Data Mining Moves To Human Resources

theodp writes "Just when you thought annual reviews couldn't get worse, BusinessWeek reports that HR departments at companies like Microsoft and IBM are starting to use mathematical analysis to determine the value of each employee. At an undisclosed Internet company, analysis of (non-verbal) communications was used to produce a circle to represent each employee — those determined to generate or pass along valuable info were portrayed as large and dark-colored circles ('thought leaders' and 'networked curators'), while those with small and pale circles were written off as not adding a hell of a lot. 'You have to bring the same rigor you bring to operations and finance to the analysis of people,' explains Microsoft's Rupert Bader. Hey, who could argue with what Quants did for finance?"

Comments

Next up: Collateral Employee Obligations

[meist3r]

In which you measure the derived value of employees and sell those as part of your stock portfolio. Then a ratings agency gives you a denominated value for your most productive employees and you re-sell those.

I believe quantifying employee "importance" by the number of email conversations they had and who read what they wrote is pretty silly. Soon they'll fire all their network admins because they all are represented by small-ish pale circles that usually reside in some dark basement bureau.

Can business get any more dehumanizing? I don't think so. I at least wouldn't want to work at a company like that. From TFA:

"You have to bring the same rigor you bring to operations and finance to the analysis of people," says Rupert Bader, director of workforce planning at Microsoft

Can you say fucking stupid, kids? Humans are not machines (at least not yet), they have bad days and bad weeks and some have bad decades (imagine your child dies). Evaluating them through "rigorous" methodological measures is pure idiocy.

Re:Next up: Collateral Employee Obligations

[meist3r]

Oh so Steve Jobs right now is probably the most valuable asset of Apple Inc. right? I mean if he returned in a few months time (which I doubt) they'd go "Ohh Steve ... yeah ... sorry but you know your circle is rather pale and small now, we don't really know how to fit you into our business anymore."? No he would return to a high valued position and take the helm again. This whole system is already irrational trying to fit it into mathematical categories to me just sounds ridiculous.

How many people have lost jobs because their boss was having a bad day, or a bad week?

Yeah, but how many have KEPT their job despite having a bad day, or a bad week? Because their boss was an insightful human being that knew he shouldn't judge his employees on basis of statistical performance.

Re:Next up: Collateral Employee Obligations

[meist3r]

Amen brother. Coincidentally, aren't these the same companies who never seem to come up with something original?

Maybe because they always fire the wrong people. That guy that hangs out at the water cooler all day and spends half his work hours developing some strange project of his will probably revolutionize the entire industry one day simply because he had all that creative time going. On top of that even though his skills for his job aren't stellar he keeps the morale up and the others going harder because he's such a nice guy and keeps the overall mood in the office on a positive level. Meanwhile, you're complaining that your worker drones, that do exactly as they are told and don't even have ambition to strive for anything else, aren't the innovators that you want them to be. Weird.

Re:Not necessarily bad thing

[MrNaz]

From: bob@company.com
To: all-user-list@company.com
Subject: Good luck

Close your eyes and imagine a well. Then imagine yourself tossing a coin into the well. Now forward this message to at least 5 of your friends within the company and HR will reward you with elevated quanta metrics and a payrise.