A strategic approach to workforce analytics: Integrating science and agility

Workforce analytics is a major emerging trend in human resource management. Yet, despite the enthusiasm, there exists a misunderstanding of how organizations can successfully use workforce analytics to achieve important organizational outcomes. This article proposes ways to overcome this execution dilemma and achieve organizational success with workforce analytics through the integration of agile development with scientific research. We use a number of company examples to outline five key parts of an agile workforce analytics process: (1) prioritizing issues, (2) integrating deductive and inductive approaches, (3) preparing and validating data, (4) applying multiple methods in concert to support decisions, and (5) transforming insight into action to improve business outcomes.