Our year-end wrap-up of the top A-Z HR pros continues to highlight experts in the Human Resources field that we believe are helping influence and shape the trends and growth of the HR function thanks to their innovative solutions, mainly in HR analytics and strategy – a topic that is extremely hot right now due to the shift in how HR operations are now being run.

Workforce analytics are now better than ever, but organizations need to properly access them, align their information with decision-making, and act accordingly

According to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016,

“As technology makes data-driven HR decision-making a possibility, 77% of executives now rate people analytics as a key priority, up slightly from last year. In response, companies are building people analytics teams, rapidly replacing legacy systems, and combining separate analytics groups within HR into one strategic function. In 2016, 51% of companies are now correlating business impact to HR programs, up from 38% in 2015.  44% are now using workforce data to predict business performance, up from 29% last year.” 

So as you can see, with the field of HR becoming much more strategic, these data driven CHRO’s are paving the way to find better insights into workforce analytics and push for change in the strategic direction of business.

Whether they’re eliminating traditional performance reviews, improving employee engagement or putting more women in upper management, female HR leaders are making a difference

A positive difference you will see between our top A-Z gurus in the previous quarter and our top A-Z gurus in Q4 2017 is a better balance of the genders.  Looking back on our Q3 list, by including only 4 females within our top twenty-six spots, we recognized how much we had unfairly represented the great HR women leaders who are currently guiding and impacting how the future of human resources in business should be run.  Therefore, we have made a conscious effort to keep our top spots well balanced with the most relevant men and women in the HR industry and we will continue to do so for every quarter going forward.

We still had some great influencers in the last quarter and we can’t wait for you to see who we have chosen for Q4, but we couldn’t end this year without mentioning Josh Bersin, Principle and Founder of Bersin & Associates, acquired by Deloitte (Bersin by Deloitte), who is undisputedly one of the most recognized HR leaders whose expertise in HR performance and tech has helped influence the trends and growth of the HR industry for many years.  If you are not following J Bersin on social media already, you should be.

Another thing to note is that due to the booming business and tech scene currently in the Baltic States, we decided to highlight and incorporate 10 HR experts from the Nordic region into our Q4 list.

Can HR take the lead in a disrupted and evolving business world? Absolutely.

Despite the fact most of the HR experts in our A-Z teams already have a large following, we hope that we will continue to see plenty more inspiring content on LinkedIn from the likes of Josh Bersin and the other HR experts that we have listed throughout 2017 to help motivate the rest of us in the way we run our own HR functions.

We would love to know what you think of our Q4 2017 HR Guru’s so make sure to leave us a comment and stay tuned to find out which inspiring HR Guru’s will make it onto the next A-Z list in Q1 2018!

Liene Atholde, Human Capital & Diversity Lead at Accenture

Josh Bersin, Principal and Founder, Bersin by Deloitte

Patrick Coolen, Manager HR analytics and strategic workforce planning at ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

Deepa Damodaran, Publications Manager and Editor, Excellence Essentials at HR.com

Daiga Ergle, Senior Vice President Human Resources at airBaltic

Jonathan Ferrar, HR | Strategy | Analytics | CEO Ochre Rock | Co-Author The Power of People

Peter Gold, Principal Consultant, Talent Acquisition thought leader, storyteller, AI prognosticator, ultra marathon runner

Tom Haak, Director at HR Trend Institute

Ilze Indrēvica, Helping in Leadership and career development at AS Swedbank

Asta Juodeskaite, Director HR Baltics, Lindorff

Santa Līce-Krūze, HR of the Draugiem Group

Vlada Liashchenko, Head of Recruitment

Kevin Moore SWP, Director Human Capital Analytics at Fannie Mae

Nicole Norris, Sr. Director Human Resources Axovant Sciences

Evita Osīte, 2nd degree connection2nd Head of HR Division at Rīgas piena kombināts

Ineta Portnova, Executive Search & HR Consulting

Shelly (Wenyan) Qian, Talent Acquistion| Recruitment Services in Healthcare & Life Science Industry

Thomas Hedegaard Rasmussen, GM People Analytics, Insights & Experience

Carolyn (Stoll) Sokol, President at CompareHRIS.com / PEOcompare.com

Jorrit Van Der Togt, Executive Vice President HR Strategy & Learning

Kaspars Upmanis, CEO & Co-founder at CakeHR

Manfred Kets de Vries, Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at INSEAD Psychoanalyst/ Author/Speaker

Ben Waber, President and CEO at Humanyze

 Joao Xavier, connection3rd Diretor de Estratégia e Gestão de Pessoas (Administrativo, RH e Operações)

Ekaterina (Durkhisanova) Yachmeneva, HR Director at Dynatech Latvia

Juris Zalāns, Founder & CEO with Benefits / Partner @ SmartHR/Latvija

Robyn.

PS.

So stay tuned to find out which inspiring HR Guru’s will make it onto the next A-Z list in Q1 2018!

Bonus Stuff 🎅

Did you know that millennials are relying on music more for a better workday? Several formal studies have concluded noisy environments cause stress, whereas melodious sounds — music, results in the same pleasurable release of dopamine.

Music affects our moods in detectable, life-improving ways even if we’re not conscious of it. This is why we’re so fond of our tunes while we’re traveling — and, yes, why so many millennials turn to music to make the workday better!

That’s why we at CakeHR created this collaborative music playlist on Spotify and we’re asking you to join this growing community of melomans by adding your favs 🙂

HR VIBES by CakeHR

* * *

There is a subtle difference between a good and a great HR management software. Know how we deliver nothing but “Great” by starting your 14-day free trial at CakeHR!