Assessment of Data Sophistication in HR functions by Applying Ridit Analysis

Abstract

The wealth of organizations is being determined by the amount of quality data they possess. Organizations across the globe have recognised this phenomenon. With abundance of data along with advanced analytic tools and technologies, many organizations have embraced business analytics into their essential strategic and operational decision-making tools. Heart of business analytics is the data. The quality and value of decision-making outcomes lie with the data inputs supplied. Big data and social media analytics have given impetus to the expansion of business analytics into all critical functional areas of the organization. Though a little late, the domain of HR has also caught up the trend of applying analytics. This new area is termed as people analytics or HR analytics. In this paper, an attempt is made to understand the extent of data availability and usage in analytics, termed as data sophistication in HR analytics in the organizations. As there are no definite ways to determine the data sophistication levels, a response sheet with a set of 20 items is developed based on previous literature. Data is collected from HR professionals. This data is subjected to exploratory factor analysis to capture the important dimensions from the items. Using structural equation modelling, confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to assess the model fit. Based on the resultant model, data is subjected to ridit analysis to interpret the treatment effect intuitively. The findings of the study add to the field of study in the area of data analytics, HR analytics, and decision-making domains. New approaches and study opportunities in related areas can be explored in this area due to its fast-emerging nature.