Leaders in HR: Josh Bersin

Welcome to our “Leaders in HR” series where we highlight some of the key influencers in HR Tech today, especially in the field of employee experience. This article tells you everything you need to know about one of the key figureheads in employee experience - Josh Bersin.

• Who is Josh Bersin?
• Bio
• Specialities and projects
  • HR technology
  • Employee experience 
  • The Josh Bersin Company
  • The Josh Bersin Academy
• Books
• Podcasts
• Recent press
• Conferences

Your Guide To: Employee Experience Platforms (EXP)
Read Josh Bersin's report to learn more about the EXP market and it's future, what to look for in an EXP and how companies are using them to transform their employee experience. Read Now.

Who is Josh Bersin?

Bersin is a thought leader in the HR landscape - especially in the areas of workforce experience, digital transformation in global talent management and problem solving in human capital management. He is currently founder and CEO at The Josh Bersin Company, founder and dean at The Josh Bersin Academy and board member for UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Executive Education.

Josh Bersin Bio

Bersin left the University of California, Berkeley in 1988 with an MBA, having already attended Cornell University and Stanford University (where he achieved a BS and MS in engineering respectively). His early career spanned many areas including product development, marketing and sales of enterprise technology like e-learning. 

This experience, as well as his analytical skills, positioned him to launch Bersin & Associates in 2001, which covered learning & development, talent management and leadership. During this time, Bersin became a renowned expert in the HR landscape. He sold Bersin & Associates to Deloitte in 2012, where the name was changed to Bersin™. He then focused on other projects, founding The Josh Bersin Company and The Josh Bersin Academy.

Specialities and projects

HR Technology

Bersin has written many reports and articles on HR Tech issues such as people analytics and artificial intelligence. In March 2022, he shared his expertise with Applaud CTO Duncan Casemore in a webinar examining the state of the HR tech landscape today. Here he shares why employee and manager expectations are driving a new era of digital transformation.

Employee Experience 

Much of Bersin’s work focuses on improving both employee engagement and experience, with the aim of attracting, engaging and retaining top talent. He is an advocate for using data and analytics to measure and improve employee experience - so that each stage of the employee journey can be optimised for maximum satisfaction. This includes utilising technology like Employee Experience Platforms (EXPs).

Take a look at what Bersin said about consequences of a fragmented employee experience and how the right technology can come to the rescue.

The Josh Bersin Company

Bersin founded his consulting business in 2020 and is supported by a team of analysts and advisors including Kathi Enderes and Bill Pelster. The business provides insight and guidance to HR organizations globally.

The Josh Bersin Academy

Founded in 2019 as a development academy for HR professionals, the Josh Bersin Academy offers modules in a range of topics including hybrid working and human-centered leadership. It has over 30,000 members from 500 organizations in over 130 countries.

Books

• Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World’s Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations: This book is Bersin’s most recent, published in October 2022 and offers HR leaders a guide to cultivating a workforce that thrives.

• The Training Measurement Book: Published in April 2008. Advises how professionals can measure human capital investments to get actionable insights.
• The Blended Learning Book: Published in 2004. A guidebook to the latest learning technologies to create high-impact programs (note this book may be fairly out of date now).

Podcasts

Bersin has his own podcast with The Josh Bersin Company.

Recent episodes:

• How To Solve Pay Equity: More Important Than You Realize (March 11, 2023)
• Why Women May Never Achieve Parity With Men In Business, And OpenAI’s Relentless Push Forward (March 4, 2023)
• Systemic HR: Why It’s Coming… And Why I’m Excited About Bing (February 18, 2023)

Recent press

As a thought leader in the HR space, Bersin appears frequently in articles from publishers, both industry-specific and mainstream. 

Recent articles mentioning Bersin:

• HRZone - three secrets to surviving and thriving in 2023 (March 2023)
• TechTarget - A question at HR Tech: Will ChatGPT take HR jobs? (March 2023)
• SAP - Unlocking Value from HCM Transformations (January 2023)

Conferences

Irresistible 2023 is a global conference organized by The Josh Bersin Company and USC Marshall Executive Education. It takes place on June 20 - 22 at the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles. 

Speakers include:

• Francis Hyatt (Liberty Mutual)
• Tamla Oates-Forney (USAA)
• Helen Russell (Rivian). 

Tracks for this year’s conference are:

• Redesigning work for the future
• Retaining and engaging talent
• Building a skills-centric enterprise
• Leading a systemic HR organization (Invite only)

Bersin himself is also heavily involved with a number of other conferences this year, including UNLEASH America, where he is running a pre-event bootcamp and IAMPHENOM in Philadelphia, where he features on the speaker line-up.

Free Bersin Report: Employee Experience Platforms take off

Employee experience has become a very important but complex challenge for HR leaders over the past two years. Adding to this, most HR tools are rarely designed with your workforce in mind. Enter the employee experience platform (EXP) market.

Download Josh Bersin’s latest report to find out:

• More about the EXP market and where it’s heading
• What to look for in an employee experience platform like Applaud
• How companies like Experian are using Applaud to transform their employee experience