The Future of People Analytics: Key Reflections on People Analytics World 2024 in NYC
People analytics feels like it’s at a major inflection point, writes Groov CEO Matt Krogstad.
After a few weeks since People Analytics World 2024 I wanted to share some reflections.
Early October, I had the opportunity to attend People Analytics World (PAW) 2024 in New York, and it was a breath of fresh air. The event itself was well run and a great size – with about 300 attendees and a dozen vendors – which made it easy to meet a lot of the top practitioners and technology players in the space. The conversations were a nice combination of practical and strategic with a focus on the future of the space. As I reflected on the plane ride home, here are the top six observations that signal to me where our industry is heading.
1. People Analytics is at a Fork in the Road
According to David Green, modern People Analytics (PA) is 15 years old but at PAW, it became clear that People Analytics is at a fork in the road where it is still defining itself (with some debating whether People Analytics is even the right term to call itself) and still fighting to clearly articulate the business value of PA back to “the business”. I really don’t like the term “the business” as it implies an “us and them” or lack of integrated goals that I think are usually not there but can be created with this kind of language. Many still associate people analytics with traditional HR data: comp, promotion histories, headcount, attrition analysis, etc., the world of work has evolved, and so too must our definition. Today, some of the most impactful insights come from workplace data – the data that lives in tools like Slack, MS Teams, MS365, G-Suite, CRMs, and beyond. The companies that harness this data and make use of it are the ones making strides in employee experience, performance and are getting a competitive edge. A good framing for PA teams current and future investments might be “if this investment area were eliminated how would our company feel that immediately?”
2. People Analytics Needs to Power the Business, Not Just the CHRO
Related to the above, but more specifically, People Analytics has traditionally been focused on arming CHRO’s to have similar levels of data and insights as other members of the C-Suite. A major takeaway from PAW was the growing desire for People Analytics to move out of the HR silo and serve the broader business with mission critical insights. Enterprises on the leading edge are looking to leverage their data to empower teams across the business – from engineering to sales to customer service – with insights that drive real, measurable outcomes. There was discussion about whether People Analytics should even sit within HR or, rather, be moved under Enterprise Data & Analytics to reflect the broader, more horizontal nature of the function. One obvious issue with this, and a reason it likely hasn’t been broadly adopted, is that HR has a lot of sensitive data the rest of the business shouldn’t have access to but there are solutions to that problem that maybe shouldn’t hold back People Analytics from broad, organization-wide impact.
3. Management Development is Front and Center
One of the key challenges many People Analytics teams are trying to solve is improving management capability. It’s not just about improving hiring or performance management processes anymore – it’s about intelligent support for managers to help them lead more effectively on a day to day basis. There’s a growing demand for tools that can assist managers in real time, offering prompts and insights to help them navigate day-to-day challenges. I thought Brydie Lear delivered one of the best presentations of the conference and her concept of “Intelligent Manager Assistance” and improving manager competency was a clear example of an opportunity for People Analytics to deliver meaningful value every single day and impact a huge % of the workforce.
4. Reports and Dashboards Can Be Helpful, But Actions Are Better
One of the recurring themes I heard at the event was that reports and dashboards, while helpful, aren’t enough. Companies need more than dashboards; they need solutions that drive action in real time. Many tools ingesting data in this space, while valuable, often stop at reporting. The true value comes when analytics fuel actions that improve focus, effectiveness, and ways of working – and can be measured (what we call closing the loop) for impact. This is where the industry is headed: actionable insights in the flow of work, not just historical reports or traditional forecasting.
5. Many US Enterprise and Mid-Market People Analytics Are Delivering Value and Are On Offense
At PAW, I was struck by the degree to which People Analytics leaders had clear examples of delivering tangible business value at scale. They are investing within their teams, adding technical competency especially in data science. This focus on value and forward thinking is exactly what’s needed in today’s fast-paced environment where extracting business value from data has never been more important or top of mind across the modern organization.
6. The Struggle to Continuously Demonstrate People Analytics Value
Interestingly, and somewhat contradictory to the point above, many People Analytics teams still seem to be fighting for relevance and resources within their organizations. I heard a number of speakers and attendees talk about a feeling within some organizations that People Analytics is a luxury, that these teams should focus on “HR issues” and “just create the attrition report”, versus being viewed as a strategic pillar of the organization. Part of this is likely perception and part of it is reality and the next couple years could cement the view of the organization one way or another. As People Analytics teams continue to work to prove their value, there’s a clear opportunity for solutions that not only help them deliver insights but also provide business-critical results that resonate with executive sponsors across the organization.
For those of you in the space, whether you attend PAW NYC 2024 or not, what do you think?
What’s Next: Groov and the Future of Workplace Analytics
At Groov, we’ve been building a platform that reflects these shifts. We go beyond reports and dashboards – we focus on generating personalized, real-time actionable insights from workplace data, delivering prompts with actionable insights and recommendations in the flow of work, and then closing the loop to measure the impact of those actions. A closed-loop sensing mechanism and process build on workplace data, ML/AI, and workplace scientists. Whether it’s helping managers improve focus time for their teams, improving management competency, or driving organizational effectiveness, Groov is designed to meet the needs of today’s workplace.
For those of you who lead People Analytics, key functional areas (like Sales, Customer Service, Engineering, or Operations), Finance, Enterprise Data, or HR teams, I encourage you to think beyond traditional HR metrics and traditional reports. The future lies in leveraging your workplace data and focusing on specific outcomes – and Groov is here to help you make this a reality.