Complementarity Human Capital? Linking Analytical and Storytelling Skills to People Analytics

Abstract

Despite the growing number of case studies and research identifying analytical and storytelling skills as the two broad human capital inputs required to perform people analytics, it remains unclear how these skills impact the performance of people analytics enactors, i.e., People Analysts. Drawing on the strategic human capital literature and human capital complementarities research, this study employs a mixed-method sequential explanatory research design to test whether analytical and storytelling skills independently and collectively lead to higher levels of task performance. Consistent with existing research, quantitative results from 173 people analytics professionals find storytelling skills to be positively associated with People analysts’ task performance. However, contrary to existing claims, the results imply that analytical skills are only significant and influence People Analyst task performance when combined with storytelling skills. To further explain the skills-performance link, data was collected from follow-up interviews with 50 people analytics professionals and is used to identify four themes including storytelling translates analytics into action, analytical tasks are role-specific, HR technology automates reporting, and boundary-spanning helps perform analytical tasks. The counterintuitive findings of the study suggest that people analytics is less about conducting “analytics” but instead using analytics to cultivate change through evidence-based and data-driven stories.