Employee listening and people analytics company Perceptyx acquired Humu, which offers a suite of survey analytics, insights and science-backed recommendations to help organizations achieve their goals, and to influence behavior changes in the workplace. Terms weren’t disclosed.
Co-founded by former Google HR chief Laszlo Bock in 2017, Humu uses behavioral science to provide short, actionable recommendations, which it calls “nudges.”
Perceptyx will integrate Humu’s library of “behavior nudges” into its People Insights Platform. The company hopes they’ll help organizations deliver personalized recommendations and guidance to both company leaders and employees, customized to the behavior an individual or team wants to improve.
“HR leaders have always struggled to see consistent and effective action by managers on [employee] insights,” said Perceptyx CEO John Borland. “We believe AI is the key to solving that problem at scale.” The acquisition and integration will help employees influence positive change at every level, he explained, improving both the employee experience and business results.
Nudging Toward a Better Workplace
For example, the behavior-change “nudges” — which appear in email, Slack or Microsoft Teams — could advise quieter employees to speak up in meetings if surveys find discussions are dominated by certain voices, according to Forbes. Or, they could nudge managers to proactively introduce new workers if feedback reveals new teammates need help integrating.
Although employee listening can reveal a range of issues in the workplace, Perceptyx observed, addressing them requires consistent and ongoing behavioral change at every level.
“Organizational change doesn’t happen all at once. It takes time, repetition and, ideally, hyper-personalized, contextually relevant recommendations only possible with AI,” said Scott Chancellor, Humu’s CEO. “By combining Humu’s nudge science with Perceptyx’s AI platform, it will be possible to deliver those specific recommendations to hundreds of thousands of employees across an organization to solve unique challenges.”
Perceptyx’s Borland told Forbes that Humu’s technology brings a feature to his platform that customers have been asking for. “The expectation for organizations to leverage their people data in more meaningful ways has been rising,” he said. “The need to be able to close the gap between signal and action is more important than ever.”
Image: iStock
