The science and practice of workforce analytics: Introduction to the HRM special issue

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21916
• Author: Mark A. Huselid
• Published date: 01 May 2018
• Date: 01 May 2018

GUEST EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

The science and practice of workforce analytics: Introduction

to the HRM special issue

Mark A. Huselid

D'Amore-McKim School of Business,

Northeastern University, Boston,

Massachusetts

Correspondence

Mark A. Huselid, D'Amore-McKim School of

Business, Northeastern University, 315B

Hayden Hall, Boston, MA 02115.

Email: mark@markhuselid.com

This special issue of Human Resource Management is focused on the latest thinking, research,

and practical advances in the emerging field of Workforce Analytics. The eight diverse papers in

this issue present new theoretical developments, methodological and statistical tools, and exam-

ples of innovative workforce analytics in practice. Taken as a whole, the findings show that

workforce analytics can significantly enhance the ability of leaders and managers to achieve

their operational and strategic objectives through more effective workforce management. But

capitalizing on these opportunities will require both HR and line managers to developa compre-

hensive understanding of how the workforce contributes to their firm's strategic success—and

this understanding must be reflected in the workforce metrics and analytics they develop and

deploy.

KEYWORDS

HR measurement, special issue, strategic HR, workforce analytics, workforce metrics

1|INTRODUCTION

Interest in the fields of data science and data analytics has increased

substantially among scholars and practitioners in recent years. Span-

ning challenges as diverse as individualized health care diagnosis and

treatment, customer sentiment analysis, intelligent traffic manage-

ment, real-time financial fraud detection, and national security con-

cerns, data analytics and science have become central topics in the

academic, business, and popular press. These trends are the result of a

confluence of factors, including the availability and accessibility of

data, increased computer processing speeds, and dramatically lower

networking and storage costs. In addition, contributing to the disrup-

tive impact of data science and analytics is the development of inter-

disciplinary theoretical and statistical innovations in computer science,

statistics, and mathematics (McKinsey Global Institute, 2016).

Interest in analytics in the fields of HR and workforce manage-

ment has grown dramatically among scholars and practitioners as well

(Bock, 2015; Boudreau & Cascio, 2017; Davenport, 2013; Davenport,

Harris, & Morison, 2010; Guenole, Ferrar, & Feinzig, 2017; Huselid,

2015; Levenson, 2017; Rasmussen & Ulrich, 2015). As the market for

high-performing and high-potential talent is becoming much more

“efficient”in many firms, top talent is becoming simultaneously more

expensive and more easily lost to competitors. As conventional

sources of competitive advantage no longer differentiate firms in the

global marketplace, effectively responding to globalization requires

flexibility, speed and innovation, and talent. This has led to an intense

focus on workforce strategy, and on differentiation in investment

levels among employees and jobs in support of business objectives.

As a result, many firms are substantially increasing the level of

accountability of the line manager's role in talent management and,

ultimately, strategy execution (Huselid, Becker, & Beatty, 2005).

One of the key outcomes of the increased emphasis on account-

ability has been the significant growth in the demand for the insights

and information that workforce analytics can generate. Widespread

interest in innovations such as Google's Project Oxygen (Bock, 2015;

Garvin, 2013) and the Moneyball phenomenon have had a significant

impact on the prevalence of workforce metrics and analytics in many

firms (Huselid & Becker, 2005). The demand for employees capable of

developing and implementing workforce analytics has also increased

dramatically as job titles and postings containing the terms “workforce

analytics”have proliferated, and the workforce analytics “industry”

among consulting and technology firms has seen significant growth

(Deloitte, 2017). Finally, many major international universities are cre-

ating undergraduate and graduate degrees in analytics, and several

university-based research centers are now in place.

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21916

Hum Resour Manage. 2018;57:679–684. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 679