Events

As you may have seen, we launched our report on the broader people analytics technology market. While that report is full of great information, there are still more questions that need to be answered, especially regarding the vendors, like:

• How can we categorize vendors?
• What are truly differentiating capabilities – and which ones are commodities?
• Which vendors offer which capabilities?
• What should buyers and vendors be thinking about?
• What do we see for the future of people analytics technology?

Here’s a taste of just some of the key findings:

1. Many vendors claim commodity features to be differentiators. For example, most vendors indicated their solution is scalable and flexible, customizable, takes little time to implement, and is easy to use. These are necessary capabilities, but they are not necessarily differentiating.
2. Differentiating capabilities can be grouped into three categories: addressing foundational barriers to implementation and adoption; enabling new insights; and, making people analytics more human.
3. The people analytics technology market needs a framework to understand vendor offerings. We developed a 2×2 model that categorizes vendors based on frequency of use and the data sources from which they pull, overlaying 10 types of vendors on the model. All vendors in our study are categorized on this matrix.
4. Of the 10 types of vendors, the most represented category was employee engagement / experience, followed by multi-source analysis platforms, and organizational network analysis.

While our first part of the report focused on our finding about the people analytics technology market, our second part focuses on the vendors. These findings and the insights we share along with them will be of particular interest to two audiences: practitioners and buyers looking to understand the market, and vendors looking to differentiate themselves more effectively.

For practitioners and buyers, we have a section on vendor categories, which will allow them to familiarize themselves with the offerings in the market. For each vendor in our framework, we provide a brief description, names of a few existing customers, founding year, screenshot of their technology, and a case study (if provided by the vendors). In the appendix, we provide some more information on their primary talent areas of focus, data capabilities, and analytics capabilities.

For vendors, we provide our insights on which capabilities are truly differentiating and which are not. We also touch upon the outcomes vendors report most impact on, and which ones they should focus on instead. For example, when asked to identify the primary business, talent, and HR outcomes they impact, vendors responses reflected huge similarities, with 78% of vendors identifying efficiency as a business outcome, 82% pointing to both employee engagement and retention as a talent outcome, and 94% of vendors stating “better insights into the workforce” as a HR outcome (see Figure 1). However, we found several critical outcomes vendors could impact, but that comparatively few of them do today. We talk about those outcomes in more detail in the report.

Figure 1: Most Commonly Impacted Outcomes, Reported by Vendors | Source: RedThread Research, 2019.

While we introduced our 2×2 matrix and the four quadrants in the first report, we summarize it in this report and follow it up with more detailed insight into where we think vendors fall on each of the four quadrants. The result, which we share in the form of a graphic, is a product of innumerable conversations, briefings, demos, discussions, and feedback conducted with and shared by vendors, practitioners, our sponsors, and members of the RedThread team involved in this project. We know that this is just the beginning, and our thinking and approach will evolve as the conversation on people analytics technology gets richer and deeper.

We invite you to comment below or reach out to us at [email protected].

Will Robots Take My Job?

There is this website called “Will Robots Take My Job”. You type in your job function and it uses some solid research to tell you how likely it is that your job will be automated. It’s sorta fun. My job has about a 23% chance of being automated. Largely because it currently relies on things that only humans can do. That’ll likely change.

I happened upon this website last year as a part of a quest to understand what makes humans unique. I had read one too many articles about robots taking over the world and I decided to find out, once and for all, how likely that was.

After scouring social science literature, anthropological journals, psychology texts, and even some religious writings, I came up with a list of four things that make humans unique – or four things that robots can’t do and that other species don’t do: (you can read the full report here)

1. Envision a different future: Humans can picture a future different than their present, determine steps to make it so, and then execute on those steps.
2. Tell stories. Humans use stories to communicate information in a way that motivates and inspires and entertains.
3. Collaborate. While other animals may collaborate to survive, humans collaborate longer than it is beneficial to them personally or critical for survival. Helping others is in our DNA.
4. Use tools. Humans have perfected the art of using tools. We don’t just use them to shape our physical space; we also use them to shape our mental spaces.

It occurred to me this week that two of these four things – storytelling and collaborating – are directly related to how we connect as human beings. We connect in ways that animals don’t, and robots never will. Connections make us human. And they explain at least some of why we have been so successful as a species.

Leveraging Connection (and Tech) for Learning

L&D functions have understood the importance of connection for decades. Much of the research and literature on adult learning styles focus on learning from each other and leveraging existing knowledge – the connections if you will.

Until recently, much of this work has been done largely in the classroom; connection – particularly storytelling and collaboration – has been associated with face-to-face activities, particularly when it comes to some of the softer, more human skills (e.g., management, communication).

That said, we’re seeing the definition of “face-to-face” expand beyond the classroom and include more than formal training. We’re also seeing organizations understand how to make connections with employees through communication and personalization.

Storytelling.

Stories provide context to the data of experience. Through stories, humans cast themselves as main characters, place themselves in predicaments, and learn from their own experiences as well as others’ successes and failures. Understanding the what, the why, and the how, gives employees context and motivates them in ways that increases the responsiveness of the organization.

In order for a story to be effective, a connection needs to be made. Whereas storytelling has existed as long as humans have walked the earth (and probably as long as our antecedents have as well), in recent years, those connections are increasingly being made with the use of technology. We’ve seen a couple of trends:

• Standalone tools or additions to existing tools focusing on storytelling – video, animations, drip campaigns, micro-curricula, and other content-creation tools – all help L&D professionals to craft stories that have more impact.
• Easier ways to connect more deeply. We mentioned this briefly in our last article: L&D technologies are moving past the one-way sharing of content and instead are building in true collaboration tools. Whereas employees used to have to be in the same room to take advantage of these deep connections, collaboration spaces, communication tools, structured, and unstructured paths all occur online and with teams spread across the world.
• AI and data. Our access to data is unprecedented – we know more about our employees than ever before. AI and data make it possible to build personal stories – not generic ones, and not ones built on “personas”. We can connect with our employees on their level and meet their needs in new and more effective ways.

Collaboration.

Thomas Suddendorf, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Queensland in Australia, says that we have a fundamental urge to link our minds together. “This allows us to take advantage of others’ experiences, reflections, and imaginings to prudently guide our own behavior.”

We are wired to help. Ask any two-year-old that follows you around picking up things you dropped. It’s innate, and it’s incredibly human.

Helping others manifests itself in some of the ways we utilize technology. A good example of this is Wikipedia. It exists because thoughtful people with knowledge want to share it – and because thoughtful people who value that knowledge fund it. Another example is GitHub – where programmers can share code with each other. Collaboration in this case has saved countless hours and accelerated development by allowing one programmer to build on top of – instead of recreating – code.

The L&D function – and the solution providers that support it – have also made some progress when it comes to helping individuals collaborate – to help each other learn – using technology. A few interesting things we’ve seen:

• The rise of the expertise directory. Several vendors (and some enterprising homegrown solutions) are making knowledge and skills more transparent in the organization. Some systems allow users to self-select knowledge and skills; others rely on AI and latent data to “guess” which skills an individual may have; but they all help employees collaborate by guiding them to who is likely able to help.
• Leaders as teachers – virtually. When I was at Deloitte, I was always impressed with their ability to leverage leaders as teachers in the classroom. Tech, however, allows us to leverage leaders as teachers EVERYWHERE. Organizations can take advantage of expertise no matter where in the world it sits through new technologies built particularly for the purpose.
• Project marketplaces. We’re seeing more organizations create opportunities for learning through the work itself. Project marketplaces allow employees to sign up for short projects that will help them to develop critical skills. The marketplace is a great example of collaboration: individuals willing to help and to learn while doing it, and leaders offering opportunities for that growth, along with some coaching and mentoring.

Likely these are not entirely new ideas – we have been talking about them for about a year. But the fact that these technologies are built to connect us, and that those connections appeal to our very humanness, and that organizations are more effective when they focus on the things that makes us human gives me hope for us. And for the robots. And for us being able to live harmoniously with them.

This is the first part of RedThread Research’s latest study on the state of the people analytics technology landscape and will help readers to achieve a better understanding of the market overall.

Clearing out the confusion

People analytics (PA) is fast becoming a critical component of any HR / people tech ecosystem. This rapid growth has created confusion about vendors, what capabilities do end-users really need, and what capabilities do vendors offer.

After a year’s in-depth research on this topic, we concluded that the current PA tech market is somewhat like a teenager – growing and changing fast, unsure of what it wants to be when it grows up, and needing to think beyond the conventional.

The insights from this report will help not just vendors and practitioners by providing clarity about the landscape, but also guide the market to grow up into a capable, responsible adult. The end result of our research is more than 100 pages of insights and images, which we decided to publish in 2 parts.

In this 1st report, we share with you our framework of the market and crucial findings from our survey results. (Our 2^nd report helps buyers navigate the PA vendors – especially in differentiating capabilities, and the various vendor categories, while offering recommendations to both buyers and vendors.)

From this report, you'll gain insights on:

• A framework to understand the market
• Challenges in the market
• Talent management areas of focus
• Business side of technology vendors

Click on the graphic below to view and download a PDF version.

We all know that the people analytics tech market is hot and growing fast. That rapid growth has created a lot of confusion in the market for buyers, who have puzzled over which vendors they should use and for what purpose.

We've been studying this space for about a year so we could help everyone understand it much more deeply. From this in-depth research, we've created 2 reports that share our most important findings. The first report, People Analytics Technology: The Market, focuses on the state of the broader market. The second report, People Analytics Technology: The Vendors, goes into detail on the vendors and their differentiators, as well as offering recommendations for both buyers and vendors.

This first report, People Analytics Technology: The Market, answers these questions:

• How big is the market and how quickly is it growing?
• How should we think about classifying the market?
• What types of data do vendors analyze and for whom?

At a high-level, our analysis uncovered a number of insights, such as:

1. The people analytics tech market is comprised of ~90 vendors with ~$1.7 billion in annual revenue
2. There has been rapid revenue growth in the market between 2016-2018 (220% CAGR), and slower, but still significant customer growth (23% CAGR), which we attribute to an increasingly successful search for product / market fit
3. Buyers come from all sizes and knowledge industries, revealing a large addressable market for vendors
4. Primary users are HR and people analytics practitioners with independent use cases / needs
5. Top implementation and adoption barriers include privacy, data integration, and lack of robust data cultures
6. The outcome metrics most impacted by people analytics solutions include: efficiency, collaboration, and innovation (business outcomes); engagement and retention (talent outcomes); and, better workforce insights, higher data quality, and improved reporting (HR outcomes)
7. We can differentiate vendors based on data source and frequency of use

While the first 6 findings are likely of general interest to all, the last point is probably most important for people analytics practitioners trying to understand the market. Specifically, we developed a 2×2 matrix that compares usage frequency and data sources (see Figure 1) as this analysis can help us understand how and by whom different solutions are used. In the report, we explain the 2×2 and the four quadrants in more detail. (Spoiler alert: Being up and to the right is not necessarily better.)

Figure 1: People Analytics Technology Market Classification Matrix | Source: RedThread Research, 2019.

The report also covers another topic near and dear to our hearts: data ethics. We learned that only about 1/3 of vendors in our study believe they have a role in designing systems that protect employees as well as educate HR and other leaders. Further, we found real opportunity for vendors to provide employees with more control over their data at work.

In fact, only 50% of vendors report they allow employees to access their own data / insights and the same percentage allows employees to correct the data collected on them (see Figure 2). This point is especially important, as a recent study shows that when organizations deliver value back to employees, they're more open to data being collected on them. The topic of data ethics represents a significant opportunity for vendors to lead by bringing a thoughtful perspective to what customers should and shouldn't do with people data.

Figure 2: Availability of Features to Give Employees More Control Over Their Data at Work | Source: RedThread Research, 2019.

We hope that these insights will whet your appetite for more.

As we mentioned above, this report is just the first one in a 2-part series. The second report, People Analytics Technology: The Vendors, is specifically designed to help practitioners understand the players in the market. It goes into much more detail on the vendors themselves, what differentiates them, and where they are on our 2×2 model.

With this research, we know we're just scratching the surface of this conversation on people analytics tech. We invite you to comment below or reach out to us at [email protected].

After we published The Makings of Modern Performance, we then hit the road to share our findings and learn from conversations with practitioners! After 4 interactive breakfast meetings, we came away with a few lessons. In wrapping up this project, we want to share with you the things we learned.

We're losing sight of the forest

Many organizations are hyperfocused on the tactics of performance management (PM) and have lost sight of the forest (why they do it) for the trees (how they do it). Many of the questions during our time on the road focused on identifying best practices or the “right” way to do PM and were similar to those we heard during our research (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Questions We Heard During Our Research | Source: RedThread Research, 2019.

While some organizations have taken a step back to see PM as a holistic approach to developing talent and improving performance, many organizations still struggle to shift their focus. Leaders need to focus on this question:

What should my organization do to improve the performance and engagement of our employees, and the ability of us all to meet our business goals?

The following are some of the key takeaways from our road trip.

The fairness waters are a bit muddy

In our roadshow events, there was general agreement that fairness in PM is important, and some of the new practices have helped make it more so (i.e., more frequent conversations to address recency bias, involving more people in performance feedback to reduce managers’ bias). However, we discussed how other practices, such as removing ratings or implementing shadow ratings, have increased some employees’ perceptions of unfairness.

Our research found that creating fair evaluation processes – and connecting compensation to them in a transparent and fair manner – is an important part of performance management. In our (well-intended) efforts to address important concerns about ratings and evaluation methods, we might have muddied the waters. Our study gives some suggestions on how to address this issue.

A closely related topic that we also discussed was pay transparency, which our research found to be critical. Interestingly, session attendees had different levels of awareness on this topic, but one thing was certain: It doesn’t make anyone particularly comfortable.

The challenge is that pay transparency is not an all-or-nothing concept, but a continuum. At one end of the spectrum, employees have no insight into compensation philosophy, structure, and outcomes. At the other end, employees and individuals external to the organization have full access to this information and data.

Implementing pay transparency is full of “what ifs,” potential benefits, and some potentially serious drawbacks. However, employees are already having discussions about their salaries and these discussions aren’t just among colleagues in the hallway. People are more open to share the details of their compensation and benefits package to just about anyone (e.g., Glassdoor). As a result, organizations need to figure out how they will address pay transparency sooner than later.

Organizations have a choice – they can be a part of these discussions, helping to craft the narrative and using the information to better address rewards and benefits, or they can ignore it and miss this opportunity.

Engagement & performance: Increasingly intertwined

While we know that, in general, PM, engagement, learning, and career management are increasingly converging, our roadshow reinforced that the first 2 have grown particularly close. Performance practices, when done well, can engage employees by providing them with a culture in which they can thrive and with the clarity they need to perform well today and tomorrow (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Three Levers of Performance | Source: RedThread Research, 2019.

To that end, organizations’ performance philosophies and practices need to be designed and executed to engage employees, in addition to helping them perform better. In the future, this likely means that organizations need a more nuanced and personalized understanding of what engages employees, and to then provide them with the insights, resources, systems, and metrics that are most relevant. This'll allow organizations to be more responsive to employees’ needs so they can do their best work.

PM is no longer about just measuring performance. It's about engaging employees – in a personalized and responsive way – in their work and enabling them to perform better as a result.

Where do we go from here?

While organizational leaders can certainly make significant and important changes to their PM approaches, we think there's a bigger question that can’t be answered just by changing performance practices:

How do leaders go about creating a more responsive organization?

This question is at the heart of another project: The Responsive Organization (read: the premise, the lit review, the report, webinar and slides, and the infographic).

In this study, we're looking at the changes the leaders should make to create an environment in which people – and the organization as a whole – can be more responsive to employees and customers. For example, we think that a more responsive organization will lead to changes in the following (at a minimum):

• Communication channels – Individuals at lower levels will have data and information they need to react to needs “on the ground”
• Power structures – Decision-making will be more decentralized
• Employee development – More autonomy and continuous development will ensure that employees have the skills and knowledge they need
• Metrics – Measurements of efficiency will begin to give way to other types of productivity metrics that focus more on innovation, agility, and responsiveness

Want to share your thinking on this topic? Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] and we will find some time to talk! Also, if you want to talk more about performance management, we would love to hear from you.

In 2019, we studied how networks and technology could be used to advance women in organizations. Along with the release of the full report, this article summarizes our findings. Gender diversity in the workplace matters, and leaders are taking it seriously. In fact, 87% of organizations say gender diversity is a top priority – up from 74% in 2015.¹ Yet, the gender gap – especially in leadership – is not closing and the number of senior women in organizations doesn't reflect this increasing commitment.

We clearly need a different approach. Organizations should understand how professional networks impact women’s advancement and design initiatives with this in mind.

In our report, Helping Women Rise: How Networks and Technology Can Accelerate Women’s Advancement, we analyzed how our professional networks impede or promote women, and the technologies that help organizations understand and address this issue.

Taking a networked perspective

Our networks connect us to specific groups, people, and information. Inclusion at work – being in the "right" professional networks – can be a critical factor that influences promotion and advancement opportunities. Even though we know that our networks matter, we often don’t build and maintain them with intention.

The bad news? Left to haphazardly emerge and evolve by chance, professional networks can negatively impact women’s advancement.

The good news? Organizations can use this information to help women intentionally build opportunities and networks that increase the likelihood of their advancement.

Before companies begin designing network-based initiatives, they should consider four foundational principles of networks (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: 4 Foundational Principles of Networks | Source: RedThread Research, 2019.

New twists on old classics and novel approaches

Our research identified a handful of common and novel practices that organizations use to help women advance (see Figure 2). The common approaches consisted of some of the mainstays in diversity and inclusion efforts. Novel practices are exciting, but have not necessarily proven to be more effective (yet).

Figure 2: Common and Novel Approaches to Advance Women in Organizations | Source: RedThread Research, 2019.

Each of these practices can – when designed with a networked perspective – address at least 1 of the 4 foundational principles of networks and help women advance.

Take the common practice of mentorship and sponsorship for example. These initiatives haven’t seen much change in how they’re implemented over the years. However, by applying a networked perspective (see Figure 3), organizations can support – or even create – group-based mentorship and sponsorship – a new twist on an old classic.

Figure 3: Group-Based Mentorship and Sponsorship | Source: RedThread Research, 2019.

Novel approaches also benefit from taking a networked perspective. For example, internal gig-work marketplaces – if designed appropriately – help women in organizations create new, diverse connections and help strengthen their ability to standout from others in their network.

Technology’s role

When we started this project, we had high hopes that organizations would share with us tons of insight on how they were using technology to aid in the advancement of women. After all, if social media can use our networks to suggest events we should attend, music we might like, people we may know, and careers / roles that match our interests and experience, organizations should be able to mirror this internally.

Well, we were wrong. Our research found that, overall, organizations are not taking full advantage of the technologies that can help them take a networked approach to support women who want to advance their careers.

Organizations know technology can help; they just aren’t sure what options are available, or where to start. So, we created a few cheat sheets in our report to get organizations started (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Examples of Technology Cheat Sheets (available in full report) | Source: RedThread Research, 2019.

Learn more

Our report breaks down each of the common and novel practices we uncovered, and how they can address one or more of the foundational principles of networks. In addition, we dive into technology offerings for each of these practices.

For more information on each of these practices and the technologies organizations can leverage to take a more networked perspective, we encourage you to download and read the full report by clicking the image below.

You can find information on the specific practices our research uncovered in short articles – part of the Women & Networks series – including:

• Employee Resource Groups: Taking a Networked Perspective
• Mentorship and Sponsorship: Building Broader Networks
• Leadership Programs & Conferences: Building Networks for Women
• Gig-Work Marketplaces: A Novel Way to Advance Women
• Articulating Invisible Information: Leveling the Playing Field