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Organisational listening in the digital world:

How can data analytics help organisations like ING to

listen better to their employees?

MBA Big Data Thesis

Brydie Lear, 11417749

Thesis Supervisor: Dr. C Boon

Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam

September 30, 2018

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2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank all of the people who were involved and contributed to the completion of this research paper.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my UvA thesis supervisor, Dr. Corine Boon for her guidance, supervision, stretch and moral support during the writing of this research paper. I would like to extend a huge thank you to all the interviewees who gave up their valuable time to share their expertise, opinions, insights and sheer enthusiasm for this topic.

Thank you also to my mother, Dr. Robyn Clifford, who not only provided support but also valuable guidance and expert advice on qualitative research methods and writing research papers.

And finally I would like to thank both my family and friends and my manager, team and colleagues who have all provided boundless moral support and encouragement throughout the course of my MBA and this research paper.

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3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The advent of social media and digital, borderless communication technologies have changed the way people interact and express themselves (Stewart & Arnold, 2018). In today’s digital workplace, employees have the ability to express their view freely and openly both internally and externally to the organisation and with global reach. This has not only lowered the barrier for employees to express their view, but also for employees to switch organisations or for employers to source employees. These developments are leading to a consumerization of HR practices and investment in building advanced analytics capabilities within HR as employers seeking new ways to attract talent, shape and guide an employee’s experience and leave as advocates of their organisation (Guenole et al., 2017). Organisations who can listen effectively at scale are therefore expected to see tangible results in terms of employee and business performance outcomes. However, left untapped, the employee voice has the potential for great harm to an organisation’s brand or reputation. The traditional methods of listening to employees at scale, which are usually in the form of surveys, are also proving ineffective in the complexities and speed of change in the modern workplace.

Effective listening at scale is one of the major business challenges facing ING, a Dutch headquartered financial institution employing over 54,000 employees in 40 countries (ING Groep N.V., 2017). ING was one of the first movers in terms of recognizing the need to adapt to rapidly changing customer preferences due to technological advancements. These developments led to the announcement of a disruptive transformation program. This research paper therefore focuses on how data analytics can help organisations like ING to listen better to their employees.

Qualitative interviews were conducted to gather insights from a range of HR leaders and HR analytics experts and an inductive analysis approach was applied to distil insights into the current approaches to organisational listening and opportunities and challenges associated with applying data analytics. Interview findings and review of literature lead to important recommendations for organisations like ING on how data analytics can improve organisational listening. It was concluded that data analytics has the potential to improve all stages of the listening process, from identifying value in a wide variety of sources of

employee voice, constructing meaning and guiding effective response. Data analytics is also supporting organisations in moving past a narrow focus on measuring engagement to a broader focus on understanding the connections between the employee experience, the

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4 employee voice and desired business performance outcomes in order to guide effective action and improvement. However, it was also clear that good data and advanced analytics

methodologies are insufficient for effective listening unless organisations design a holistic and integrated approach to organisational listening, beginning with a clear business objective that is linked to the employee experience ‘moments that matter’. In addition, clear

accountabilities and listening skills need to be defined and embedded in job design and other HR practices. Integrated and automated listening processes, supported by technology and coordinated across functions is also required to automate and ensure speed in delivery of insights. Essentially this constitutes building a culture of listening, embedded in the design of the organisation.

Whilst this research paper has found that whilst organisations are aware of the need for improving their organisational listening approaches and are actively investing in

technologies, HR analytics and the employee experience, most are still at infant stages. There is therefore a need for further scientific research to improve the understanding of effective organisational listening practices in a digital world, in addition to the application of more advanced analytics methodologies in understanding modern manifestations of traditional concepts like the employee voice, engagement and links with performance outcomes.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ... 6 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ... 11 2.1 Employee Voice ... 11 2.2 Organisational listening ... 17 2.3 HR Analytics ... 29 3. ING BANK ... 32 4. RESEARCH APPROACH ... 38 5. FINDINGS ... 40 6. DISCUSSION ... 51 7. CONCLUSION... 65 REFERENCES ... 67

APPENDIX 1: OVERVIEW OF INTERVIEWS ... 73

APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ... 74

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1. INTRODUCTION

The advent of digital communication technologies has influenced the way people interact throughout society (Stewart & Arnold, 2018). Social media and digital

communication mediums with global reach, have reduced the barriers to freedom in expression and present new challenges for organisations in terms of engaging with and listening to their employees. Previously, the voice of the employee was limited, in both form and expression and directly influenced by the quality of the interaction. (Kwon, Farndale & Park, 2016). Prior to the advent of digital technology, employee voice was primarily

expressed via collective bargaining with trade unions or workers councils and interpersonal communication with an employee’s direct supervisor. But in today’s modern workplace employees are able to express their view freely and anonymously via digital mediums internal and external to the organisation, giving employees incredible power in the marketplace (Miles & Mangold 2014).

This new freedom in expression of the employee voice provides both new

opportunities and challenges for organisations in listening effectively to their employees. The employee voice, if harnessed effectively, is suggested to have great value to organisations in terms of participatory decision making, expression of individual and collective feedback and dissatisfaction and engendering trust and partnership between employer and employee (Dundon, Wilkinson, Marchington & Akers, 2004). Penultimately, if harnessed effectively employee voice has been found to be linked to increased motivation and engagement (Rees, Alfes & Gatenby, 2013, Ruck, Welch & Menara, 2017). Organisations who can listen effectively and at scale to the broad range of expressions of the employee voice available in the modern workplace are expected to see tangible results in terms of employee and business performance outcomes. However, recent examples of unsolicited views from employees via social media causing great harm to an employer’s reputation and brand highlight the risk to organisations of not listening effectively to their employees (Miles & Mangold, 2014). In addition, practical challenges associated with listening at scale in terms of integrating, translating and disseminating the views of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of employees into actionable listening insights, are preventing organisations from garnering full value. Accordingly, the focus for this research paper will be on scalable listening.

Listening methodologies currently employed by organisations are proving ineffectual in terms of these opportunities or challenges, due to their traditional nature. This is

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7 measuring an employee’s opinion in the form of annual or slightly more frequent surveys (Rooy & Oohler, 2013). Current approaches to organisational listening therefore suffer from being intermittent or sporadic in nature and siloed across various functional domains.

Measurement mechanisms are also largely delegated which also means that organisational listening is mediated, asynchronous and subject to response biases (Macnamara, 2018).

Digitisation, globalization and the nature of the modern workplace is also changing the nature of the relationship employers have with their employees. Companies are beginning to see employees more as consumers (Guenole, Ferrar & Feinzig, 2017 p.9 ). Employees are no longer looking for a company for life, they are seeking experiences that build their capabilities for future positions. They are also seeking a greater degree of personalization of those work experiences, in terms of the workplace and employment conditions. (Guenole et al., 2017, p.7). With the rise in personal brand equity fueled by social media, employees are also looking for employers or brands that match their personal image, purpose or beliefs (Catalano, 2018). Digital communication methodologies have therefore lowered the barriers to switching employers or locations and for employers to source employees globally.

Simultaneously this has provided employees a newfound ease in expressing their view and engaging with employers, leading to new forms of expression of the employee voice.

These developments are leading to employers seeking new ways to attract talent, shape and guide an employee’s experience and leave as advocates of their organisation (Morgan, 2017, p.7). This has also coincided with an explosion of investment and interest in HR Analytics. Just as marketing has gone through this evolution, becoming more data driven and using advanced analytical techniques in order to understand customer behavior better, so too is HR (Guenole et al., 2017 p.13). Consumers have become more discerning as the barriers to switching brands have lowered with digitization and disruption to traditional industries by new entrants. These same influences are changing the preferences of

employees, giving birth to alternative work arrangements and a focus on experiences. Using advanced data and analytical techniques is crucial in understanding, anticipating and shaping employee preferences and behavior better. Consequently, it is proposed in this research paper that applying advanced data analytics methods and therefore HR analytics, has the potential to help employers in listening more effectively to their employees, at scale. The ability to collect a broad range of employee voice data in both structured and unstructured formats and apply advanced analytical techniques in order to integrate, translate and disseminate listening insights more easily and automatically has the potential to improve the way in which

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8 customers (Germann, Lilien, & Rangaswamy, 2013). The focus of this research will be on both the content and methodologies when evaluating how data analytics can improve organisations ability to listen effectively at scale.

Effective listening at scale is one of the major business challenges facing ING, a Dutch headquartered financial institution employing over 54,000 employees in 40 countries (ING Groep N.V., 2017). ING was one of the first movers amongst the more traditional European banks in terms of recognizing the need to adapt to rapidly changing customer preferences due to technological advancements and threat of disruption by a new type of competitor using digital technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence (ING Groep N.V., 2017). These developments led to the announcement of a disruptive

transformation program to bring the entire bank onto one digital platform and to realise EUR 900 million in annual cost savings by 2021. This is expected to impact the jobs of more than 7,000 employees and requires a re-design of the work environment by applying agile

methodologies broadly across the organisation (ING, 2016).It has been widely

acknowledged that engagement and motivation of employees is key to the success of major transformation programs. (Keller, Meaney & Pung, 2010). So the challenge facing ING is how can they listen more effectively to their employees, harnessing the value in employee voice and ultimately ensuring employees are motivated behind their strategic objectives. If done effectively, this will ensure they are better able to guide their employees through the demands of a bank wide transformation and resulting changes to their work and work environment.

The challenges facing global organisations like ING, changing preferences of

employees and new forms of employee voice require a sizeable shift in organisation’s current approaches to listening. The concept of organisational listening is also under researched in terms of definition and practice in the modern work context (Macnamara, 2015).

Organisations need to update mechanisms by which employee’s voices can be heard and harnessed, in order to better understand the drivers and impact on the employee experience and engagement and to take effective action. According to Macnamara, 2018, this means:

“organizational listening requires and depends on policies, systems, structures,

resources and a range of processes, technologies and specialist skills to enable and facilitate delegated, mediated and large scale listening.”

Listening, however is not sufficient, the goal of listening is to reach a point of response, engagement and interaction. Just as Stewart & Arnold (2018) outline is expected with

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9 customer intelligence, the best approach is to employ a range of listening methods with the purpose of gathering actionable employee intelligence that has the potential of tangible organisational benefits. These benefits include enhancing the visibility and understanding of employees, proactively protecting and enhancing employer brand and leading to engagement and business performance outcomes.

This will require moving past traditional survey based approaches, to a

comprehensive listening strategy. A listening strategy that encompasses a broad range of integrated listening sources that are translated using modern analytical techniques into actionable insights for all levels of management. (Reed, Goolsby & Johnston, 2014). According to Detert, Burris, Harrison & Martin, 2013, a listening strategy in a borderless, digitally enabled modern work context must be more holistic in nature, requiring the complex coordination of multiple elements and listening sources that are deliberately architected to flow through the organisation in ways that inform and drive action Organisations will also need to master the relatively new concepts of real-time listening, listening without asking and applying sophisticated data analytics and translation methods to gather insights from key interactions across the employee journey and then integrating that feedback into the rhythm of the business.

Research Question:

Based on the premise that digital communication technologies and complexities of the modern workplace are changing the way employees express their voice, in addition to the associated challenges for global organisations in listening effectively to their employees at scale, the following research question has been defined:

‘How can data analytics help organisations like ING to listen better to their employees?’

Due to a lack of generalizable studies on organisational listening and application of HR analytics in today’s work environment and relatively infant stage in development of HR analytics as a capability in practice, a qualitative approach has been used. An inductive approach has been applied, encompassing both a review of relevant theoretical concepts and literature and data from eleven interviews conducted with a range of expert practitioners.

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10 Structure of this thesis:

In Chapter 2, relevant literature on the key concepts underpinning this research will be presented. The definition of employee voice, organisational listening and HR Analytics will be clarified from an academic perspective and evaluation of current practice and effectiveness presented.

Chapter 3 describes ING bank, the organisation that is the focus of this research paper, including current operating context and relevant organisational practices.

Chapter 4 describes the research approach and methods used for data collection and analysis. Research findings are presented in Chapter 5.

Integration of the research findings and insights from the literature review will be discussed in Chapter 6, including managerial implications for ING. Limitations and recommendations for future study will also be presented in this chapter.

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Employee Voice

Concept and definition of employee voice:

With a long history within a range of disciplines, employee voice is a concept that has been interpreted in different ways by both academics and practitioners (Dundon et al., 2004). At the most basic essence of the concept, employee voice constitutes the ways in which employees can communicate their view to their employer. The changing meaning of

employee voice and associated practices is a direct reflection of the fact that the mechanisms through which employees can and do express their voice, have undergone significant

evolution in the past 100 years. This is in line with the changing nature of the employer and employee relationship, the workplace and labor regulation.

The best known use of the word voice goes back to Hirschman’s study of 1970 railway companies in which he conceptualized voice in terms of customer’s response to dissatisfaction. Specifically, Hirschmann ascertained that customers could respond to dissatisfaction in two ways, exit or voice. (Dundon et al., 2004). Since then the term voice has been used with many different applications with the origin of employee voice found in the collective bargaining context of trade union membership. In this context, much of the literature focuses on the articulation of grievances, through a safe communication channel of trade union membership (Dundon et al., 2004). The introduction of European Workers Councils in the early 2000s gave rise to a new opportunity for employee’s to express their voice, albeit still focused on a consultative and collective bargaining approach. As a result of declining union membership and emerging focus on high performance work, the definition of employee voice was defined more broadly by McCabe & Lewin in 1992 as consisting of two elements; the expression of grievances and the participation of employees in the decision making processes of an organisation (as cited in Dundon et al., 2004).

In reflection of the fact that academic perspectives of the concepts of employee voice have evolved substantially over time, Dundon et al., 2004 ascertained a more comprehensive view, identifying four purposes of employee voice based on previous meanings defined in literature. Firstly, employee voice can be an articulation of individual dissatisfaction that is aimed at addressing a specific problem or issue with management. Secondly, employee voice can be an expression of collective organisation, providing an opposing and power equalizing view to management in the form of collective bargaining or union recognition. The third

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12 purpose is employee voice as a contribution to decision making, concerned primarily with efficiency, productivity and customer improvements. The fourth , they describe as the demonstration of mutuality and cooperative relations with the objective of long term

sustainability for the organisation and employees. By defining the purpose of employee voice in this way, the traditional methods that organisations provided for employee voice have essentially been superseded by, or combined with more consensual methods. All four of these ‘purposes’ are important sources of value for organisations and show why it’s important for organisations to listen to the employee voice. These ‘purposes’ of voice will be used as terminology throughout the remainder of this research paper. Dundon et al., (2004) go on to conclude that the precise meaning of employee voice can vary substantially and can take a variety of forms in practice and that combining these different forms, so those more

traditional methods such as grievance procedures or collective bargaining with joint problem solving or consultation methods is a challenge for organisations.

The way in which employees’ have a voice in the modern workplace is therefore varied in nature and presents unique challenges to organisations in capturing it’s value. Employees can express an opinion at the coffee machine, raise an issue to their manager, or express their view in an annual employee survey (Ruck, Welch & Menara, 2017). This has evolved even further with the advent of digital communication technologies and social media, presenting new challenges to organisations in unlocking and harnessing the value of

employee voice. In the modern workplace, the definition of employee voice has therefore expanded to:

‘Any type of mechanism, structure or practice that enables employees to express their opinions or to influence work activities or decision making processes in the organisation to which they belong.’ (Kwon et al, 2016)

Due to its comprehensive nature, reflective of the challenges and opportunities for organisations, this is the definition of employee voice that will be used throughout this research paper.

As described in Dundon et al.’s (2004) purposes, employee voice has great potential for organisations in terms of improving their employer brand, spotting problems earlier, benefiting from the collective knowledge of others and pursuing improvements that help the organisation to perform better. An overview of the wide variety of medium for the expression of employee voice in the modern business context linked to the four purposes can be found in Table 1 below.

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13 Table 1: Organisational mechanisms to channel employee voice. (Adapted from Miles & Mangold, 2014) Purpose of voice Mechanism Contribution to management decision making Demonstration of partnership Articulation of individual dissatisfaction Expression of collective bargaining Internal audience Suggestion box x x x Suggestion committee x x x Grievance committee x x Meeting with HR x Ombudsman x x x

Open door policy x x x

Dept meeting x x x

Lunch with Leaders x x x

Newsletter x x Intranet Blogs x x x Wikis x x x email x x x x communities x x x Hotline x x x x

Problem solving groups x x

Attitude/Egmt. surveys x x

Social media/public domain

Social networks x x x

Blogs x x x

Video x x x

Wiki x x

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14 Current expressions of employee voice:

A similar evolution has occurred in the way in which organisations provide mechanisms for employees to use their voice, meaning employees now have a variety of ways to express themselves. Prior to the 1970’s, employee voice mechanisms or practices were focused predominantly on the expression of dissatisfaction. The practices employed were generally in the form of grievance procedures, complaints to managers and union membership. In the early 1980’s, due to widespread corporate scandals, this gave rise to anonymous procedures in which employees could raise concerns such as whistle blowing. In the late 1980s and 1990s, a more management centric approach arose focused on enabling job commitment through high employee involvement. (Budd, Gollan & Wilkinson, 2010).

Reflecting the third manifestation in Dundon et al.’s (2004) purposes of employee voice, organisations therefore began to focus on the employee voice in terms of seeking

organizational improvements and input into management decision making, with the objective of increasing job commitment. Methodologies employed included suggestion boxes or schemes, upward problem solving groups and attitude surveys (see Table 1).

Previous focus on job satisfaction and commitment then gave way to a widespread focus on employee engagement in the early 2000’s and both organisations and academia turned their focus predominantly to engagement measures. Engagement is most commonly defined as ‘a positive fulfilling work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption.’ (Schaufeli, Shimazu, Hakanen, Salanov & De Witte, 2017). The most widely adopted method organisations employ is executing regular surveys. Surveys provide employees a voice in terms of measuring an employee’s perception of their own engagement and specifically selected engagement drivers. Aggregated team outcomes are generally provided directly to line managers who are responsible for conducting follow up discussions and action planning. So historically, more emphasis was placed by organisations on indirect mechanisms such as collective bargaining through trade unions and more

recently, organisations are adopting more direct voice mechanisms in the form of surveys, team meetings and internal social media platforms (Kwon et al., 2016).

The rise of social media and digital communication technologies has brought a new dimension to the employee voice that has not yet been widely researched. Employees were traditionally limited to expressing their view via internal communication systems that are organized by their employer. However, with the advent of social media such as Facebook, Linked in, blogs and Twitter, employees are now able to freely express themselves and deliver messages to broader audiences and with a global reach (Miles & Mangold, 2014).

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15 Employee voice has therefore moved beyond the direct mechanisms sanctioned by

organisations to free and unprompted expression of employee’s views. This presents both an opportunity and a challenge for organisations in terms of how to effectively manage and harness the value of these mediums of employee voice, that are external to the organisation. Technology has opened an entirely new arena for employees to engage with customers, other employees and organizational stakeholders (Miles & Mangold, 2014). Organisations

therefore need to begin to understand the opportunities associated with harnessing these new forms of expression of the employee voice, beginning with the four purposes outlined by Dundon et al. (2004), in combination with the role of the organizational context and influence on an employee’s choice of voice. (Miles & Mangold 2014)

The broad variety of channels available to employees to express their voice poses new questions for organisations in terms of understanding why, when and how employees will express themselves. This is also because there is a concept of choice in employee voice in terms of employee’s decisions about how and when to express their views. As pointed out by Detert et al., (2013), voice is discretionary, it cannot be coerced, it is hard to punish for its absence and it is difficult to evaluate. So therefore it must be of interest for employees to have a voice, accordingly it is understood that voice will be more frequent when employees feel it psychologically safe to speak and when doing so is not futile (they feel they have been heard) (Detert et al. 2013).

Correspondingly, some employee voice media, particularly internal ones such as a whistle blowing procedure are designed specifically for privacy and others for a more public domain such as social media and networks or blogging sites. Depending on the choices employees make about expressing their views, employee voice has the potential to be constructive and reinforce an employer’s brand or performance improvement, or destructive undermining an organisation’s brand or image (Miles & Mangold, 2014). According to Miles & Mangold (2014), employees will choose to express themselves openly on external sites when met with internal resistance or silence, often with widespread negative consequences to the organisation. Detert et al (2013) point out that employees are significantly more likely to raise their voice when making suggestions or taking a stewardship roles then when

challenging the status quo or pointing our problems. This, presumably is why the majority of employee feedback survey responses and reviews posted to sites such as Glassdoor are kept anonymous. Rousseau , 1995 (as cited in Miles & Mangold, 2014) also found that when psychological contracts are violated, trust in the organisation and its leadership is also

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16 to be a pre- determinant of motivation. It can therefore be posited that employees who do not trust an organisation or its leadership cannot accurately assess the risks associated with using internal voice mechanisms. In these circumstances they are likely to feel psychologically unsafe and will turn to air their concerns externally in the public domain (Miles & Mangold, 2014).

However, despite the evolution of the breadth and scope of employee voice, the channels or methods with which organisations provide employee’s a voice have remained focused on 3 main channels; interpersonal and upward communication/problem solving via management, collective bargaining via unions or workers councils and surveys focused on key management concepts such as satisfaction and engagement or suggestions. Limited focus in the literature has been found on the opportunities and challenges the advent of digital communication technologies and social media brings to the concept of employee voice. Due to the wide variety of mediums available for employees to express themselves, organisations must focus on better understanding employee’s choices when it comes to expressing their voice in terms of their decisions on timing, medium and message in order to effectively harness the value of employee voice.

Widespread voice should therefore aim to facilitate learning and effective decision making (Detert et al, 2013). And whilst the direct link between employee voice and organizational performance is difficult to evaluate, several studies have been conducted to investigate if employee voice is an antecedent of employee engagement based broadly on the job demands-resources model developed by Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner and Schaufeli (2001) (as cited in Kwon et al, 2016). This connection is meaningful as employee

engagement has a widely acknowledged link to organizational performance (Demerouti & Cropanzano, 2010). This would also lend to the suggestion that organisations can view employee voice as a resource and organisational listening the means with which to gain value.

Employee voice has been shown to have a positive association with various desired employee behaviours such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and low intention to quit. (Kwon et al., 2016). Voice directed towards superiors has been found to have a positive relationship with work engagement and voice directed towards co-workers and externally to the organisation has a positive relationship with turnover intentions. (Kwon et al, 2016). Lending credence to the difficulty organisations experience in both measuring engagement and its antecedents, it is also acknowledged in these studies that there are several moderators to this relationship which essentially constitute the organisational context and

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17 must be taken into account, such as the value of the voice, degree to which it is taken into account and is expected that will influence the relationship between voice and engagement. Rees, Alfes & Gatsby (2013) conducted an empirical study in two organisations that found a direct relationship between employee voice and engagement as well as it being mediated by trust in senior management and the supervisor-subordinate relationship. This lends important evidence to the theory that employees who perceive themselves as speaking up and having a voice are more likely to be engaged in their work. In their 2017 study, Ruck et al. (2017) also found that upwards directed employee voice predicts emotional organizational engagement. So providing effective mechanisms for employees to express their voice has the potential to not only provide important insight for organisations in terms of management decision making and employee preferences, but to improve the engagement of employees.

When harnessed effectively, via organisational listening, there is potentially great benefit for organisations in providing mechanisms for employee’s to express their voice. Critically, organisations need to actively manage and guide the employee voice in order to gain value. Left unguided the risks of employee silence, resulting in disengagement and employee turnover or viral spread of negative sentiments online, can be devastating for an

organisation’s brand and performance. Identifying the purpose of employee voice channels and designing them specifically for that purpose, combined with active monitoring and response mechanisms to show employee’s they have been heard, is critical for organisations to leverage the positive effects of the employee voice.

2.2 Organisational listening

“Giving people a voice is not enough. It’s listening to them that counts.” Macnamara (2015) Concept and definition of organisational listening:

Organisational listening takes place in an everchanging context terms of digital innovation, deconstruction of traditional hierarchies and the borderless, virtual workplace. The skills and techniques that individuals and organisations must employ to be effective in this context includes the ability to listen, often without face to face communication. As observed by Miles & Mangold (2014), employees have great power in today’s workplace, with a wide breadth of choice in ways in which they can express their voice, both internal and external to the organisation. If organisations do not rapidly adapt their listening approaches to encompass and actively engage in the new expressions of employee voice and listen

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18 effectively, the employee voice has the potential to cause harm to an organisation’s

reputation and brand. On the other hand, if organisations enable the expression of and harness the employee voice by listening effectively and at scale, the employee voice has great

potential as a valuable organisational resource (Miles & Mangold, 2014). Listening

effectively will enable organisations to realise the purposes of employee voice (Macnamara, 2015), in the form of valuable input into management decision making and organisation improvements, demonstrating partnership and engendering trust by actively engaging and consulting with employees in improving work conditions. As Brownell (1994) concludes; ‘strong listening environments are characterized by a concern for the individual employee

and his or her values, needs, and goals.’ (as quoted in Reed, Goolsby & Johnston, 2016)

Reed et al., 2016 studied the relationship between organisation listening environment and employees’ identification with the organisation. Although a single organisation study, they found a positive relationship between the listening environment and employee’s attachments to the organisation. Accordingly they suggest that listening may provide a competitive advantage by engaging employee commitment in organizational strategies and promoting market orientated behaviors. There is also an inherent suggestion that the

organisational listening environment provides an important context for gaining information from employees and engaging in a discursive relationship, leading to organisational

commitment. Further studies would need to be conducted for generalization of findings. Whilst the academic literature is dominated by studies on employee voice and listening to customers externally, parallel approaches for listening to employees has escaped researchers' attention (Reed et al., 2016). Macnamara (2018) also observes there is relatively little research into the concept of internal organisational listening. Listening receives

extensive attention in scientific research in terms of interpersonal listening or 2-way communication. However, very limited research has been conducted into the definition of and challenges associated with effective organisational listening at scale, despite widespread acknowledgement amongst scholars that effective listening is a highly valued workplace skill (Flynn, Valikoski & Grau, 2008). The lack of a widely acknowledged definition is most likely the reason for the corresponding lack of empirical research into organizational listening or listening as an organisational construct (Burnside-Lawry, 2012). There is therefore a strong need for listening research to be conducted in light of unprecedented change in

communication forms and the workplace in order to explore the evolution of the concept and resulting adaptations that must be made to the practice of organisational listening. (Burnside-Lawry, 2010).

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19 In order to effectively study broad scale listening strategies in organisations, it is therefore necessary to define both listening and organisational listening in order to better understand potential convergence and divergence in meaning and practice. The focus for this research in terms of organisational listening will be limited specifically to the nature and method of listening to employees rather than the broader range of organisational

stakeholders, albeit lending from theoretical and practical applications in those domains. The definition of listening, as accepted by the International Listening Association, is “the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or

nonverbal messages” (Burnside- Lawry, 2012). Focus in academic literature has therefore

predominantly been on examination of the cognitive, behavioural and social constructs of effective listening. Janusik, 2004 adapted the listening model developed by Wolvin & Coaklin in 1994. (as cited in Burnside-Lawry, 2010), whereby a stimulus received by a listener prompts a response, after the stimulus is filtered through several layers of receiving, attention, perceptions, influencers and interpretation.

Figure 1: Wolvin’s listening model, 2002. (Burnside-Lawry, 2010)

Influencers, as described in this model could include environmental noise or other detractors or enhancers. Perception is seen to influence the listener’s attention and interpretation (Burnside-Lawry, 2010). Defined in this way, listening constitutes not only receiving a stimuli- in this case the employee voice, but also constructing meaning and responding to that

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20 message. Organisational listening at scale must therefore hold these aspects at its very

fundament in order to be effective in practice and at scale.

In his broad study on organisational listening, Macnamara (2015) uses a definition adapted from Burnside – Lawry for organisational listening defining it as “a combination of

employees’ listening skills and the environment in which listening occurs, which is shaped by the organisation and is then one of the characteristics of the organizational image”. The

value of this definition, as Macnamara (2018) pointed out, is the focus on the organisational environment in addition to the role of individuals in an organisation, which lends to a broader examination of the context, culture and process of listening in organisations. This is therefore the definition that will be used in this research paper. Most crucially, Macnamara (2018) emphasizes that the key difference between listening and organisational listening is that of scale, context and complexity, which is also inherent in the word organisation. The challenge therefore is to listen at scale, whilst retaining the human element in terms of the fact that it is people in the organisation who must speak up and respond in turn. This combination of both interpersonal listening (the individual employee and direct in nature) and listening to a collective (groups of employees and less direct in nature) within a specific organisational context therefore provides unique considerations for organisational listening. Organisational listening is therefore also shaped by contextual factors, such as culture, systems, processes and technologies, in addition to the cognitive, social and interpersonal skills of individuals (Macnamara, 2015).

Current organisational listening practices:

Putting aside the focus on interpersonal listening and formal industrial relations consultative processes, both of which are outside the focus of this research paper,

organisations are still using fairly traditional tools, technology and methods with which to listen to their employees (Macnamara, 2018). Traditional in terms of the fact that they have not changed substantially over the past decades and are poorly executed in today’s work context. Current ways of organisational listening are typically plagued by 4 challenges to their effectiveness (Macnamara, 2018). Firstly, listening is organisations is mostly delegated. This is through organisational functions like communications, or research departments or to third parties external to the organisation such as engagement survey providers. Secondly, this delegation means that listening in organisations is largely mediated, so the employee voice is analysed and aggregated before being provided to the listener. Thirdly, this leads to a timing delay which means it is asynchronous. The fourth shortcoming is listening at scale, as

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21 organisations need to be able to listen and interpret the voice of thousands of employees. Typically organisational listening methods are held in the hands of separate functions, or technology resulting in siloed and less effective listening efforts (Detert et al., 2013). This means that listening in organisations, with the exception of interpersonal interactions, does not occur dynamically or in real-time, is siloed in nature and is challenged by issues of both scale and complexity.

As the focus for this research paper is on organisational listening at scale, an examination of current organisational listening sources in use by large, multi-national

organisations will exclude direct, interpersonal communication as a listening source, albeit an important form of both employee voice and listening. Organisations listening at scale today are relying predominantly on surveys as the main method of listening to their employees. Surveys are an active form of listening, designed specifically to measure a specific construct and sent out proactively by organisations to employees. Similarly, another method in which organisations actively listen to employees at scale is in the form of polls, measuring attitudes, opinions or perceptions.

Just as employees are increasingly using social media and digital communication channels to express their voice, organisations are beginning to explore the value in these more passive listening data sources, whereby employees express their voice of their own volition, so without being asked. Globalisation, the nature of the modern workplace and underlying digital innovation is changing the way employers and employees interact. Organisations are therefore beginning to explore alternate and more objective sources to listen to their employees. (Bersin, Flynn, Mazor & Melian, 2017). Clicks and comments on internal online communications, open collaboration and social communities and even external social media sources are new listening sources that organisations are beginning to explore. An overview of current organisational listening sources are outlined below.

Listening via surveys:

The main method that organisations currently utilize to listen to employees at scale are surveys, with literature estimating a prevalence rate up to 75% of organisations

administering workplace surveys to their employees (Rooy & Oohler, 2013). Surveys are used for a variety of employee voice purposes including gaining feedback & suggestions and measure attitude, satisfaction, engagement and even behavior in the form of own testimonial. Even collective bargaining in the form of negotiating new collective labour agreements or materiality, in which organisations gauge what matters most to employees are conducted via

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22 surveys. The reason organisations use surveys so often is probably due in part to ‘following the lead’ from academia, in which methods of measuring constructs such as engagement or satisfaction using scientifically survey scales is widely researched and validated. In addition, as organisations grew in size and across borders and with the advent of digital administration methods, surveys are relatively easy to administer and most cost effective in gaining wide spread employee input or perception. With the advent of web based solutions, they can also be triggered automatically by specific events or moments as the organisation requires. (Rooy & Oohler, 2013). Survey measurements are static and therefore comparable over time, between individuals, teams and business units and dimensions included in the survey, in addition to external industry or market benchmarks facilitating greater ease in translating the employee voice into actionable insights. Surveys are also directive in design, enabling organisations to measure for a specific organizational purpose by asking specific questions. Surveys are also generally voluntary and survey solutions or administration by 3rd parties protect employee anonymity which facilitates the idea that employees can choose when to use their voice and complete them.

Once survey responses are received, they are analysed, aggregated and then reported back to either line managers, senior managers or process/functional leads that are then responsible for digesting, interpreting and deciding on a response and then taking action or communicating back to the respondents. Critical to the value of surveys as a listening source is that employees see that their voice has been heard and that action or change is instigated as a result of this. Leading organizations are therefore using more rigorous and reliable

statistical techniques with their survey data in order to provide actionable insights facilitating managers decision making (Rooy & Oohler, 2013).

There are, however several shortcomings with the preponderance organisations place on the use of surveys to listen to their employees. The very process with which surveys are executed, in order to protect employee anonymity and listen at scale in terms of numbers of employees and listeners demonstrates the challenges in their effectiveness as listening sources as highlighted by Macnamara (2018). Surveys are generally delegated to specific functions or third parties and therefore not direct and real-time, results are aggregated and disseminated to many listeners and therefore asynchronous and subject to the quality of the analytical techniques applied in terms of the quality of insights. Surveys are processed in this way by organisations as a direct result of the need for scale, so that large numbers of

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23 Surveys are also subject to what behavioral psychologists call both the recency effect and negativity bias with corresponding need for consideration on the effects to their value as a listening source. Respondents have a tendency to respond to surveys with the most recent events in mind, which is fortuitous when evaluating satisfaction with a recent event or intervention, but less so when measuring more pervasive constructs like engagement and usually on a less frequent basis (such as annually). Seasonal impacts or other contextual influences can easily be overlooked or amplified in importance and impact the effectiveness of action taking. In terms of negativity bias, when making judgments people consistently weigh the negative aspects of an event or stimulus more heavily than the positive aspects, the origins of which can be traced back to the prospect theory coined by Kahneman & Tversky in 1979. ( (Peeters & Czapinsky, 1990), which can also be reflected in the employees responses to surveys. A study by Poncheri, Lindberg, Thompson & Surface in 2008 of negativity bias in open ended responses found that dissatisfied employees were more likely to provide

comments than those who were satisfied and their comments were disproportionately more negative in tone, indicating a strong negativity bias in responses.

Listening via pulse surveys/polls:

One way in which organisations are addressing some of the shortcomings presented by surveys is to introduce shorter and more frequently executed surveys known as pulse surveys or even single question polls (Bersin et al. 2017). In order to reduce the demands on respondents, academia and organisations are reducing surveys using scientific techniques to just those questions that are required to measure the construct. For example, Schaufeli et al. (2017) have recently published an update to the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), a broadly adopted methodology in practice from 9 questions to 3 questions. This inherently means that organisations can measure engagement outcomes with just 3 questions. The trade-off with shorter scales such as the UWES-3, is that without adding additional scales to the survey, insights that lead to the drivers of engagement or that guide line managers to take effective actions need to be gauged via other listening sources such as follow up

conversations with employees or other data sources. The other advantage of more frequent measurements is in the tracking of trends over time and tied to discrete events that serve to help explain the movements (Rooy & Oohler, 2013). Digital technologies and more advanced analysis techniques are enabling organisations to analyse and disseminate insights in a more real-time fashion, presenting insights to line managers and other stakeholders directly and frequently.

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24 Listening via social media & digital communication:

Digital communications technology and the rise of social media means it has never been easier for employees to express their view both internally and externally to the organisation. Previously, the voice of the employee was limited to the interaction between employee and direct supervisor and directly influenced by the quality of that interaction (Kwon et al., 2016). But the advent of digital communication technologies means that organisations are beginning to explore the value of using internal and external social media platforms and other forms of the digital expression of the employee voice such as open collaboration or content communities, blogs, clicks, likes and comments as listening sources.

As organisations are focusing more and more on using social media as a valuable medium for listening, consulting and collaborating with stakeholders a new dimension of listening has been defined, that of social listening, which Stewart & Arnold (2018) have defined as ‘an active process of attending to, observing, interpreting and responding to a

variety of stimuli through mediated, electronic and social channels.’ They go on to conclude

that social listening is changing the way organisations listen and engage in dialogue with their stakeholders. Social listening, as defined in this manner, therefore encompasses a variety of purposes and channels and is complimentary to Wolvin & Coakley’s interpersonal listening typology (Stewart & Arnold, 2018). Social listening is also dynamic and

multidimensional, albeit still mediated in its nature, posing new challenges to organisations in listening and engaging with the employee voice online. Stewart & Arnold (2018) call for more research into the impact that social listening is having on the relationship organisations have with their stakeholders and on traditional typologies of listening. Similarly to academia, the focus for organisations in terms of social listening has been predominantly on customers and organisations are only just now starting to explore the potential value of social listening as an organisational listening source.

Several exploratory studies have been conducted using social media to model aspects of human wellbeing, mood and values in the general population. These lend credence to the theory that with enough social media data and the skills with which to ingest, filter, analyse and interpret it, digital communication data has potential to be a valid organisational listening source. Chen, Hsieh, Mahmud & Nichols (2014) explored the possibility of modelling

people’s personal values based on posts on Reddit, a social news platform. Although very preliminary in terms of conclusions, the study had important implications for future research. They identified a number of word categories that are associated with each value dimension.

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25 Whilst word use by itself cannot accurately predict an individual's value in a binary

classification setting, on all value dimensions the classification was better than random. Nguyen, Phung, Adams & Venkatesh (2014) demonstrate how to successfully conduct mood analysis at scale from social media texts using advanced analytical techniques. De

Choudhoury, Counts, Horvitz & Hoff (2014) investigated the ability to characterize and predict postpartum depression from shared Facebook data. They found that episodes of post-partum depression was best predicted by increased social isolation as manifested in reduced social activity and interaction on Facebook. Using a similar approach, a study by Shami, Muller, Pal, Masli & Geyer (2015) explored the possibility of modelling employee engagement based on word choice in social media. Whilst advocating the approach as complimentary to engagement surveys, they aimed to show that a real-time understanding of employee engagement achieved through mining social media text could allow organisations to respond to emergent employee issues more rapidly than through an annual engagement survey. They compared the predictive power of demographics alone, which have traditionally been explored by organisations to explain variance in engagement and the combination of demographics and social media text, in addition to recency in social media posts, minimum number of posts needed and which linguistic dictionaries are most predictive. Their analysis confirmed that adding social media increases the predictive power of a conventional

demographic based approach. A limitation to the generalization of their study was that a minimum number of social media posts per employee per month are required to achieve their findings, which presents challenges for organisations with low social media adoption rates. In a further development of these types of analytical techniques, Sadat Shami and colleagues went on to develop an Enterprise Social Pulse (ESP) tool designed to support analysts whose job involves understanding employee chat on internal digital communication and social platforms (Sadat Shami, Yang, Panc, Dugan, Ratchford, Rasmussen, Assogba, Steier, Soule, Lupushor, Geyer, Guy & Ferrar, 2014). The ESP tool has the ability to filter, segments, aggregates, analyses and disseminates data from internal and external social media data sources whilst protecting employee privacy, an example of an automated listening tool for organisational listening at scale.

Despite the perceived potential value of social and digital media listening sources, organisations are faced by several challenges in terms of organisational listening via social media and digital communication sources. A large volume of data is required in terms of posts or comments from a broad swathe of employees in order to have a representative sample and volume/variance for modelling effectiveness (Sadat Shami et al., 2015). The

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26 advanced analytical techniques that are required to decipher insight from unstructured text from multiple sources are still relatively infant in development, particularly in the application to HRM practices (Boudreau & Marler, 2017).

Although reaching a semblance of normality in everyday life, the impact of social media surveillance on the relationship and trust an organisation has with its employees is also a consideration for organisations that requires careful evaluation (Stewart & Arnold, 2018). Active engagement is suggested as a means with which to engender trust and a sense of community when it comes to social listening methodologies, in line with other listening typologies. (Stewart & Arnold, 2018).

Listening via innovative data sources:

Globalisation, the nature of the modern workplace and underlying digital innovation is changing the relationship employers have with their employees and is leading to a whole new range of integrated employee self- service tools and experience measurements focused on understanding and improving this relationship (Morgan, 2017). These tools provide new opportunities as organisational listening sources, particularly with regards to their potential for listening to employees without asking. A recently explored example of this explored the promise of continuous rating assessments for organisational science (Gabriel, Diefendorff, Bennerr & Sloan, 2017). Using video or audio recordings to collect data, continuous rating assessments are used to investigate theories in which within event dynamics are implied and constructs are thought to fluctuate, such as affect, perceptions, motivation or cognition. The authors suggest this analysis technique could be used in HRM practices with applications such as candidate interviews (Gabriel et al. 2017). In terms of measuring affect, this could also provide valuable insight from a listening perspective into how events occurring in the organisational context influence employees affect and over time. Experts are also beginning to suggest alternative data sources as a better measure of engagement. Fuller (2014) suggests that exploring alternate data sources like analyzing an employees’ network connections in terms of number and breadth using communication data. Or alternatively using calendar data to examine aspects like fragmentation, which is not having enough time to do meaningful work in between meetings, could be indicators or even more accurate measures of

engagement. The premise being, that surveys measure an employee’s own perception of their engagement and these constitute more objective measures or leading indicators. (Fuller, 2014)

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27 Organisations are therefore recognizing an emerging requirement to new, multi-channel and quick response methods of listening to employees and the translation of listening sources into insights via unstructured data sources such as video, voice recording and even bio

measurement tools. The value of these alternate data sources in HRM practice is also currently under researched in literature and only just beginning to be explored.

Table 2: Overview current organisational listening practices strengths & shortcomings

Listening practice Strengths Shortcomings

Surveys § Directive in focus (diagnostic) § Scalable

§ Simple to analyse and interpret § Comparable over time and

between teams, business units, etc

§ Delegated/mediated § Infrequent insights § Limits free expression of

employee voice

§ Subject to response bias (e.g. negativity, recency, subjective) Pulse surveys § Higher frequency

§ Scalable

§ Shorter and more focused listening insights

§ Reduction in response bias due to increased frequency

§ Delegated/mediated § Limits free expression of

employee voice

Social media/ Digital

communications

§ Free and unprompted expression of voice

§ Enables listening without asking § Scalable

§ Requires large volumes of text to construct meaning

§ Difficult to extract, analyse and visualize, requiring specialist skills (text analysis)

§ Representativeness of opinion is difficult to ascertain

§ big brother’ feeling of

surveillance and potential effect on employee trust

Innovative listening sources. e.g. video, audio, etc

§ High volume/variance in measures leading to potentially better insights

§ Enables listening without asking § Objective data measures

§ Requires specialist technology and analytical skills to construct meaning

§ Challenging to scale and integrate

§ ‘big brother’ feeling of

surveillance and potential effect on employee trust

Effective organisational listening practices:

Organisational listening has specific challenges related to scale, context and complexity and therefore Macnamara (2015) concluded that organisations are listening to their stakeholders (including employees) sporadically at best, but often poorly and sometimes

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28 not at all. It is therefore important to examine what methodologies or approaches underpin effective organisational listening. Macnamara’s 2015 study concluded that organisational listening cannot be achieved by simply adding a listening tool or unilateral solution but requires the creation of a ‘listening architecture’. An architecture of listening comprises of 8 key elements, that can also be applied in the context of employees:

• A culture of listening; • Policies for listening;

• Addressing the politics of listening; • Structures and processes of listening; • Technologies for listening;

• Resources for listening; • Skills for listening;

• The articulation of listening to decision making/policy making.

A culture of listening is one that affords recognition to stakeholders and engages actively in the process of listening. Senior management attention and support is a critical aspect of the listening culture. Policies for listening include specific directives and guidelines to relevant departments and detail aspects like mandated measurement and evaluation

approaches. Structures and processes for listening are based on criteria that determine whether, and to what extent attention and consideration will be paid to certain voices.

Technologies can enable and support organisational listening but should not be seen as an

instantaneous solution. Even though technologies can facilitate the expression of employee voice, the translation and analysis and dissemination of listening insights, people must still have the resources and skills to undertake the work of interpreting, prioritizing and

responding. The articulation of listening involves clear lines of reporting and accountability to ensure that action is taken.

Although Macnamara’s 2015 study focused on a broader range of stakeholders his conclusions were consistent across organisations from a wide range of industries and sectors, identifying common challenges and effectiveness in organisational listening practices. The key to effective organisational listening is not only to create this architecture but to embed this into the design of the organisation in order to be deployed in a coherent and

complimentary way.

Similar conclusions and recommendations can be found from experts in effective organisational listening for employees. Stevens (2018) advocates several crucial components

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29 in gaining tangible results from organisational listening. Like Macnamara (2015), the

emphasis is placed on embedding organisational listening into the operations of an

organisation and should be centrally coordinated at an enterprise level and cross functionally executed. The continuous collection of different data sources and combining them to gain insights is key to deriving value. Successful deployment of organisational listening programs should also begin with the purpose of gaining sustained understanding of employees in relation to delivering upon specific strategic objectives. Finally organisational listening programs should apply the same customer focused approach that counterparts in marketing do in order to gain the same understanding of employees that organisations have of

customers. 2.3 HR Analytics

“Industries are being disrupted. Talent is more mobile. All organisations need to understand

the workforce better, and how it is executing the business strategy. And workforce analytics is at the heart of how to do this.” Mark Huselid, Professor of Workforce Analytics,

Northeastern University. (as quoted in Guenole et al., 2017) Concept and definition of HR Analytics:

As organisations seek to improve performance, there is more and more pressure on HR to build value (Guenole et al., 2017). Due to the growing competition for talent, in a globally connected world with ever increasing complexity and digital innovation changing the way work is done, there are several reasons HR is focusing more and more on using analytics to gain insight into their employees motivations, skills and ability and how to ensure people investments are as effective as possible. According to a 2016 CHRO report conducted by IBM, the number of CHROs using predictive analytics to make more informed workforce decisions has increased by approximately 40% in two years. (Guenole et al., 2017)

Despite the notion of HR measurement being traced back many years, an explosion of interest in the practice and potential value of HR Analytics in business and HR has emerged only relatively recently. Marler & Boudreau (2017) conducted an evidence based review of HR analytics in recent literature and concluded that HR analytics is still in an early adoption phase and it is therefore not clear whether it is a sustained innovation that has the potential to become an institutionalized HRM practice, or is the latest in management fads. They also observed that whilst there has been a sharp increase in interest from practitioners, reflected in

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30 blogs and online publications, there has been relatively limited attention paid to HR analytics in the academic sphere of management research. There is also a lack of consistency in the definition of HR Analytics. HR Analytics is referred to by many different names, including workforce analytics, people analytics, human capital analytics, amongst others (Guenole et al. 2017). For the purpose of this research paper, the working term used will be HR analytics.

Based on an integrative synthesis of HR analytics publications, Marler & Boudreau (2017) concluded that there is 5 things common to the various definitions of HR Analytics which shed important light on what it is and what it is not:

1. It is not HR metrics- it involves more sophisticated analysis of HR related data 2. It does not focus exclusively on HR functional data, it involves integrating data from

different internal functions and external to the firm 3. Involves using IT to collect, manipulate and report 4. Supports people related decisions

5. Links HR decisions to business outcomes and or performance

They therefore define HR analytics comprehensively as ‘an HR practice enabled by

information technology that uses descriptive, visual, and statistical analyses of data related to HR processes, human capital, organizational performance, and external economic benchmarks to establish business impact and enable data-driven decision-making.’ (Marler

& Boudreau, 2017)

Potential contribution to the field of organisational listening:

Marler & Boudreau (2017) also concluded that HR Analytics can be considered an HRM practice- one that is designed to provide managers with information connecting HR processes to employee attitudes and behaviors and ultimately to organizational outcomes. One could argue whether organizational listening is strictly an HR practice or a broader management practice, however the goals of organizational listening as defined in this paper, are exactly reflective of this. The goal of organizational listening is to connect employee attitudes, opinions and behaviors to the employee experience and ultimately business performance.

Boudreau & Ramstad (2007) defined the LAMP (LAMP = Logic, Analytics,

Measurement & Process) model as the basis of how to re-vamp HR measurements to be more effective. With their reasoning being that effective measurement systems requires a

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31 combination of Logic in terms of a rationale behind linking measures to specific business outcomes, Analytics in order to turn the data into conclusions, the right Measures and a change Process with which to ensure the data influences decisions. Just as Boudreau and Ramstad (2007) argued as the basis of how to re-vamp HR measurements using their LAMP model, organisations arguably need to redesign their organisational listening measurement system using the elements of the LAMP model in order to uncover evidence based

relationships between the employee voice and business performance and to drive enhanced decision making based on those analyses. Although there is very limited precedence in linking HR analytics to theoretical frameworks in order to shed light on why or how HR analytics works, Marler & Boudreau (2017) cite one study showing empirical evidence using agency theory. They found that companies who combine pay for performance compensation, HRM software and HR Analytics are more productive as the combination allows managers to align incentives and employee behavior. This is essentially in line with the LAMP model, whereby a combination of “analytics”, with a “process” (pay for performance) and

“measures” from the HRM software produces the greatest effect.

A review of the available literature (Marler & Boudreau, 2017) also indicated 3 important requirements or moderators of HR Analytics success. These are having HR professional analytical skills, gaining managerial buy-in and having HR information

technology. In addition to this, the view of practitioners in the field, an additional important requirement is for HR to begin with what you know rather than the data. This constitutes the all-important link between an organisations strategic objectives and the insight gained from applying HR analytics.

Marler & Boudreau (2017) highlight 2 paradoxes. The first is that despite the

popularity of HR analytics there is very limited high quality scientific- based evidence on this topic. The second is the apparently limited adoption of HR analytics despite the available research suggesting that it is associated with positive outcomes. In stark contrast to the more academic type study of the definition and potential value of HR analytics, practitioners tend to advocate a more pragmatic approach, even positing that the definition of HR analytics is less important than using the process to affect the overall role of HR in an organisation. (Douthitt & Mondore, 2014). Just as Boudreau & Ramstad (2007) advocated re-tooling HR with analytics approaches lent from other functions such as marketing, Douthitt & Mondore (2014) explain that discovering the drivers of business outcomes within the HR domain should be a relatively straight forward process, similar to that applied in other domains broadly.

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