People Analytics in the Era of Big Data

Preface

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 ...