Key Take-Aways from The Conference Board's
13th Annual Human Capital Analytics Conference

While we were thrilled to see the large contingent attending the event, we know that many were not able to participate, so we wanted to take this opportunity to share some of our key learnings. With such content-rich sessions, our apologies in advance for this high-level summary. That said, hopefully some of the viewpoints captured here might resonate with, or be of interest to, you.

When reflecting on our two days at the conference, some themes stood out to us, and they centered on the evolution in how we view:

• The presenting business challenge,
• The data that we leverage,
• The types of analysis we conduct, and
• The change that we hope to enable or achieve.

The table below summarizes a few of our key take-aways.

From a business perspective, we ourselves shared our “top-down” approach to selecting analytic priorities, rather than solely following instructions from the business. Just as patients often tell doctors symptoms of an underlying problem, so too do leaders tend to focus on the presenting issue rather than the root cause. One of our greatest value-adds is in bridging this gap.

No one will likely be surprised at the attention paid to global data privacy in today’s regulatory and commercial climate. The breadth and depth of considerations from a legal and ethical perspective will continue to make our work more complex, especially when considering some potential individual rights to “opt in and out” of various data collection efforts.

From an analysis perspective, the focus was no longer on the typical analytics-progression visuals but rather on methods for capturing the relative value of relationships, interactions and the social capital created within firms. When we hear organizations describing their uniqueness, there are not only business model factors that contribute to this distinctiveness but also human and social factors that—through measurement—can create sustained competitive advantage.

Not surprisingly, change also was a topic of frequent discussion. That said, the underlying premise seems to be evolving from the role of HR analyst as a supporter of change (through evidence) to an HR analyst having a much more active contribution to change through some form of agency or agile mindset (formal or informal) that spurs new thinking and drives leaders to action.

If you were at the conference, please feel free to add your thoughts to this discussion. If you didn’t have a chance to attend but would like to extend the dialogue, please do. It is by sharing our views as a community that we all learn and grow stronger together. Happy analyzing!