Big data and People Management. Which implications for Human Resources Management and HR Departments?

This chapter investigates the role of big data (BD) in human resource management (HRM). The interest is related to the strategic relevance of human resources (HR) and to the increasing importance of BD in every dimension of a company's life. The analysis focuses on the perception of the HR managers on the impact that BD and BD analytics may have on the HRM and the possible problems the HR departments may encounter when implementing human resources analytics (HRA). The authors' opinion is that attention to the perceptions shown by the HR managers is the more important element conditioning their attitude towards BD and it is the first feature influencing the possibility that BD can become a positive challenge. After the presentation of the topic and of the state of the art, the study is introduced. The main findings are discussed and commented to offer suggestion for HR managers and to underline some key points for future research in this field.