The way organizations make decisions today is very often purely based on intuition or gut-feeling. It does not matter whether decisions are of high risk for the company’s future or not, managers golden-gut is the only thing that determines whether invest- ments should be made or not. Analytics is the opposite of this intuition-based decision making. If taken seriously, almost all decisions in organizations are made on facts that are analytically derived from massive amount of data from internal and external sources such as customer relationship systems to social networks. Business leaders are becoming more aware of analytically based decisions, and some use it more than others. Analytics is usually practiced in finance, customer relationships or marketing. There is, however, one area where analytics is practiced by a small number of companies, and that is on the organization’s workforce. The workforce is usually seen as one of the most complicated areas to practice analytics. An employee is, of course, more com- plicated than a product. Despite this fact, companies usually forget that conducting analytics on employees is very similar to conducting analytics on customers, which has been practiced for many decades. Some organizations are showing great success with applications of Workforce Analytics (WA). Most of these organizations are located in the US or outside of Sweden. This thesis has conducted research on to what extent Workforce Analytics is practiced in Sweden. Empirical findings show that some com- panies use WA in Sweden. The practice is not of highest sophistication of WA. Also, they show aspiration towards the idea of WA and some are locally conducting various of applications.

The use of analytics in human resource (HR) management has proven successful in improving company performance by reducing workforce costs, improving the quality of recruitment, improving talent management and employee engagement, and generally improving productivity. The purpose of this qualitative, multiple-case study was to explore how HR managers use analytics to improve company performance using the contextually based human resource theory as the conceptual framework. The target population comprised a purposeful sample of 5 HR managers in Washington DC; the United States; and Lagos, Nigeria, who had experience using analytics for HR management. Data were collected through semistructured interviews using face-to-face, telephone, and Internet communications and a review of company documents and websites. Data analysis included content and thematic analysis. Four themes emerged from data analysis: the need for HR analytics to align with organizational strategy, the need for understanding HR metrics and how insights derived from HR analytics improve company performance, influencers of HR analytics adoption, and the barriers to HR analytics adoption. The findings and recommendations of this study can assist HR managers in implementing HR analytics successfully. The implications for positive social change include the potential for increased employee satisfaction, improved productivity, and enhanced prosperity in local communities, leading to positive socioeconomic indicators.

Bakgrund och syfte: Implementeringen av HR analytics är mycket låg trots att forskning visar på att användandet av HR analytics leder till bättre beslut i organisationer. Syftet med studien var att undersöka HR analytikers uppfattning av hinder bakom den begränsade framväxten. Metod: Sex HR analytikers semistrukturerade intervjuer analyserades genom en tematisk analys. Analysen var induktiv med inslag av deduktion. Resultat: Det råder en kompetensbrist inom området. Hinder för framväxten har visat sig vara HR analytikers tvivel på sin egen förmåga att arbeta databaserat, brist på ledningsstöd, brister i mjukvara, kompetens- och utbildningsbrist samt informationsbrist. HR analytics ger en högre legitimitet för professionen vilket också pekar mot ett ökat framtida användande. HR analytics har också resulterat i ett större inflytande hos ledning och chefer. Slutsatser: Studien talar för en utbildningssatsning där fokuset inte enbart bör ligga på de `hårda ́ kompetenserna utan också på de `mjuka ́ såsom förändringsledning, storytelling och kommunikation.