

But what, exactly, do People scientists do? And if this career path interests you, what do you need to do to land a job?

People science can be a great career path for candidates who are equally as passionate about data and analytics as they are about HR, People management, and employee experience. People science is growing in popularity - and, as organizations look to expand their People science operations, there’s also a growing need for People scientists. “These approaches, whether through the lens of industrial organizational psychology, organizational development, or other fields, typically utilize the scientific method to collect and analyze data in order to inform decision-making. “People science is used as a catch-all to describe a number of different approaches toward improving the human experience and outcomes at work,” explained David Shar, MPS, SHRM-SCP, an industrial and organizational psychology consultant with a focus in People science and founder of performance-management consulting firm IlluminatePMC. The people who spent their time crunching numbers and analyzing data typically weren’t the people who were leading the hiring process or developing initiatives to improve employee experience (and vice versa).īut all that’s changed with the field of People science, which, as the name implies, bridges the gap between People and science, and started taking a more data-centric approach to better managing employees - and improving the workplace in the process.

Historically, there hasn’t been much overlap between Human Resources and analytics.
