Praise for People Analytics in the Era of Big Data
“This book provides easy-to-understand processes for drawing competitive information out of Big Data and turning it into applicable knowledge. In short, this book is both a compelling argument and a framework for the reader on which to build a talent management strategy and work plan.” —Dr. Jac Fitz-enz, CEO, Human Capital Source
“Talent is one of an organization's greatest assets, and analytics must be part of the overall talent strategy. This book provides the business leader and hiring manager with a compelling framework to leverage analytics across the entire talent life cycle.” —Chip Smith, Chief Marketing Officer, Sears Home Appliances and Services
“People Analytics in the Era of Big Data is a practical guide that's an essential read for any HR professional who wants to get a handle on the landscape of People Analytics and how it can increase workforce return on investment.” —Rathin Sinha, Founder and CEO, JobFindah Network, and former CEO, America's Job Exchange
“People are the most valuable asset in an enterprise. Jean Paul and Jesse have given us seven pillars that transform how we attract, develop, and retain people. Forward-thinking leaders should read this book.” —Michael C. Krauss, @ C Level columnist, Marketing News, and President, Market Strategy Group
“The topics covered in People Analytics in the Era of Big Data touch the core of what we as HR people should be preoccupied with. People Analytics are the prerequisite foundation for any real talent strategy.” —Mieke Van de Capelle, Chief HR Officer, Perfetti Van Melle
“Companies live and die by their ability to attract and develop high-value talent. People Analytics in the Era of Big Data provides a key framework to help companies leverage analytics to get the most from their talent investments.” —Neil Costa, Founder and CEO, HireClix
“Talent analytics is a must for any organization to ensure that investment in talent is well targeted and delivering the desired results. People Analytics in the Era of Big Data provides HR leaders with important building blocks to develop an effective People Analytics practice.” —Kathy Andreasen, Chief People Officer, Endurance International Group
“Without question, talent is the essential ingredient in an organization's success or failure. Unfortunately decisions about talent are typically dependent on gut feelings and immeasurable interpersonal relationships. Finally there is a playbook on how to collect, interpret, and act on the talent data so organizations can recruit and retain talent better.” —RD Whitney, Group Vice President, Diversified Communications
“Whether you call it the “War for Talent” or the “Talent Tsunami,” there is no debate that the ability to acquire a world-class workforce will be the competitive differentiator for companies that want to out-think, out-innovate, and simply beat their competition. People Analytics in the Era of Big Data provides organizations with revolutionary thinking and the prescriptive tools on how to leverage Big Data to significantly improve the quality of their workforce.” —Steve Pogorzelski, CEO, Avention OneSource, and former President, Monster.com
“The authors have found a compelling way to bring together two of the most important focus areas for any business leader: analytics and recruiting. People Analytics in the Era of Big Data is essential reading not just for HR professionals but for entrepreneurs like me who recognize the importance of talent, team, and culture.” —John Kelly, CEO, CoachUp
“Big Data and analytics are hot topics in all areas of business these days, and talent management is no exception. This book provides a solid foundation for leaders who want to use analytics to drive ROI across their entire talent life cycle.” —Wayne Cooper, Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Group, and CEO, The Chief Executive Network
“This is a must read for anyone looking for a practical and actionable approach to leverage people analytics in their organization.” —Matt Gough, CEO, Echovate
“People Analytics in the Era of Big Data contains an easy-to-apply framework to one the hottest topics in analytics today. Leaders who wish to improve the ROI from their workforce management practices should take heed of the advice and techniques in this book.” —Roger Baran, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Marketing, and Director, Asian Programs, DePaul University
“Thorough research, incisive analysis, and well-chosen case studies are the hallmarks of Isson and Harriott's work. They weave all of that together with clear, cogent arguments about why and how data analytics will permeate every aspect of the HR, talent management, and recruiting life cycles. Best practices based on anecdotes or instinct will no longer satisfy line management. It's time for corporate talent managers to get on board. If you don't quite get how to apply data in these ways, this book will be your primer.” —Glenn Gutmacher, Vice President, Diversity Talent Sourcing, State Street Corporation, and Founder, Recruiting-Online.com
“In today's Big Data explosion, it's imperative for every business leader to leverage analytics to optimize their talent management. JP and Jesse's book provides the framework and actionable insights every leader needs to compete and win with People Analytics.” —Stephane Brutus, Interim Dean, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University
“Human capital is the number one source of competitive advantage in the twenty-first century. Like finance, product, and marketing before it, the field of human capital is now flooded with data but deprived of frameworks, processes, and methodologies to make sense of it. This is what this book provides: a practical guide to applying data science's best practices to the field of human capital. My hope is that it helps HR departments across industries take their legitimate seat at the business strategy table. The world needs this—badly.” —Louis Gagnon, CEO, Ride.com, and former CMO and CPO, Audible
“People Analytics is a new territory for most HR managers, which is enabled by more systematic data collection and advances in machine learning and analytics. This book shows how to apply analytics across an entire life cycle of employee management. With many real-life examples, this is a must-read for HR practitioners and managers.” —Minha Hwang, Analytics Consultant/Expert, Double Ph.D. (MIT and Stanford)
Cover image: © Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock
Cover design: Wiley
Copyright © 2016 by Jean Paul Isson and Jesse S. Harriott. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Isson, Jean Paul, 1971– author. | Harriott, Jesse, author.
Title: People analytics in the era of big data : changing the way you
attract, acquire, develop, and retain talent / Jean Paul Isson, Jesse S.
Harriott.
Description: 1 | Hoboken : Wiley, 2016. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016001834 | ISBN 9781119050780 (hardback) | ISBN 978-1-119-23315-2 (epdf) |
ISBN 978-1-119-23316-9 (epub) | 978-1-119-08385-6 (obook)
Subjects: LCSH: Personnel management. | Employees—Recruiting. | BISAC:
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Human Resources & Personnel Management.
Classification: LCC HF5549 .I687 2016 | DDC 658.3—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016001834
I dedicate this book to my daughters, Roxane and Sofia, who have been my inspiration for so many things I do. Daddy was not available as usual to play with you and hopes when you read this book you will be proud of your patience. A special thanks to my wife, Marjolaine, for her love and support taking care of our little Sofia to give me more time to write.
—JP Isson
This book is dedicated to all the unsung analytical heroes, working tirelessly to uncover new insights, predict future business trends, and drive business impact. Keep pushing forward and never give up.
—Jesse Harriott
People Analytics in the Era of Big Data does a great job of melding analytic processes and methods with the mass of data that is growing exponentially every day. Future success in talent management will be largely dependent on an organization’s ability to mine that database. The days of scanning job boards, college recruiting trips, open houses, and advertising are obsolete. Organizations’ main problem is twofold. One, there is no competitive advantage in applying these recruitment processes. Everyone can and does use them, and the results are similar rather than unique. Two, these methods are all behind the competitive curve. Nothing within them speaks to the special demands of the future because they do not uncover and express true future talent demands. At best, they are simply common tools.
The good news is, as the authors so clearly explain, that diving into the Big Data ocean with predictive analytics fishing gear virtually ensures that you will catch exactly what you’re fishing for. First, think about the talent pool. In truth, there is no shortage of qualified people for any one company. The talent ocean has not been overfished for the needs of your company. The problem is that there are many boats fishing. You need a world-class talent acquisition system. This is where predictive analytics comes to the rescue.
There is a shortage of twenty-first-century talent acquisition strategies. Recruitment doesn’t start in the employment section of the human resources department. Employment methods, by whatever label is in vogue, are simply functional tools. Everything starts with the organization’s purpose, goals, and strategic plans. It has been clear for decades that issues of organizational purpose are often not fully addressed. Statements that the goal is to increase market share by x percent next year are accepted as purpose statements. Not true. They are nothing more than wishes. Management must first be absolutely clear regarding the purpose of the organization expressed in terms of its role in society. Books have been written about this, yet seldom is there a deep dive into purpose.
Once purpose is clear, then data and analytics can be brought to bear in forming a strategy. One more time, Big Data is the talent ocean. Analytics is the fishing gear. Analytics helps management find the school of fish that it seeks to fulfill its unique purpose.
Analytics comes in three levels: descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive. Descriptive speaks to what has happened up to the present. Predictive reveals what must be done to achieve future goals. Prescriptive tells how to do it. When a patient tells a doctor that he has sinus congestion, that is descriptive. The doctor applies her knowledge to determine what type of treatment will alleviate or cure the condition. That is predictive. The paper that the patient takes to the pharmacy explains how the treatment is to be administered. That is the prescription.
This book provides all three analytics: the description of the talent market and its shortcomings (Big Data), what types of analytics tools are available and are under development that should be used to reveal where the talent is, and finally how to use predictive analytics to solve the talent needs of the organization.
The basis of this book stems from real-world examples from the authors’ years of talent acquisition experience. They provide easy to understand processes for drawing competitive information out of Big Data and turning it into applicable knowledge. In short, this book is both a compelling argument and a framework for the reader on which to build a talent management strategy and work plan.
Dr. Jac Fitz-enz, CEO, Human Capital Source
Talent is top of mind again as leaders struggle with how to capitalize on the opportunities of a changing postrecession economy while at the same time keeping workers happy and engaged. Even though many parts of the global economy are still struggling, there continues to be a talent shortage and many companies still struggle to hire and hold key talent. At the same time, younger workers continue to enter the workforce while older workers retire. These younger workers have a different expectation for the pace of feedback, career development, promotion, and what it means to be an employee. Also, the world of work has changed, with social media providing new ways to connect, engage, and find candidates. This enables candidates to promote their skills, while at the same time leaving a gold mine of talent data to be harnessed as a competitive edge for hiring managers.
At the same time, executives are putting pressure on their human resources (HR) departments to produce fact-based insights and strategies for critical talent issues such as: Do we have the right talent mix to achieve our objectives? Can we predict who are going to be the best leaders for the future? What development should we give these potential leaders? How engaged are our top performers in our key business strategies? Do we know which talents are at risk of leaving? What are we doing to keep them?
Workforce dynamics have always been complex during business cycle changes. However, what’s different in this economic cycle is that human capital executives and hiring managers now have Big Data analytics to leverage in attracting, acquiring, and advancing the right talent through the organization. The amount of available data on your employees and business processes is exploding, and Big Data is now everywhere, including the workplace. Real-time information on employee engagement, actions, sentiment, productivity, location, quality, and aspirations is everywhere, making it possible to tie talent to business outcomes in ways that were almost impossible before.
The implications are significant because talent management in many businesses has traditionally revolved around interpersonal relationships or decision making based on educated experience, rather than deep analysis. Advanced People Analytics provides a unique opportunity for human capital professionals and hiring managers to position themselves as fact-based strategic partners of senior executives, using analytically proven techniques to recruit and retain those top employees who drive superior value in companies.
People Analytics is a new domain for most HR departments. However, with the application of new techniques and new thinking to talent management, the field of People Analytics is becoming more mainstream. Leading companies are increasingly leveraging sophisticated methods to analyze employee and business data to enhance their competitive edge. The old approaches of gut feel and “that’s worked in the past” are no longer enough.
We wrote this book to be different from the other available books on People Analytics, and we are glad you have chosen to read it. The focus of this book is on practical approaches that can help a business leader create value from and make the most of the organization’s analytical assets. Also, unlike other books, we outline how to inject data analytics at every stage of the talent management process, from talent acquisition through retention. Furthermore, we have included real-world examples of what other companies are doing, both what’s working and what’s not working.
This book will help you think about People Analytics across your organization, evaluate whether you are doing People Analytics well, and provide you with frameworks to take your efforts to the next level, creating business value for your organization in the process. This is not a technical book; it is written to be relevant to someone with no analytical experience as well as to the person with a great deal of analytical experience.
The focus of this book is on effective People Analytics and how companies can create business value from their Big Data assets. By effective People Analytics, we mean analytics that start with a strategic human capital business goal or question, integrate disparate data sources together, create a prediction for the future, and lead to business actions with measurable results. We provide numerous People Analytics examples throughout the book with an eye toward those real-world examples that will be of interest to a business leader as well as practicing analytical professionals.
To support different workforce analytics covered here, this book will also provide you with interviews and frontline stories from leading People Analytics organizations, including: Accenture, Adobe, AOL, Best Buy, Black Hills, Bloomberg, Bullhorn, CareerXroads, CGB Enterprise, CVS Aviation, Deloitte, Dow Chemical, Facebook, FedEx, General Electric, General Motors, Goldcorp, Google, Harrah Entertainment, Hewlett-Packard, hiQ Labs, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Monster, Omnitracs, Pfizer, SAS Institute, Société de Transport de Montréal, Sprint, Starbucks Limited Brands, Transcom, The Container Store, Wells Fargo, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, and Xerox.
Big Data continues to be touted as the next wave of technology and analytics innovation. From our perspective, the next wave of innovation is not just about Big Data, but more about how companies leverage Big Data analytics to take action and optimize their business. Having data is not enough; it needs to be leveraged effectively to drive and optimize business action that is coordinated at all levels of the organization. As it relates to People Analytics, Big Data is critical to providing real-time insights to businesses regarding how to maximize the value of the talent for the organization as well as maximize the organization’s value for the talent it intends to retain and develop. Throughout the book, we review our Seven Pillars of People Analytics Success in the context of Big Data, providing examples for each pillar to help illustrate the key concepts to effective People Analytics.
This book is written where each chapter builds on the preceding one, but each chapter can be read by itself as well. You will get more out of the book if you read it from beginning to end, but if you are interested in quickly learning about employee engagement analytics, for example, you can jump right to that chapter. Regardless, we encourage you to start with Chapters 1 through 3, which provide the foundation for the book as well as outline one of our key frameworks, the Seven Pillars of People Analytics Success. Throughout the course of this book, we explore each pillar of the People Analytics framework, offering insights on how to successfully leverage analytics for every pillar, and we provide frontline stories from companies that have successfully leveraged the framework to improve business outcomes. We will also share best practices and takeaways at the end of each chapter.
We are confident that if you follow the principles contained in this book you will develop high-impact People Analytics and generate business value from the Big Data and little data available to your organization. Some of the practices we outline are not easy to accomplish, but whether you are in a large company or a small one, you can apply your vision of People Analytics and create business value from your data.
We engaged hundreds of business leaders to help in the writing of this book. Whether through interviews, formal contributions, or informal collaboration, we are indebted to many for helping to complete the book. We would especially like to thank Kim Lascelles, who not only reviewed our previous book but was very helpful to review the first proposal of this book, as well as most chapters of the manuscript. Despite his busy schedule, his support and feedback were invaluable. Kim, you are definitely a key pillar of the writing of our book.
A special acknowledgment goes to Melissa Fernand, who has done a terrific job reviewing every chapter of this book, including case studies. Melissa’s review helped a lot to make the book easier to understand for all readers. Despite having a full-time job, she was instrumental in providing fast-turnaround reviews and insightful feedback. Melissa’s input was critical in making this book relevant and insightful for our readers. Thanks, Melissa, for being the reviewer of this book; your assistance was invaluable to us.
Writing a book on People Analytics would not be possible without the input of other professionals: industry leaders and experts and, more important, the contributions of hundreds of people and companies who were generous enough to participate in our research for this book and share their People Analytics journeys. You will see many of their contributions throughout the book in the form of great insights in their quotes and concrete examples of how they make People Analytics work. They gave us some of their precious time for interviews (despite time zone differences), provided case studies, and even contributed writing for some chapters in the book. So we would like to thank all of you because your contributions helped to provide readers with frontline stories and also actionable insights that they can quickly leverage in their organizations. The list is endless, as we engaged hundreds of companies. Just to name a few, we would like to thank:
Foreword to the Book
Contributions to Chapters
Interviews and Case Studies
Thanks to members of the Monster team—Joanie Courtney, Matt O’Connor, Matt Mund, Ajith Segaram, John McLaughlin, Eugene Robitaille, Kareen Emery, and Marlene Lasgoutte—for their support and assistance with some content for this book. Also, thanks to members of the Constant Contact team: Lisa Pimentel, Bob Nicoson, Sue LaChance, Marcus Tgettis, Harpreet Grewal, and Amy Guiel.
Writing a book while holding a full-time job would never be possible without the love and support of family and friends: Nathalie de Repentigny and her parents, Yvan and Michele de Repentigny, as well as Eric de Larminat and Mario Bottone. JP would like to thank his mom Martha and his father Samuel for nurturing his passion for mathematics as well as great hard work values at an early age. He would also like to thank his brother Faustin (Moise), sister Betty, and Cousin David for their support. Special thanks to our families, especially our young children and our wives for their patience while we were in front of our laptops writing this book. You all helped us to finish the book and are key pillars to this achievement—thanks for your love and support.
Jean Paul Isson is Global Vice President for Predictive Analytics and Business Intelligence at Monster Worldwide, Inc., where he has built his global predictive analytics team from the ground up and successfully conceived and implemented global customer scoring, customer segmentation, predictive modeling, and web mining applications and talent analytics solutions across North America, Europe, and the Asia–Pacific region. Prior to joining Monster, Mr. Isson led the global customer behavior modeling team at Rogers Wireless, implementing churn models and pioneering customer lifetime value segmentation to optimize services, marketing, and sales activities.
Mr. Isson is a worldwide expert and an evangelist in Big Data and advanced business analytics. He is an internationally acclaimed speaker and a thought leader who specializes in helping organizations create business value from their Big Data or little data. Mathematician and statistician by training (he holds a master’s degree in mathematics and statistics), he loves helping executives to apply data science to business questions to tell the data story, and was named among the 180 leading data science, Big Data, and analytics bloggers in the world by Data Science Central.
Mr. Isson is frequently invited to be the keynote speaker at executive events on advanced analytics, human capital management, human resources analytics, and innovation in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Australia, and China. He has more than 22 years of experience in advanced business analytics, focusing on predictive analytics, workforce analytics, behavior modeling, market segmentation, and sales coverage optimization. He teaches classes for the Executive Certificate in Advanced Business Analytics at Concordia University. He has delivered business analytics workshops at executive programs in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
He is the author (with Jesse Harriott) of Win with Advanced Business Analytics (John Wiley & Sons, 2012), a reference business analytics book that was translated into several languages, including Chinese, and is a contributor to several local and international newspapers and online magazines, including the Journal of the American Management Association, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, MIT Sloan Management Review, the Guardian, Financial Post, National Post, Les Echos, Liberation, Wich50 (Australia), Le Journal du Net Silicon, Challenges, le Monde, the Gazette, and the Globe & Mail. Mr. Isson has appeared in various media outlets, including TV, to cover Big Data analytics, talent analytics, and employment conditions.
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Jesse S. Harriott, PhD, has been a research and analytics professional for more than 20 years and has held various client- and supplier-side global analytics leadership positions. He is currently Chief Analytics Officer at Constant Contact, a technology company that helps more than 600,000 organizations generate repeat business and referrals through online marketing solutions. Prior to Constant Contact, Dr. Harriott was Chief Knowledge Officer at Monster Worldwide, where he helped drive annual revenue from $300 million to over $1.3 billion. Dr. Harriott started an international analytics division at Monster and created the Monster Employment Index that was tracked by millions of people in more than 30 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. He also led web analytics, business intelligence, competitive intelligence, data governance, marketing research, and sales analytics departments for Monster.
Prior to Monster, Dr. Harriott created an analytics consulting practice for e-commerce company Gomez (now Compuware), where his team led projects for Internet start-ups and well-known brands, including Orbitz.com, WebMD, and Fidelity. He has advised many private and public organizations regarding analytics and labor market issues, including the White House, the Department of Labor, the European Commission, the Federal Reserve, the National Governors Association, and the Clinton Global Initiative, and various U.S. senators. He is the author or coauthor of several publications, including the books Win with Advanced Business Analytics (John Wiley & Sons, 2012) and Finding Keepers (McGraw-Hill, 2008), which has been published in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.
Dr. Harriott has taught at the University of Chicago and holds an MA and a PhD in experimental psychology from DePaul University. He has appeared in various media outlets, including CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, CBS radio, Bloomberg, and Reuters. Dr. Harriott has won several awards, including the Hardin Award from the American Marketing Association, the Platinum Award from PR News, and an Ogilvy Award from the Advertising Research Foundation, and he was named by the Boston Business Journal as one of Boston’s top 40 under 40. He lives in the Boston area with his family.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 11
Chapter 12