A major voice in people analytics just advocated for the professionalization of my field. An April 27, 2017 blog post by Max Blumberg and Mark Lawrence suggests that workforce analytics regulate itself under a professional association. The authors have a good point. The explosion of alleged experts in my field is making things really confusing for lay audiences. We have no idea if someone claiming to have expertise is truly knowledgeable. There is a gold-rush mentality in workforce analytics, and we can barely distinguish those on the cutting edge from the outright con-artists. Bad experiences and false starts are causing skepticism.
I agree with this assessment of the current state of affairs. I decline the vast majority of conferences, webinars, and software on offer. Being strong at workforce analytics turns on having daily exposure to the data itself. I have yet to hear a provider offer something more interesting than that thing we just figured out last week, by ourselves, with in-house staff using excel.
However, I have to disagree with the proposal that the field should be regulated. You see, the main opportunity is to democratize the skill set and bolster the overall number of people who read the data and create simple calculations. If you can get one-tenth of a human resources team to tool-up with a small amount of learning and experimentation with the data, that’s a huge boost in organizational capacity. There is one specialist for every five or 10 people in the earliest steps of the learning curve. Tinkerers and new entrants are half of the equation, and sometimes they are the most important half.
There is another problem. We don’t yet know what excellence in workforce analytics looks like. Sure, getting the attention of the c-suite, saving money, having clean data, and making your findings presentable are really obvious signs that you know this stuff. But mysteries abound. The information is disruptive to those with power, so how shall we deal with the office politics? The data improves every day, so how do we maintain composure while discussing last-year’s erroneous data. We’re supposed to align to strategy, but strategy and leadership change is constant. And how are we to negotiate the boundaries between the professions when accounting has their own cost model, and marketing researchers are experts in employee surveys?
The mystery, confusion, emotional drama, flashes of growth and pride all bring the field to life. Workforce analytics is a mosh pit. Our outputs are a meal thrown together from what is leftover in the fridge. Our first attempt at everything looks like a Pinterest fail.
Let’s keep it messy. We’re more honest that way. Besides, we work harder when we’re having fun.
Stuart Murray Speaks 