HR analytics: The onto‐epistemology and politics of metricised HRM

• Date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Pete Thomas,Kay Greasley
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12283

SPECIAL ISSUE

HR analytics: The onto-epistemology and politics

of metricised HRM

Kay Greasley | Pete Thomas

Department of Organisation, Work and

Technology, Lancaster University

Correspondence

Dr Pete Thomas, Department of Organisation,

Work and Technology, Lancaster University,

Lancaster, LA1 4YX, UK.

Email: p.thomas2@lancaster.ac.uk

Funding information

BUPA Foundation

Abstract

The development of HR analytics, the growing dominance

of positivistic approaches in academic HRM, and the

increasing influence of evidence-based approaches on HR

represent a convergence of contextual factors that have the

potential to influence HR practice significantly. In this con-

text, we examine how the HR analytics “project”may unfold

base on a reflective analysis of a number of data-rich well-

being projects and empirical evaluations. We focus on the

ways in which participants may become enrolled and

mobilised in such projects and the implications this has for

perceived value and effects of “data”generated by HR ana-

lytics. In particular, we draw attention to the social, political,

and onto-epistemological processes of the analytics project

and draw conclusions about the way in which the analytics

project may influence professional practice.

KEYWORDS

HR analytics, HR professional, metrics, onto-epistemology,

organisational politic, well-being

1|INTRODUCTION

Although by no means new, HR analytics, which we loosely define as including metrics and analytics (Lawler, Lev-

enson, & Boudreau, 2004), is seen as an increasingly significant issue for organisations (CIPD/Workday, 2018). It has

been promoted as a way of analysing human capital and improving business performance and enhancing the position

of the HR function in organisations (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007; Fitz-Enz, 2010; Huselid, 2018). However, the appli-

cation of analytics appears to remain rather limited and its impact variable (Boudreau & Cascio, 2017; Minbaeva,

2017), and this seems to echo the effects of prior innovations in HRM that have promised to develop the function

The well-being study on which this paper is based was originally funded by the BUPA Foundation.

Received: 15 May 2018 Revised: 6 December 2019 Accepted: 8 January 2020

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12283

494 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Hum Resour Manag J. 2020;30:494–507.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj