HR analytics & evidence-based decision-making: a multi-stakeholder perspecitive

Human Resource Analytics (HRA) is espoused as enabling the Human Resource (HR) function to make evidence-based decisions, and, consequently, has garnered a growing interest among both scholars and practitioners in organisations over the past decade. There is now a burgeoning literature that centres on how HRA can inform decision-making among HR professionals and senior management. This relatively nascent literature, however, lacks a consistent conceptualisation of HRA, and is rather prescriptive in its focus, neglecting to consider the wide range of HRA stakeholders and their use of HRA for evidence-based decision-making. This research, therefore, seeks to address these knowledge gaps, and examine the complex phenomenon of HRA from a multi-stakeholder perspective within the context of evidence-based decision-making. This research aims to gain an understanding first of the stakeholders of HRA; second; how HRA is conceptualised, and, third, how HRA is utilised for decision-making among a broad range of organisational stakeholders. A qualitative research design was adopted, comprising three distinct Studies: 1) a systematic review of existing HRA literature; and 2) a thematic analysis of 40 secondary cases on HRA; and 3) an in-depth case study conducted in a large public sector organisation. Through the findings, this research advances knowledge in HRA in three ways. First, the research identifies the broad range of stakeholders on three different levels (organisational level, operational and broader environment) and examines their role as well as salience level regarding HRA. Second, the research offers a conceptualisation of HRA from a multi-stakeholder perspective. Third, the research builds a holistic model of how a broader range of stakeholders can utilise HRA for evidence-based decision-making in organisations. Consequently, this research outlines a number of important implications for the application of HRA in organisations, as well as future research directions to further develop the scholarship in the field of HRA.