The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR Build - The Metrics That Actually Matter in HR: Jessica Zwaan (Author, Built For People)
Jessica Zwaan joined us again to unpack the metrics that actually matter in HR today.
We talked about the three buckets of metrics every People Leader should use, why the RANS test is a better way to measure engagement, and the one metric to rule them all (ELTV:CAC).
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(04:33) Metrics and Visualization: Where People Analytics Stands Today
(05:41) Why HR Has Talked About Analytics for Years But Still Struggles
(08:12) The Double-Edged Sword of AI in People Analytics
(10:15) LLMs Are Great at Cleanup, Not Complex Analysis
(12:04) What Good People Analytics Looks Like in Practice
(13:44) Health, Operational, and Success Metrics Explained
(16:28) Vanity Metrics HR Teams Should Avoid
(18:12) The Case Against ENPS (Engagement Net Promoter Score)
(21:05) Why You Can—and Should—Measure the “Unmeasurable”
(24:15) The First Step in Building a Metrics-Led HR Culture
(27:23) Why Manual Data Work is Still Essential
(29:24) The Importance of Defining Critical Numbers
(32:05) A Real Example: Visualizing Comp Data to Drive Strategy
(34:12) Jessica’s Beef with Pie Charts (and Why You Should Care)
(37:29) Favorite Metrics: Interview-to-Performance Correlation & RANS Test
(42:45) Why ELTV to CAC Payback Should Be HR’s North Star Metric
(47:43) Commercial Effectiveness Through People Metrics
(48:13) Tech Stack Tips for Getting Started with HR Data
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Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.