Workforce analytics: A case study of scholar–practitioner collaboration

• Date: 01 May 2018
• Published date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21853

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Workforce analytics: A case study of scholar–practitioner

collaboration

Cristina Simón

1

| Eva Ferreiro

2

1

IE Business School, IE University, Madrid,

Spain

2

Inditex, A Coruña, Spain

Correspondence:

Cristina Simón, Organizational Behavior

Department, IE Business School, IE University,

María de Molina, 13, 28006 Madrid, Spain.

Email: cristina.simon@ie.edu

Drawing on a case study of a large multinational fashion company, we describe the process of

development of a Workforce analytics initiative within the corporate HR department resulting

from the collaboration of practitioners and researchers. The article elaborates on three main

points: (a) how social science research methods and the competences of management research-

ers may act as the basis for a rigorous Workforce analytics infrastructure and support the

development of such practice along time, (b) some of the key levers and limitations for the cre-

ation of a Workforce analytics initiative within a company, and (c) how this emerging practice

illustrates a symbiotic relationship between academics and practitioners. After presenting the

case, we close with a set of lessons learned both for practitioners and scholars in the field.

KEYWORDS

cluster analysis, regression analysis, scholar-practitioner collaboration, workforce analytics

1|INTRODUCTION

The growing availability of information about employees, processes,

and corporate performance indicators opens up a world of opportu-

nities for better understanding the role that workers play in support-

ing the business strategy of their companies (Jackson, Schuler, &

Jiang, 2014). However, evidence on the strategic use of HR analytics

is still scarce (Rasmussen & Ulrich, 2015). A successful Workforce

analytics infrastructure requires specific sets of knowledge on busi-

ness research methods and rigorous analytical skills, as well as the

development of a “questioning mind-set”that drives the design, col-

lection, analysis, and further interpretation of the data (Angrave,

Charlwood, Kirkpatrick, Lawrence, & Stuart, 2016). The present arti-

cle illustrates and discusses the efforts to develop these capabilities

through the collaboration between scholars and practitioners within

the context of a large multinational retailer.

The bridging of the research–practice gap in management and

the characterization of the most efficient types of relationships

between the academic and practitioners' communities has received

growing attention over the past 15 years. As characterized by Bansal,

Bertels, Ewart, MacConnachie, and O'Brien (2012), researchers and

practitioners differ on (a) epistemological approaches, (b) the use of

different languages, and (c) the interpretation of information. Besides,

researchers in general are incentivized to produce and disseminate

knowledge rather than to collaborate with practitioners. Academics

have proposed different methods to improve this collaboration, with

the wide framework of action research being one of the most fruitful

and prominent (Coghland, 2011; Noffke & Somekh, 2009; Zhang,

Levenson, & Crossley, 2014).

Academic research has been fruitful in findings and theoretical

frameworks that link employees' competencies, behaviors and atti-

tudes with different aspects of corporate performance with practical

implications (Pearce, 2012). A good deal of publications within the

field of high-performance work practices (Posthuma, Campion, Masi-

nova, & Campion, 2013), competences (Spencer & Spencer, 1993), or

team effectiveness constitute valuable inputs for managers in their

daily practice. Within the specific field of Workforce analytics, the

publication of The HR Scorecard (Becker, Huselid, & Ulrich, 2001)

marked a milestone in the field, defining a system of metrics and pro-

posing a methodology to allow practitioners to show the relationship

between the organization's human capital and business performance.

Collaboration among practitioners and scholars can also bring

about benefits for the academic community. As far as research in

HRM is concerned, while it is recognized that considerable progress

has been made regarding the contribution of human capital to perfor-

mance in organizations, some commentators argue that “some of the

basic questions remain the same”and claim that new avenues for

“Symbiosis is the living together of unlike organisms.”Heinrich Anton de

Bary, 1879

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21853

Hum Resour Manage. 2018;57:781–793. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 781