The term “Experience Economy” was first used by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, in a Harvard Business Review study, describing the booming demand from buyers for superior customer experiences (CX). To provide meaningful experiences, companies needed to understand their customers and build trusted relationships. This was achieved with the collection and analysis of the experience data. Today, the experience economy has further evolved, extending to the experiences companies create within their workplaces.

Studies have shown that the return on investment on people analytics can be as high as $13.01 for every dollar spent. On LinkedIn, the number of professionals with "People Analytics" listed as a skill has increased by >60% over the past 12 months and the Harvard Business Review identified big data as the next "management revolution". 

When a startup is in its growth phase, it undergoes various organisational growing pains. The company will undergo a structural shift — significant numbers of new employees, new departments and a changing collegial culture.

As the size of the team grows, maintaining effectiveand open communication with all employees as well as the integrity of the culture will be pivotal to the scaling process.

The era of lifetime employment at a company is over.

Leaders who can find ways to maximise the time their talent spends with them can create a powerful and sustainable competitive advantage for their companies.

Frederick Taylor’s ideas of “scientific management” caught the business world’s attention in the early 20th century, at a time when industrialisation and large-scale production technologies were being adopted.

Besides the emotional toll of losing good people, there are significant financial costs. The US Department of Labour estimates for junior positions, this can be a third of annual salary. So to lose someone earning $42,000 a year, it would cost the company $14,000 in direct training expenses and lost productivity.

You may have already noticed it, subtle changes in your office space allowing you to concentrate more. Your boss being that little bit more concerned about your professional growth. Maybe it's also gotten just that bit easier to get your application for time off approved 2017 has seen people analytics arrive "with a vengeance": this year, 69% of companies studied have been actively taking steps to improve the way they look at people data, compared to only 10-15% before.

If managers are able to effectively analyze and predict staff needs accurately, making the office environment more productive, improving career development, and implementing human resource processes should become much easier.

The increasing adoption of human resources (HR) software has helped streamline the data analytics process and expedite “social connections” by providing management with the speed to act on these real-time and actionable insights.

With this as a strong foundation for progress, 2018 promises to have some radical changes to the HR landscape.

[This post was originally published in Forbes on 9 Jun 2017]

Do you know that actively disengaged employees cost the U.S. between US$450 billion to US$550 billion each year in lost productivity? According to a Gallup report, they are more likely to steal from their companies, negatively influence their coworkers, miss workdays, and drive customers away. It all comes down to the lack of employee engagement. 

This post was first published in Forbes on 16 Oct 2016.