It's interesting when I read dismissive blogs about 'Point in Time' data suggesting it's no longer relevant. I would like to introduce one fundamental data type that does not change and directly impacts business performance: talent analytics. These are numbers representing stable characteristics about how we work naturally and what we are driven by. Think of them as your strengths in numbers form.

Since we all have people in our lives, I don't need to post 10 links to research. Take away three things from this entry:

• Everyone works and is driven differently.
• Everyone has stable characteristics that carry with them through out their career.
• Stable characteristics that tie to performance can be quantified and utilized alongside all other data. 

Think about these examples in context of work:

• If you are driven to be competitive by nature, you will always be that way from your first entry level job up through the ranks and as a CEO. This is a number.
• If you view things as being right or wrong (for example, you may outright dismiss the 'Point in Time' argument) then you will always be like that until you have data to prove otherwise. Also a number.
• If you love solving problems, helping people, or driving results - these are how you are driven. Each one is a number.
• These are your behaviors; they are who you are and what you care about. These are also numbers like any other structured data collected by enterprise software platforms.

Stable characteristics that do not change over a lifetime can therefore be measured at a single point in time. Measured today or 10 years from now, you are who you are. Even when you change a role or company, PiT data can be used and re-used over and over again.

The debate is far from over; not all evidence was submitted the first time. Agree? Disagree? Comment below.