Publications
Publications
- February 2018 (Revised December 2020)
- HBS Case Collection
People Analytics at Teach For America (A)
By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Julia Kelley
Abstract
As of mid-2016, national nonprofit Teach For America (TFA) had struggled with three consecutive years of declining application totals, and senior management was re-examining the organization's strategy, including recruitment and selection. A few months earlier, former TFA corps member Michael Metzger had spearheaded the launch of a predictive analytics team responsible for integrating strategy across TFA's recruitment and admissions continuum. Metzger believed that predictive analytics could help address TFA's recruitment and admissions challenges. Now, TFA's senior management wanted Metzger and his team to put their data models to the test. From a data modeling standpoint, what variables and models should TFA consider as it began a new recruitment season, and how should TFA apply predictive models to reverse the negative trends? This case provides an example of the type of predictive modeling process used widely by people analytics practitioners across many industries for many use cases, especially those related to the employee life cycle.
Keywords
Citation
Polzer, Jeffrey T., and Julia Kelley. "People Analytics at Teach For America (A)." Harvard Business School Case 418-013, February 2018. (Revised December 2020.)