Investigating research in human resource analytics through the lens of systematic literature review

1Introduction

Human Resources Management (HRM) has undergone a significant transformation as a result of digitalization such as the introduction of Human Resource Analytics (HRA). HRA is a data-driven methodology that facilitates the Human Resources (HR) function’s ability to make predictions and decisions regarding the organization’s employees. It appears to be the potent isomorphic component that the corporate world of the future will accept regardless of changing business conditions [1]. Today, the world is moving toward an economy based on talent. Focus is now on the acquisition and retention of talent.

HRA have introduced a new function and facet to the field of HRM (2). Historically, the functions that were performed manually and where decisions were made based on intuition had undergone significant transformations. Today, software such as R, Tableau, Power BI, Microsoft Excel, Computer Intelligence (CI), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Human Resource Information System (HRIS) are being used by many practitioners to implement and use HRA [3–8]. HRA has enabled the HRM department to analyze data using statistical technique and make decisions based on the facts [2]. HRA provide numerous benefits to both employees and businesses. It increases employee productivity and ensures a satisfactory return on investment in HR [9]. It validates the decision-making procedure from personnel recruitment to organizational integration. Adoption of HRA will help companies gain a competitive advantage by attracting and retaining top talent [10]. HRA focuses solely on eliminating human bias and generating novel insights, rather than on the technical aspect alone. Strategic functions supported by appropriate analytics are required for the efficient operation of HR departments [11].

The significance of HRA has been highlighted by prior research. Employees, HR managers, HR professionals, and practitioners are becoming acquainted with HRA [1, 12–18]. Alamelu et al. [10] discovered that HRA provides a long-term commitment to the financial success of the organization.

In addition, it was noted that HRA is still in its infancy, but still, it represents a major advancement in the realm of evidence-based decision making. Despite the numerous advantages of HRA, only a few organizations have adopted it. The low adoption rate of HRA in organizations is primarily attributable to a number of factors, including privacy concerns, data security, high levels of uncertainty, a lack of analytics awareness, a dearth of resources, and organizational support for analytics [9, 19–23].

We believe, the Scopus database contains five literature reviews in the field of HRA. Annexure 1 shows the basis of comparison of past review papers with this current study. Concerning the HRA’s present standing comes first [24]. Second, expressing HR analytics from a return on investment perspective [25]. Third, indicating the use of data mining tools to analyze and anticipate HR functions in an organization [26]. Fourth, concentrated on current HRA research trends [27]. Though this review provides knowledge on HRA, there is room for additional contributions through a systematic literature review and bibliometric approach that aims to advance the field’s study and encourage organizations to shift from reporting to actual analytics. This technique enables various analyses, such as country-by-country study, key-word analysis, citation analysis, etc., that provide a picture of current status of HRA research and study gaps and help identify potential future research areas.

This study is necessary because HRA is still a relatively new idea for HR professionals. Developing countries are only beginning to use it and are unaware of its full potential. There is a shortage of research on the post-adoption effects of HRA in organisations, and there are only a few research areas that concentrate on certain topics such obstacles and benefits. The literature is dispersed and needs to be synthesised. As a result, this study clarified and gave a thorough account of how HRA is examined.

Utilizing a systematic literature review and bibliometric approach, this study seeks to comprehend the fundamentals of HRA, its adoption in organization and present research directions. The articles are extracted from the Scopus database through the end of September 2022. The study aims to achieve the following objectives:

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: section 2 is devoted to the methodology, section 3 to the results and discussion, and section 4 to the conclusion.

2Methodology

This study is based on a systematic review of literature related to HRA. This section includes the sources of data, data collection process, and data analysis techniques used in this study.

2.2Data collection process and articles screening

Initially, 256 articles were extracted on September, 2022, using the above-mentioned search strategy. The initial screening of 256 papers was based on their titles, abstracts and keywords. 142 literatures that were review articles and unrelated to HRA were eliminated, leaving 114 articles. Again, after conducting a full-text review, 23 articles were deemed irrelevant to the study and removed, leaving 91 articles on the final list. The inclusion and exclusion criteria are given in Table 1.

Table 1

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria	Exclusion Criteria
•Document Type: Articles and Conference Proceeding Papers	•Books
•Language: English	•Non-English Articles
•Focused on HRA	•Review Articles
•The study not related to HRA

The study considers English-language journal articles and conference papers published from the year 2008–2022. Similarly, the literature pertaining to the fundamentals of HRA is included only for systematic review. Excluded from the study are review articles, book chapters, and non-English articles. Figure 1 shows the PRISMA framework for inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Fig. 1

PRISMA framework.

3Data analysis and results

The nature of the articles is analyzed based on their yearly distribution, journal publications, country-by-country study, data sources, and level of study analysis. A citation analysis is used to determine the significance of the retrieved articles, and a keyword analysis is employed to illustrate the relationship between the most important keywords. The software R is used to create both citation analysis and bibliographic map. In order to determine the primary focus area of study in HRA, the overall papers are classified into five broad categories and further subdivided. Finally, a percentage analysis of various categories is conducted. This study identified 91 articles for a systematic review of HRA through the end of September 2022. This section provides an overview of the articles retrieved.

3.1Descriptive analysis

Various analyses, such as yearly distribution, journal publications, country-by-country study on HRA, and data sources were performed to determine the nature of the selected literature as a whole. Figure 2 depicts the distribution of articles selected for the study by year. According to the graph, publications and interests related to HRA began in 2008, whereas there were no publications between 2009 to 2011, also in the year 2013 and 2015 no publication was there. The publication of articles began in 2016 and continued until 2022. In addition, the graph displays a gradual increase beginning in 2019. This suggests that HRA has become a significant area of study in recent years.

Fig. 2

Yearly distribution of articles.

Figure 3 depicts the geographic origin of the institution contributing to the study scope of the current investigation using the collected information and Excel’s “Geographic Heat Map” add-in. The created global heat map is an interactive tool for assessing each nation’s contribution. Areas with low densities of published research papers (0–20) and high densities (60–80) are indicated by areas with deep red to deep green color scales, respectively. India, The United States, Israel, and Romania exhibit a higher density of the contributing nation. The contribution of various countries is outlined in Table 2. It is evident from the table that India publishes the greatest number of articles on HRA (84.62 percent). It is followed by the United States (39.56%), Israel (16.48%), Romania (12.09%), Ireland (10.99%), and Australia (9.89%). Similarly, in the remaining countries, eight or less than eight paper has been studied by the year 2022.

Fig. 3

Contributing institutions places of origin.

Table 2

Contributing nations

Country	No. of Papers	Percent	Country	No. of Papers	Percent
India	77	84.62	Greece	4	4.40
USA	36	39.56	Japan	4	4.40
Israel	15	16.48	Austria	3	3.30
Romania	11	12.09	Iraq	3	3.30
Ireland	10	10.99	Pakistan	3	3.30
Australia	9	9.89	Switzerland	3	3.30
Germany	8	8.79	Belgium	2	2.20
Indonesia	8	8.79	Canada	2	2.20
UK	6	6.59	Norway	2	2.20
China	5	5.49	Philippines	2	2.20
Italy	5	5.49	Poland	2	2.20
Morocco	5	5.49	Spain	2	2.20
Netherlands	5	5.49	Tunisia	2	2.20
Thailand	5	5.49	Cyprus	1	1.10
Finland	4	4.4	Denmark	1	1.10
France	1	1.1	Saudi Arabia	1	1.10

Figure 4 depicts the research methods utilized by the researchers in their study. The majority of studies employed quantitative research methods (69 percent). Whereas 29% of the study employed the qualitative research method and only 2% utilized the mixed research method.

Fig. 4

Different methods used.

Figure 5 illustrates the data sources used for the study. As much as 74 percent of the study is based on primary sources of data, 22 percent on secondary sources of data, and 4 percent on both primary and secondary sources of data.

Fig. 5

Sources of data.

The topmost contributing authors are listed in Table 3. Mccartney S. has published the highest number of papers on HR analytics. Similarly, Escolar-Jimenez C.C., Gaur B., Gelbard R., Gustilo R.C., Jain P., Matsuzaki K., Ali S.S., Arora M. and Bagga T. have published two papers each.

Table 3

Author impact analysis

S.No.	Element	H_index	G_index	M_index	TC	NP	PY_Start
1	Mccartney S.	2	3	0.667	9	3	2020
2	Escolar-Jimenez C.C.	2	2	0.5	19	2	2019
3	Gaur B.	2	2	0.5	6	2	2019
4	Gelbard R.	2	2	0.4	29	2	2018
5	Gustilo R.C.	2	2	0.5	19	2	2019
6	Jain P.	2	2	0.667	4	2	2020
7	Matsuzaki K.	2	2	0.5	19	2	2019
8	Ali S.S.	1	1	0.5	1	2	2021
9	Arora M.	1	1	0.5	1	2	2021
10	Bagga T.	1	1	0.5	2	2	2021

Note: NP = No. of papers, TC = Total Citations and PY_Start = Starting Publication Year.

Table 4 displays the number of citations in various nations. The table indicates that the selected papers from this study were cited in seventeen distinct nations. The United States had the most citations with 286 times. This is followed by Australia, which is cited 44 times, India (35), Israel (29), Spain (20), the United Kingdom (17), Switzerland (16) and Finland and Ireland (15 citations each).

Table 4

Country-wise citations

Country	TC	Country	TC
USA	286	Morocco	7
Australia	44	Romania	7
India	35	France	6
Israel	29	Austria	5
Spain	20	Norway	4
United Kingdom	17	Thailand	3
Switzerland	16	Belgium	2
Finland	15	Saudi Arabia	2
Ireland	15	Canada	0
Iraq	0	Germany	0
Netherlands	0	Pakistan	0

In Table 5, the number of citations per document is displayed. Here, local citations and global citations with their ratio is displayed. The table reveals that only 14 documents were cited locally.

Table 5

Document-wise citations

Document	Local Citations	Global Citations	LC/GC Ratio (%)
(Kryscynski et al., 2018)	10	30	33.33
(Aral et al., 2012)	10	140	7.14
(van der Togt and Rasmussen, 2017)	8	26	30.77
(Vargas et al., 2018a)	7	25	28.00
(Levenson, 2018)	6	35	17.14
(Greasley and Thomas, 2020)	5	14	35.71
(van den Heuvel and Bondarouk, 2017a)	5	58	8.62
(Simon and Ferreiro, 2018)	4	20	20.00
(Schiemann et al., 2018)	4	21	19.05
(King, 2016)	4	33	12.12
(Kapoor and Kabra, 2014)	4	12	33.33
(Gelbard et al., 2018)	3	26	11.54
(Ellmer and Reichel, 2021)	2	5	40.00
(McCartney et al., 2020)	2	7	28.57

Table 6 provides the number of citations per journal with at least three citations. The table reveals that only 10 journals have received at least three or more citations. It has been determined that “Human Resource Management” has received the most citations (106 times). It is followed by “Journal of Organizational Effectiveness” (84 citations), “International Journal of Human Resource Management” (33 citations), “Human Resource Management Journal” (20 citations), and “ International Journal of Advanced Trends in Computer Science and Engineering “ (19 citations).

Table 6

Source-wise citations

Journal	NP	TC	H_Index	PY_Start
Human Resource Management	4	106	4	2018
Journal of Organizational Effectiveness	3	84	2	2017
International Journal of Human Resource Management	3	33	3	2018
Human Resource Management Journal	3	20	2	2016
International Journal of Advanced Trends In Computer Science And Engineering	2	19	2	2018
Personnel Review	3	9	2	2020
International Journal on Emerging Technologies	2	6	2	2019
2019 4th International Conference on Information Systems and Computer Networks, ISCON 2019	1	3	1	2020
2020 11th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Networking Technologies, ICCCNT 2020	1	3	1	2019
2021 7th International Conference on Engineering, Applied Sciences and Technology, ICEAST 2021 - Proceedings	1	3	1	2020

Table 7 depicts the level of analysis performed and/or the type of respondents used in the study. According to the table, the majority of the research is conducted at the organizational level (68.1 percent). HR professionals constituted 11.0 percent of the respondents. HRA practitioners account for 4.4 percent, employees for 9.9 percent, and all others for 1.1 percent.

Table 7

Level of analysis and/or type of respondents

Level of analysis and/or Type of Respondents	Frequency	Percent
Employees	9	9.9
High and mid-level managers	2	2.2
HR analytics experts/practitioners	4	4.4
HR managers/professionals	10	11.0
IT professionals	1	1.1
Management professionals	1	1.1
Organizational level	62	68.1
Programmers and software consultants	1	1.1
Students	1	1.1
Total	91	100

3.2Three field plot analysis

The three-field plot is used in Biblioshiny to visually analyse the relationships between publication sources, various nations, affiliations, keywords, well-known authors, cited sources, author-keywords, etc. Important details are shown in a range of colours in rectangular diagrams. The height of the rectangle displays the correlation between numerous features, such as nations, sources, eminent writers, author-keywords, etc. The number of connections between various components increases as the size of the rectangle increases. In Figure 6, the relationships between authors (left), keywords (centre), and publishing source (right) were looked at. The authors aim to recognize significant trends in the study of HRA across time in addition to raising awareness of this research strategy. The results show that top 15 authors have published papers using HR analytics as a key word. Also, researchers are publishing the papers with keyword people analytics which are linked to Journal of Organizational Effectiveness, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Personnel Review and Lecture Notes in Information System and Organization. Keywords such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Analytics, Decision Making and Strategic HR are also of high interest among researchers.

Fig. 6

Three field plot with 15 authors, 15 keywords and 15 sources.

3.3Key word analysis

Figure 7 illustrates the word map of the key words used in the study. The figure shows that the term HR analytics is mostly used, followed by people analytics, human resource management, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. From the word cloud map, it can be concluded that interest in Artificial intelligence in human resource is an emerging trend. Table 8 provides the detail about the words occurred in the selected papers.

Fig. 7

Word cloud map.

Table 8

Key word analysis

Key word	Occurrences	Key word	Occurrences
HR Analytics	37	Fuzzy Logic	2
People Analytics	19	HR Analysts	2
Human Resource Management	9	HR Measurement Issues	2
Artificial Intelligence	8	HR Metrics	2
Machine Learning	7	HR Professionals	2
Big Data	6	HRM	2
Workforce Analytics	6	Human Resource	2
Classification	5	Logistic Regression	2
Talent Analytics	5	Management	2
Data Analytics	4	Metrics	2
Human Resource Analytics	4	Network Analysis	2
Strategic HR	4	Organization	2
Turnover	4	Organizational Performance	2
Data Science	3	Prediction	2
Decision Making	3	Retention	2
Employee Attrition	3	Strategic Decision Making	2
Human Capital	3	Strategic HRM	2
Human Capital Analytics	3	Training	2
Random Forest	3	Ability	1
Sentiment Analysis	3	Absenteeism	1
Talent Management	3	Absenteeism Prediction	1
Technology	3	Adoption Behaviour	1
AI	2	Adoption Intention	1
Digital HRM	2	Adoption Levels	1
AI In HR	1	Aerospace	1

3.4Focus area of study in HRA

Figure 8 depicts the primary focus of the HRA research. The study found five main area of study. Out of 91 articles reviewed 27% of the studies are related to the importance of HRA usage, leading to the conclusion that HRA is important in organizations for achieving competitive advantage, enhancing individual performance, and making data-driven decisions. In contrast, 25 percent of the studies focus on HRA application, suggesting that HRA is still in its infancy.

Fig. 8

Focus area of study in HRA.

4Discussion and future research directions

The systematic review indicates that HRA publications have been trending upward since the year 2019. The two nations from which the majority of publications are coming are India and the United States. The findings demonstrate that the majority of studies rely on a quantitative methodology, are carried out at the organisational level, and employ primary data sources. Most studies refer to HR analytics as such, and artificial intelligence in HR is a new trend. Machine learning is used by the majority of the organisation to reduce employee attrition. The study identified five key areas of research on HRA: the value of HRA, the use of HR analytics, the analytical tools utilised in HRA, the concept of HRA, and the challenges to adopting HRA. Further study in areas like factors influencing HRA adoption and post adoption impacts is highly recommended.

Academics are focusing more on the literature on HR analytics, which is expanding. This research expands on previous analyses and contributes to the body of HR analytics knowledge. By combining bibliometric and content analysis, it also contributes to the expansion of HR analytics knowledge. This facilitates a better understanding of the field of study, the identification of significant themes, authors, and keywords, as well as the identification of the primary geographical areas of study. The study advances HRA research by identifying the most important research topics and revealing research gaps. Awareness and understanding of HRA, the software used for HRA, the application of HRA, and the barriers to the adoption of HRA in organizations are identified as the primary research areas in HRA. A small group of scientists was responsible for the majority of significant investigations, according to the findings. In addition, a number of researchers have emerged to expand this body of knowledge in order to examine expanded HR practices in light of the area’s rapid expansion. Since 2016, the number of HRA studies and publications has grown steadily. The vast majority of publications are produced between 2016 and 2021. In contrast, the majority of significant studies were conducted in 2021 [2, 6, 9, 12, 15, 38, 60]. After conducting a review of the pertinent literature, we identified 32 research articles from which we extracted four essential study areas in HR analytics. The article indicates that India and the United States have conducted the most studies. Some researchers have also attempted to focus on applications of HRA [51, 61, 62]. The research further provides information about the way HRA should be implemented in the organizations in terms of software and other applications. Through this study, HRA adoption barriers can be readily identified.

The focal topic was broken down into five categories for the current study: the value of HRA and its usage, HRA concept, HRA software, and organizational impediments to HRA implementation. It was found that organizations are becoming more aware of the value and applications of HRA. Workers, HR managers, experts, and practitioners are learning more about HRA. Decisions are now based on data analysis rather than intuition, as was the case in the past. For the majority of their data analysis requirements, businesses use applications like R, Power BI, Microsoft Excel, and machine learning. Despite HRA’s many advantages, most organizations do not use it. Organizations are unable to embrace HRA because of issues like human barriers, data tracking, privacy concerns, and a lack of analytical awareness, among other things.

By exposing the gaps in this subject, we evaluate many potential research directions based on the knowledge gained from analyzing the papers. Table 9 provides future areas of research in HR analytics. Very few nations have conducted research on HRA, which may not provide an accurate image of the use of HRA; consequently, it is essential to conduct research on multiple nations. In addition, while the majority of studies are based on quantitative methodology, researchers should focus on mixed method because it combines paradigms and permits inquiry from both the inductive and deductive perspectives, allowing them to combine theory development and hypothesis testing within a single study [63]. In addition, relatively few HR analytics studies have employed an empirical technique. Those who opted for the empirical method utilized just surveys and case studies. Few studies employed employee level analysis as their primary level of analysis; the majority of research concentrated on the organization level. It is essential to do individual-level research to determine individuals’ perceptions on HRA adoption intent. Additionally, post-implementation consequences and proof of genuine HRA uptake by industry were recognized as the key study needs. Future study should concentrate on providing businesses with empirical evidence on the factors of effective HRA adoption and should highlight the actual benefits and concerns associated with HRA implementation. Also, the study proposes that additional research can be undertaken on the aim of HRA use in organizations, the types of data utilized for HRA, and how barriers to HRA adoption can be eliminated. Also, research can be conducted on the benefits of HRA in various nations, with a focus on the preparedness and adoption of HRA in developing nations, in order to comprehend the scenario of HRM functions altering.

5Conclusion

HRA is a new study area within the field of human resource management. Every organization’s decision-making process is important. For any conclusion to be reached, a comprehensive study and critical analysis of earlier occurrences are necessary. HRA is a method for enhancing the effectiveness of people-related workplace decision-making. In addition to bringing attention to this research approach, the authors want to identify major patterns in the study of HRA throughout time.

Current research reveals that HRA-related research is expanding in numerous countries. In addition, the study identified the countries where the bulk of studies are conducted, the research techniques employed, the HRA instruments utilized, and the barriers to HRA adoption. The study also identified the significance of HRA in organizations. Literature demonstrates that HRA facilitates data-driven decision making. Future research could clarify whether and how these HR managers utilize HRA results in their decision-making.

However, the results must be evaluated considering a number of restrictions. The Scopus database only comprises works published between 2008 and September 2022. The second condition is that publications written in English are evaluated. It is probable that some relevant research was omitted due to the employed database and filtering technique. Future scholars will be able to do comparative analyses utilizing many databases. Third, the analysis utilized solely scientific journal articles and conference proceedings.