In December 2024 we launched a bold new initiative - the People Analytics Network Census (PANC). The idea was to use Organizational Network Analysis to map the global People Analytics network and then to analyze it to deliver insights back to the community and to help both the community overall as well as individuals through those insights. We were thrilled with the enthusiastic response of the People Analytics community - many people have reached out to offer their help and to express their support and excitement. In the ~3 weeks that the PANC was open over 450 people submitted a response and more than 3,000 individuals were nominated at least once.
Today we are excited to share the first results from the PANC but before we dive into the details we wanted to emphasize that these are just that…the first results. There are a number of other active workstreams in process. One of these is the important research that Matthew Diabes from NYU is conducting. For those that don’t know Matthew, he is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Human Capital Analytics and Technology in NYU's School of Professional Studies (Human Capital Management). Matt earned his PhD in Organizational Behavior and Theory from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and his research is motivated by the central question, "What conditions enable positive collaborative relationships to emerge, and how are they maintained?". In addition to Matt’s research we are also planning an open invite webinar where we will share insights around the informal communities in People Analytics and how they compare as well as personal network reports for everyone who opted in to receive one. Towards the end of this post we share some more details about these and other workstreams!
Today though we are sharing a summary of the work we have done around influencer identification. As promised at launch, we have identified a set of People Analytics influencers based on the results of the census. It was important to us that anyone that we named in this type of analysis had provided their express positive consent so one of the questions in the PANC asked for this consent. Over 85% of the respondents answered yes to this question. For more details on our approach to privacy please find a link to the Privacy Policy here.
The purpose of this blog post is to share the results of this influencer analysis and identification with the community. Below we outline five groups of individuals:
- Top 20 Overall People Analytics Influencers Overall
- Top 3 Networking Influencers
- Top 3 Mentorship Influencers
- Top 3 Technical Influencers
- Top 10 Influencers from Outside of the United States
For each group we firstly explain our methodology and then provide a summary of the identified individuals. We wanted to make sure that we captured some of the broader sentiment that exists among this group so we asked each of them to provide a short quote that sums up their passion for the People Analytics community - we hope you enjoy reading these quotes as much as we did as the enthusiasm is certainly infectious!
Top 20 Overall People Analytics Influencers
To identify the Top 20 Overall People Analytics influencers we decided to use the PageRank algorithm. If you haven’t come across PageRank before, it’s an elegant network analysis algorithm that can trace its origins to the founding of Google - the seminal paper was authored by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google. In essence, it’s an iterative approach to determining the centrality of nodes where each edge or link can be viewed as imparting a certain weight or score to the person that receives that link. It’s not just about the number of incoming connections that a person has but rather it’s important who those connections come from. If a well-connected person nominates another then it boosts that person’s score more than if that nomination came from a less connected individual.
We experimented with a few different approaches and algorithms but ultimately landed on PageRank because of its relative simplicity. We also decided to use only those nominations where a person indicated that they did not currently or had not previously worked with the individual. The reason for this choice is that we felt those relationships that existed outside of a direct work context were more representative of the actual global type of influence that we were looking to measure and it also limited the impact of any particular organisation.
Calculating PageRank in this way and limiting ourselves to those individuals who had respondent to the PANC and given their consent for inclusion in an analysis of influence yielded the following Top 20 list (presented in alphabetical order):
Al Adamsen
Future of Work Project“I'm extraordinarily honored by this, yet honestly I'm merely an accidental tourist. If someone shows up, stays long enough, contributes a bit, nurtures community, they get to know their way around... and, when others show up, they hopefully welcome them in and help 'em navigate their new surroundings. This is me. This comes with responsibility, one that I take seriously, because as I've long said, 'Through People Analytics not only do we have an opportunity to do good, we have a responsibility to do so'... especially now. Much more to do, and we'll all be more energized and effective the more we work together.”
Alexis Fink
Meta“At its core, People Analytics is about uncovering meaningful patterns you can't see any other way. I love this profession-wide relationship map and I am honored and delighted to be identified as a top influencer in our community!”
Amit Mohindra
People Analytics Success“Just like particle physics emerged and supplemented classical physics for a complete understanding of the physical world, people analytics has emerged as a distinct field that illuminates the people drivers of business and improves organizational and employee outcomes. What an exciting time it is for all of us in this wonderful and supportive community to re-invent the world of work by recognizing the importance of individuals in teams and organizations.”
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Andrew Pitts
Polinode“I sometimes think to myself that I didn’t consciously find or join the People Analytics community but rather I was gradually and naturally pulled into it given my passion for data and improving the effectiveness of organizations (including and especially for the individuals in those organizations). I am so glad to be a part of it though - I think relationships and networks are incredibly important and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group that believes and invests in the power of relationships and networks in quite the same way as the global People Analytics community.”
Cole Napper
Lightcast“I love people analytics. Most people have hobbies like baking, hiking, or tennis. I mostly just do people analytics stuff.”
Dave Ulrich
University of Michigan“Analytics validates, demonstrates, and prioritizes how HR delivers value to all stakeholders (employees, executives, boards, customers, investors, communities) through human capability (talent + leadership + organization + HR function). Analytics, bolstered by AI, provides information to make better decisions that impacts all “human” stakeholders.”
David Green
Insight222“It’s a real honour to be selected as a Top 20 People Analytics Influencer by my peers in the community. The people analytics field is a wonderful place to work, and the willingness by those working within it to share, learn and collaborate with each other really makes it stand out. Long may this continue. Together, we have a real opportunity to help our leaders make our workplaces fairer, better, and healthier.”
Dawn Klinghoffer
Microsoft“The field of people analytics has significantly transformed how companies operate, and with the rapid advancements in AI, we're just scratching the surface. By sharing best practices, we can collectively innovate and learn, driving forward this essential function together.”
Heather Whiteman
University of Washington“The people analytics community is this awesome, collaborative group of individuals genuinely invested in sharing ideas, celebrating successes, and challenging each other to think deeper. We can geek out about everything from psychology to data, business, and technology - we have analysts, researchers, leaders, consultants, HR pros, technologists, and more all sharing a common passion - where else do you see that? Personally, I feel at home in this community because it’s full of people dedicated to being a force for good; together this community is eager to harness the power of information to make a positive impact.”
Ian OKeefe
ikona Analytics“It's incredible how much the People Analytics community has grown and evolved over the years. Much has changed. But what really strikes me about the community is not necessarily how much has changed, but how constant and unwavering the ethos of collaboration, partnership, and support has been over the years. I'm as inspired and energized by this vibrant PA community today as I ever have been. Thank you to everyone for your collaboration, partnership, and support”
John Boudreau
University of Southern California“The global people analytics community has been a foundational source of ideas, inspiration, camaraderie, and friendship for me throughout my entire career. It is inspiring to see how its numbers and influence have grown! I am proud to have played a humble part in what has now become one of the most important sources of strategic insight and value for all leaders.”
Josh Bersin
The Josh Bersin Company“People Analytics is a vital business function that has exploded in growth and importance. As AI grows in adoption we will see the entire domain expand into new areas like talent intelligence, skills analysis, and what we now call systemic business analytics. I’m thrilled to help this entire industry grow and evolve.”
Mark Hanson
Lightcast“The People Analytics community is the most genuinely collaborative group I've been part of, fostering a unique spirit of camaraderie where everyone is eager to support each other's work, generously share ideas, and collectively advance and innovate the field. This strong sense of collegiality and shared investment in each other's success makes it a truly refreshing community to be a part of.”
Michael Arena
Syndezo & Connected Commons“As AI enhances human capabilities through augmentation, social capital will emerge as the ultimate differentiator. As a result, we must more fully leverage network analysis to unlock hidden reservoirs of trust, collaboration, and influence—the essential currencies in an era of rapid disruption.”
Michael Moon
AbbVie“I care deeply about others understanding the importance of people analytics and its transformative potential to enhance decision-making and create thriving work environments. I aim to inspire a wider embrace of this field, to drive positive change that benefits employees and leads to greater organizational success.”
Patrick Coolen
Kennedyfitch“Every organisation that takes its people, their ambitions, their opinions, and their productivity seriously should develop a people analytics practice and position it strategically in the centre of decision-making to create value for society, organisation and the people themselves.”
Richard Rosenow
One Model“That space in the Venn Diagram of "People" and "Analytics" is the best kind of trap, one that collects empathetic, thoughtful, nerdy, and brilliant humans. This community isn’t accidental. It exists because so many people intentionally contribute, share, and build it every day. Without them, without those who paved the way, People Analytics could just be a regular job. Instead, it has the feeling of a movement, and I’m grateful every day to be caught up in it with all of you.”
Rob Cross
i4cp“My goal has been to provide a data-based and analytic lens into the way in which networks and relationships impact different aspects of organizations today. In conjunction with a broad range of collaborators in the connected commons the overarching goal has been to advance the practical application of network ideas to a range of issues such as culture, organizational change, talent optimization strategies, team effectiveness, leadership and personal performance/thriving.”
Stacia Garr
RedThread Research“People analytics is the heart of data-driven HR. I believe we have the capability to influence organizations in profound ways that make them both more effective and better places to work. I love working toward that goal in this incredible community of practitioners.”
Stephanie Murphy
UnitedHealth Group“I am passionate about people analytics because it bridges the gap between data and human experiences, helping organizations make informed decisions that truly support their people. But what really drives me forward is the people within this community – bringing together smart, curious people who share ideas, solve challenges, and support each other in shaping the future of work.”
Top 3 Networking Influencers
After completing the above analysis the core PANC group got together and discussed the results. We decided that we really wanted to extend the influencer identification beyond pure centrality to also incorporate the different types of relationships that so clearly exist and that we expressly asked about. For those that took the PANC, you will recall that we asked, for all of your nominations, who is a source of:
- Networking: someone who has actively provided you with thoughtful introductions to others
- Mentorship: someone who you have or would turn to for formal / informal mentorship or career advice
- Technical Expertise: someone who if you had a particularly challenging technical question or problem to solve, you would turn to for help and advice
This data gave us the ability to identify those individuals that ranked particularly high on each of these three dimensions - Networking, Mentorship and Technical Expertise. In this case we decided to look not at raw centrality like Pagerank or total nominations but rather at the proportion of times that each individual was identified as a source of Networking, Mentorship and Technical Expertise. We identified the top 3 people in terms of these proportions across these three categories after also applying a minimum number of nominations to ensure that the results weren’t skewed by individuals who received a lower number of nominations - here we only considered those individuals with five or more total nominations.
Below we have summarized the Top 3 Networking Influencers based on this approach (in alphabetical order again):
Annika Schultz
Roblox“To me, People Analytics is about bridging the gap between leadership intentions and employee realities, creating workplaces where people can truly thrive. By using data to advocate for employees, we ensure that every voice is heard and that company decisions are rooted in both evidence and empathy.”
Barry Swales
Tucana"Having curated the People Analytics World conference for the past 11 years, I've seen the field evolve from being broadly seen as a basic HR toolkit into a business-wide capability that benefits everyone from staff to senior leaders. I'm excited by how the integration of cross-domain expertise and technologies like AI is continually reshaping our approach to People Analytics, Talent Intelligence, Workforce Planning, and People Strategy across the organisation.”
Greg Pryor
Connected Commons“I am most energized by the people analytics community's opportunity and obligation to lead a once-in-a-lifetime transformation, using workforce insights, actions, and outcomes to define the next world of work. By embracing the power of social and organizational network science, we can reshape operating models, address collaboration consequences, and unlock the full potential of people and organizations in the Age of Intelligence.”
Top 3 Mentorship Influencers
We took a similar approach to identifying the Top 3 Mentorship Influencers - focussing on the proportion of times each individual was nominated as a source of mentorship (with a minimum of five nominations applied). Below we have summarized the identified individuals in alphabetical order and - yes - Greg Pryor appears as both a Networking and Mentorship influencer.
Greg Pryor
Connected Commons“I am most energized by the people analytics community's opportunity and obligation to lead a once-in-a-lifetime transformation, using workforce insights, actions, and outcomes to define the next world of work. By embracing the power of social and organizational network science, we can reshape operating models, address collaboration consequences, and unlock the full potential of people and organizations in the Age of Intelligence.”
Lexy Martin
Redirecting.work“The people analytics community is made up of the most innovative, curious, and generous minds—pioneers who took an emerging technology and applied it creatively to solve real business and people challenges. I am continually inspired by colleagues' willingness to listen, learn, and support one another, and I am honored to be part of a field that thrives on both data and human connection.”
Michelle Deneau
CloudflareTop 3 Technical Influencers
The Top 3 Technical Influencers were identified in a similar way to the Networking and Mentorship influencers - looking at the proportion of nominations and applying a threshold:
Kevin Erikson
Novartis“The people analytics community is bursting with curiosity, creativity, and passion to improve the world of work. I love the work we do and impact we make, but it’s the sharing and learning across the community that keeps me energized”
Kevin Stanek
Gilead Sciences“People Analytics continues to have immense potential to shape the future of HR and organizations. I love how we’re a diverse community of scholars, consultants, statisticians, technologists, and leaders all united around the common goal of using data and science to improve work, life, and the world.”
Michael Walsh
Eaton“Like many of us, I am passionate about leveraging people analytics to bridge the gap between academia and industry. By applying advanced analytics techniques, we can transform theoretical insights into practical solutions that profoundly impact the lives of the people we work with. This journey is deeply personal to me, as I have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of data to create meaningful connections and drive positive change. I am humbled to be a part of this community and cannot wait to see where we can go together.”
Top 10 Influencers from Outside of the United States
One of the things that we noticed in the PANC data is that quite a high proportion of respondents were based in the United States - 61% of respondents to be exact gave their country as the US. That is not altogether surprising as it’s generally acknowledged that US-based companies on average have invested more and earlier in People Analytics than non-US companies. Still, one of our aims with the PANC is to map the global network and to help those parts of the global community that are perhaps less connected. When we noticed that 17 of the Top 20 Overall People Analytics Influencers were US-based we decided that we needed another category of influencers - those outside of the United States.
Below we summarize the Top 10 Influencers from Outside of the United States - the approach we use here is identical to that in the Overall Top 20 except that we limit ourselves to those people outside of the United States and exclude the three non-US individuals already identified in that Top 20. We have also limited the selection to one person from each country and presented the list in alphabetical order once more:
Adam McKinnon (Australia)
Reece Group“The global people analytics community is proof that data nerds can be rockstars—sharing insights, influencing business decisions, sparking innovation, and generally decoding the messy magic of humans. It’s a real privilege to be a contributor to this burgeoning field.”
Barry Swales (Spain)
Tucana“Having curated the People Analytics World conference for the past 11 years, I've seen the field evolve from being broadly seen as a basic HR toolkit into a business-wide capability that benefits everyone from staff to senior leaders. I'm excited by how the integration of cross-domain expertise and technologies like AI is continually reshaping our approach to People Analytics, Talent Intelligence, Workforce Planning, and People Strategy across the organisation.”
David Shontz (Germany)
Nokia"Moving from General HR Leadership roles into my People Analytics role was a career highlight in which I never looked back. The value created with the People Analytics journey has been exciting and fantastic! Using data to help drive Business and Employee Success has been a passion that has continued to grow along with endless possibilities!"
Jaap Veldkamp (Netherlands)
ABN amro“Engaging with the people analytics community exposes me to diverse perspectives and ideas about our field. This exposure helps me continuously refine how to use People Analytics within HR, to enhance our contribution to the organization's strategic goals.”
Kinsey Li (United Kingdom)
EY“When I first started in people analytics, I had a dream of being able to measure the intangible and show that people are valuable assets, not liabilities. And it's through the people analytics community that I see this dream being realised everyday. Thanks to this community for all the relationships it builds, the ideas it sparks and the momentum it creates on a daily basis.”
Leopoldo Torres (Mexico)
LET Consulting Partner“My passion lies in fostering a global perspective in people analytics, where data-driven insights and human networks transcend borders to create more equitable and effective workplaces worldwide.”
Ludek Stehlik (Czech Republic)
Sanofi“What I love most about people analytics, as a psychologist by training, is that it’s more than just data—it’s primarily about the people behind the numbers and understanding what makes us tick, thrive, and grow. I’m truly grateful for the fortune that led me to a job where data meets humanity and can serve as a catalyst for human growth.”
Martha Curioni (Italy)
People Analytics Consultant“I'm on a mission to help bring HR professionals on the People Analytics journey, no matter their level of data literacy. This ensures that the work we do as People Analytics professionals is used to inform People decisions and strategy, creating value for an organization.”
Rafael Uribe (Colombia)
Inwork“Understanding people's potential is key to any organization's success. With AI revolutionizing People Analytics, we can now gain deeper and faster insights into our employees, turning data into decisions that drive both their growth and the company's. The most important step in unlocking people’s potential is truly knowing them, and that's where People Analytics becomes exciting—it allows us to explore dimensions of talent and behavior that we’ve never reached before in organizations.”
Sanja Licina (Argentina)
QuestionPro“The support of the people analytics community has been instrumental in my career growth; and no matter where in the world I live and work, it always gives me an unwavering sense of belonging. If I’m able to give back even a fraction of what it has given me, it’s an honor to do so.”
Why Isn’t Person X Mentioned?
One of the questions that we expect to hear a fair bit after publishing the above and that we would like to pre-empt is: why isn’t a certain person mentioned?
There are a few reasons why a particular individual may not be included in the list above. Firstly, they may not have participated in the PANC. We have only included those individuals who submitted a response to the PANC. Although we were really pleased with the response of the community and over 450 responses were submitted, there are certainly some individuals who chose not to participate for a variety of reasons.
The second reason is that even though an individual participated in the PANC, they may not have provided their consent to be named publicly as an influencer. Over 85% respondents did provide their consent but that still leaves over 60 individuals who did not provide their consent and we have respected that decision.
And finally, the person or people you have in mind might have ranked quite high but fallen just outside of the Top 20 and/or not have qualified for the other lists. It’s certainly no easy feat to rank towards the top of these lists! Please remember that this is the first year of what we hope and expect will be a multi-year study - please make sure to submit and encourage others to submit their nominations next year as the global People Analytics community is surely continuing to grow and evolve.
Why Are We Identifying Influencers?
Another natural question that we would like to answer is, why are we doing this? What is the purpose of identifying a group of People Analytics influencers? Influencer identification is sometimes done for the purposes of promoting a particular event or interest and the approach can be highly subjective and biased to say the least.
There are a few answers to this question. The first is that it’s precisely the imperfect way that influencer identification is often done that inspired us to take a different approach. An approach that certainly isn’t perfect but that we would argue is more objective and based on peer nominations rather than subjective criteria that lack transparency.
But how does this help the People Analytics community? Well, a broad understanding of who holds outsized influence and reach in the community can help others navigate that community. Particularly for people that may be newer to the community and who may not have a great deal of data or information yet. We have also actively tried to highlight some individuals outside of the US in order to amplify some voices that may be less commonly heard.
The identification of influencers in this context though is also about recognition. There are so many people in our community that have invested a great deal of time and effort in building the group and investing in relationships with others, including sharing their hard-won experience and expertise. We wanted to recognize some of those individuals and also, perhaps, provide a small incentive for them (and others) to continue to do so.
Addressing Our Own Influence
One of the questions that the core PANC team have been pondering while we have been working through the influencer identification and analysis is, to what degree has the fact that we promoted the PANC potentially biased the results? For example, people in our networks are more likely to take the PANC such that we are more likely to be nominated and, for those that responded, we may be more front-of-mind at the time they are responding because of our role in promoting the PANC. This is almost certainly true of the core PANC team of four and we think it’s likely also true to some extent of the group of PANC supporters who helped us get the word out about the PANC (though part of our reasoning in engaging a broad group of supporters was to reduce the impact that we ourselves would have).
While our own networks will have almost certainly introduced some bias in this way, we have tried to limit the impact on the results. Firstly, by spreading the word about the PANC as far and wide as we could - the 450 submitted responses exceeded our expectations in this respect. We also chose an approach to influencer identification that we feel helps limit this kind of bias, i.e. the use of Pagerank instead of say the simple number of nominations received. Finally, this is the first year of the PANC and we hope that our own influence declines over time as awareness continues to spread through the community.
Looking Ahead: Strengthening the People Analytics Community
The People Analytics Network Census (PANC) is just getting started. These initial results offer a fascinating look at influence, networks, and relationships within our field, but they also raise important questions about how we can continue to grow, connect, and support each other as a community.
And our work does not stop here. With more research underway, an incredible dataset, and plans to share deeper insights, we see this as the beginning of a broader conversation. Beyond this year, it will evolve too longitudinally as we find ways for more people to participate and contribute their perspectives.
We hope these initial findings around influence spark new ideas, connections, and opportunities for collaboration. Whether it is through mentorship, technical expertise, or community-building, the power of People Analytics lies in the people who drive it forward.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the PANC, supported this effort, and contributed to making People Analytics the vibrant and dynamic field it is today. There is much more to come.
Next Steps
- Join the Conversation: Share your thoughts and experiences. What do these results mean for you?
- Look Out for More Insights: We will be hosting a webinar soon to dive deeper into the informal communities within People Analytics. Stay tuned for details.
- Keep Engaging: Whether it is through events, discussions, or mentorship, every connection strengthens our collective impact.
- Sign Up: At the end of this year we will be running the PANC again. If you didn't participate in the 2025 PANC you can sign up here to ensure that you are included in the 2026 PANC: https://www.polinode.com/panc
Let’s keep building this together.
