People Analytics: How Social Sensing Technology Will Transform Business and What It Tells Us about the Future of Work

Ben Waber

Apr 2013 · FT Press

About this ebook

Discover powerful hidden social "levers" and networks within your company... then, use that knowledge to make slight "tweaks" that dramatically improve both business performance and employee fulfillment! In People Analytics, MIT Media Lab innovator Ben Waber shows how sensors and analytics can give you an unprecedented understanding of how your people work and collaborate, and actionable insights for building a more effective, productive, and positive organization. Through cutting-edge case studies, Waber shows how:

• Changing the way call center employees spent their breaks increased performance by 25% while significantly reducing stress
• Quantifying the failure of marketing and customer service to communicate led to a more cohesive and profitable organization
• Tweaking the balance of in-person and electronic communication can enhance the value of both
• Sensor data can help you discover who your internal experts really are
• Identifying employees involved in "creative" behaviors can help you promote innovation throughout your business
• Sensors and simulations can help you optimize your sick-day policies
• Measuring informal interactions can improve the chances that a merger, acquisition, or "mega-project" will succeed

Drawing on his cutting-edge work at MIT and Harvard, Waber addresses crucial issues ranging from technology to privacy, revealing what will be possible in a few years, and what you can achieve right now. In bringing the power of analytics to organizational development, he offers immense new opportunities to everyone with responsibility for workplace performance.

About the author

Ben Waber is President and CEO of Sociometric Solutions, a management services firm that uses social sensing technology. He is also a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab, where he received his Ph.D. He was previously Senior Researcher at Harvard Business School.

Waber’s work has been featured in Wired, the New York Times, on NPR, and he has given invited talks at Google, EMC, and Samsung. His research was selected for the Harvard Business Review ’s List of Breakthrough Ideas and the Technology Review’s Top 10 Emerging Technologies.