Partial book profile

Data-Driven HR

A practical guide showing HR professionals how to harness big data, analytics, AI, and connected technologies to transform every core HR function and add strategic value to their organizations.

The full book profile is not available yet.

Get the book →

What it’s about

Human resources has long been one of the most data-rich yet insight-poor functions in any organization, spending its time on administrative tasks while relying on gut instinct for people decisions. In Data-Driven HR, Bernard Marr shows how the explosion of data, the Internet of Things, machine learning, and AI are turning HR into an intelligent, strategic discipline that drives performance across the entire business. Packed with real-world examples from Google, Xerox, IBM, UPS, Marriott, and many others, the book walks readers through building a robust data strategy, sourcing and analysing HR-relevant data, and applying analytics to recruitment, employee engagement, safety and wellness, learning and development, and performance management—all while navigating privacy, ethics, and transparency. Written in a friendly, non-technical style for HR professionals who never intend to become data scientists, it is a hands-on manual for adding measurable value and preparing for the future of work.

The through-line

Who it’s for: An HR professional or leader who wants their function to be relevant, strategic, and to add measurable value to their organization and its people.
The problem: HR teams are data-rich but insight-poor, spending time on administration and relying on gut instinct rather than evidence for people decisions. They feel overwhelmed by the data explosion, anxious about automation and AI threatening their jobs, and unsure where to start.
The plan: Build a data strategy linked to organizational objectives using a 'plan on a page' and six key questions.
Identify and source the HR-relevant data you actually need across activity, conversation, photo/video, and sensor data.
Turn data into insights using the right analytics techniques while ensuring privacy, transparency, and good governance.
Apply data-driven approaches to recruitment, engagement, safety and wellness, learning, and performance management.
Embrace automation and AI to free HR for strategic, people-focused work and prepare for the future.
The payoff: HR becomes a strategic, data-driven function that adds measurable value. · Better, evidence-based people decisions improve recruitment, retention, safety, learning, and performance. · Employees are happier, safer, more engaged, and more productive.

See our guide

Related profiles we’ve built

Additional reading

Data Strategy: How to Profit from a World of Big Data, Analytics and the Internet of Things · Bernard Marr
The author's own book, recommended for readers who want more detailed guidance on creating the data strategy that is presented as the foundational first step for data-driven HR.
Work Rules! · Laszlo Bock
Written by Google's former head of People Operations, it provides detailed insights into how Google uses a data-driven approach for hiring and management, a core theme of this book.

Featured in these guides

The Behavioral Science Underneath It All →Cited source
Build A People Analytics Function →Cited source
Design The Organization And Change It →Cited source
Study People And Organizations With Scientific Rigor →Cited source
Build a People Analytics Practice →Cited source
Do Research That Holds Up →Cited source
Design Surveys People Answer Honestly →Cited source
Understand What Drives Individual Performance →Cited source