Revisiting the "People Analytics Primer" Series

Directionally Correct Newsletter, The #1 People Analytics Substack

By: Cole Napper

Source

Who Needs a Primer?

Recently, all the archives of Directionally Correct newsletter — anything written over 3 months ago — turned into “Subscriber Only” content. New articles will always be free, but older content will be for paid subscribers only. Please consider subscribing to support the newsletter here:

One of the most popular series in the archive is the “People Analytics Primer” series. Many new readers may not have come across the series before. You’ll get access to this series, and more, by subscribing.

Here’s a synopsis of the series for those who are interested:

---

Article One: Data Exploration & Visualization

Source: Cole Napper

Excerpt:

Oftentimes, data analysts will skip data visualization and go straight to modeling. This explains why those data analysts don’t properly understand the output of their models, and why those models will likely not hold up to reproducibility and new data samples. Think of it like a gardener, if one does not first get their hands dirty in the soil (i.e., the data), whether or not plants grow (i.e., insights obtained) will only be due to chance, not to skill. Be the skilled analyst.

---

Article Two: How Do You Know When to Use Predictive Analytics?

Source: Cole Napper

Excerpt:

Before you know when to use predictive analytics, you must know what predictive analytics are. Whole textbooks have been written about these topics, so I am condensing and simplifying quite a bit of information. My intent is to try to make this article as accessible to the layperson as possible.

---

Article Three: Quality of Hire

Source: Cole Napper

Excerpt:

Qualitative measures, like quality of hire, are “boogie-man” metrics for some organizations. My gut tells me the reason for the hesitance is an aversion to accountability (who is responsible if there are low “quality” hires?), rather than the comfort that exists with “counting things” quantitatively (everyone agrees we hired XX number of people last quarter). I never understood this hesitance.

---

Article Four: Leadership Analytics

Source: Cole Napper

Excerpt:

How do you measure leadership? Is it behavioral? Is it an innate, ineffable quality of a select few? Is it only in the eye of the beholder? For a while, I really struggled with this question, and even quit believing leadership existed for a short period, due to the difficulty of pinning down how to measure it. That said, I’ve gotten over it, so let’s discuss practical measurements of leadership and management.

---

Article Five: Career Advice

Source: Cole Napper

Excerpt:

If you really want to do people analytics, do people analytics. I know that sounds like defining a word with a word, but it isn't. Literally no one is stopping you from learning people analytics. Be an unstoppable force and just go learn it.

---

I hope you like this article. If so, I have a few more articles coming out soon. Stay tuned. If you are interested in learning more directly from me, please connect with me on LinkedIn. 

Cole’s recent articles

• The Phoenix & The Dragon

• Why Buy When You Could Rent: SEC’s Push for Human Capital Disclosure

• Elephant Hunting: Weighing Human vs. Algorithmic Input to Decision Making

• How Do You Measure Peak Performance?

• Black Swans & People Analytics

For access to all of Cole’s previous articles, go here.