How Work Gets Done Now, and the Signals for How to Measure It

How Work Gets Done Now, and the Signals for How to Measure It

Hosts: Steve Boese and Trish Steed

Guest: KeyAnna Schmeidl, Chief Human Experience Officer at Workhuman

Summary

Work has outgrown the org chart. Today, work moves across teams, projects, functions, technologies, and informal networks that traditional workforce metrics were never designed to capture. Headcount, turnover, productivity, and performance data still matter – but they rarely tell the full story of how work gets done or who is making it possible.

In this episode of the HR Happy Hour, Steve and Trish welcome KeyAnna Schmeidl, Chief Human Experience Officer at Workhuman, for a conversation about what leaders can learn when they look beyond traditional reporting and start paying attention to the human signals inside everyday work. She explains why reporting relationships and job descriptions often reveal far less than the connections, contributions, expertise, and informal influence that move work forward. The conversation explores how organizations can move from backward-looking dashboards toward more dynamic workforce intelligence that helps leaders understand what is happening now, and make better decisions about what should happen next.

One of the richest sources of that insight may already exist inside the organization: recognition data. Because recognition captures what people notice and value in one another’s work, it can reveal contributors who remove roadblocks, share expertise, mentor teammates, strengthen collaboration, and influence outcomes in ways that may never appear in a traditional performance metric.

Topics include:

• Where traditional HR and productivity metrics fall short
• The shift from reporting what happened to understanding what is happening
• Why simply replacing a departing employee with the same role may no longer make sense
• How recognition data can uncover hidden contributors, connectors, mentors, and emerging leaders
• The role recognition can play in succession planning, internal mobility, and identifying future leadership potential
• What “dark spots” in recognition can reveal about culture and employee visibility
• How leaders can build workforce dashboards that combine historical, real-time, and forward-looking information

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