About Us

Where We’ve Been

Workplace Science was founded by David Futrell, an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist with over 30 years of experience. David’s journey began in 1989 during the startup of Saturn Corporation, a car company spun-off from General Motors with the goal of reinventing the way cars were designed, built and sold. David worked on the selection process for hiring the first 5,000 production workers, then he started the first data analytics team that used repair data from dealerships to provide rapid feedback to teams in engineering, manufacturing and supply chain. This enabled them to quickly identify and fix problems as the cars were being assembled.

In 1992, David joined QualPro in Knoxville, TN. QualPro’s founder, Chuck Holland, learned his craft directly from W. Edwards Deming. This small consulting company was an innovator in process improvement, bringing statistical methods like control-charting and experimental design to the local workforce within organizations.

In 1998, David joined the Workforce Research team at Eli Lilly and Company. At Lilly, David created selection, assessment, and survey tools that shaped HR practices in the U.S. and internationally.

In 2014 David joined Walmart to lead a team of Industrial/Organizational Psychologists who developed and implemented the assessments used for hires and promotions for all stores, Sam’s Clubs, and Supply Chain facilities in the U.S. This system was the highest-volume selection system in the world, and its use saved Walmart hundreds of millions of dollars by improving performance and reducing turnover.

He redesigned and implemented Walmart’s Performance Management system in 2021 and led the revision of the annual Employee Engagement survey in 2022.

David also led a People Analytics team composed of data scientists, data engineers, and I/O psychologists.