S P E C I A L I S S U E A R T I C L E

Analytical abilities and the performance of HR professionals

David Kryscynski1 | Cody Reeves1 | Ryan Stice-Lusvardi2 | Michael Ulrich3 |

Grant Russell4

1Marriott School of Management, Brigham

Young University, Provo, Utah

2School of Management Science and

Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford,

California

3Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Utah

State University, Logan, Utah

4Google, Mountain View, California

Correspondence

David Kryscynski, Associate Professor of

Strategy, Management Department, Marriott

School of Business, Brigham Young University,

567 TNRB, Provo, UT 84606.

Email: [email protected]

Recent years have shown an increased focus on workforce analytics and the importance of

workforce analytics in helping HR professionals to be more useful business partners. This sug-

gests that HR professionals may need to become more and more data savvy and develop bet-

ter analytical abilities if they hope to perform well and contribute meaningfully in the future.

Despite this emphasis, there has been no research explicitly connecting the individual level ana-

lytical abilities of HR professionals to their job performance. Using a proprietary sample of

360 feedback surveys from 1,117 HR professionals in 449 unique organizations we test this

general relationship. We also test whether the relationship varies by industry-, company-, and

job-level factors. We find support for our main hypotheses that HR professionals with higher

analytical abilities will also have higher perceived job performance. We also find that the

strength of this relationship varies by some job roles. We explore and discuss these empirical

results.

KEYWORDS

ability, HR and technology, strategic HR

1 | INTRODUCTION

The role of HR professionals has evolved throughout history—from

“personnel administrators” and “industrial relations professionals" in

the 20th century to “HR managers” and “people managers” in the

21st century (Ferris et al., 2007; Kaufman, 2014, 2015). However,

HR professionals still struggle to get out from under their own his-

tory. The work of HR professionals continues to be perceived as

administrative (Lawler & Mohrman, 2003) in spite of a steady

decrease in the time spent on administrative tasks, as well as

increased involvement in executing and developing organizational

strategy (Lawler, 2005; Ulrich, Younger, & Brockbank, 2008). For

more than two decades, numerous scholars and practitioners have

demonstrated the importance of a strategic role for HR (Lawler,

2005; Ulrich et al., 2008) and further urged HR professionals to focus

on activities that place them in full strategic partnership with other

key decision makers within the business (Brockbank, 1999; Lawler &

Mohrman, 2000; Ulrich, 1997; Ulrich, Brockbank, & Johnson, 2009;

Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank, & Ulrich, 2012), but the profession as a

whole still struggles to establish itself as a strategic partner (Ferris

et al., 2007; Hammonds, 2005; Mundy, 2012). There are a number of

factors that may contribute to this struggle, but one prominent factor

is HR’s lack of evidence-based rigor in decision making. Workforce

analytics has been popularly identified as one means by which HR

can address this failing and enhance its empirical rigor, but HR may

not have the necessary capabilities (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007;

Meinhert, 2011; Oehler, 2015; Roberts, 2009; Schramm, 2006; Zie-

linski, 2014a). With a growing consensus that the HR profession

needs greater analytical rigor, we might presume that HR profes-

sionals with greater analytical abilities will be better HR professionals

overall, ceteris paribus. They may make better decisions, have greater

influence, generate new insights, better communicate with business

leaders, and so forth.

Despite a growing sentiment that HR professionals with higher

analytical skill will be a better strategic resource and partner (Robb,

2003; Roberts, 2009; Zielinski, 2014b), we find no empirical evidence

supporting this general supposition at the individual level. We find

many claims that analytical skill may be critical for HR professionals

(e.g., Lawler, 2006; Roberts, 2007) and that increasing the analytical

skill of HR professionals holds “the potential for HR managers to

communicate HR’s value and further transform its image from a back

office administrative oriented function to a full-fledged strategic and

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21854

Hum Resour Manage. 2018;57:715–738. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 715

business partner” (Dulebohn & Johnson, 2013). Unfortunately, how-

ever, these claims are primarily theoretical and/or based on anecdotal

observation. We also find evidence supporting a general positive cor-

relation between HR analytics and different dimensions of perfor-

mance at the HR department level (Lawler & Boudreau, 2015), but

we simply lack empirical evidence supporting the relationship

between an individual HR professional’s analytical abilities and that

person’s performance.

The purpose of this article, therefore, is to explicitly test whether

HR professionals who have better analytical skills also demonstrate

higher performance, as well as the contextual factors that may mod-

erate that relationship. Based on the research mentioned above, we

generally expect that higher analytical skills will relate to higher indi-

vidual performance. We also draw upon extant organizational

research to argue that the positive relationship between analytical

skills and individual performance will be stronger in certain industry,

company, and job contexts. Specifically, we expect this relationship

to be stronger in: (a) high-tech industries, (b) companies whose HR

departments engage in high levels of HR analytics, (c) lower job

levels, and (d) HR generalist job types.

We test our hypotheses using a unique and proprietary data set

from the Human Resource Competency Study (Ulrich, Brockbank,

Johnson, & Younger, 2007; Ulrich, Brockbank, Johnson, & Younger,

2010). This practitioner-oriented study recruited more than 4,000 HR

professionals in 2015 to participate in a 360 feedback process where

raters evaluated both the HR professionals’ individual competencies

as well as their performance. We leverage measures of the HR pro-

fessional’s perceived analytical skill along with measures of that HR

professional’s perceived performance for 1,117 of the HR profes-

sionals in the sample. The results support our main hypotheses, but

of our hypothesized interactions we only find partial support for our

expectation that analytical abilities will be more valuable for HR gen-

eralists than HR specialists. We thus contribute to the emerging

stream of academic research in workforce analytics in at least two

ways. First, we provide a large-scale empirical test of the taken-for-

granted assumption that HR professionals with higher analytical abil-

ities will also have higher individual performance. Second, we explore

the conditions under which analytical skill may have stronger or

weaker relationships with individual performance.

2 | THE IMPORTANCE OF ANALYTICAL ABILITY IN HR

In the past decade, reports of HR analytics’ successes have spurred

discussions from both practitioners and scholars about the impor-

tance of utilizing workforce data and analytics to strengthen HR’s

contribution to organizations. Schramm (2006) reported that effective

use of workforce analytics was a key determinant of successful

human capital management. Since that time, a number of scholars

and consultants have championed workforce analytics

(e.g., Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007; Gibbons & Woock, 2007; Ulrich &

Dulebohn, 2015) and identified it as a key area for investment

(Mondore, Douthitt, & Carson, 2011; Ulrich & Dulebohn, 2015). The

result is that more and more HR professionals are using HR data to

provide legitimate and reliable foundations for decisions (Boudreau &

Ramstad, 2007).

Although many executives recognize the potential of HR to pro-

vide insights about human capital and shape the organization in mean-

ingful ways (Lawler, 2006; Zeidner, 2009), it is not entirely clear

whether HR professionals have the analytical skills and abilities to

realize this potential. Scholars argue that successful HR analysts

require substantial analytical skills (Levenson, 2005; Wolfe, Wright, &

Smart, 2006), and, historically, HR has not attracted individuals with

strong analytical and quantitative skills (Roberts, 2009; Ulrich & Dule-

bohn, 2015), which has led to a dearth of qualified analysts in HR

departments. Brockner and Flynn (2006) observed that “future HR

practitioners almost universally shy away from the more analytical

classes.” Given this reluctance toward analytics typical of most HR

professionals, it is not surprising that the decisions made about human

capital often lack evidence-based rigor. The stigma of HR as being low

on decision-making rigor and subsequently credibility has led many to

push for the adoption of evidence-based methods that validate HR

decisions and place it on equal footing with its other partners in busi-

ness (Lawler, 2006). Many have come to view workforce analytics as a

major means in achieving this goal. It makes use of “data, metrics, sta-

tistics and scientific methods, with the help of technology, to gauge

the impact of [human capital management] practices on business

goals” (Roberts, 2009). In using analytics, HR professionals are better

able to provide managers and executives with insights and recommen-

dations that are based on empirical evidence.

Many have expressed impatience with the often less-than-

empirical approach many HR professionals employ. Pfeffer and Sut-

ton (2006) capture the exasperation of many who have dealt with HR

professionals who have sought to employ logic and conventional wis-

dom in place of evidence-based claims: “Evidence-based management

is based on the belief that facing the hard facts about what works

and what doesn’t, understanding the dangerous half-truths that con-

stitute so much conventional wisdom about management, and reject-

ing the total nonsense that too often passes for sound advice will

help organizations perform better.” In light of such sentiments, we

would expect to find that an individual who utilizes analytical skills

and abilities would be a welcome contrast to other less empirically

grounded HR professionals, and approval for this evidence-based

approach would be reflected in the individual’s performance ratings.

Scholarly empirical investigation is needed to examine the expecta-

tion that an HR professional’s analytical skills and abilities positively

impacts individual performance.

We conceptualize an individual’s analytical ability following the

LAMP framework introduced by Boudreau and Ramstad (2007). They

introduce the LAMP framework to articulate how HR can move to

leverage rigorous principles of decision science in engaging workforce

management. LAMP stands for (a) logic—ensuring a clear causal logic

connecting measures and relevant business outcomes, (b) analytics—

engaging analysis that clearly tests relationships between measures

and outcomes, (c) measures—identifying the right data and ensuring

high-quality data, and (d) process—ensuring a process for incorporat-

ing the insights from rigorous analytics into business decision making.

While their framework focuses on how the HR function can

more fully engage HR analytics, these four components are clearly

716 KRYSCYNSKI ET AL.

applicable at the individual level. For the HR function to ensure

appropriate causal logic, the HR professionals involved must possess

the intellectual abilities to establish causal connections between ele-

ments in the system. For the HR function to engage appropriate ana-

lytics, HR professionals must have the abilities to perform the needed

analyses. For the HR function to ensure appropriate measures, HR

professionals must be able to individually identify appropriate data

and information. And for the HR function to ensure a process for

incorporating insights from analysis into decision making, HR profes-

sionals must have the ability to translate results into understandable

and actionable insights for managers.

Additionally, the LAMP framework maps closely to the analytical

capabilities of HR managers conceptualized by Becker, Huselid, and

Ulrich (2001). They conceptualized these individual level capabilities

as comprising (a) critical causal thinking—very similar to the logic

component articulated above, (b) understanding the principles of

good measurement (psychometrics and econometrics)—very similar to

the measurement component articulated above, (c) estimating causal

relationships—very similar to the analytics component articulated

above, and (d) communicating HR strategic performance results to

senior line managers—very similar to the process component articu-

lated above.

We thus define an individual’s analytical ability as that individual’s

ability to (a) develop causal “logic” connecting critical components of

the organizational system, (b) leverage appropriate “analytics” to test

causal relationships in the data, (c) ensure appropriate “measures” for

the components of the system, and (d) ensure a “process” for incor-

porating insights into organizational decision making.

Accordingly, individuals with strong analytical ability must both

get the right data and information (Dulebohn & Johnson, 2013; Robb,

2003; Roberts, 2007) as well as appropriately analyze and interpret

those data when generating insight (Levenson, 2011; Schramm,

2006). Not all data are useful data, and skilled data analysts are able

to identify which data will be most useful and discard data that may

not be useful or relevant for the important business issues at hand

(Robb, 2003; Roberts, 2009). Simply gathering the right data, how-

ever, is woefully insufficient, as is interpreting the wrong data. HR

professionals must also be able to translate the right data and/or

information into valuable insight (Robb, 2003; Schramm, 2006;

Ulrich & Dulebohn, 2015). This process may require a combination of

both qualitative and quantitative analysis of relevant data and infor-

mation (Levenson, 2005; Schramm, 2006).

3 | WHY ANALYTICAL ABILITY INCREASES INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

While there seems to be some general intuition that HR professionals

with greater analytical ability will also be higher performing HR pro-

fessionals, it is useful to articulate why analytical ability may enhance

their performance. There are at least four reasons: (a) HR profes-

sionals with higher analytical abilities likely use their analytical skills

to make better business decisions; (b) leveraging insights from data

may make HR professionals more influential in creating momentum

toward needed changes; (c) abilities to use and interpret data and

information allow HR professionals to discover new insights that

other HR professionals may not see and (d) analytical ability allows

HR professionals to better communicate and coordinate with other

numbers-driven functions such as research and development (R&D),

sales, finance, and so forth. We discuss each of these in turn.

First, analytical abilities likely enhance decision making

(Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007; Roberts, 2007, 2009; Schramm, 2006).

A strong theme across domains and functions in recent years has

been the value of evidence-based decision making (Boudreau & Ram-

stad, 2007; Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006; Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank, &

Ulrich, 2013). We see across many disciplines the common theme

that individuals who are better able to analyze and interpret data and

information tend to make more informed and rigorous decisions

(Boyd & Crawford, 2012; Lawler, Levenson, & Boudreau, 2004;

McEntire, Dailey, Osburn, & Mumford, 2006). HR professionals are

tasked with many different decisions regarding the HR systems over

which they have responsibility. These decisions may focus on com-

pensation systems, hiring and selection systems, organizational

design, and so forth (Schramm, 2006). Each of these decisions may

have important implications for how the firm functions by linking HR

practices to business strategies (Brockbank, 1999). When HR profes-

sionals use insight from carefully analyzed data and information to

make these decisions, it is likely that the outcomes will be higher

quality (Mondore et al., 2011). In addition, when leveraging evidence

in decision making rather than opinions or anecdotal accounts, the

decision-making process may occur and resolve more quickly. In

other words, analytical ability may also facilitate faster decision

making.

Second, and closely related to the points above, HR professionals

with greater analytical ability may have greater influence when a

change is needed within the organization. One of the classic roles of

HR is change management (Ulrich, Brockbank, Yeung, & Lake, 1995),

and one of the critical components to driving organizational change is

effectively building a business case for change (Ulrich et al., 2013;

Zaccaro & Banks, 2004). HR professionals who are better able to use

and leverage data and information may be able to build evidence-

based business cases for change that allow them to quickly and effec-

tively communicate the need for change within the organization.

Thus, we may expect these HR professionals to be more effective at

initiating important change initiatives.

Third, HR professionals who can generate insights from data may

be better able to see what other HR professionals do not see. Many

have argued that the real power of workforce analytics comes not in

its descriptive powers but in its predictive potential (Ulrich & Dule-

bohn, 2015). Through predictive analytics, capable HR analysts may

be able to identify concerning trends or issues on the horizon that

others may not see or recognize. This ability to better read the “tea

leaves” through superior data analysis abilities may make them partic-

ularly valuable at helping the organization identify and avert issues in

advance.

Fourth, HR professionals with higher analytical ability speak the

language of numbers and data. This means that these HR profes-

sionals are better able to communicate with and understand the busi-

ness realities faced by the more numbers-oriented, and often

strategic decision-making, functions in the business such as R&D,

KRYSCYNSKI ET AL. 717

accounting, finance, operations, and so forth. Rather than being seen

as touchy-feely like traditional HR (Burke, 2004), these HR profes-

sionals are more likely to build strong working relationships with their

numbers-oriented colleagues in these other functions. When these

HR people better understand the business realities that these func-

tions face, they are better able to integrate their HR work with the

business and better able to customize HR based on business needs.

When HR professionals make better decisions, appropriately ini-

tiate change, identify important upcoming trends, and integrate well

with the other business functions, they likely create more value for

the business. They are also likely to be seen as valuable business

partners not only within HR but outside of HR as well. Accordingly,

we expect that HR professionals with higher analytical ability will

receive higher job performance ratings.

Hypothesis 1: A positive relationship will exist between

HR professionals’ analytical ability and ratings of individ-

ual performance.

4 | WHEN DOES ANALYTICAL ABILITY HAVE THE STRONGEST IMPACT ON PERFORMANCE?

While we believe that, in general, HR professionals with higher ana-

lytical ability will exhibit higher individual performance, we also

wanted to explore how context might shape this relationship. Specifi-

cally, we examine industry-, company-, and job-level factors that may

moderate the relationship between an individual’s analytical ability

and performance.

We previously conceptualized an individual’s analytical ability as

that individual’s ability to engage in appropriate LAMP. This conceptu-

alization implicitly assumes that the HR professional has access to data

and empirical tools to engage in various forms of HR analytics. If there

are no HR data, then it is likely impossible to engage in any analytics.

If there is no software or analytical tools, then it is very difficult for an

HR professional to generate any meaningful insights from whatever

HR data may be available in the firm. Also, as Boudreau and Ramstad

(2007) emphasize, much of the success of HR analytics may actually

rest in the external receptiveness to HR analytics—that is, the extent

to which the broader organization expects and is open to insights from

HR analytics. Thus, in addition to having sufficient data and analytical

tools, it may be critically important to have an organizational environ-

ment that both expects and supports gaining insights from HR analyt-

ics. These insights suggest that contexts that are more likely to have

sufficient HR data, analytical support tools, and appropriate embedded

processes to expect and then incorporate insights from HR analytics

may benefit more from an individual HR professional’s analytical abil-

ities. In other words, the relationship between an individual HR pro-

fessional’s analytical ability and individual performance may be more

positive in these contexts than in contexts that lack HR data, analytical

tools, and processes that expect and support such analytics.

As we describe in detail below, we generally expect that (a) high-

tech industries, (b) companies that engage more heavily in HR

analytics, (c) lower level HR jobs, and (d) generalist HR jobs are more

likely to provide contexts that support data availability, tool availabil-

ity, and a context of expectations for HR analytics.

4.1 | Stronger positive relationship in high-tech industries

High-tech industries are generally those that are advancing both their

use of and engagement with the newest available technologies.

Heckler (2005) reports on work by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to

define high-tech industries as those that include the following four

factors: (a) they employ high proportions of scientists, engineers, and

technicians; (b) they employ high proportions of employees in the

research and development function; (c) they produce products that

rely on advanced technologies; and (d) they leverage advanced tech-

nologies in their production methods. In other words, these are

industries that are leveraging advanced technologies and people who

are uniquely positioned to use them. High-tech industries in recent

years have become increasingly focused on “big data”—a buzz term

used to describe the vast quantities of readily available information

available to firms and individuals in the digital marketplace

(McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2012). Organizations have been leveraging

their volumes of data to better predict what movies you might like to

watch (e.g., Netflix), what products you might like to buy

(e.g., Amazon), or what music you may want to stream (e.g., Pandora).

Access to large volumes of data and advancements in algorithms

seem to be allowing companies to mass customize their products and

services to individual customers (Fogliatto, da Silveira, & Boren-

stein, 2012).

Given the trend toward big data analytics in these high-tech

industries, it seems likely that organizations within these industries

provide contexts that may enhance the value of an HR professional’s

analytical abilities. Many organizations in these high-tech industries

are applying data analytics to their consumer data to uncover prefer-

ences and patterns and to predict consumer buying behavior. These

predictions allow organizations to better tailor their products and ser-

vices and better position their products and services at times when

the consumer is likely to buy. In many cases, the core customer value

proposition rests upon the organization’s ability to leverage analytics

to make the buying experience better for the individual consumer.

In order to generate such insights, these organizations must

engage in gathering large volumes of data and then analyzing those

data. It thus seems likely that these organizations will have embedded

analytical tools and systems and processes for understanding and

interpreting analytics. In addition to being more likely to have analyti-

cal tools in place, these organizations may also be more likely to

gather and quantify HR metrics in the first place. Their emphasis on

data management and analytics may lead them to err on the side of

collecting and ensuring access to relevant HR information.

Given the centrality of these analyses to the core value proposi-

tion of many of these high-tech organizations, it is likely that man-

agers understand the intricacies of data analytics. They may even

have biases toward insights that come from big data and rigorous

analytics rather than anecdotal experiences or qualitative impres-

sions. Accordingly, managers in these high-tech industries may have a

718 KRYSCYNSKI ET AL.

higher level of expectation for analytical rigor from HR professionals.

They may expect HR professionals to be able to develop meaningful

HR-related insights from rigorous quantitative analysis of HR and

related information. Additionally, they are also more likely to under-

stand and appreciate analytical insights that come from HR profes-

sionals who can speak the language of analytics and put HR issues

into these analytical terms.

In contrast, organizations in relatively low-tech industries may be

less likely to have HR data in readily accessible formats, may be less

likely to have appropriate analytical tools, and may be less likely to

have managers who can appreciate and understand the insights

gained from HR analytics. We thus expect that the relationship

between an individual HR professional’s analytical abilities and indi-

vidual performance will be stronger in these high-tech industries than

in relatively low tech industries. Formally:

Hypothesis 2: The positive relationship between analyt-

ical ability and individual performance will be stronger

for HR professionals in high-tech than in low-tech

industries.

4.2 | Stronger positive relationship in companies that engage in higher levels of HR analytics

We also anticipate that companies that engage in higher levels of HR

analytics more generally will exhibit a stronger positive relationship

between analytics and performance based on similar logic to our

arguments for the prior hypothesis. Even companies in relatively low

tech industries may choose to engage in HR analytics. They may

identify opportunities to enhance the efficiency or effectiveness of

their workforce through applying the tools and insights of HR analyt-

ics (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007). Companies that choose to engage

the tools and methodologies of HR analytics are more likely to ensure

that appropriate HR data is collected, effective analytical tools are

available, and that managers and key decision makers understand the

value of the insights gained from HR analytics. Thus, the more a com-

pany engages in HR analytics, the more likely that company has cre-

ated an internal context where the analytical abilities of the HR

professional contribute meaningfully to the performance of that pro-

fessional. Thus, we generally expect that as a company’s engagement

in HR analytics increases, the strength of the positive relationship

between an HR professional’s analytical abilities and that individuals’

performance increases. Formally:

Hypothesis 3: The positive relationship between analyt-

ical ability and individual performance will be stronger as

the extent to which a company engages in HR analytics

increases.

4.3 | Stronger positive relationship for lower job levels

In addition to industry and company context, it is also likely that an

individual’s specific job context affects the extent to which analytical

ability impacts individual performance. Best practices for creating

organizational competency models suggests explicitly accounting f