In this episode, John Petrusa, the Human Resources Director at Wiers, talks about the intriguing field of analytics in HR. John shares his journey into analytics and emphasizes the merging of analytics and people. He highlights the importance of statistics in leveraging HR data for organizational success. Additionally, John discusses the significance of storytelling in data analytics and its impact on businesses. He also delves into the servant leadership model and how it can revolutionize the way organizations operate. This episode encourages HR professionals to become advocates rather than mere enforcers and offers valuable insights for using HR analytics to help organizations thrive.
John Petrusa's career trajectory in human resources has been distinguished by his pursuit of excellence. With a foundation in psychology and a Master's in Human Resources from Loyola University Chicago, he's honed his skills through key positions such as Chief HR Strategist at Taylor Group Insurance Agency, fostering a full-service HR consulting practice, and as an Adjunct Instructor at Loyola University Chicago. Currently serving as the Human Resources Director at Wiers in Indianapolis, Indiana, since May 2023. John leads HR strategies, utilizing his extensive background to make a significant impact on the organization's workforce, culture, and performance. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics Podcast:
- John's fascination with math and statistics from high school led him to explore analytics in Human Resources.
- Quality control has allowed John to apply statistical knowledge to HR, enabling him to demonstrate the value of HR to an organization.
- Understanding the “why” behind red flags in analytics is crucial for improvement and problem-solving.
- Trust, empathy, and autonomy are essential components of high-performing organizations.
- HR professionals should embrace HR analytics and compelling stories.
- Being an advocate, rather than an HR cop, can lead to success.
Resources:
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Quotables:
- 08:27 - “And what makes up good research is good data. And the validity of good data. And so, part of the class was helping students understand what that is and what those scores are telling them about what is good research so that they could take that research and apply it to their organizations. So being able to understand what statistics is really telling you about validity is important.”
- 10:20 - “My message to my students was that if you want to sit at the big table… Everybody wants to sit at the big table. They want to be involved in the room where it happens. So I said, finance people are talking about forecasting and projections, marketing, sales forecasting, projections. You have got to be able to do that if you're sitting there at the table. So talking in the language of statistics, forecasting and projecting where the HR world is for an organization is critical to being able to be accepted, in my opinion, at the big table. So that's the language of businesses data.”
- 12:00 - “So [HR] can track all that data and project out into the future where that's likely to go. How many males, how many females, how many ethnicities and all like that to be able to project out what that demographic picture's gonna look like for our future. And then for me, I would like to take that and expand that sort of analytics to include things like skills. So skills inventory within my organization, how many technicians, how many practitioners, how many individual contractors, what are their skill levels today. And I'm projecting out into the future what that need is going to be.”
- 19:05 - “I think it's just simply called Servant Leadership. And it's about creating this organizational structure around an inverted triangle. So most organizations picture a triangle with the CEO at the top of the pyramid, and the lesser people at the bottom of the pyramid and Greenleaf said “no, that's not the way it's supposed to work”. The CEOs or the leadership of organizations need to exist so that the rest of the organization can function in a way that serves customers at its top. Because that's where the magic happens.”
- 25:26 - “But the point is that I see very many people who don't understand that they've got the power to solve problems, whether it's HR or whether it's sales, finance, customer service. They don't feel like they've got the power to be able to fix things, which is a shame in my opinion. So for me, in my HR team, I've always told people that they've got more ability than perhaps they even know, even see in themselves. And so that issue of empowerment within that servant leadership model is a powerful driver.”