How This MSBA Student is Putting the Human (Resources) Back into Business Analytics

Ravleen Kaur (MSBA, Class of 2021)

The Foster Master of Science in Business Analytics program was established in 2019 to help meet the growing need for business analytics professionals in Seattle. Incoming students come in with the goals of tackling business analytics roles in various fields from marketing to operations and even HR analytics, like current MSBA student and ambassador, Ravleen Kaur.

Ravleen hails from India and is a graduate of the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology. After accumulating over three years of experience as a business analyst and completing two years of experience in the human resources industry, Ravleen noticed that her personality and talents were best suited for a combination of both—human resources analytics.

All About Human Resources Analytics

The world is becoming an increasingly data-driven place, and the realm of human resources is no exception to this. Human resources analytics combines typical HR functions like hiring and training new employees with quantifiable insights. Before data analytics came into play, a typical question asked by an HR manager may have been, “what is the best training method to use on employees?” An HR analyst however can take this question one step further and ask, “what is the best training method to use on new employees based on previous onboarding success rates?”

Human resources analytics is still a relatively new field, but that is also why Ravleen finds it so intriguing. “The best thing about human resources analytics is that the book on it is still unwritten. I want to be a part of writing that book.”

Due to its uncapped potential, human resources analytics is also growing rapidly with predictions that indicate it will be a six billion dollar field by 2027.

How does Ravleen fit into this growth? After graduating from Foster, Ravleen’s goal is to enter the local Seattle HR analytics market. “The Foster MSBA curriculum has lent itself really well to the skills I will need. The reason I chose Foster was because of its perfect balance between management and analytics curriculum. Not everyone studying business analytics wants to be a hardcore data-scientist and I feel like a lot of programs lose sight of that,” Ravleen states.

In particular, Ravleen really enjoyed and found relevance in Analytics for Firm Decisions (BUS AN 514) and Operations Research Data Analytics (BUS AN 516), which are courses students take in the winter quarter of the program.

Keeping it Human

Just as Ravleen believes it’s important for business schools to not minimize the human aspect of their curriculum, she believes remaining intact with one’s humanity is important for everyone regardless of their career path.

One way she practices this in her day-to-day life is by serving as a volunteer Peer Counselor at Empower Work. Empower Work is a nonprofit that is dedicated to creating safe, and equitable workplaces in the U.S. Peer counselors at Empower Work provide free and confidential text or webchat services to anyone struggling with a variety of workplace issues from discrimination to burnout.

“It’s especially important that during a time like this [the COVID-19 pandemic], we check on the people working in our communities and provide them resources,” Ravleen shares.

Other ways Ravleen maintains her human touch is through a variety of arts activities, namely painting, and by leaning on her peers at Foster.

“When you start a master’s program you know you’re going to meet classmates and even make professional connections, but the cohort and team model at Foster has allowed me to make lifelong friends.”

Want to hear more about students like Ravleen? Check back regularly to learn more about the current cohort of MSBA students!