Ludek’s Blog About People Analytics


Ludek's Blog About People Analytics

Novel way to measure leadership skills via causal inference (and AI)?

leadership
psychometrics
assessment
causality
ai
llm
ai agent

A post about a new, potentially useful method for measuring leadership skills, along with complementary findings highlighting the importance of objective, skill-based selection of future leaders.

An interactive demo of Computerized Adaptive Testing

psychometrics
item response theory
computerized adaptive testing
bayesian statistics
streamlit
python

Sharing a byproduct of my recent efforts to learn Streamlit—an interactive demo that might be useful for anyone teaching psychometrics or simply curious about how modern psychometrics (relatively speaking 😉) works.

Talk vs. Walk: Predictors of staying intentions vs. actual quitting behavior

attrition
retention
attitude-behavior gap
predictive analytics

Is there a gap between what predicts employees' stated intentions to stay with their organization and their actual quitting behavior? And if so, how big is it?

Beyond prediction: Exploiting organizational events for causal inference in people analytics

causal inference
experiments
data science
people analytics
hr analytics
python
r

Sharing an article I co-authored with Cole Napper on causal inference in people analytics.

Can a simple algorithm read your personality from your face?

personality
big five
deep neural networks
convolutional neural networks
machine learning
python
r

A post describing a small experiment on ML-based recognition of personality traits from facial photographs, inspired by an older research paper that explored the use of composite images to assess the accuracy of personality attributions to faces.

What actually makes us happier?

happiness
wellbeing
psychology
systematic review

A quick rundown of some surprising and not-so-surprising findings from a recent systematic review on how well happiness interventions work.

I’ve finally lived to see the day…

market basket analysis
machine learning
team profile analysis
motivation
mvpi
hogan assessment

... and found a People Analytics use case for market basket analysis 🛒

RWA – A go-to tool for key drivers analysis of employee survey data?

employee survey
employee listening
key drivers analysis
relative weights analysis

A brief showcase of a useful method for analyzing (not only) employee survey data.

Why do psychologists disagree—even when they use the same data and methods?

psychology
scientific thinking
cognitive styles
cognitive diversity
epistemology

About a study exploring how scientific disagreements may be shaped not only by facts, but also by researchers’ cognitive differences.

Causal insights with no code?

data literacy
causal inference
difference-in-differences
data-driven HR
evidence-based HR

Causal insights without writing a single line of code? Well… maybe. In this post, I walk through how a simplified, visual version of a method called difference-in-differences can help you better understand cause and effect—even if you're not a data scientist. Using just a BI tool and some domain knowledge, you can sometimes identify meaningful patterns that suggest whether a policy or change truly made a difference. It's not perfect, and it won't replace rigorous analysis—but in the right context, it can be a surprisingly useful starting point.

Putting the "ideal" personality for high work engagement in a broader context

work engagement
personality
meta-analysis

Ever wondered whether or how personality affects your enthusiasm at work? If yes, then keep reading. 🤓

What topics might you encounter at the SIOP 2025 conference?

siop
conference
i/o psychology
topic analysis
bertopic

A quick check of the topics covered at this year's SIOP conference.

Did the Nobel Prize put causal inference on the public radar?

causal inference
econometrics
nobel prize
segmented regression
time series data
bayesian inference
r

Applying Bayesian segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series data to Google Trends data to test the hypothesis of a positive impact of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics on public interest in causal inference, while accounting for changes in Google's data collection methods and seasonal variations.

How to get causal interpretation for the Employee Attrition dataset?

causality
causal ml
econml
python
employee attrition

An interesting demonstration of causal inference in the People Analytics space using the famous IBM Employee Attrition dataset.

How to analyze employee survey results with less (selection) bias?

employee survey
selection bias
causal inference
propensity score

About a simple method for correcting non-response bias in employee survey analysis, based on causal inference, that estimates the average satisfaction if everyone had responded.

Are age and gender variables really so non-actionable in the context of People Analytics?

hr data
hr metrics
demographics
actionability

A short musing on which variables in People Analytics should—or should not—be considered non-actionable.

Experiencing and seeing team similarities and differences

personality
team development
data visualization
feedback

A brief reflection on an effective method for presenting team personality profiles during team development workshops.

A way to make prediction models more precise and interpretable at the same time?

causal identification
causal inference
feature selection
prediction models
ml interpretability
machine learning

An interesting and potentially useful combination of causal identification algorithms and prediction modeling in the machine learning pipeline.

And what are your career hurdles?

subjective career success
io psychology
meta-analysis

Visualization of the results from a meta-analytic review of the hurdles to subjective career success.

How variations in analytic choices affect results?

reproducibility
open science
data science

It’s human nature to take things at face value, assuming they are exactly as they appear, without noticing the assumptions and choices shaping that appearance. Remember Kahneman’s WYSIATI principle—What You See Is All There Is?

Does your personality interfere with your self-awareness?

personality
self-awareness
multi-rater feedback
hpi

A brief data-driven exploration of personality factors that might negatively affect self-awareness.

We are probably more similar - and different - than expected

personality
culture values
multilevel modeling
intercultural psychology

A brief summary of the key findings from the research paper on the multilevel exploration of Big Five personality traits and cultural values.

Unexpected protective effect of having a good manager?

people management
employee attrition
manager
causal analysis
heterogeneity

Imagine that your direct manager recently left your company voluntarily, and she was among those who excelled in her managerial duties. Do you think that her above-average managerial skills would make you more or less likely to leave the company in the following months?

Self-Leadership: A New Superpower?

self-leadership
performance
flexible work
meta-analysis

In today’s world of hybrid work and freelancing, people can no longer rely solely on external supervision. Instead, they need to build and cultivate self-leadership — the skill to guide themselves toward better performance and personal fulfillment by actively influencing their thoughts, emotions, and actions.