In advance of his presentation at People Analytics World 2018 in April, Max Blumberg shares a few thoughts on his experiences and predictions in HR Analytics...
Max Blumberg is the founder of the Blumberg Partnership, a Top 50 analytics consultancy which delivers analytics and machine learning solutions to organisations like Nestle, Lloyds Register, GB Group plc, the BBC, Rentokil Initial, Barclays Corporate and the CIPD. In addition, Max is a Visiting Professor at Leeds University Business School, a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
Prior to this, Max worked as a management consultant at Accenture after which he successfully founded and exited a technology start-up. He is a regular contributor to the global media and conference circuits.
For how long has your work involved analytics, either directly or in project leadership?
15 years.
For how long have you worked in the HR domain?
15 years.
How well do you feel People Analytics is progressing?
I think it is not coming close to reaching its potential because it focuses more on reporting people process issues (resourcing, learning, attrition) rather than on guiding human capital investments (against other potential investments like AI, technology, etc.).
What have been the greatest challenges that you've faced within People Analytics?
Getting HR people to understand that most companies run on finance and investment and that unless HR understands finance and investment, it will never be taken as seriously as functions (like operations, marketing and finance) that do understand finance.
What are your predictions for 2018 and beyond? Where are things heading?
I think 2018 will be similar to what has come before because technology companies that dominate the people analytics advertising space make more money out of collecting data for HR reporting than from methodologies for solving business problems.