LPA Blog Assignment

April 06, 2020

Read The Full Prompt

Organizations, from startups to multinationals to non-profits to sports teams, are using employee data in new and exciting ways. They are typically trying to improve efficiency, performance, or both, leading to a variety of intended and unintended consequences. Using employee data in new ways often has important implications for employee privacy, company transparency, ethics, and organizational culture.

Your assignment is to identify an article, blog post, or other public source of information about an issue related to People Analytics. This could be a description of an organization’s use of employee data in a particular way, commentary about the field as a whole, an opinion on a particular practice related to People Analytics, or anything else that is relevant to the field. For examples of articles related to the course, visit the PeopleAnalytics@Harvard website.

Write your own reaction to your chosen article in the form of a short blog post. What is your point of view about the issues in question? Are you a proponent? A skeptic? Does your article describe a particularly effective use of data that should be emulated by other organizations? Or do you think it describes an ineffective or troublesome practice? You should go beyond simply describing what is in the article and articulate your own point of view on the topic.

Create an approximately 600-word post to make your contribution on d3.harvard.edu by 6pm on Monday, April 6. Please include a link to the material you write about. Feel free to use graphics, data, videos, and links to other sites to corroborate your points.

After posting your own blog, please comment on three posts by other students by 6pm on Tuesday, April 14. Selected posts will be discussed in class.

If you have any problems with the digit.hbs.org platform, please email diplatform@hbs.edu for help, and visit the digital platform resources page for helpful advice.

Submitted (57)

Assessing HireVue’s Algorithmic, Video-Based, Assessment
Paige Tsai
Last modified on April 13, 2020 at 4:52 pm
Humans are notoriously lousy decision makers, especially when it comes to hiring. To help streamline that process, HireVue has introduced algorithmic-based video-assessment to help companies make better hiring decisions. Over 700 companies have adopted this new approach, but is that [...]
People Analytics à la Française
Chip
Last modified on April 14, 2020 at 11:12 pm
In a few of our class sessions this semester, we have asked whether and how people analytics differs across cultural contexts. I have found these questions interesting, so I thought I would dig into some examples from France. I would [...]
Don’t forget the ‘H’ in HR: The Ethics of People Analytics
Grace Cormier
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 5:06 pm
Just because we can, doesn't mean we should. Ethics is a rising concern in the practice of people analytics. A few challenges and best practices to consider.
Evaluating WFH Productivity in the Age of Covid-19
Sarkis
Last modified on April 13, 2020 at 5:46 pm
What expert opinions and analytics data are telling us about what will happen to our productivity in the age of Covid-19
A Cloud of Skills – Workday’s Attempt to Redefine Jobs
Serene Yu
Last modified on April 13, 2020 at 6:27 pm
Workday Skills Cloud uses machine learning to identify core skills for enterprises to pursue and develop. Its use cases and the implications on talent decisions require closer examinations to truly support employee and organizational growth.
Peakon shows the power of people analytics beyond the level of the firm
ldepoorter
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 6:42 pm
By analyzing millions of employee survey responses, Peakon shows that employee engagement starts to drop about 9 months’ before an employee leaves. Peakon's analysis shows the true power of people analytics: being integrated in internal processes, using data beyond the [...]
Racial Bias in Healthcare Algorithms
Sarah Schewe
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 7:12 pm
There's notoriously high human error in medicine, but algorithms can be imperfect, too. How should we handle this?
Artificial Intelligence and Ethics
Adebodun
Last modified on April 14, 2020 at 6:00 pm
We often bring up the topic ethics when evaluating various strategies for people analytics. My post is focused on pushing the discussion further by raising though questions (such as how much are we willing to sacrifice? and is it worth [...]
Can Humu Provide a Model for Higher Ed?
Robson Beaudry
Last modified on April 14, 2020 at 12:28 pm
Humu has had great success encouraging micro-learning in the workplace. Can this extend to Higher Education?
Pymetrics – Is customized AI solution for perfect match making in hiring?
Puja Verma
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 9:10 pm
Is AI the future for hiring and people management? Can people see the value in substituting human beings making hiring decisions and rely on what a machine tells them? Pymetrics certainly believes so!
Learning from failure: How people analytics can help managers rethink talent development
Ben S
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 9:05 pm
Looking at what can be learned by the repeated failure to move conferences from in-person to virtual.
Amazon’s Warehouse Wristbands
Elisa
Last modified on April 13, 2020 at 9:10 pm
In 2018, Amazon filed patents for wristbands that would track the location and hand movements of employees in their warehouses. Has the pursuit for efficiency come at too high a cost?
Tracking offline activities: Proximity
I'm not Mo
Last modified on April 13, 2020 at 9:12 pm
A technology for informing COVID-19 contraction could capture offline interpersonal activities for better people analytics, I hope.
Workforce Analytics to Modernize the DoD
J Horgan
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 9:13 pm
The DoD investigates uses for data/workforce analytics to improve training efficiency and enhance force readiness.
Employee Mood Analytics: Don’t Just Measure the Symptom, Measure the Cause!
Z_A
Last modified on April 13, 2020 at 10:41 pm
In this post, I share my thoughts on the article, “Employee mood measurement trends” by Tom Haak, which amongst other things, describes three main means of measuring employee mood: traditional surveys, simple daily feedback tools, and passive data mining of [...]
Should Uber modify its driver compensation algorithm to address the detected gender pay gap?
Counselor
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 10:15 pm
Despite having an alleged gender-neutral algorithm, male Uber drivers earn 7% more than female drivers. Should Uber act to correct this gender pay gap?
Turning Flight Risk into Opportunity
trishim11
Last modified on April 13, 2020 at 10:35 pm
How Credit Suisse is using analytics to identify who might quit..
Citizens the real boss? Thoughts on open-source government attendance data
PM
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 10:36 pm
Reactions to the Indian government's decision to make government attendance data public.
A healthy use of data, or an unhealthy breach of privacy?
Ryo Takahashi
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 10:45 pm
Health insurance plans meet user data - but is such use of our data a healthy development for society?
Employee Monitoring at Barclays
Jared V.
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 10:59 pm
In early 2020, Barclays launched a pilot program to more closely monitor employee activity, giving managers real-time reporting on how productive (or unproductive) employees were throughout the day. This pilot was met with immediate backlash from employees and advocacy groups, [...]
Your boss is your laptop: Management Systematization at Bridgewater Associates
Kevin Nyamweya
Last modified on April 13, 2020 at 11:21 pm
Are we approaching a time when day-to-day management—hiring, firing, decision-making—will be guided by software that understands individuals and teams better than your top ranked managers?
AI in People Analytics: Rhetoric and Snake Oil
Ryan
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 11:00 pm
"AI" has become a buzzword in people analytics. To be sure, AI is indeed a powerful technology. Yet, as with many organizational practices that ascend to buzzword status, its promise has exceeded its potential. Sometimes it's even sold as a [...]
FemTech: Women’s Heath, or Women Surveillance?
Brittany Arnold
Last modified on April 13, 2020 at 11:08 pm
Ovia Health says their product can minimize healthcare spending and help employers best plan for maternity leave, but what are the consequences of sharing such intimate data with an employer?
Humu Nudges: Nifty Reminders or Lazy Leadership?
DH
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 11:03 pm
Humu, a human resources consultancy founded by the former Head of HR at Google, uses behavioral economics 'nudges' to prompt better leadership. But is it necessary?
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