January 2019 - London HR and People Analytics Meetup featuring Mckinsey, GSK and more

Originally posted in 2018

To register for the next London HR and People Analytics on 16 January 2019, please click here.

Throughout 2018, the London HR and People Analytics meetup group has really taken off. We've hosted dozens of HR and non-HR data speakers, sharing practical and real data stories, growing a grassroots community dedicated not only to improving evidence-based/data-driven people decision-making, but bringing in the techniques and evidence used in other data industries.

I'm delighted to announce that we're going to kick off 2019 with the same rhythm. On the 16 January, we will start the 2019 event series with Keith McNulty from Mckinsey talking us through his experience of doing network analyses. Those of you who follow Keith will know he is not only an experienced HR analytics thought leader, but an incredibly practical and technical practitioner, and we look forward to him talking the stage.

We also welcome Andrea Schirru, People Analyst at GSK to the stage. Andrea is a familiar face at the meetups, and he will be taking us through how GSK are carrying out survivor analyses.

Following on from our belief that the people analytics industry shouldn't grow in silo, we are excited that Stylianos Kampakis will also be taking the stage. Stylianos is a highly experienced data scientist, who will be talking us through some data science examples from the sports and branding data industries. We look forward to a thought-provoking talk that might spark new ideas in our HR and People analytics sphere.

Finally, for those interested in the HR Analytics ThinkTank research, I will be making a few brief announcements, including announcing new university partners and researchers, and the topics we will be covering throughout 2019, in case anyone would like to contribute.

How has the London (and Leeds) HR Analytics meetup group grown over 2018

"a grassroots community dedicated not only to improving data-driven people decision-making"

All available recordings from previous sessions can be viewed for free by signing into the HR Analytics ThinkTank Forum.

There have been many highlights during 2018. We have been hosted by Brydie Lear's People Analytics team, featuring talks by ING people data scientists John Tindel and Veerle van den Akker on text analyses and using algorithms to improve org design. At the same session we had Liz Moorcroft, Data Scientist at Aviva's Customer Analytics team, talk us through her use of ensemble modelling. (Sorry guys, this was before we started recording the actual sessions - we promise to record you next time.)

We've also hosted Gary Munro, Head of People Insights, talking us through Sky's use of data (recording here), as well as Yewande Oni, People Data Scientist at Unilever, taking us through a practical text analytics example (recording here). At the same session, Holly Smith, data scientist in the banking sector gave a talk about some key principles of data science (recording here).

In addition to the London sessions, there is a growing meetup community happening in Leeds! At the Leeds sessions, driven by Professor Andy Charlwood, who is also one of the HR Analytics ThinkTank's academic leads, a wide range of discussions have taken place in the north of the UK! We've seen talks by Harry Metcalf from the Nestle People Analytics team on absence metrics (recording here), by Heather Kemp, Head of William Hill's People Analytics team on their strategy (recording here), presentations by the NHS's Antony Williamson, and by Dr Sharna Wiblen from Sydney Business School, as well as non-HR data science talks by Tom Forth from the Leeds Open Data Institute (recording here).

Moving forward in 2019

If you would like to join a meetup community, follow @HRAnalyticsThinkTank or join www.forum.hranalyticsthinktank.com and we'll keep you up to date. If you would like to host a meetup, we'd be happy to help you find speakers from the HR Analytics ThinkTank global community, or include your event on our mailing list if that helps.

Either way, thank you for everyone that supported the meetups this year. We look forward to seeing you all in 2019!