AUGUST - 2022HR TECH OUTLOOK8ZOOMING OUT: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEOPLE ANALYTICS AND WORKFORCE MANAGEMENTRob Etheridge, Managing Director, Global Head of Workforce Management and Analytics, Deutsche BankByI wasn't sure what to expect as my wife and I logged into Zoom for the `lock-down edition' of my family games night a few months back. Each household had the assignment to come up with a game that could be played across the screen ­ this had the potential to become the most painful family reunion ever. However, my mind often goes back to a game my brother came up with: he shared an extreme Google Earth close-up of a famous world site, a pixelated view of some seemingly random patch of earth, and then, frame by frame, zoomed out to the point where someone would start screaming the name of the place to claim the point. The Eiffel Tower! Pyramids of Giza! The Grand Canyon! You can always count on the competitiveness of my family to make a games night work.As I contemplate how to continue to capture the value of People Analytics, I sometimes feel I'm back in that game, at maximum zoom, staring at the giant pixels that represent the tools, insights and initiatives at play. It's easy to stay there, looking at everything close up, absorbed by the complexity and critical nature of the deliverables. But that's a dangerous game for both leader and business ­ context is everything. As we all know, `zooming out' to understand the whys and the wherefores is critical for decision making, setting direction and defining purpose.It's within this frame that I approach the relationship between People Analytics and Workforce Management, which includes disciplines such as Workforce Planning. I've noticed that these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, or at least conflated to the point of being indistinguishable. Which comes first? Are they the same thing? Why do these disciplines often seem to `grow up' together in HR departments? Let's zoom out to take in a wider vista.First off we need to align on terminology. And a disclaimer at this point that I recognise the upcoming terms can mean many different things to different people, which is half the challenge. But here's one way of thinking about them...Workforce Management: a set of disciplines that enable an organisation to optimally manage the resources that make up its workforce. Fundamentally, this is an organisation and process-level concern, not an employee-level one. The activities can range in nature, from operational ­ the processes, tools and frameworks that guide workforce movements in, out and around the organisation ­ to the strategic ­ planning workforce capacity and capability based on a future view business strategy, or designing Rob Etheridge
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