Transitioning from high performer to leader requires people training

• Similarity attraction/homophily bias: attracted to those around us actual performance accounts only for 21% of subjective rating we cannot only rate competence 0.77% is the correlation between liking and performance ratings (halo effect, confirmation bias, affect infusion model).
• Affect Infusion Model deals with the mood that people bring to the table
• The competence vs. Likability trade-offs must be considered
• Fairness: Theory of Organizational Justice must also be evaluated

Theory of Organization:

• Distributive, Procedural, and Interactional Justice is Key; People hate pay that they deem is unfair and unfair power structures for pay
• The candle problem*:
• money and incentives block creativity, mismatch between what sciences knows and business do
• clear task and narrow focus: use incentives for money
• to kill per reviews or promote trust
• Role pay: knowing doing gap, people dont know how to work with others; build trust with people, and have a set view

Learning paradox:

• Double loop reflection
• single-loop, double loop is importing, reflecting on the way we think
• Chris Argyris explores why highly intelligent professionals struggle to learn.

The Defensive Dilemma:

• Smart professionals avoid vulnerability and failure because they are, smart professionals avoid vulnerability and failure because they are used to success.
• Use tough reasoning/encourages to model self reflection

Session 4: The psychology of leading others. Gaining self- and other- awareness

High EQ are related to self awareaness, regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills;

There are areas to improve within each of those categories:

• Natural leadership, decisiveness, assertiveness, direct communication.
• Can find balance and harmony within the team
• Emotional stability, low key, good at communication.

Top 5 high five test:

• Commander, Philomath, Catalyst, Strategist, and Time Keeper. To find better leaders, be more empathetic but balanced
• The best leaders are also the beat listeners

Leadership development industry:

• Coaches, develop people, builds, motivates, the best method depends on the audience.
• To work better with employees we must understand the importance of HR, and build the correct traits of employees
• The most agreeable tend to be the happiest
• Overtime the character traits shift

Three importnat concepts within people

• What level level of motivation

• high performance levels

• The impotences of Strengths

• Overlooking all weaknesses is key

• Balance is key

• It important to understand the self and others to create and support the best emotional conditions.

• Self-regualte by finding the hot butting topics that can cause derailation And reduce blind spots

• The key is that personal growth also contributes towards more awaraness and adaptability to all issues faced within the team

Session 5" Lewins leadership style model

• Lewins is not the correct model, all types of leadership can work within the correct circumstances