Hacking HR to Build an Adaptability Advantage
Most major organizations have a vast amount of untapped employee data that sits across a number of platforms that fail to communicate with one another. The platforms were built with specific purposes in mind, eg acquisition, learning, performance. The legacy systems were costly and are now inefficient. HR should take lessons from the work underway in customer segmentation, marketing and sales. If we can predict a consumer's likelihood to roll off a product in 90 days we should be able to predict an employees fit within a company, and within broader project teams. If we get it right, we can use the data to help inform start up teams on new project roll outs that are more likely to succeed given certain variables. It would allow for a more flexible workforce by enabling employees to move quickly in and out of projects. It would enable HR to quickly assemble the right teams to meet the challenge of the day.
Eric, Would you consider joining a hack on this. I mentioned Marketing in my contribution around PULL not PUSH (http://www.mixhackathon.org/hackathon/contribution/marketing-psychology-...) and have contacted Chris about opening this up as a 'hack' to others. Heidi
I have just checked and you can now join on the page - http://www.mixhackathon.org/hackathon/contribution/marketing-psychology-... - See you there, Heidi
Hi Eric,
>If we can predict a consumer's likelihood to roll off a product in 90 days we should be able to predict an employees fit within a company, and within broader project teams...
I think you're spot on with this one and it chimes in nicely with a couple of the hacks I submitted.
Predicting Relationships and Group Values outlines the basic principles by which these predictions can be made, whilst Relational Recruitment and Optimising Team Creation applies these principles to two HR-centric processes.
More broadly, I'm of the view that historically, HR has struggled to predict people-centric and performance related outcomes in a consistent and meaningful fashion. Successfully developing this hack creates a game changer in HR, allowing the function to make an explicit and quantifiable predictions, placing it on a part with functions such as finance, sales, manufacturing and so forth.
Hi Eric,
Thank you for your comments - we're both in agreement...
> I think if HR and development were able to leverage predictive analysis, we could see a measure of growth and add value to the organization.
Absolutely... I wrote a blog post a few months ago, (Thinking about a 'Physics of People') which contains a lot of quotes and extracts from various thought leaders, authors, academics and so forth who make the same point. It's an interesting read just to see how other people are articulating similar ideas and how they see the implications for HR and management unfolding.
Hi Eric, thanks for such a great contribution. I'm sure this is a very fruitful avenue for "hacking" HR processes and systems. As I was reading your entry I was reminded of a recent article appearing in the New York Times, where Google's HR director talks about applying "big data" to hiring and people development: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/in-head-hunting-big-data-may-...
Best,
Michele
Now were talking! When we start getting predictive and using data to anticipate changes in market conditions, that is the very definition of adaptability. This is not a quick or easy thing to get into though, It takes a lot of work before you can really leverage data from disparate sources into something meaningful.
Hi Harrison,
Agreed and as per my reply below to Eric, I think this has the potential to be a game changer for HR as a function and management as whole if this can be done successfully.
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