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The topic of human resource (HR) analytics has recently attracted growing interest. Despite numerous advantages, adopting HR analytics in practice is still limited, especially in a public sector context. The aim of this study is to investigate why this is the case. The study applies the Ability, Motivation, and Opportunity (AMO) framework to examine public sector HR professionals’ preconditions for HR analytics. A total of 30 interviews were conducted with HR practitioners in three public administration authorities in Sweden and they were analysed using thematic template analysis. The results show that despite the high motivation to comply with governments’ political agendas, improve decision-making, and ensure transparency, HR practitioners report a lack of analytical skills and technical knowledge. They are also limited by data availability, technical support, scarce resources, and complex organisational structures. The study adds to a growing body of HR analytics literature and highlights the complexity involved in HR analytics adoption. 

The summary of the insights from the current literature indicates that HR analytics is a growing field which is still characterized by the general lack of empirical research. Especially noticeable is the shortage of studies conducted in the public sector context. Existing studies heavily employed strategic perspective on HR analytics, meaning that its successful implementation depends on the strategically relevant measures linked to the organizational strategy execution. The focus is moved from justifying the effectiveness of the HR function towards the impact of organizational workforce on the organizational success and competitive advantage. Moreover, HR analytics is conceptualized as an ongoing process, rather than a statistical toolkit. This opens up for the discussion of possibilities to apply the concept of HR analytics process in the public sector context.

The use of data analytics has gained popularity among various managerial functions, aligning with the principles of evidence-based management. Reflecting this trend, human resource management has also embraced the managerial fashion, framing it as human resource (HR) analytics. HR analytics represents a relatively recent HR innovation, generally understood as a technology-driven organisational practice of analysing HR and other data to make better people-related decisions.

Despite the growing interest among HR scholars and practitioners, empirical evidence remains limited, particularly in the context of public sector organisations, which have also begun leveraging HR analytics, albeit with some delay. Thus, the aim of this study is to describe the process of HR analytics implementation from a translation perspective. We seek to answer the following research question: How is HR analytics being translated in the practices of public sector organisations?

HR analytics implementation is seen as a broader concept, but it is not sufficient to explain the changes that occur in the process and why the results do not always meet expectations. To increase understanding, we use the concept of translation. Drawing on Scandinavian institutionalism and the organisational translation perspective, we show how the practice of HR analytics has been adapted for use in two public administrations in Sweden: a state authority and a regional administration. We employ a longitudinal research design comprising three phases of data collection conducted over a period of three years. This includes a total of 51 in-depth interviews with organisational practitioners involved in HR analytics implementation, observation of project meetings, and document analysis. The process data are analysed using a visual mapping strategy combined with thematic analysis. 

Our preliminary findings show that during the process of translation, the concept of HR analytics underwent significant transformation to meet specific organisational needs. One previously deemed important aspect of the concept, namely predictive and prescriptive analyses, was omitted during the translation process. Conversely, another aspect, namely descriptive statistics, received significantly more attention compared to the conceptualisation in existing literature within the field.

The study contributes to the existing HR analytics literature by providing empirical evidence from the underexplored context of public sector organisations. The study makes a general theoretical contribution to the literature on how managerial ideas are adapted during the process of translation. We demonstrate that ideas may not only be transformed through adaptation, but some important aspects may be lost in the translation process, resulting in the loss of the original meaning. 

Rapid developments in technology, such as the ever-increasing speed of computer processing, the availability of vast amounts of data, and improved methods of data analysis, have had a profound impact on organisations and their operations, including human resource management (HRM). Human resource (HR) analytics, an HR practice that involves technology-driven statistical analysis of various data to make more objective employee-related decisions, has generated significant interest from organisations and has been a topic of discussion among HR practitioners and academics for over a decade.

However, empirical evidence on HR analytics remains limited, with existing literature predominantly focusing on private firms, suggesting potential business-related benefits, and reporting multiple implementation challenges. Business-related benefits are less relevant for public sector organisations that are not driven solely by profit maximisation and market competition but are instead faced with pressures from values such as democracy and societal welfare. Moreover, the contemporary shift from New Public Management to a more trust-based approach may also raise questions about the superiority and relevance of private sector solutions. Therefore, it remains unclear what motivates public sector organisations to embrace HR analytics. Addressing this gap, this study examines the rationale behind the utilisation of HR analytics in public sector organisations and attempts to answer the following research question: What reasons for the adoption of HR analytics could be identified in public sector organisations?

Drawing upon a general consensus in the broader HRM literature that organisations adopt HR practices due to either competitive factors or institutional forces, we conducted a qualitative study in three organisations representing distinct levels within the Swedish public sector: the state (authorities), regional (regions), and local (municipalities). These organisations are governed by democratic elections and, unlike private firms, are driven by goals that prioritise citizens' service and safety over profit, as they do not have the same requirements for return on capital. All three organisations feature complex organisational structures with diversified units, employ a large number of employees, and collect substantial amounts of personnel data, which is an important prerequisite for HR analytics.

All three participating organisations confirmed their general interest in utilising HR analytics. However, at the time of data collection, none of them had fully implemented it in their HR operations beyond some basic practices and an ambition to further develop them. The level of HR analytics maturity in the studied organisations is at the initial stage, representing descriptive HR analytics. This stage is primarily based on HR administrative data, focusing on what happened in the past. The studied organisations utilise HR data for reporting personnel records and various descriptive HR measurements. They benchmark these metrics with those of other similar organisations and visualise them through various data visualisation tools, such as Power BI, to facilitate data understanding for organisational decision-makers.

A total of 51 in-depth interviews were conducted with different HR practitioners and other professionals involved in HR analytics practices, including representatives from IT, finance, and organisational line managers. The exploratory interviews broadly focused on the current state of organisational strategic and operational work with HR-related data and their analysis, encompassing the reasons for HR analytics adoption, as well as organisational expectations and aspirations for the future. Thematic analysis of the data was inspired by the Gioia methodology, the primary characteristic of which is the development of a data structure combining 1st-order and 2nd-order themes, along with aggregate dimensions, to construct a theoretical model to make sense of the findings.

The study reveals three types of reasons for the adoption of HR analytics in public sector organisations: economic rationality, legitimacy, and individual interests. HR analytics is utilised to gain cognitive, socio-political, and technological legitimacy through the improvement of several organisational outcomes linked to economic rationality, including HR-related outcomes and better data management and analysis. Personal interests of certain individuals are also found to drive the adoption. The study findings indicate that the reasons for HR analytics adoption reported in the existing literature can, to some extent, also be applied to the public sector but need to be adjusted to fit the distinctive context of public organisations striving for legitimacy.

The study contributes to the HR analytics literature by providing empirical evidence from the public sector. Moreover, it argues for the combination of economic rationality with legitimacy gains and individual interests in explaining the rationale behind the adoption of HR analytics.

Purpose: To explore consumers’ attitudes towards e-commerce, in particular online grocery shopping, and its delivery in non-dense areas for the purpose of designing smart last-mile solutions.

Approach: The state-of-the-art of smart e-commerce delivery in dense areas was identified by a review of the literature. It was expected that this knowledge could be transferred to non-dense areas. This prediction was examined and explored further by making use of four focus groups recruited in a Swedish mid-sized town.

Findings: Respondents were generally positive towards e-commerce, although mixed attitudes were found with regard to online grocery shopping. Further, the willingness to pay for flexible, smart and sustainable delivery was low, with a notable exception for local produce.

Originality: The knowledge acquired and solution developed in dense areas is not readily transferred to non-dense areas. There is scope for developing new Business Models for the supply chain of local produce. For the prototype testing and roll-out of smart e-commerce delivery platforms, the online local produce market is recommended.

HR analytics (HRA) is a new activity within the field of HR that companies recently have shown a strongly growing interest in. The practical interest has generated a stream of research with the aim to increase formal knowledge about the phenomenon. Following this development several early literature reviews have been conducted. They mostly focus on enabling and preventing factors for HRA without clearly relating to theoretical perspectives and standpoints. This paper therefore aims to achieve more in-depth formal knowledge by placing the early flow of HRA research in relation to the practice theory reflecting the general “practice turn” in social sciences. Inspired by the HRM-as-practice framework this paper systematically reviews existing research based on the four pre-defined categories: HRA practices, HRA praxis, HRA practitioners and intersections between them. This paper makes two theoretical contributions. First, it conceptualizes HRA-as-practice, describing what practices are involved in HRA, by whom and how they are enacted. And second, it suggests that HRA technology, HRA outcomes and HRA hinders and facilitators might act at the intersections between the three elements.

Syftet med workshopen är att öppna upp för idé- och erfarenhetsutbyte gällande digitalisering och dess verksamhetsspecifika möjligheter, begränsningar och (etiska) konsekvenser kopplat till företagsekonomisk utbildning och forskning. Vi vill även bidra till nätverksskapande för forskare och lärare som intresserar sig för denna kunskapsutveckling och hur den påverkar framtidens företagsekonomiska utbildning.Vi inleder workshoppen med en kort presentation av våra påbörjade forskningsaktiviteter inom bl a HR-analytics, e-ledarskap, projektledning kopplat till digitalisering av produktionssystem och Business Intelligence samt hur dessa kunskaper kan inkluderas i våra kurser. Därefter öppnar vi upp för smågruppsdiskussioner med dessa frågeställningar: - Vilka forskningsfrågor inom digitalisering och dess verksamhetsspecifika möjligheter, begränsningar och (etiska) konsekvenser är ni intresserad av? Vilka teorier och metoder används (planerar att användas)? - Hur jobbar ni (vill ni jobba) med utveckling av digitaliseringskompetens som kunskaps- och färdighetsområde i era utbildningar?Deltagarna kommer under smågruppdiskussioner kunna föra anteckningar via onlineverktyg (Padlet), vilka sedan används för sammanfattning och erfarenhetsutbyte mellan grupperna i slutet av workshopen. Möjligt att ansluta eller lämna i samband med pausen. Svenska och engelska mixas.