Podcast appearances and mentions of ben waber

Summary:Ben Weber is the President and Co-founder of Humanyze. Ben is particularly passionate about the power of behavioral data and analytics and its ability to improve organizations and how people work in general. He has been featured in Wired, CNN, and The New York Times, among other outlets, and his work was selected for Harvard Business Review's List of Breakthrough Ideas and Technology Review's Top 10 Emerging Technologies. In this episode, Ben talks about collaboration data, AI, and expertise. Chapters:[0:00 -5:32] Introduction•Welcome, Ben!•Today's Topic: Collaboration Data, AI, and Expertise[5:33 -15:37] What is collaboration data and why does it matter?•Understanding how people communication and work together•Striving for complete data sets vs “good enough” data sets[15:38 -29:38] Adaptive statistics (i.e., AI) and its role in data analysis•How developments in technology have allowed us too find correlations within massive data sets•Are we holding onto unrealistic expectations for AI?[29:39 -39:55] How does expertise impact people analytics inside of an organization?•Unlearning that it's best practice to copy success•Using hypothesis backed by data to improve an organization[39:56 -42:47] Final Thoughts & Closing•Professional ethics' role in people analytics•Thanks for listening!Quotes:“When companies look at things like collaboration technologies that are purpose built for very specific applications, [they] better understand the implications of that for how people work, because even if it makes a particular team's task more efficient—if it detracts from the coordination and collaboration that has to happen across teams, it may be negative.”“I like to call [AI] ‘adaptive statistics' because that's what it is—these things are correlation engines, and what makes them more productive is lots of data. So why suddenly have things been able to get a lot more predictive or [why] can we [generate images] with these algorithms much better than we could in the past? It's not because the algorithms themselves are different, [it's because] now we can literally mine every single piece of text on the internet.”Contact:Ben's LinkedInDavid's LinkedInDwight's LinkedInProduction by Affogato MediaPodcast Manger: Karissa Harris

Ben Waber, Ph.D., is the President and co-founder of Humanyze. He is a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab, previously worked as a senior researcher at Harvard Business School, and received his Ph.D. from MIT for his work with Alex “Sandy” Pentland's Human Dynamics group. Waber's work has been featured in major media outlets such as Wired, The Economist, and NPR. He has consulted for industry leaders such as LG, McKinsey & Company, and Gartner on technology trends, social networks, and organizational design. His book, People Analytics, was published by the Financial Times Press in 2013.At Humanyze, we believe that a company's greatest assets are its people and how they collaborate (and have the data to prove it!).Born in MIT's Media Lab, we are redefining the future of work through science-backed analytics and data-driven insights that help companies make continuous workplace improvements that benefit both employees and the business.With a global presence spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia, our mission is to help leading companies around the world unlock their organization's full potential with workplace analytics. https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwaber/https://twitter.com/bwaberhttps://humanyze.com/Rebel HR is a podcast for HR professionals and leaders of people who are ready to make some disruption in the world of work.We'll be discussing topics that are disruptive to the world of work and talk about new and different ways to approach solving those problems.Follow Rebel HR Podcast at:www.rebelhumanresources.comhttps://twitter.com/rebelhrguyhttps://www.facebook.com/rebelhrpodcastwww.kyleroed.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-roed/Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show

Measuring informal interactions can improve the chances of a major project's success. Ben Waber, CEO and co-founder of Humanyze, stresses the importance of these hidden social levers and networks within your teams to facilitate better communication. He points out that organizations can improve workplace performance with the right employee analytics tools.  In this episode, he shares stories from his book, People Analytics. Learn how managers and human resources teams can use network metrics to look at the big picture, identify communication gaps, and improve teamwork. Episode Quotes:What is a big, fundamental change happening in the workplace that helps companies understand their teams better?The bulk of how work happens is, that these more informal networks, these collaboration patterns, and these changes. And that not just in the digital world, but also the physical world with more sensors, with other things that can help us understand face-to-face interaction. We can just understand at an unprecedented level of detail what's going on. What that means is not just that we have a better idea about what's happening, but that we can also start to test the decisions we make. And we can, of course, ideally make better decisions. But we're still, I'd say, very much in the early phases of that, where there's still just this only growing awareness that this is possible.How can companies use people analytics to bring real value to organizations and management science?So, imagine a factory floor because people bring that up: ‘Hey, that's a quantified environment. It should matter how you spend time'. And it does. But now imagine that you're a factory floor worker and that I want you to produce ten widgets an hour. Now, maybe you figured out a better way to produce those widgets so that you can do 11 widgets an hour. Now, if you spent an hour of your day helping your coworkers learn that new method, your individual performance will go down, right? So, you would go to nine. And so, a dumb algorithm, which lots of companies are doing this exact thing, would say, ‘Hey, your productivity is down, you're fired.' Versus what they care about. What do they care about? Well, actually spending that hour dramatically improves the performance of everybody at the company. So, you want that. And this is why I really think that this individual focus of a lot of these technologies are fundamentally misguided. Because really, the value of organizations, again, its people coming together to do things they couldn't do themselves.Why is it important to consider duration of data gathering and qualitative, and subjective analysis when reviewing team performance?It's that these numbers alone certainly help focus your attention on things, but you're invariably not going to get the whole picture even understanding this real, massive depth of insight into how work is happening. What you can do now, is say, ‘hey, here's some team that is super overworked.' Or, then again, we talk about the remote work environment today. These are the teams that appear to be most impacted in terms of how they collaborate. But it doesn't tell you why those are happening. And so, that's where the subjective, qualitative side comes in and says, okay well, it turns out that we've got some huge supply chain issues. So, this team is doing something super differently than they were before. It totally makes sense. This team, it actually is concerning because they should be doing the same thing. No algorithm is ever going to figure that out.Time Code Guide:00:01:25 The big fundamental change happening in the workplace that helps companies understand their teams better00:05:25 How did data capture in social science changed and how did this flow back to management science?00:10:46 Using sports team that use analytics to extract the best performance from a team00:13:03 How the pandemic help advanced the data-driven model in improving work00:15:22 How science networks helped us to rethink how people work00:20:12 The importance of cohesion in the context of network00:24:34 Understanding how density of interaction affects the depth of the network connection00:29:36 Will aggregating enough data on software and development enable large companies to spot the network patterns predictive of bugs or defect downstream?00:32:42 How do walls and cubicles affect how we work00:34:47 Virtual happy hours and new creative ways to promote nonwork interactions00:36:45 The challenges of remote work00:41:47 Infectious disease models as model of transmission of ideas and information00:49:07 Measuring the impact of specialists and generalists in terms of breaking silos00:54:20 How can the HR team rethink its role in terms of facilitating optimal information flow in the organization00:59:12 The configuration of physical space and how it's shaping information flowShow Links:Guest Profile:Profile at Stern SpeakersProfile at M.I.T.Ben Waber on LinkedInBen Waber on TwitterHis Work:Humanyze Official WebsiteArticles on Work Design MagazinePeople Analytics: How Social Sensing Technology Will Transform Business and What It Tells Us about the Future of Work

Ben Waber is the president and co-founder of Humanyze, a workplace analytics company based out of Boston. Born out of the MIT Media Lab, the company's goal is to help business leaders improve organizational effectiveness. The company analyzes workplace interactions (over 20 billion interactions, to be exact) to see company-wide trends around how work gets done in order to inform and improve management decisions that positively impact financial performance and the employee experience. Specifically, one of the core focuses of their analysis is the impact of working from home on the workplace, HR, and digital transformation initiatives and how those affect organizational health. Ben discusses the impact of remote work on organizations across the globe, best practices, and thoughts to consider when returning to work, and the power of data to inform business decisions. About Humanyze Founded in 2011, Humanyze is a world leader in understanding team dynamics and work patterns. With over 10 years of research into organization network analysis and behavioral science, led by leaders in the world of social physics and graduates of the MIT Media Lab, they help companies understand how work gets done. Humanyze counts with a global presence spanning the US, Europe, and Asia, and are on a mission to improve the future of work.

Ben Waber, Co-Founder and President of Humanyze, discusses the impact of the pandemic on employees, sentiment around returning to the office, and adapting to the new hybrid work model.

Ben Waber agrees with me: you can't always trust your gut. But he's smart enough to explain why. Let's just say it has a lot to do with the inertia of the status quo and using data to help you love your work.

Q&A with Ben Waber, President and Co-Founder of Humanyze. Listen more to understand how data analytics, AI and other technology allows users to get a better handle on the workplace.

Office design was originally focused on getting the most productivity out of every worker, but as ideas like creativity and employee satisfaction began to gain prominence, changes needed to be made.And then the 2020 pandemic came along and changed everything.On this episode, you'll hear from Nikil Saval, Ryan Mullinex, Kate Lister, Ben Waber and Tanuj Mohan. These trailblazers are helping create and study the modern workplace.For more on the podcast go to delltechnologies.com/trailblazers 

Ben Waber, PhD, is the president and co-founder of Humanyze, a workplace analytics company. The Humanyze AI platform and one of a kind Humanyze Organizational Health Score provide the world’s most comprehensive objective measurement of the workday and the group collaboration behaviors that lead to an effective and healthy organization. Our SaaS-based analytics, benchmarks, and indicators are used by enterprises to inform and accelerate their Operational, HR, Workplace, and Digital Transformation initiatives. He is a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab, previously worked as a senior researcher at Harvard Business School, and received his Ph.D. in organizational science from MIT for his work with Alex “Sandy” Pentland’s Human Dynamics group. Waber’s work has been featured in major media outlets such as HBR, Wired, The Economist, and NPR. He has consulted for industry leaders such as LG, McKinsey & Company, and Gartner on technology trends, social networks, and organizational design. His book, People Analytics, was published by the Financial Times Press in 2013.

Subscribe to the newsletterToday's interviewees: Bhushan Sethi leads PwC's workplace strategy business and Ben Waber is the CEO of workplace analytics firm, Humanyze.Read the Humanyze research about the way work has changed since lockdown. Here's the previous episode I recorded with Ben Waber. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ben Waber, Ph.D. President and Co-Founder of Humanyze defines organizational health and describes why it is so important for leadership development. He also shares some of the analytics and methods he uses to understand how work “gets done” and why those insights are critical for team development and leadership. Finally, Dr. Waber shares the key takeaways you will learn from his keynote presentation at HCI's Learning and Leadership Development Conference, from September 21-22, 2020. Register for the conference today: https://www.hci.org/2020LLD

Joanna really misses her office. Taking Zoom calls from the kitchen in her dimly lit Brooklyn apartment doesn’t compare to her bright, open office filled with friendly coworkers. In this episode of How To!, Ben Waber, an organizational scientist, co-founder of Humanyze, and author of People Analytics, tells us how to use our home office to our advantage. It’s easy to spend all day chained to your computer, but Ben says we need to find ways to take breaks and foster human interaction. After all, chats around the water cooler—or virtual coffee dates—actually boost productivity. And if you’re Joanna, a midday bath might be where you come up with your best ideas. What are your toughest challenges during the pandemic? And what have you found is working for you? Leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001. We’re collecting your problems and solutions for our recurring Quarantine Q&A. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence. Sign up now to listen and support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joanna really misses her office. Taking Zoom calls from the kitchen in her dimly lit Brooklyn apartment doesn’t compare to her bright, open office filled with friendly coworkers. In this episode of How To!, Ben Waber, an organizational scientist, co-founder of Humanyze, and author of People Analytics, tells us how to use our home office to our advantage. It’s easy to spend all day chained to your computer, but Ben says we need to find ways to take breaks and foster human interaction. After all, chats around the water cooler—or virtual coffee dates—actually boost productivity. And if you’re Joanna, a midday bath might be where you come up with your best ideas. What are your toughest challenges during the pandemic? And what have you found is working for you? Leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001. We’re collecting your problems and solutions for our recurring Quarantine Q&A. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence. Sign up now to listen and support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An innovative leader in the field of people analytics, Ben Waber discusses the creative ways companies can unleash the full potential of their employees. Through data, companies can devise new management techniques, adjust the physical environment, and even re-design the employee experience to improve performance at all levels. Companies already have mountains of data available to them through ID badge scans, emails, meeting assignments and much more. Driven by a passion to help companies interpret this data, Ben Waber has created a company that uses AI to simplify the numbers and help leaders make better decisions.In this interview, Ben talks about the creative environment at MIT. He explains how analytics can be used to inform company-wide decisions, understand how teams are working together, and improve individual career development. Ben also describes how the data can help us better understand bias and influence decision making. Finally, Ben talks about the future implementation of the technology and the ethical questions it may raise about employee and user privacy.Ben Waber is President and Co-Founder of Humanyze, a behavior analytics company. For over 15 years, Ben has studied, researched, and implemented new technology to better understand human behavior.

Keynote speaker and writer Ryan Estis interviews 12 Geniuses CEO Don MacPherson for a recap of the podcast’s first season. They discuss why Don chose the theme of “Change” for Season One, what was learned during the 13 episodes, and who makes up the podcast audience.Ryan and Don cover how the podcast got started, the differences in interviewing someone you know versus someone you have never met, the importance of doing interviews in person, and some of Don’s favorite episodes. They also discuss what surprised Don while creating Season One.Finally, Ryan and Don dive into what is ahead for the 12 Geniuses podcast. Season Two will feature 12 more geniuses with insights to share on topics such as cybersecurity, designing more humane jails, carbon capture techniques, the creative process in art, disruptive transportation, and how human resources is using data to improve employee performance. They also talk about why Don created the “12 Geniuses Leadership Moments” (three-minute profiles of historic leaders - that are airing as mini-podcasts over the summer).Confirmed Season Two guests include NYT and WSJ bestselling author Daniel Pink, cybersecurity expert Max Heinemeyer, rocket scientist and aerospace engineer Dr. Anita Sengupta, legendary hip hop artist Brother Ali, correctional facilities architect Ken Ricci, and people analytics expert Ben Waber. Episode One of Season Two will be available on 9/9/2019.

The idea of universal learning aims to transform the future of education in order for each student to be totally ready for their role in the industry. But how ready are we to reinvent education? Phil Komarny, Vice President of Innovation at Salesforce.com, has been known to lead innovation and transformational applications of technology at each level. He talks about future of education through Chainscript. More than having the right data to support an analysis, getting data real time will be advantageous in many ways. We know for a fact that wearable technologies have been around to track and provide real time data. Dr. Ben Waber, President and CEO of Humanyze, is an expert in people analytics, collaboration, and wearable technology. He talks about sensor data and walks us through the benefits of this technology, particularly in the workplace, and how it provides data with an unprecedented level of accuracy in order for companies to see what’s going on internally. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!Here’s How »Join the Take The Lead community today:DrDianeHamilton.comDr. Diane Hamilton FacebookDr. Diane Hamilton TwitterDr. Diane Hamilton LinkedInDr. Diane Hamilton YouTubeDr. Diane Hamilton Instagram

In this episode: What new kinds of sensor data can tell us about the merits of open offices and remote work. Do open offices foster more collaboration, or just more frustration? Should managers encourage employees to telecommute, or is a scattered workforce less cohesive? The conventional wisdom on these issues swings like a pendulum, and for managers the only constant seems to be anxiety that they’re not getting it right. But new technology may offer some real answers. Ben Waber, a former MIT Media Lab doctoral student, is president and CEO of Humanyze, a Boston startup making software and sensors that give companies a better picture of how people actually work. He says the data the company gathers can predict employee performance and fuel a new form of “people analytics.” This episode is sponsored by Citrix, the company powering the digital transformation inside organizations of all sizes. In the second half of the show, Citrix's chief security strategist Kurt Roemer says technology can help sustain work environments and policies that serve workers of all backgrounds and needs. Business Lab is hosted by Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau, the CEO and publisher of MIT Technology Review. The show is produced by Wade Roush, with editorial help from Mindy Blodgett. Music by Merlean, from Epidemic Sound.

In this talk Ben Waber, PhD and CEO will look at how technology and data are playing a rising role in identifying how people work and the hidden communication patterns within organizations. People analytics is the science of using behavioral data to understand how people work and change how organizations are managed- what if we could use this science to eliminate bias? What does the data say about how men and women behave at work? Take a look at the most cutting-edge research in the space, including what happened when we used sensors to compare the work habits of men and women at the world's largest companies.

Why are we being watched more and more by technology, including in the workplace? Is it an aid to hard work, or prelude to oppression? Wiretap co-founder Jeff Schumann creates software that monitors employee activity on workplace messaging apps. He says his technology is good, and can protect employees from backstabbing co-workers.But to many, this technology has sinister potential. Professor Andre Spicer at Cass Business School in London says it is a reminder for employees of who is boss.Ben Waber, president of a firm called Humanyze, tells presenter Ed Butler it has huge potential when it comes to spotting the previously unknown patterns of good productivity. Even having bigger lunch tables in the office canteen can increase output, as workers have more opportunity to chat and share ideas, he says.(Photo: Giant surveillance desk with monitors. Credit: Getty Images)

If someone told you that his company was all about “people analytics,” would you understand what that meant? How about if he added: “Sort of like *Moneyball* for business”? Bet that would make things crystal clear--at least for the multitude of baseball and/or Brad Pitt and/or Michael Lewis fans out there! That is, in fact, how Humanyze's CEO, Ben Waber, described his firm to Continuum SVP Kevin Young, in the most recent installment of *The Resonance Test.* In a sprightly digital dialogue, the two talk through such topics as: the use of data in the modern work environment, how privacy functions in Humanyze's work, and why the U.S. should look into adopting EU privacy standards. If you want to a glimpse into the future of the work place, you should pay attention to this podcast, and note when Waber says: • “You don't care what Bob's doing at 2:30 on Tuesday. No one cares. What you care about is: ‘What's our most productive team do differently that everybody else? How much does management talk to the sales team?' Those really big questions. That's what we care about.” • “Humans, by our very nature, we're not recording devices. We're also incredibly inaccurate when I even ask you questions about these things. *Who'd you talk to yesterday?* Only about 30% accurate.” • “Essentially our customers use our technology to inject *real* intelligence into all their different people decisions.” • “We give people consent forms, that show them the actual database tables we collect. That's a legal contract between us and our users. That's important especially in the U.S., to give people legal guarantees around what their rights are with the data.” • “Because our technology enables you to literally, at a millisecond level, understand what's going on, you can act that much more quickly.” • “Just figuring out where somebody is at any given time is not that hard. And you can see how that can be abused—which is why having regulations out in front of that is really critical.” • “Our average opt-in rate is over 93%, so we've gotten quite good at rolling this out. But... you have to take your time, and you have to be *transparent* about what you're doing with this data.” Host: Pete Chapin Editor: Kyp Pilalas Producer: Ken Gordon

Dr. Ben Waber is the CEO and co-founder of Humanyze. He is a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab, previously worked as a senior researcher at Harvard Business School, and received his Ph.D. from MIT for his work with Alex “Sandy” Pentland’s Human Dynamics group. Waber’s work has been featured in major media outlets such as Wired, The Economist, and NPR. He has consulted for industry leaders such as LG, McKinsey & Company, and Gartner on technology trends, social networks, and organizational design. His book, People Analytics, was published by the Financial Times Press in 2013.

Ben Waber is the CEO of Humanyze, a firm that spun pioneering work from MIT into the world's leading people analytics business. Their technology can track how your office is working. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Matt Steinberg welcomes Humanyze CEO, Ben Waber, to discuss the growing science around people analytics -- the "big data" underlying day-to-day workplace interactions. Matt and Ben discuss how technology (e.g., 'next-gen' bluetooth and sensor-enabled employee ID badges) allows employers to collect and analyze impactful electronic and physical workplace data; how employers are effectively using people analytics to measure which employees/teams are interacting/collaborating, and where a lack of interaction/collaboration is hindering performance; the increased role people analytics should play before employers test/make key decisions on issues such as compensation, reporting relationships, and office configuration; and how people analytics can help frame thoughtful discussions around broader workplace issues, including gender bias and remote workforces. http://www.akerman.com/podcasts/disclaimer/workedup.html

Is the future of HR, IT and FM at the mercy of people data analytics? This episode Ian speaks with Ben Waber, ex of MIT and CEO of Humanyze about their IoT-enabled ‘Moneyball for business’ approach… essential listening. Huge thanks to the British Institute of Facilities Management for allowing Ian to interview Ben before his ThinkFM keynote in June. Enjoy!

Discover powerful hidden social "levers" and networks within your company. Then, use that knowledge to make slight "tweaks" that dramatically improve both business performance and employee fulfillment! Drawing on insights from his book, People Analytics, MIT Media Lab innovator Ben Waber shows how sensors and analytics can give you an unprecedented understanding of how your people work and collaborate, and actionable insights for building a more effective, productive, and positive organization. Ben Waber, President and CEO, Humanyze; Visiting Scientist, MIT Media Lab  

In this podcast we take a look back on some of the interviews I did in 2016 and listen to some of the past guests talk about key issues they feel are shaping the workplace of the future. In 2016 I had a lot of great conversations with a wide variety of senior leaders. Last week I took a look back on the 2016 podcast interviews and discussed six lessons I learned from my guests last year. This week I wanted to let the guests speak for themselves, so I gathered up some highlight clips from last year’s podcast interviews and put them into one podcast mashup.The subjects range from how innovation is changing to automation and AI to the six reasons why we work. The first interview I looked back on was the one with Jeff Wong, the Global Chief Innovation Officer at EY. In our discussion we talked about innovation during a disruptive era and one of the main points was about how innovation is changing. Wong said he believes that innovation is changing a lot and it is really driving companies to think about themselves differently. Companies are now forced to pay attention to things like training, environmental and community impact and inclusive capitalism in order to be successful. Wong says companies need to think about whether they are “training a workforce for the future, or are you training a workforce to do the function of today”. He believes that his job as a Chief Innovation Officer requires him to “do old things in new ways”. One of the fascinating topics I touched on with a few guests last year, was the subject of People Analytics and how it is revolutionizing the way we think about employee experience. Ben Waber, the President and CEO of Humanyze, talked to me about what makes up people analytics. He said that while survey data is useful, “it is not data about behavior, it is data about perception”. Because you cannot survey people every single day, you lose the ability to accurately get a picture of the day to day workings of your office. With People Analytics you are able to get real world data in real time which allows you to fix issues as you go instead of waiting for the end of the year. Ellyn Shook, the Chief Leadership & Human Resources Officer at Accenture, talked about the problem with annual employee reviews which points to why the topic of people analytics is so important for the success of a company. She says the problem with annual reviews is just that; they are only done once a year. She says “very little works in annual cycles anymore”. We are a society that is used to immediate feedback, so telling employees to wait a year to see how they are doing at work is not realistic. Shook says that her company realized that they were putting a lot of time and effort into their annual reviews, but they were receiving very little value from them because they “spent too much time talking about their people, instead of talking to the people”. In order to get the best results you need “forward looking, real time and on demand” data and feedback for your employees. Employee experience was another hot topic I discussed with several guests last year. Some of the guests who touched on the subject were Monika Fahlbusch, the Chief Employee Experience Officer at BMC Software, Francine Katsoudas, the Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer at Cisco and Karyn Twaronite, the Global Diversity & Inclusiveness Officer at EY. In our discussions we defined what employee experience is, how large companies are able to scale employee experience across a wide range of languages, locations and cultures, and the importance of focusing on diversity and inclusiveness. Fahlbusch says that to create employee experience you first must listen to your employees. Your employees will help you find the overarching problems, or “pain points” if you learn how to listen to them. You also need to look at your individual company and figure out what experiences you should be focusing on. To do that you need to understand things about your company such as what are your values, what are you trying to celebrate, where are you trying to go in the future? Katsoudas talked about scaling employee experience across hundreds of countries and thousands of employees. She says Cisco’s belief is “one size fits one”, meaning they understand that the ideal employee experience in India will not be the same as that in England or the US and that’s okay. Twaronite gave an example of why it is so important for senior leaders of companies to not just list out the available benefits for employees, but they should also be role models who walk the walk. She shared a story about the EY Chairman and CEO, who was giving the keynote for a company wide event, and during his speech he apologized to everyone and explained that he would be leaving the event early in order to honor a commitment he made to his daughter. In doing this he was transparent, authentic and helped employees feel that the work flexibility benefit was not just a bunch of empty words. One subject that I am always fascinated with is technology dealing with robots, AI and automation. Three guests I spoke with who got into this topic of discussion were Robin Hanson, Thomas Davenport and Mihir Shukla. Robin Hanson, who is the author of “The Age of Em”, the Associate professor of Economics at George Mason University and the Research Associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University, spoke about the extremely futuristic topic of what an Em is. Hanson discusses the fact that there are two different scenarios that could happen to get us to a point where we have robots that are as smart as humans. One way would be to “slowly write and accumulate better software on faster and cheaper machines”. This is what we are doing now and if we continued on this path it would take several centuries to reach this point. Another way would be to port the “software” from our brains into an Em. If we find a way to do this, the Em age could happen within one century. Thomas Davenport talks about how there are two camps of people today, those who are opposed to the move towards automation and those who are embracing it. The people who are opposed are scared about the implications of automating jobs. They feel that this shift in our economy will create chaos and wipe out jobs for humans. The camp of people who are embracing it feel that automating certain jobs could be a good thing and that we will always find a way to create new jobs for humans. Davenport believes that reality is somewhere in between the two camps. Mihir Shukla talks about how software bots can complete mundane tasks, and also tackle more complicated problems as well. Many employers want their workers to complete today’s problems while thinking about tomorrow’s challenges using yesterdays technologies and approaches. Processing invoices, verifying documents, generating reports, data entry, and other mundane tasks still need to be completed, but by humans or bots? Introducing mundane and complex tasks to the digital workforce allows the human employees to think, create, discover, and innovate; basically doing things that humans do best. Other subjects that are touched on in this episode include recruiting millennials, whether or not open workspaces are the next best thing, how to identify a Superboss, the six reasons why we work, how to drive behavior change and entrepreneurs vs. freelancers. Looking back at the guests from this last year it is easy to see that there are a lot of changes happening in the workplace and I am excited to see where we go from here. I am working on lining up a great list of podcast guests for this year, so be sure to stay tuned and keep listening to the weekly future of work podcast!   (Music by Ronald Jenkees)

Ben Waber is the Founder and CEO of Humanyze, a people analytics company. He is also the author of a book titled, People Analytics: How Social Sensing Technology Will Transform Business and What it Tells Us About the Future of Work.   People analytics is a truly fascinating and exciting field that is changing the way companies test and analyze their employees, and ultimately how effectively the company is operating. Unlike the techniques that have been used in the past, such as annual surveys or polls, people analytics uses behavioral data that is collected directly from the employees in order to get a broader look at the day to day activities of a company. Ben Waber defines people analytics as “using data about what people do at work to change how a company is managed”.   Humanyze is a social sensing and analytics platform that uses sensors in employee ID badges to measure important behavioral data such as where people are in the office at any given time and the volume and speed of an employee’s voice when talking with a coworker. Gathering these types of behaviors allows companies to get a bigger picture of the ins and outs of their company and the performance and patterns of employees. It can help find issues such as causes of stress in the workplace or the mishandling of how people are rewarded. People analytics can help companies answer basic questions such as, how much time should a salesperson talk with a customer or how much time does management spend with a certain department? These seem like basic questions, but they have not been answered up until now because we haven’t had a way to collect the data that is needed to provide answers.   With people analytics we can look at the percentage of time a manager spends with their team, the amount of time employees spend with their coworkers, how people talk to each other and motion patterns. It is important to note that the sensors don’t collect individual conversations or specific data about an individual, rather they collect the data to give analysts a broad look at the company. People analytics allows data to come in and be tested constantly, as opposed to once a year with a survey. This helps companies to analyze data on an ongoing basis to allow them to make decisions and continue to adapt in a way that keeps them at the top of their industry.   This doesn’t mean that companies should stop doing surveys and polls; those are good initial steps, but using surveys alone is not as effective as they measure employee perception versus reality.   One example of a company who implemented people analytics is a call center that hired Humanyze. This call center, as with most call centers, had a huge number of employees and the goal of management was to keep as many people on the phones at one time as possible as success is measured by completed calls. Because of this, all the employees were broken up into teams and each team member had a separate lunch break. In terms of the number of people on the phone at one time, this seemed to be the most effective way to operate for the management team. However, after starting people analytics and testing they found that the performance level was nowhere near where it needed to be and employees seemed to be stressed. In the end they found that it was due to the fact that the employees were not able to talk to their fellow team members during breaks and therefore they weren’t able to vent about problem calls or get support from each other. From that data the company changed their policy to allow lunch breaks to have 15 minute overlaps for team members. This resulted in calls being completed 23% faster, lower turnover rate, less employee stress, and more cohesive teams.   Without people analytics the call center may have never figured out what their performance issue was. As Waber states, “they didn’t have the data before, so they had no reason to change”.   At this point in time there are some challenges for people analytics. It is a new concept and a lot of people are skeptical or scared of it. There is also a cost, as it requires companies to create a new type of team with analysts and data scientists as well as HR professionals and it requires certain technical updates. But the cost of ignoring people analytics far outweighs the cost of implementing it. There are already several companies, large and small, who have started using people analytics and as we proceed into the future more and more companies will join in. Waber says on average people analytics increases top line performance by 10-15%.   Waber advises companies to “Take baby steps. You don’t need to jump out ahead, but do something that makes you uncomfortable and outside of your comfort zone”. Even if you haven’t started implementing people analytics yet, Waber says, “you are not that far behind, yet. But in the next couple of years it will be harder and harder to catch up”.   What you will learn in this episode:  What is people analytics  Different types of data that organizations can collect  We look at big data and people analytics and how those two things play together  Software and hardware in people analytics  Where we are today in people analytics and where they will go in the future  Privacy issues  The growing role of data scientists and analysts   What organizations are doing in people analytics and why Links From The Episode: People Analytics On Amazon.com Humanyze.com   (Music by Ronald Jenkees)

CEO, Sociometric SolutionsComputers like numbers and there’s plenty of them around work: Presence, actions, movements, interactions, contacts, inputs, outputs, outcomes… Human Resource Management and Job Search rely more and more on data and metrics: Value, contribution, reputation, social graph, reputation, health, and all kinds of traces. Where is the value in all that data? What insights does it provide, and to whose benefit? Could we use it to find new ways of measuring, valuing and compensating all kinds of social and productive activities ?Video filmed at Lift with Fing 2014 in Marseille

What goes into the average work day? A walk to lunch, a walk to the bathroom, a few clicks through your favorite blog, a conversation by the coffee maker. These behaviors are natural aspects of office culture in the United States and they are increasingly being monitored by employers. More companies are turning to tracking devices to learn about employee behavioral patterns in the hopes of boosting productivity. This kind of data collection is just one of many new attempts to predict our behavior by monitoring how we live, work, and make purchases. Ben Waber is the president and CEO of Sociometric Solutions, a social sensing technology company that monitors employee interaction. Kenneth Cukier is co-author, along with Victor Mayer-Schonberger, of "Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think." Waber explains that his company collects gigabytes of data on each person being monitored each day. They analyze email data, online chat data, and phone call data with the consent of the employees. "The idea," Waber says, "is to really understand: How are people collaborating? How are different teams collaborating with each other and how does that relate to the strategy of the organization? And really understanding: What are the things that make people happy and productive at work?" For the first time we are able to "datafy" how employees interact and what we are learning is revealing. For instance, Culkier says, "What we found when we looked at IBM, in their famous Rüschlikon lab outside of Zurich, is that…this was the lab that was responsible for many of their Noble Prizes in the 20th century…and one of the reasons why it was so successful is that they built in, almost inadvertently, ways for employees to collaborate with each other." Waber explains that this workplace data is not just beneficial to employers: "One of the reasons why over that last year we've gotten over 90 percent participation at every company we've gone to is because people understand that these things are what make them happy and effective. But right now they have no way to show to management, 'Hey, you know what, I shouldn't eat lunch at my desk, I should be able to go out to lunch with my colleagues because actually those interactions are where I get a better understanding of what people are doing, we get new ideas, and we just kind of form a more supportive community.'" Ben Waber, president and CEO of Sociometric Solutions