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The 2016 HR Technology campaign, dedicated to HR technology and workplace evolution, launched today. Any avid readers of The Guardian not engulfed by coverage of the US election may have spotted the campaign as a Media Planet supplement in Wednesday's paper. As part of the campaign, Peter Cheese, CIPD Chief Executive, is calling for HR to lead the way businesses use technology to unlock people's potential.

This call comes at a time when organisations are wrestling with the challenge of being left behind in the eternal race to keep up to date with technological advances, but there are also concerns that the growth of AI and automation is putting jobs at risk. Employing technology and analytics to better understand the nature of work and the workforce is a crucial step in enabling people to work more effectively. HR has a vital role to play in ensuring that technology is used to enhance the value people bring to an organisation, rather than replacing people or reducing them to numbers on a spreadsheet.

When it comes to HR analytics, many HR professionals may be feeling left behind but the truth is that the majority have only just started to recognise the value of people data. Contributing to the HR Technology campaign, Edward Houghton – CIPD Research Adviser – explains why using people data needs to become the 'new normal' in HR. If we can start with the fundamentals – asking what we need to measure and why – we can then begin to tackle how metrics can be applied.

To address this, we’re working with the Valuing your Talent programme to help organisations understand how people measurement and reporting can help to release and drive value. Valuing your Talent is a collaborative, industry-led movement for everyone in business. We’re working with the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and Investors in People (IIP) to transform how we value our people.