Stuck in Infancy? Investigating the Organizational Enablers and Restraints of HR Analytics Adoption: A Multimethod Approach

Human resources analytics (HRA) is maturing towards the position of an inevitable human resources practice. However, there are some restraints that impede its implementation, as well as enablers that support it. This study aims to discover the reasons behind the sluggish growth of HRA, to identify the enablers of HRA and to identify adequate qualities required for HRA professionals. This study followed a multimethod qualitative research methodology that involves two stages. A systematic literature review with content analysis in the first stage, followed by a qualitative interview method and thematic analysis in the second stage. In the first stage, a final list of 43 journal articles was selected and content-analysed from a list of 956 documents that were extracted from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The analysis identified 7 enablers, 12 restraints influencing HRA adoption and 8 qualities that are required for HRA professionals in the first stage. A total of 18 HR experts further validated the results through a semi-structured interview in the second stage. The second stage added two enablers and a restraint to the results.