peopleanalyst

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People Analytics & Text Mining with R

In a sentence

A practical, beginner-friendly guide to using free R software to run People Analytics, predictive HR modeling, social media mining, and text/sentiment analysis to link HR levers to business outcomes.

This book demystifies People Analytics for HR professionals with no prior programming experience by teaching them R step-by-step alongside a structured five-step ARHAT analytics framework. It bridges statistical theory and hands-on application, showing readers how to run correlation, multiple regression, and logistic regression in R to predict outcomes like employee flight risk, customer satisfaction, performance, sales, and diversity's impact on revenue. Packed with real-world case studies (Deloitte, Best Buy, ISS, Nielsen, Rentokil, Xerox), data storytelling guidance, Facebook Graph API mining, and word/sentiment cloud generation, it equips analysts to uncover relationships between people factors and business results and to communicate those insights persuasively to stakeholders.

The story it tells the reader

The reader An HR or rewards professional (often non-technical) who wants to use data to predict workforce outcomes and influence business results.

External problem

They lack affordable tools and programming know-how to run predictive people analytics.

Internal problem

They feel intimidated by statistics and coding and unsure how to turn data into credible recommendations.

Philosophical problem

HR shouldn't be sidelined as a cost center when people factors demonstrably drive business value.

The plan

  1. Install free R and RStudio and learn the minimal needed syntax.
  2. Follow the ARHAT five-step framework to scope and run a project.
  3. Use correlation and regression in R to test hypotheses and predict outcomes.
  4. Mine text and social media for sentiment insights.
  5. Communicate findings through data storytelling and actionable recommendations.

Success

  • The reader predicts flight risk, performance, and engagement impact and acts preemptively.
  • HR earns credibility as a strategic, data-driven partner.
  • Business heads seek out the analytics team to solve people-related problems.

At stake

  • HR remains reactive, viewed as a cost center, and excluded from key decisions.
  • Costly turnover, low engagement, and missed opportunities persist unaddressed.
  • Projects fail due to poor framing, weak storytelling, or stakeholder resistance.

Model of the world · 15 constructs · 23 relations

An inferred causal framework where HR design levers and conditions influence psychological and behavioral states that in turn drive business outcomes, validated through correlation and regression in R.

Design levers

  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • Learning and Development
  • Compensation and Pay
  • Leadership Quality
  • Data Storytelling and Stakeholder Communication

Intermediate states & behaviors

  • Employee Engagement
  • Internal Network and Communication

Outcomes

  • Sales and Profitability
  • Employee Turnover / Flight Risk
  • Employee Performance
  • Absenteeism
  • Customer Satisfaction / Experience
  • +1 more

Moderators / context: Personality Traits · Commute and Demographics

Consolidated shape of the book’s model — full constructs and relationships below.

Employee Engagementpsychological state

The degree of emotional commitment, motivation, and involvement employees have toward their organization, frequently measured via surveys and eNPS and repeatedly linked to outcomes throughout the book.

Diversity and Inclusiondesign lever

The composition of the workforce across characteristics (ethnicity, gender, age) and the inclusive practices that give employees equal access, quantifiable via a Simpson's Diversity Index.

Learning and Developmentdesign lever

The provision and effectiveness of training programs intended to build employee skills, evaluated via Kirkpatrick/Phillips levels and linked to productivity, sales, and absenteeism.

Compensation and Paydesign lever

The level and structure of employee pay relative to market and performance, including incentives, market-ratio, and compa-ratio, linked to retention, productivity, and net income.

Personality Traitscontextual condition

Stable individual dispositions such as conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and grit measured via personality assessments and shown to predict service, performance, and retention.

Leadership Qualitydesign lever

The effectiveness of managers and leaders in setting expectations, communicating, and supporting teams, accounting for large variance in engagement and influencing turnover and productivity.

Internal Network and Communicationbehavioral pattern

The breadth and depth of an employee's relationships and communication patterns within the organization, including exposure to managers and senior leaders, predictive of sales and performance.

Commute and Demographicscontextual condition

Contextual employee attributes such as commute time, age, tenure, marital status, and gender used as conditions that moderate or predict turnover and accident risk.

Employee Turnover / Flight Riskoutcome metric

The likelihood and rate of employees leaving the organization, a key outcome predicted via correlation and logistic regression and costly to the business through lost productivity and knowledge.

Customer Satisfaction / Experienceoutcome metric

The level of customer happiness and loyalty (e.g., cNPS) driven by service employee engagement, training, personality, and organizational climate.

Employee Performanceoutcome metric

Individual job performance and productivity ratings influenced by engagement, training, communication, inclusion, and personality and used as a success outcome.

Sales and Profitabilityoutcome metric

Organizational financial outcomes including revenue, sales per employee, profit margin, and EBIT shown to be affected by engagement, diversity, training, and compensation.

Absenteeismoutcome metric

The frequency of unscheduled employee absence and sick days affected by inclusion, engagement, and learning opportunities and a cost-driving outcome metric.

Safety and Healthoutcome metric

Workplace safety incidents and employee health/wellbeing outcomes influenced by engagement, age, tenure, air quality, and incentives.

Data Storytelling and Stakeholder Communicationdesign lever

The structured combination of data, visuals, and narrative used to communicate insights and recommendations so that analytics drives stakeholder action and change.

How they connect

  • employee engagement → predicts customer satisfaction
  • employee engagement → predicts sales profitability
  • employee engagement − predicts employee turnover
  • employee engagement − predicts absenteeism
  • employee engagement → predicts safety health
  • diversity inclusion → predicts sales profitability
  • diversity inclusion − predicts absenteeism
  • diversity inclusion → predicts employee performance
  • learning development → predicts sales profitability
  • learning development → predicts employee performance
  • learning development − predicts absenteeism
  • compensation pay − predicts employee turnover
  • compensation pay → correlates sales profitability
  • personality traits → predicts customer satisfaction
  • personality traits → predicts employee performance
  • personality traits − predicts employee turnover
  • leadership quality → predicts employee engagement
  • leadership quality − predicts employee turnover
  • internal network → predicts sales profitability
  • internal network → predicts employee performance
  • commute demographics → moderates employee turnover
  • commute demographics → predicts safety health
  • data storytelling → moderates sales profitability

Possible measures & feedback loops

A candidate team / org survey built from this book’s model — exploratory operationalizations, not validated instruments. Where a construct maps to a validated measure in Principia, we’ll point to that instead.

Employee Engagement

engagement survey score; eNPS; participation rate

self-report suitability: high

Diversity and Inclusion

Simpson's Diversity Index; inclusion survey scores

self-report suitability: medium

Learning and Development

training evaluation scores; training hours; ROI

self-report suitability: medium

Compensation and Pay

market-ratio; compa-ratio; merit increase spread

self-report suitability: low

Personality Traits

Big Five assessment scores; grit score

self-report suitability: high

Leadership Quality

leadership survey items; manager rating; manager tenure

self-report suitability: medium

Internal Network and Communication

network size; management exposure time; communication frequency

self-report suitability: low

Commute and Demographics

commute minutes; age; tenure; marital status

self-report suitability: medium

Employee Turnover / Flight Risk

attrition rate; flight risk probability

self-report suitability: low

Customer Satisfaction / Experience

cNPS; satisfaction scores

self-report suitability: medium

Employee Performance

performance rating; productivity metrics

self-report suitability: low

Sales and Profitability

revenue; profit margin; EBIT; sales per employee

self-report suitability: none

Absenteeism

days absent; absence rate

self-report suitability: low

Safety and Health

incident frequency; claims ratio; sick days

self-report suitability: low

Data Storytelling and Stakeholder Communication

adoption rate; audience recall; buy-in level

self-report suitability: medium

Preview the survey →

Frameworks & instruments in this book

  • Start with a well-defined business question tied to KPIs before analyzing data.
  • Don't reinvent the wheel—review literature to ground hypotheses.
  • Correlation shows if a relationship exists; regression shows which variables drive the outcome.
  • Tell stories, not statistics, to drive change.
  • Think big but start small—pursue high-impact, low-effort quick wins to build credibility.

Several of these are operationalized as tools in the People Analytics Toolbox.

Topics

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