People Analytics: How Social Sensing Technology Will Transform Business and What It Tells Us about the Future of Work (FT Press Analytics)
Discover Hidden Social Patterns Within Your Company--and Supercharge Both Performance and Employee Satisfaction“…a watershed book in advancing the understanding of human dynamics.”—Michael Arena, Head of Global Talent & Organization Capability, General Motors“…Waber convincingly shatters orthodoxies of team and workplace design. A must-read.”—Scott Anthony, Managing Partner, Innosight, and author ofThe Little Black Book of Innovation“…[Waber] provides numerous examples to illustrate how social analytics could help transform business operating practices in the future. It’s a fascinating area of study.”—Paul Mascarenas, Chief Technical Officer, Ford Motor Company“Ben Waber follows a new trail of ‘digital breadcrumbs’ to see the world with fresh perspective...A fascinating read.”—Sherry Turkle, Professor, MIT, and author ofAlone Together: Why We Expect More of Technology and Less from Each OtherWe’ve always used data to help identify what workplace behaviors make people effective. But this data has always been subjective, biased, and limited in scale. Cutting-edge social sensor technologies open up a world of new possibilities, allowing you to identify hidden social patterns within your organization—and make subtle, unobtrusive adjustments that lead to large, measurable improvements.People Analyticswill help you discover how your people really work, collaborate, and innovate, so you can help them do it more successfully. It will help you uncover sources of creativity and expertise you never knew you had. And it can help you optimize everything from customer service and marketing to R&D and M&A.MIT Media Lab innovator Ben Waber shows how new sensors and “big data” analytics can help you gain an unprecedented understanding of how your people work and actionable insights for building a more effective, productive, and positive organization.Through cutting-edge examples, Waber demonstrates how you can use these technologies to optimize everything from call center performance to sick-day policies. Most remarkable of all, you’ll learn how to accurately measure (and effectively address) “subjective” success factors…from culture to creativity.• Measure the informal interactions that are crucial to long-term success• Recognize emerging problems before they derail teams, projects, or mergers• Systematically improve the effectiveness of in-person and electronic communication• Discover who your “internal experts” really are• Identify surprising hidden sources of creativity and innovation• Get fine-grained data for better nuts-and-bolts HR decision-making• Enhance employee performance—and reduce employee stress at the same time