People Analytics at Work. Intensive Case Studies of Pioneering Companies in Germany and Switzerland
Final Report Abstract
People analytics are based on the collection, analysis and forecasting of employees' skills, performance and behavioral patterns as well as general work and cooperation patterns. Among other things, this should make it possible to base personnel decisions in organizations on data and to objectify them. This is assumed a prerequisite for evidence-based HR management and a data-based corporate culture in general. Based on three comparative case studies in pioneering companies in Germany and Switzerland, the project analyzes the implementation dynamics, prerequisites and consequences of such data- and algorithm-based HR management. It examines how the normative organizational mission statement of a databased decision-making culture is translated into a specific doing data. This allows to scrutinize the data politics of large companies in times of accelerated digitalization. Firstly, the results of the project show a rapid and significant increase in the importance of data-based analyses in the context of management and HR work. The datafication of HR management is considered inevitable by most stakeholders, even if concerns about the use of AI are - rarely - articulated. Secondly, in all three intensive cases, there is a large gap between the 'technology promise' of digitalization on the one hand and the company's own resources and experience on the other (especially in the areas of HR professional training, data literacy and dependence on software providers). Thirdly, the dramatic under-complexity of the management discourse on people analytics is evident - with consequences for participation, design and implementation processes. Fourthly, this leads, among other things, to a positive exaggeration of the control and efficiency gains achievable through data, algorithms and AI - a classic rationality myth in the sense of sociological neoinstitutionalism. The relevant specialist and management discourse thus undermines a realistic approach to data and algorithms in the organization, i.e. reflexive data politics. Nevertheless, fifthly, the interviewees are predominantly aware of the problems of constructing, using and analysing data - but without escaping the attraction of the data myth outlined above: the organizational actors have great difficulty emancipating themselves from the myth of data and AI in order to free their own 'doing data' from false expectations. Sixthly, there is a clear tendency towards the centralization of knowledge and power in the hands of large AI and software providers: Even globally positioned pioneering companies are becoming dependent on a few providers of data- and algorithm-based analytics models.
Publications
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People Analytics. Eine neue Stufe datengetriebenen Managements? In: Industrie 4.0 Management, 36. Jg., Heft 6, S. 14-16
Vormbusch, Uwe
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The Power of Prediction:. Augmented Exploitation, 62-72. Pluto Press.
Vormbusch, Uwe & Kels, Peter
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Advanced People Analytics – Nutzenpotenziale, Risiken und Gestaltungsherausforderungen. Swiss HR Analytics Conference, 30th April 2022, Olten
Junginger, I., Kels, P. & Vormbusch, U.
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Advanced People Analytics. Akzente und blinde Flecken im Praxisdiskurs. PERSONALquarterly, 03, 40-45
Junginger, I., Will, D., Buchberger, T.-P., Vormbusch, U. & Kels, P.
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Is People Analytics leading to a technically mediated displacement process in HR? Beitrag auf: New Work – New Problems? Gender Perspectives on the Transformation of Work Conference, 7th-8th September 2023, Lucerne
Junginger, I.
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People Analytics im Wandel organisationaler Datenkulturen. Jahrestagung des Forschungsclusters HR-Management und Corporate Learning im Zeichen der Digitalisierung, Berlin, 12./13. Oktober 2023
Vormbusch, U.
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Between Algorithmic Visibility and Leadership Culture. Insights from the failure of a global skill management platform. Vortrag, International Labour Process Conference (ILPC), 3rd-5th April 2024, Göttingen
Kels, P. & Vormbusch, U.
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HR-Analytics in Vorreiterunternehmen: Chancen – Stolpersteine – Gestaltungsfelder. Swiss HR Analytics Conference, 27th June 2024, Olten
Kels, P. & Junginger, I.
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People Analytics at Work. Research Project Workshop, 13th September 2024, online
Vormbusch, U., Kels, P. & Junginger, I.
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People Analytics im Kontext organisationaler Datenkulturen. Future Skills in Human Resource Management und Corporate Learning, 155-175. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Vormbusch, Uwe
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Hungry for data? Attitudes and expectations of HR professionals towards advanced people analytics. EIASM Workshop on People Analytics & Algorithmic Management, Twente, 12-13 June 2025
Junginger, I., Vormbusch, U. & Kels, P.
