LPA 2021 Blog Assignment

April 13, 2021

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 write an approximately 600-word blog post about People Analytics, and to post it on d3.harvard.edu by 11:00pm on Tuesday, April 13. Your post should be about an article from a media source or any other content of your choosing. Please include a link to the material you write about. Feel free to use graphics, data, videos, and links to other sites to complement your points.

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.

After posting your own blog, please comment on three posts by other students by 9pm on Wednesday, April 14. Selected posts will be discussed in class.

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

Submitted (26)

Narrative risks and the curse of the “10%” answer
Tom Brash
Posted on April 7, 2021 at 4:35 pm
Storylines and narratives are powerful tools to convey analytics results. However, they also risk analysts and audiences fixating on conclusions too early and disregarding new information to the contrary.
Extending People Analytics to K-Pop
Korn
Posted on April 11, 2021 at 6:07 pm
How data analytics and people analytics could potentially change the landscape of K-pop music industry.
Creating a code of conduct for people analytics
Kamal W.
Posted on April 12, 2021 at 1:00 pm
Considerations for companies and employees as they roll out people analytics
Debugging the Pulse Check Survey
Laura Carlson
Last modified on April 12, 2021 at 2:55 pm
When was the last time you participated in a pulse check survey? Between bites of lunch, you dash off multiple-choice answers to “Does your work feel meaningful?” and “How heavy was your workload this week?” Possibly the answers are shown [...]
Should your employer care how much sleep you’re getting?
Claire Gibbons
Posted on April 12, 2021 at 3:43 pm
Whoop offers its employees a bonus for getting enough sleep, but employees should think twice before handing over biometric data.
Predicting Crime
Berten Verbeeck
Last modified on April 12, 2021 at 4:44 pm
Recidivism risk algorithms - Should AI decide who goes free and who goes to jail?
Keeping Performance Reviews Honest: Lessons from the Marines
D. A. Handoyo
Posted on April 12, 2021 at 6:05 pm
Performance evaluations are not known for objectivity and consistency. An analysis of U.S. Marine Corps FITREPs shows how people analytics can help.
Unionization at Amazon and the future of employee surveillance
Jamie
Posted on April 12, 2021 at 6:18 pm
All eyes were on Bessemer, Alabama this week, as workers at Amazon’s warehouse voted on whether or not they would unionize. Although the historic attempt was defeated, the demands made by union proponents raise broader questions around the future of [...]
Nestlé: People Analytics and Gender Equity
Kanako Sakai
Posted on April 12, 2021 at 10:02 pm
Nestlé has started an interesting and powerful analytic approach to achieve gender equity.
Possible perils in people analytics that you need to be aware of
Amelia
Posted on April 12, 2021 at 11:20 pm
In this article, I describe the possible perils of human analytics.
Sentiment Analysis is a future of manager-employee relationship…or is it?
Kaz Sakai
Posted on April 13, 2021 at 12:03 am
Sentiment analysis and NLP is a hot topic for employee engagement, and sometimes potential flaws of the sentiment analysis are overlooked. What matters most for employee engagement is apparently "just open up our ears and listen."
People Analytics Enters Esports
T M
Last modified on April 13, 2021 at 5:16 pm
NFL? MLB? March Madness? OWL!!!
The Future of Work Ecosystem is Missing Something
Moriya Blumenfeld
Posted on April 13, 2021 at 5:18 pm
**This is a blog post I wrote a couple months ago after studying the future of work space thoroughly and realizing what’s missing***   So let’s talk about what a company really is. It is no coincidence that the word “Company” [...]
HiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp. – reflections from the 9th Circuit
Brian Murphy
Posted on April 13, 2021 at 5:21 pm
Can LinkedIn prevent a software company from turning your public profile into a people analytics product?
How much do leaders matter?
Manuel Ossa
Posted on April 13, 2021 at 8:37 pm
How much do leaders matter? Coaches, CEOs, political leaders... it differs.
Making Sense of the Virtual Environment: The Power of People Analytics for Reflecting on the Pandemic
Matt Tufano
Posted on April 13, 2021 at 9:08 pm
I have a soft spot for questions about remote work, so when I saw this article about Microsoft analyzing the effect of remote work on its employees, I was hooked: a team saw the past year of virtual as an [...]
DE&I Metrics: Are they useful to achieving DE&I Goals?
Christina Byrd
Posted on April 13, 2021 at 9:28 pm
Given the recent uptick in companies disclosing DEI metrics, how effective is this disclosure to actually moving the needle? How should the disclosure of DE&I metrics fit into overall DE&I strategy?
Ford: Brick & Mortar Icon Transforms Workforce Home Office Capabilities
Shekeyla Caldwell Sandore
Posted on April 13, 2021 at 10:35 pm
It is no secret that the COVID pandemic has transformed various companies over the last year, forcing the hands of employers to make concessions regarding the location that employees get their work done. Ford Motor Co. is no different! In [...]
Microsoft Analyzed Data on Its Newly Remote Workforce
Carla
Posted on April 13, 2021 at 10:37 pm
https://hbr.org/2020/07/microsoft-analyzed-data-on-its-newly-remote-workforce?ab=seriesnav-bigidea After a year of Zoom meetings, people are yearning for in-person connection at work. Interactions once considered foreign (like muting yourself after you finished speaking or turning off your camera to subtly suggest that you have left the room) [...]
Why police using facial recognition technology is wrong
Alfred Sogja
Last modified on April 14, 2021 at 10:26 am
We often forget that surveillance technologies are used by many institutions beyond the private sector. Take a look at modern police departments across the United States for instance. In New York City, the NYPD has transformed into a modern police [...]
Employers are watching their workers. It’s their responsibility to create privacy lines.
RL10
Posted on April 13, 2021 at 11:16 pm
As office workers return, their world will be different. Tools and metrics used for location-based tracking of workers is likely to be ubiquitous. Employers can track their workers' every move, so letting them know how they will use the data [...]
When Confirmation Endangers Analytics
Stéphane V
Last modified on April 13, 2021 at 11:00 pm
At HBS, we are trained to make effective decisions based on incomplete data, and after two years of reading hundreds of cases, a lot of us become really good at advising CEOs about what they should do to solve a [...]
Course correcting your leadership journey with people analytics
Ana
Last modified on April 13, 2021 at 11:00 pm
How can people analytics help you become a better leader? Using data from multiple sources to create a leadership intelligence dashboard with access to your strengths and areas of improvement to keep you on the right track towards your true [...]
Unexplored Area in Natural Language Processing: Cultural Differences and Interpersonal Communication
Aliya Shaikhina
Last modified on April 14, 2021 at 12:02 am
There is potential for Natural Language Processing in People Analytics to provide transnational corporations with a tool to improve interpersonal communication across it multicultural teams as well as “soften the blow” of cultural biases and misunderstandings, uncovering what’s otherwise “lost [...]
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