用Transformer嵌入增强树模型预测员工流失,结果却不如纯树模型有效。
Integrating SAINT with Tree-Based Models: A Case Study in Employee Attrition Prediction
- 将SAINT生成的嵌入用于树模型,试图捕捉特征间复杂关系。
- 树模型单独使用时准确率高于SAINT或混合模型,且泛化能力更强。
- 混合模型降低可解释性,说明深度学习嵌入未必适合树模型。
员工流失给组织带来巨大挑战,增加成本并降低生产力。准确预测流失可支持主动留任策略,但现有机器学习模型难以捕捉表格型人力资源数据中的复杂特征交互。尽管树模型如XGBoost和LightGBM在结构化数据上表现良好,传统编码方法(如独热编码)会引入稀疏性,并破坏分类特征间的语义关联。本研究探索将SAINT(自注意力与样本间注意力变换器)生成的嵌入与树模型结合的混合方法,以提升员工流失预测性能。SAINT利用自注意力机制建模复杂的特征交互。实验对比了独立模型(SAINT、XGBoost、LightGBM)与混合模型(以SAINT嵌入作为输入的树模型)。结果显示,独立树模型在预测准确率和泛化能力上均优于独立SAINT及混合模型。出乎意料的是,混合模型未带来性能提升,可能因为树模型难以有效利用密集高维嵌入。此外,混合模型显著降低了可解释性,使决策过程更难理解。这些发现表明,尽管基于Transformer的嵌入能捕捉特征关系,但未必能增强树模型。未来研究应探索结构化数据中深度学习与树模型的更优融合策略。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Employee attrition presents a major challenge for organizations, increasing costs and reducing productivity. Predicting attrition accurately enables proactive retention strategies, but existing machine learning models often struggle to capture complex feature interactions in tabular HR datasets. While tree-based models such as XGBoost and LightGBM perform well on structured data, traditional encoding techniques like one-hot encoding can introduce sparsity and fail to preserve semantic relationships between categorical features. This study explores a hybrid approach by integrating SAINT (Self-Attention and Intersample Attention Transformer)-generated embeddings with tree-based models to enhance employee attrition prediction. SAINT leverages self-attention mechanisms to model intricate feature interactions. In this study, we explore SAINT both as a standalone classifier and as a feature extractor for tree-based models. We evaluate the performance, generalizability, and interpretability of standalone models (SAINT, XGBoost, LightGBM) and hybrid models that combine SAINT embeddings with tree-based classifiers. Experimental results show that standalone tree-based models outperform both the standalone SAINT model and the hybrid approaches in predictive accuracy and generalization. Contrary to expectations, the hybrid models did not improve performance. One possible explanation is that tree-based models struggle to utilize dense, high-dimensional embeddings effectively. Additionally, the hybrid approach significantly reduced interpretability, making model decisions harder to explain. These findings suggest that transformer-based embeddings, while capturing feature relationships, do not necessarily enhance tree-based classifiers. Future research should explore alternative fusion strategies for integrating deep learning with structured data.
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