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Learning from practice: how HR analytics avoids being a management fad

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Rasmussen, Thomas, Ulrich, Dave·2015·Organizational Dynamics
DOI 10.1016/j.orgdyn.2015.05.008
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Abstract

Human resource (HR) analytics is touted to have the potential to bring great value to general managers’ and HR leaders’ decision-making on human and organization capital by supplementing intuition and experience with evidence. Yet, it currently risks becoming another management fad, because HR analytics has too often taken an “inside-out,” HR-centric, and academic approach being governed by a Center-of-Expertise (CoE) distant from the business. A shift towards an “outside-in” approach with a focus on actionable, high-impact analytics is needed. This development is accelerated by technology, which is rapidly consolidating the analytics landscape. This shift enables HR analytics to be taken out of HR and become part of existing end-to-end business analytics, where human resources is just one element in the value chains analyzed. This leads to more business relevant findings and impactful interventions, as illustrated in two cases.

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  • Currently, in HR Analytics, algorithmic HRM primarily augments HRM decision-making in that human decision makers may choose not to act on algorithmic-enabled insights or choose alternatives that are not necessarily predicted to be optimal by an algorithm.

    “Currently, in HR Analytics, algorithmic HRM primarily augments HRM decision-making in that human decision makers may choose not to act on algorithmic-enabled insights or choose alternatives that are not necessarily predicted to be optimal by an algorithm (Rasmussen & Ulrich, 2015;Tursunbayeva et al., 2018).”

    From Algorithmic human resource management: Synthesizing developments and cross-disciplinary insights on digital HRM (2021) · cites this paper as Rasmussen & Ulrich, 2015

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Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY For a comprehensive illustration of the role of HR analytics and the use of HR data to tie people, strategy, and performance together, see E. Becker, M. Huselid and D. Ulrich, The HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy, and Performance (Har- vard Business Press, 2001). An in-depth discussion of HR metrics and analytics in evidence-based management can be found in E. Lawler, A. Levenson, and J. Boudreau, ''HR Metrics and Analytics: Use and Impact,'' Human Resource Planning, 2004, 27(3), 27-35;
  2. J. Pfeffer and R.I. Sutton, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management (Cambridge: Harvard Busi- ness School Press, 2006);
  3. J. Phillips and P. Phillips, ROI at Work: Best-Practice Case Studies from the Real World. (ASTD Press, 2005); and D. Rousseau, ''Is There Such a Thing as Evidence- Based Management?'' Academy of Management Review, 2006, 31(2), 256-269. For a perspective from economics on the use of data and statistics as input for decision-making in manage- ment on personnel related matters, see E. Lazear, ''The Future of Personnel Economics,''Economic Journal, 2001, 110(467), F661-F639. For a classical perspective of the limited impact of facts and data on belief systems, see L. Festinger, R. Henry, and S. Stanley, When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World (University of Minnesota Press, 1956).

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Authors
Rasmussen, T., & Ulrich, D.
Affiliations
  • Shell (Netherlands) (NL)
  • University of Michigan (US)
Corresponding author
Rasmussen, Thomas
Venue
Organizational Dynamics
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-07
Volume
44
Issue
3
Pages
236-242
ISSN
0090-2616 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.orgdyn.2015.05.008
OpenAlex
W397107425
Cited by
400
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 72 · 2025: 53 · 2024: 49 · 2023: 61 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 6
FWCI
27.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
Organizational Dynamics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › AI and HR Technologies
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Big Data and Business Intelligence
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Human Resource and Talent Management
Keywords
HR analytics, management fads, business analytics, human capital, organizational capital, evidence-based decision making, value chain

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