Implementing HR analytics: Premises for value creating analytics
Suomela, Lauri (2021)
Suomela, Lauri
2021
Tietotekniikan DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Information Technology
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2021-05-24
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202104263640
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202104263640
Tiivistelmä
In this thesis, I studied what kinds of factors affect the success of development of products and services based on human resources (HR) analytics. This was investigated by answering two research questions: "What kinds of factors affect the value creation of HR analytics?" and "What kind of information can HR analytics produce in a real company, and what kind of value does this information provide to the company?". The first question was answered by conducting a literature review. The second was answered by conducting an HR analytics project in a real company.
The literature review identified four factors which affect the value creation of HR analytics. These are data management, analytics portfolio, human talent and contextual enablers. The analytics project revealed some patterns in the customer company's data. However, these did not provide information that the company could have used to improve their business performance. To discover why the analytics project did not produce valuable information, the four components that affect HR analytics value creation were examined within the context of the project.
The examination revealed various issues which affected the value creation of the project. It was discovered that the value creation of the case analytics project was greatly affected by factors not directly related to the analytics itself. The most important factors were related to data management and organizational factors i.e. contextual enablers. What is the most important outcome of the evaluation is highlighting the fact that analytics is not the right tool for every situation. Value creating analytics requires that the four factors have reached a sufficient level of maturity. Without fulfilling this precondition an analytics project might not reach its goals.
Consequently, I argue that the most important things to do before starting an HR analytics project are to evaluate the states of these four factors that affect the value creation of HR analytics, and to make a concrete plan of how exactly HR analytics helps to solve the business problem the project is aimed at. The development of any products and services based on HR analytics should start with this assessment.
The literature review identified four factors which affect the value creation of HR analytics. These are data management, analytics portfolio, human talent and contextual enablers. The analytics project revealed some patterns in the customer company's data. However, these did not provide information that the company could have used to improve their business performance. To discover why the analytics project did not produce valuable information, the four components that affect HR analytics value creation were examined within the context of the project.
The examination revealed various issues which affected the value creation of the project. It was discovered that the value creation of the case analytics project was greatly affected by factors not directly related to the analytics itself. The most important factors were related to data management and organizational factors i.e. contextual enablers. What is the most important outcome of the evaluation is highlighting the fact that analytics is not the right tool for every situation. Value creating analytics requires that the four factors have reached a sufficient level of maturity. Without fulfilling this precondition an analytics project might not reach its goals.
Consequently, I argue that the most important things to do before starting an HR analytics project are to evaluate the states of these four factors that affect the value creation of HR analytics, and to make a concrete plan of how exactly HR analytics helps to solve the business problem the project is aimed at. The development of any products and services based on HR analytics should start with this assessment.