Top 10 HR Data Articles of 2019

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HR loves data.  So much in fact, it's getting harder and harder to see the boundaries between the two topics.  It would even be fair to say they two, data and human resources, are forever linked.  In the last decade, there have been huge advancements.  Take data gathring for instance.  HR continues to gather information through annual employee engagement surveys, but also through social media and in-house employee platforms.  Additionally, with the help of artificial intelligence, data is being pulled in an automated-fashion from candidate resumes. 

There have also been advancements in analysis. 

HR professionals are becoming more data literate and proficient.  They are able to look at data and, from it, tell the employee 'story'.  There are also several vendor-led solutions that provide a technology component to analysis.  As with data gathering, some vendors are offering an artificial intelligence-powered platform to pinpoint specific variables or trends.

Data is being using to formulate strategies around recruitment, internal employee networks and retention as well as learning.  It's even being used to determine which employees are at a risk for leaving the organization and to pre-determine which positions will likely be open in the coming weeks and months.  For the first time in HR history, human resources professionals can, in some small way, predict the future of the workplace. 

Data is almost the proverbial 'crystal ball'. 

The HR Exchange Network has written a plethora of articles on these topics and has shared just as many from contributors and thought leaders around the world.  As we move into 2020, here are the Top 10 HR Data Articles of 2019.

Best of HR Data

1. Leveraging Social Capital

“There should be little doubt that human capital is a firm’s greatest asset.”  But General Motors chief talent officer Michael Arena says companies have to do more such as making sure employees are in the right place to be successful.  It’s not enough for HR to bring in the best people.  Companies also have to bring out the best in people.  That requires HR to “intentionally leverage social capital.”  In his latest contribution to the HR Exchange Network, Arena explains why organizations need to “deliberately focus on unleashing the latent potential of the talent that they already employ.”  Click here to read more.

2. Network Energy is the New Employee Engagement

Disengaged employees are more likely to quit than those that are engaged.  In his latest article for the HR Exchange Network, Amazon Web Services VP of Talent and Development Michael Arena says employee engagement, today, is “lagging measurement of something much more immediate, network energy!”  If you’re unfamiliar with the term, network energy specifically refers to the linkages between employees on any given team.  For more information on this and how to leverage positive energy to the betterment of the employee, team and company, click here.

3. Why Relationships are The Next Great Advancement in People Analytics

HR loves data.  That isn’t going to change anytime soon.  Data is the key to measuring ROI, but also predicting outcomes of certain situations and even predicting, for instance, when a person might leave their job and when to start hiring for that “soon-to-be-open” position.  Knowing that, Visier Chief Strategy Officer Dave Weisbeck says there are four key changes every HR professional “needs to understand and start measuring – to help their organizations.”  Weisbeck says that includes outcomes replacing rules and orders and continuous change, just to name a few.  For more details, click here.

4. How to help HR improve its literacy in data and people analytics

Data-based decision making is a rising focus for the HR professional.  So much so, there is a lot of attention being placed on creating a culture that supports that type of decision making.  In their article, Patrick Coolen, Jaap Veldkamp, Ingrid Bienefelt and Martijn Vosz discuss a training exercise conducted at ABN AMRO to help HR professionals further their understanding of people analytics by improving their data literacy.  Click here for more.

5. Diversity at the Core of the Network

Diversity is critical to the development of resilience in organizations and bottom-line results across time.  In his latest piece for the HR Exchange Network, Amazon Web Services VP of Talent and Development Michael Arena uses data science to prove his case, specifically pointing to a real-life example.  He mapped out a network of nearly 500 individuals within a large service-based organization that needed to be highly adaptive. What he found will surprise you.  Click here to read more about the case and his findings.

6. Big HR Data Is Here: How Do You Use It?

When it comes to the use of data, HR gets a little squirmy.  Data can be very intimidating, especially if it’s not something the HR professional is used to using.  In her inaugural article on the HR Exchange Network, Novant Health VP of HR Operations Vaso Perimenis explains not only how big data is of value to HR, but also how to build the analytics capability from the ground up.  Perimenis provides step-by-step instructions on the process and provides details about each step.  Read her article here.

7. GDPR Compliance: Tips and Myths

If a company is global, the likelihood is high that it has and will continue to come in contact with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.  Companies headquartered in the EU spent a considerable about of time preparing for the new regulation before it went into effect in May of 2018.  Many are still working to meet compliance today.  But the regulation, while specifically applying to companies in the EU, also impacts companies outside the EU.  If a company in the United States, for instance, employs workers in an EU country they are required to follow the GDPR.  That means the company’s HR department is going to have to be GDPR compliant.   Failing to do so will result in fines.  So, how do companies outside of the EU work to become GDPR compliant?  This article answers that question.

8. Assessing your HR Analytics Capability

HR loves data.  So much so, analytics has become quite the buzzword across HR departments globally.  But with so many different concepts involved, the noise around analytics in HR can be quite deafening.  Human resources thought leader Dave Ulrich, in his latest piece, explains what analytics actually is and why HR wants to pursue it as a strategy.  He also explains some of the key points of data HR wants to look at and use.  In the end, Ulrich provides a way for HR to assess its own analytics efforts.  Read more here.

9. Why Human Resources and Analytics make a Great Team

In his piece for Associations Now, Ernie Smith says there is growing evidence that human resources departments benefit from analytics more than any other department within a company.  Smith quotes a report from Oracle which says HR has “quickly leapfrogged into one of the most valuable departments for corporate analytics”, faster than other departments such as finance.  More can be found here

10. Blockchain Realities in Recruitment

Every HR professional tasked with finding the best talent for their companies is looking for tools to aid them in the charge.  Some are turning to AI.  Others are employing a change in their benefits strategy that makes the company more attractive to job candidates.  Of course, those are just some of the more popular ones.  Then there are those options that are more “pie in the sky” concepts, at least that’s what they seem to be at the moment.  Among them:  blockchain.  Read more here.

 

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