Foundations of People Analytics and Data Visualization
Introducing the fundamentals of people analytics, data visualization, and the role of analytics in decision-making
Transforming Data into Insight: Amanda Cox on the Power of Visualization (Video)
2023
Speaker:
Amanda Cox – Head of Special Data Projects at USAFacts, Former Editor of The Upshot at The New York Times
Amanda Cox discusses the power of effective data visualization, emphasizing how well-crafted graphics can simplify complex information, spark curiosity, and convey insights. She demonstrates how data visualization transforms raw data into compelling narratives, whether mapping pandemic trends or visualizing the periodic table.
Andrea Jones-Rooy: A Message from the Future about People Analytics (Video)
2022
Speaker:
Andrea Jones-Rooy – Visiting Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, NYU Center for Data Science
What would happen if you crossed a social scientist, a comedian, and a circus artist? You’d get Professor Andrea Jones-Rooy, a passionate advocate for all things data science with keen insight into what it takes to make data science truly useful. In this fun and irreverent session from the 2022 Future of Work Conference, Andrea brings a hopeful message from the future about how data science can actually help us solve the world’s problems…if only we can get more people involved and remember why we are doing this in the first place.
Becoming a Data Translator (Video)
2021
Speaker:
Daniel Morales – Director of People Analytics, McKinsey & Company
Sarah Toby – Director of People Analytics, McKinsey & Company
June Zheng – Manager of People Analytics, McKinsey & Company
Daniel Morales, Sarah Toby, and June Zheng discuss the crucial role of analytics translators at McKinsey & Company, focusing on bridging gaps between technical teams and business leaders. They highlight how translators facilitate understanding and application of analytics insights across various projects, improving decision-making and organizational effectiveness. The conversation further showcases real-world examples of analytics translation, emphasizing its importance in leveraging data for strategic advantage.
The Psychology of Technology (Video)
2021
Speaker:
Roshni Raveendhran – Associate Professor of Business Administration, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia
Roshni Raveendhran explores the impact of new technologies on human psychology at the 2021 Wharton People Analytics Conference. Her research delves into behavior tracking, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, highlighting how these technologies affect our perceptions, behaviors, and well-being. Raveendhran emphasizes the importance of understanding these psychological impacts to leverage technology positively in workplaces, ensuring ethical use, enhancing motivation, and supporting employee well-being through informed and responsible implementation.
Maximizing the Use of Data in People Analytics
Exploring best practices, challenges, and strategies to make data-driven decisions more effective
5 Ways to Make the Most of Data (Video)
2021
Speaker:
Andrea Jones-Rooy – Director of the NYU Center for Data Science
Andrea Jones-Rooy’s talk at the 2021 Wharton People Analytics Conference emphasizes returning to basic yet powerful data analysis techniques. Jones-Rooy’s approach demystifies data science, making it accessible for all, and underscores the value of simple, insightful analyses over complex but potentially less informative methods.
Representation and Pay Equity (Video)
2019
Speakers:
Shuba Gopal – Senior Scientist, The Broad Institute
Andy Porter – Chief People Officer, The Broad Institute
Shuba Gopal and Andy Porter shared groundbreaking strategies for addressing pay gaps and enhancing representation at the 2019 Wharton People Analytics Conference. They emphasized the need for a nuanced approach to analyzing pay equity, distinguishing between unadjusted and adjusted pay gaps. By incorporating computational biology techniques like permutation testing, they offered innovative methods for tackling representation issues in data analysis. Their work underscores the importance of transparency, data-driven insights, and community engagement in promoting gender equity in the workplace
Leading with Data: Mary Barra & Adam Grant on People Analytics and Innovation (Video)
2018
Speakers:
Mary Barra – Chairman and CEO, General Motors
Adam Grant – The Saul P. Steinberg Professor of Management, Wharton School
At the 2018 Wharton People Analytics Conference, Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, talks with Adam Grant about the significance of integrating people analytics into leadership. Highlighting her personal GM journey and their focus on innovation for a sustainable future, Barra emphasizes mentoring, ethical leadership, and the transformative power of data in shaping organizational culture and decision-making processes.
Advanced Data Visualization and Analytics
Focusing on how visualization techniques and big data impact people analytics
Designer’s Perspective, Data Visualization (Video)
2018
Speaker:
Giorgia Lupi – Information Designer, Author, Co-Founder and Creative Director at Accurat
Giorgia Lupi, at the 2018 Wharton People Analytics Conference, shares her journey in humanizing data through design. Through projects like “Dear Data” and collaborations that translate human experiences into visual data narratives, she demonstrates the potential for data to foster connections and empathy, challenging the notion of data as merely quantitative and highlighting its role in storytelling and human insight.
Big Data and Beyond (Video)
2017
Speakers:
Keith McNulty – Head of People Analytics and Measurement, McKinsey & Company
Matthew Salganik – Professor of Sociology, Princeton University
Peter S. Fader – Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor of Marketing, Wharton School
At the 2017 Wharton People Analytics Conference, Pete Fader, Keith McNulty, and Matt Salganik discussed the evolving role of big data in understanding human behavior and organizational dynamics. They emphasized the integration of traditional social science methods with new data analytics techniques, underscoring the importance of ethical considerations and the potential of network data to revolutionize people analytics. The conversation highlighted the necessity of blending qualitative and quantitative data to drive insights and the critical role of experimentation in advancing the field.
Methods and Limitations in Analytics
Researching methodologies, analytical techniques, and their limitations
Advancing People Analytics: Expert Panel on Methods and Measurement (Video)
2016
Speaker:
Kate Glazebrook – Principal Advisor, Behavioral Insights Team, UK
Noah Zandan – CEO and Co-Founder, Quantified Communications
Duncan Watts – Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research
Moderator:
Lori Rosenkopf – Vice Dean and Director, Wharton Undergraduate Division
Lori Rosenkopf moderates a panel with Noah Zandan on quantifying communication patterns, Kate Glazebrook on reducing CV bias with behavioral science, and Duncan Watts on analyzing informal interaction networks revealed in digital signals. Together they examine techniques for individual profiling, blind assessments, predicting team satisfaction, while balancing privacy.
Balancing Data and Judgment: Exploring the Limits of People Analytics (Video)
2016
Speaker:
Tim Urban – Blogger, Wait But Why
Kathleen Hogan – Chief People Officer, Microsoft
Daniel Altman – Founder, North Yard Analytics
Michael Mauboussin – Managing Director, Credit Suisse
Moderator:
Cade Massey – Practice Professor, The Wharton School
Cade Massey moderates a panel on the limits of people analytics with Dan Altman, Kathleen Hogan, Michael Mauboussin, and Tim Urban. They discuss communication challenges, overcoming resistance to counterintuitive insights, balancing quantitative data with qualitative judgment, and keeping the importance of keeping human element front and center when applying analytics.
Reducing Hiring Bias: Kate Glazebrook on Blind Assessments (Video)
2016
Speaker:
Kate Glazebrook – Principal Advisor, Behavioral Insights Team, UK
Kate Glazebrook discusses an experiment using a blind assessment tool to reduce bias in hiring. She shares how “Applied” scores predicted performance more effectively than traditional CV reviews, revealing how blind reviews can significantly improve diversity and the quality of hires.
Learning from Experience in People Analytics
Understanding the role of language, errors, and past experiences in refining analytical approaches
Learning from Mistakes in People Analytics (Video)
2015
Speaker:
Prasad Setty – Vice President, People Analytics and Compensation, Google
Sean Waldheim – Vice President of Admissions, Teach for America
Ryan Dullaghan – Manager, People Assessment & Analytics, JetBlue
Karyn Marciniak – People Analytics, Two Sigma
In this Wharton People Analytics Conference panel, experts shared their biggest mistakes in people analytics and the lessons learned. Emphasizing the importance of balancing qualitative and quantitative data, they discussed the need for understanding the context behind analytics questions and ensuring human judgment complements data-driven decisions. The panel underscored the value of continuous learning, embracing both successes and failures to refine analytics strategies and enhance decision-making processes in HR.
What Do the Words We Use Say About Us (Video)
2015
Speaker:
Laura Huang – Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, Wharton School
Cindy Chung – Senior Research Scientist, Intel
Laura Huang and Cindy Chung explore the predictive power of words at the Wharton People Analytics Conference. Focusing on the subtle cues embedded in language use, their discussion covers how linguistic patterns, such as pronoun usage, reveal insights into individual behaviors, social dynamics, and psychological states. The conversation highlights the significance of understanding these patterns for enhancing communication, leadership, and organizational culture, demonstrating the profound impact of words on our personal and professional experiences.
Applying People Analytics in Practice
Discussing real-world applications, challenges, and strategies for making data-driven decisions
How You Can Have More Impact as a People Analyst (Article)
Massey, C. (2019).
Cade Massey’s article highlights the importance of people analysts embracing a hands-on, immersive approach to their work. It stresses the need for analysts to move beyond numerical data and engage directly with operational teams to build trust and relationships. By integrating themselves within these teams, analysts can provide more relevant insights and have a substantial impact on organizational decisions, moving away from the notion of detached, purely data-driven analysis.
Separating Data from Intuition: Bringing Evidence into the Management Classroom (Article)
Erez, A., & Grant, A. (2014).
Erez and Grant advocate for evidence-based management (EBM) in business education, stressing the need to move beyond intuition to systematic research for better decision-making and outcomes. They share their approach to integrating EBM into teaching, aimed at reducing reliance on anecdotal evidence. Highlighting the gap between academia and practice, they call for a shift towards evidence-based teaching methods. Their experiences and student feedback underscore EBM’s potential to enhance management practices, urging a closer alignment of research findings with managerial actions for a data-driven management approach.
Employee Surveys are Still One of the Best Ways to Measure Engagement (Article)
Judd, S., O’Rourke, E., & Grant, A. (2018).
In their Harvard Business Review article, Scott Judd, Eric O’Rourke, and Adam Grant advocate for the continued use of traditional employee surveys alongside advanced methods like machine learning algorithms. Despite technological advancements, surveys remain invaluable for predicting turnover, providing employees a voice, and prompting self-reflection. Drawing on internal research from Facebook, they show that surveys outperform algorithms in predicting turnover and increase employees’ engagement resource requests. Surveys also signal issue importance and convey leadership’s concern for employee opinions, countering surveillance fears in a tech-driven era. The authors emphasize the enduring relevance of surveys for capturing insights that passive monitoring overlooks.
Behavioral Science, Motivation, and Workplace Engagement
Examining behavioral psychology, motivation, and employee engagement in the context of data-driven decision-making
Is Age Really Just a Number? Investigating Approaches to Employee Engagement (Article)
Creary, S. (2010).
This Research Report and Key Findings provide a comparative case study analysis to investigate leading companies’ employee engagement strategies and determine whether these approaches included a multigenerational lens. The companies studied were selected not only for their differing industries, but because they continue to remain committed to improving the employee experience in the wake of the economic crisis.
Beat Generosity Burnout (Article)
Grant, A., & Rebele, R. (2017)
Grant and Rebele discuss how to be generous without burning out, emphasizing the importance of strategic giving. They suggest that being overly selfless can lead to burnout, but smart givers set boundaries, leverage their strengths, and batch requests to remain productive and resilient. This approach allows for effective support of others while maintaining personal well-being. They also note the unique challenges women face, as their generosity is often expected and underappreciated. Strategic generosity not only prevents burnout but also increases personal energy and impact, demonstrating that it’s possible to be both generous and successful.
Collaborative Overload (Article)
Cross, R., Rebele, R., & Grant, A. (2017)
This article discusses the phenomenon of ‘collaborative overload,’ where excessive collaboration can lead to diminished productivity and burnout. It provides data showing that a significant portion of collaborative efforts are shouldered by a small fraction of employees. The article offers strategies to better manage collaboration demands, such as optimizing network resources, redistributing workload, and recognizing collaborative contributions effectively.
When Job Performance is all Relative: How Family Motivation Energizes Effort and Compensates for Intrinsic Motivation (Article)
Menges, J. I., Tussing, D., Wihler, A., & Grant, A. (2017).
This study examines the impact of family motivation on job performance, especially when intrinsic motivation is low. The authors propose that the desire to support one’s family can serve as a strong motivator, particularly when employees lack inherent interest in the work itself.
The Bright Side of Being Prosocial at Work, and the Dark Side, Too: A Review and Agenda for Research on Other-oriented Motives, Behavior, and Impact in Organizations (Article)
Grant, A., & Bolino, M. (2016)
Bolino and Grant review research on the role of prosocial behavior in organizations, exploring the balance between altruism and self-interest. They highlight how acts like helping and voicing opinions boost performance but can lead to burnout.The authors urge a broader understanding of prosocial activities and a deeper look into their potential downsides, such as exhaustion from over-giving. They call for research that explores complex models of prosocial behavior, its negative aspects, time dynamics, and the gender biases that often see women shouldering a disproportionate share of these tasks. Their analysis points out the need for a wider measurement of prosocial actions to fully grasp their impact and challenges in the workplace.
Work and the Art of Motivation Maintenance (Article)
Grant, A. (2013)
Grant highlights that direct interactions with beneficiaries significantly boost work motivation and productivity, contrasting sharply with the minimal impact of motivational speeches. Key strategies include facilitating encounters with those impacted by work, selecting team members inclined towards constructive giving, and promoting empathy. This approach underscores the effectiveness of connecting employees to the real-world impact of their efforts for enhancing engagement.