Mark Vickers's Linkedin Analytics

I like telling a good story, both with and without data. I’m currently the Chief Research Analyst and Data Wrangler at the HR Research Institute (HRRI), which gives me lot of opportunities to tell research-based stories designed to help HR pros help everybody else. HRRI is powered by HR.com, the largest online community dedicated to human resources professionals. So, yeah, I’m an HR research nerd. Loud and proud. For the last four years, I’ve done my utmost to help HRRI establish a leading-edge HR research service. I definitely didn’t do it alone, but I do feel we’ve done a good job, having produced well over 100 reports along with infographics, case studies and other research-based stories. I also tell research stories via webcasts, virtual events and other forums. I like partnering with others during those events because, well, I think it’s less boring than being just another talking head. How did I get here? I started off as a sailing and GED instructor until I literally stumbled into the field of HR research when I took a job at the Human Resource Institute at Eckerd College, which happens to be my alma mater. (And, yes, I do know what “literally” means; the offices were housed in a trailer with some very uneven and frankly hazardous outdoor carpeting near the entrance. Thus my stumble.) HRI was a very small think tank funded by very large corporations that wanted to stay abreast of all things HR, including the social and demographic trends. Eventually, the non-profit HRI morphed into a for-profit organization called the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp). I spent quite a few years learning the HR research game at these organizations, working as Managing Editor and VP of Research. I later worked for other research organizations such as Nielsen Media and Bersin by Deloitte, and I founded Vigoré Media. So, here I am today, paradoxically having come both a long way professionally and only a short distance geographically, living in St. Petersburg where my journey at Eckerd College began. The poet TS Eliot wrote that “the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” I’m still exploring despite coming full circle and someday hope to be gobsmacked TS-style with enlightenment. Until then, I’ll keep working on those stories.