Nathaniel M. Glasser and Frank C. Morris, Jr., Members of the Firm, and Katherine Smith, Associate, in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, co-authored an article in the Thomson Reuters Westlaw Journal, titled “Big Data, People Analytics and Employment Decisions: The Rewards and Often Overlooked Risks.”
Following is an excerpt (see below to download the full version in PDF format):
“Big data analysis” and its subset, “people analytics” (along with its alternate forms and titles), have become buzzwords in the business world. This should come as no surprise, given the exponential developments we have seen in technology and processing power over the past 20 years and the popularity of analytical success stories like “Moneyball.” (Some have even referred to people analytics as the Moneyball of human resources.)
We now have the ability to gather and synthesize ever-growing data sets, allowing us to identify trends that were previously physically or practically impossible to spot.
Generally, big data analytics focuses on examining large data sets to gather useful information to help organizations make more-informed business decisions. Businesses are capitalizing on this newfound ability by overhauling the ways in which they source and evaluate candidates, analyze attrition risks, optimize individual and team performance, identify safety risks, provide wellness guidance and resources, and much more.