People Analytics has entering a powerful new phase over the last few years, moving beyond typical HR metrics that target process effectiveness and activity completion.

The data scope has expanding rapidly as new powerful insights are discovered in new data streams including building and facilities data, P2P interactions, work activity patterns plus email and collaborations.

Some stunning work is being done to to enrich the talent strategies and add to shareholder-value…..but the best work goes past bottom-line and work-productivity:

• Google’s People Analytics team target points in the employee experience but also find ways to nudge people to save for retirement and to eat healthier.

• Workplaces are being shaped to encourage physical and social wellbeing,

• Social analytics are teaching people how to craft personal learning networks that will continuously educate them into the future,

• New network analyses shows quality of network and richness of collaborations, highlights how innovation happens and show how people become high achievers (not just describing those who already are).

• Network analysis now can shows leadership behaviours real time, including the change-impact of a leadership program as it happens,

• Plus new metrics are emerging that empower the individual such as LinkedIn Social Selling Index that measures the impact you are having within your network and industry.

Some leaders may initially feel a bit unsure of a people-centred approach to analytics, however it is becoming clear that a lot of the best employers and global innovators are doing just that, generating grassroots insights that enable and empower teams and find simple ways to make a better workplace.

The next step in People Analytics is already being driven by passionate industry analysts and companies who realise they can already start to:

• enhance the quality of people’s lives

• create powerful new conversations within companies

• reshape work and the workplace

• give people a voice in bureaucratic organisations

• give real-time employee insights for self awareness

• change how people learn and grow.

Large organisations are one of the best places in the community to synthesise data and generate people-insights, as people spending 40% of waking hours at work. Companies that have healthy trust & data-ownership models in place with their people, are now able to do groundbreaking analytics work, often in partnership with universities, ‘think tanks’ and savvy consultants.

This article acknowledge passionate work of the people analytics community including David Green, Trustsphere and Google Analytics.

If you want to find out more about these new metrics, or explore similar opportunities within your own organisation, please feel free to contact me for a free discussion.